If you spend any time with preschool age children, 3 year olds, 4 year olds, one thing they are known for is asking questions. They are at the age when the world is opening up to them. All day long they point and ask, What’s that? If you say a word they don’t know, which is most of the time, they ask what that means. My favorite question is “why is the sky blue?” That’s a tough one to answer.
I have felt a lot like a preschooler this past month preparing this message. I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions about the purpose of Ash Wednesday, which is to reflect on our sins and repent. Honestly, repentance is not a word I would use to describe my devotion to Christ. But here we are celebrating Ash Wednesday, and then we will spend 40 days through Lent to do the same thing. For me, repentance is what a person does one time. A person repents of their sins when God convicts a person of their sin and reveals Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, which pays the penalty for their sin. When they repent of their sin and turn toward God in faith, they are born again. That’s a done deal. So, in my mind, repentance is an exclusive act. So, my questions have been piling up. I’ve asked knowledgeable friends what they believe. I’ve read scripture. I’ve searched my heart. Does repentance belong in a believer’s day to day life? If so, how?
I have an answer to that question and it’s not nearly as complicated as the answer to why the sky is blue. I want you to know I am learning all the time. However, what I have to share tonight is this: repentance will help you deepen your love for God and motivate you to godly living like nothing else can. Especially if you are a person who always feels ashamed and condemned. I know what that is like. I can promise you repenting will not lead to more condemnation. Repenting and trusting God will lead you out from under that burden. This is really good news.
First it’s helpful to understand salvation as not just one event that brings a person to faith in Christ, but it is a life long pursuit of holiness that also has a final completion.
A verse that describes our starting point is very familiar: Romans 10:9-10:
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
But consider Phil 2:12-13:
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
God is at work to transform us, save us from the effects of sin still in our lives, so repentence - the fear and trembling - is a part of that continued salvation we experience. God will continue to convict us of our sin so we can get our will in line with his will.
Further, in 1 John 3:2-3 we see the future salvation:
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
When we see Jesus at the resurrection, we will be all the way like him, glorified and perfected. Because of that promise, I am motivated to put my best effort into purifying myself from sin every day. Everything I do now will be worth it. I will have complete victory over sin then because of Jesus in my life now.
So our salvation has a beginning. It has a continued effect to bring our will in line with God’s will, and it has a final glorious conclusion when every tear is wiped away and every evil is gone and our emeny the devil is gone for good. We are rewarded for our faithfulness and we live with God forever. That is such good news!
Just as salvation is continuous, repentance continues to be a part of God’s redemptive plan for us.
What does repentance do?
First, through repentance we learn to cherish Jesus for the indescribable gift of his holy life given for me.
Our sin is costly. All my sins today are what put Jesus on the cross back then. I am contributing to that sin debt. Jesus laid his life down for me because he loved us. God demonstrated his love for us in this: while we wer yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) So we thank him for redeeming us from eternal separation from him. We realize we could do nothing for ourselves. Where would I be if God had not intervened in my life? What if he stopped intervening? What a lavish gift he extends to us.
Repentance gives us a new view of the graciousness and kindness of God in Christ and a way to appreciate what Christ has done for us.
Also, repentance is a way to keep showing our love for God.
Think about the people you love. If you love someone, and you insult them, then, you realize what you have done, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to express you sorrow at paining them? Wouldn’t you feel really bad? Wouldn’t repenting and apologizing be proper because you want the relationship to continue on good terms?
If we expect that from people, wouldn’t God expect that from us? Making amends maintains trust. When God convicts us of sin, we must repent so that we can reclaim forgiveness, and grace and reaffirm our trust in God. Sin will try to tear us away from God, to convince us God is not trustworthy, that we can handle our own lives. When we do that, it gets really ugly fast.
Greed, pride, envy, hatred, lust, theft, slander, lying.
No wonder God convicts us of these things. No wonder he wants them out of our lives.
Repentance brings us back to reaffirm God’s unchanging love, and our desire to experience it again. Repentence maintains a good relationship with our Father who loves us.
Here’s the process he wants us to participate in through repentence:
James 4:8-10
“Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”
He will apply grace generously and forgive us and strengthen us to change. He will transform us as we reaffirm our love for him.
Repentance helps us cherish of gift of God in Christ; And repentance repairs the love relationship we have with the Father.
Also, repentance is beneficial because it is safe. When we repent we are never condemned. It’s the devil who wants you to feel condemned. That way you will think you are never worthy to receive God’s love. The devil is so cruel that way.
Repentance opened the door to safety in God because he sends the Holy Spirit when we first put our faith in Christ.
Ephesians 1:13
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
When we first repent, and God applies the forgiveness to your hearts, and Jesus takes over our lives, the Holy Spirit seals our hearts. It’s Jesus and you and the Holy Spirit shrink wrapped around it. That seal can never be broken.
Any time God convicts you of sin, it is safe to go back to that place of repentance, because it’s just you and Jesus in your heart, the very core of who you are - shrink wrapped and secure. You have nothing to fear when God puts his finger on something.
You need to know it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance. (Rom 2:4b)
Having carried self-condemnation and shame for years, I understand fully how these feeling can keep a person from approaching God and being vulnerable to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
Let me give you the inside scoop. First, the things you are ashamed of, it was not your fault. God wants to get behind that and heal you of the injuries that were inflicted on you. Second, he wants to gently reveal what you are responsible for and forgive you. Just go there. You can trust him. You are safe with Jesus.
Repentance helps us appreciate the indescribable gift of Jesus’ life given for us. Repentance repairs our love relationship with God. And repentance draws us near to God, to that safe place where we receive grace and healing to be set free from guilt and shame and to live fully and freely for him.
Today, we put ashes on our forehead to remember: I am dust. God has given me this life and he can take it away. I must answer to Him for everything I do.
We put ashes on our forehead to remember: I deserved to die for my sins. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 3:23)
We put ashes on our forehead to remember the necessity of the indescribable sacrifice Jesus made by laying down his life for us.
We put ashes on our forehead to receive forgiveness for our sins, stripping away condemnation and shame.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who do not walk in the flesh but walk in the spirit.” (Rom 8:1)
If you will go back to that safe place of repentance, that is walking in the Spirit.
God is ready and waiting.
Repent and believe the good news.
