As I said, today we will continue in chapter four, the myths of Repentance. I think this chapter is SO beautiful! Many times, we'll hear 'Repent'. The preachers may tell all about Repentance and what it is, but often times we fail to understand the meaning. I am a culprit of this. I've heard about Repentance for four or five years now, and I still am amazed by it. I don't understand it perfectly, but I do understand it. What better thing to do, then read the book Repentance? Repentance is my calling. And so I urge you to read with care. For many believers don't know the myths of Repentance.
SO myths two and three. Beautiful!
I'll begin with myth three and then go to two. I like myth two better, so I want to spend more time on it. But myth three is important to.
Myth Three: Penance and Repentance are the same.
Most of you reading this, are probably not from a church that practices "penance." In case you are, this is important. But it still has some truth for those who don't practice penance, and that is why I decided not to skip it.
The concept of penance is by no means limited to those who view it as a sacrament. The idea of earning God's favor has a very broad appeal. Thus penance has become a widely practiced religious dogma. Multitudes erroneously believe that in acts of self-castigation and devotion they are repenting.
Penance falls short of repentance in many ways. It tends to focus on the external or outward issue of what the sinner has done rather on what the sinner is. It is frequently aimed toward the ecclesiastical body rather than toward God....
....Penance, at best, is only a theory. It has no biblical foundation.
To summarize these statements is this: Penance is a stumbling point for everyone. We tend to believe that if we do good it will atone for our sin. The church, many times, believes that we can earn God's favor. If we have repenting people, how many people go up to the alter and cry, how much money we can earn through prayer, even through false repentance do we believe we can earn God's favor. HOW FOOLISH! It is like thinking that we can put the ocean into a bottle! If we do not believe in God's grace then we are LOST. Just because we read God's word every day, just because we 'Repent', just because we serve our families, just because were are kind to others, just because we pray, just because we are diligent, just because we tithe, DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING. We can't earn our favor with God. Until we REPENT and realize that penance doesn't exist, our works are nothing. You can live a life where you know the bible inside out, where you pray everyday, where you are the kindest person, where people respect you, BUT we must ask this: How are we different than pharisees? The religious leaders were respected, they knew everything there was to know about God's world, they went to the temple, but Jesus will say to them 'depart from me'. We can't know God without having a relationship with him. And we can't have a relationship with him without true repentance. It IS an urgent matter.
While the practice of godliness may very well include acts of abstinence and self-control, such acts must never be confused with biblical repentance.
Myth two: Self-preservation is Repentance.
How many of you can already relate to this? I'll tell you I can. Definitely at first, I thought that maybe if I repented the 'right way' I might not go to hell. I think we often think that when we first hear of repentance. It is foolish to think that way, and we must quickly adapt the RIGHT view of Repentance. Because then we would look at Repentance as what I just talked about: penance. Repentance is not a work that will save you. IT'S NOT A WORK. We must never think that. IT CAN'T SAVE US. Just because we repent doesn't mean that we're not going to hell.
While it is possible to be moved toward repentance through fear and self-preservation, they are not one and the same, and only infrequently does one lead to the other. It is highly dangerous to confuse either fear or self-protection with Christian repentance.
Well there we have it. It HIGHLY DANGEROUS to confuse or meld the two. Because, of course, everyone wants to escape hell. It we use God just as a pass not to go to hell, we have greatly subjected ourselves to death unless the grace of God intervened. Fear may and often does provoke sudden and earnest changes in people's lives without repentance. He goes on to tell a story of a woman he visited. He got an urgent call to visit a woman in the hospital who was dying. He talked to the woman about faith and repentance, but the woman assured him that she was going to die, but that if God would spare her she would repent. She tried to convince him that she would go to church every week and never miss a Sunday. It turned out that God spared her life. But she got used to being alive and reverted to her old ways. He never saw her in church again. It's a very sad story, but it only proves that she was only repenting for self-preservation. That she didn't want to go to hell. BUT what else is wrong in this story? What's wrong is that she also looked at it as a work. She thought repentance would save her soul. She also thought that going to church would somehow mean something. Does going to church mean anything? Not it your not saved. Because then it's only a work. And that begs the question, who's saved? think about it.
It is not without consequence that neither John the Baptist nor Christ preached, "Repent for the kingdom of hell is at hand." God's purpose in demanding our repentance is not that we might escape the damnation of hell but that we might experience that "change of mind" which characterizes the citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
Exactly, God said, "The kingdom of HEAVEN is at hand." He didn't want you to repent because you thought that you were going to hell. The change of mind is what we need to have.
SO what's this change of mind? How do we know we have the change of mind? Everyone is different. We need to ask God what he wants us to. It's feels so hopeless sometime, because you struggle with questions like: Am I repenting? What can I change? What would God have me do? Should I pray for something different? Should I change?
Well, we must seek God's word. We have to look for God. We have to seek him. We must fall on our faces in shame and cry to him for forgiveness. For if we truly look at it, WE ARE the woman who went back to her sinful ways, WE ARE the man who accused Mr. Roberts of telling a lie, WE ARE SINFUL. Ask God what he wants you to do. He spoke to me and told me what I should do. LET him speak to you. MEDITATE in his WORD if anything. NOT FOR WORKS, but so that you may stumble across the free gift of grace, that you may repent true repentance, and that you may become a TRUE child of God.
I hope your day is awesome and may everything you do be for His glory.
~Hannah
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