The Forgotten Word

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”—Revelation 3:19

There is a word that is widely unused in our contemporary Christian world. And that is the word repentance. There is no understanding of the Gospel without repentance; there is no way to embrace the Savior without doing what the word calls for. Turning to God involves two things: confession and repentance. Confession means to agree with God. When we confess our sins to God, then we agree with Him that what we did was sin and it was evil. Repentance means to turn from that sin and embrace Christ. Some individuals think that simply confessing their sins is enough, but it isn’t. Yes, the Bible says,  

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”—1 John 1:9. 

But, it also says, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity”—2 Timothy 2:19. And then we have Jesus in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." We cannot embrace Christ when our hands are filled with packages of sin.

Repentance is essential in order to be a Christian, just as flaps on a plane are essential to enable it to fly. As a plane prepares for take off, taxiing down the runway and gaining speed, the flaps of the plane must go down in order for the aircraft to soar. So too does the Christian need to bow the knee in repentance before we can soar with Christ. Many Christians today want to follow Jesus on their own terms, but that’s like saying I am going to rewrite the laws of aerodynamics to get my plane to fly—it’s impossible, and any attempts to do so will result in my death. We must submit to the laws of aerodynamics in order for our plane to fly, and as Christians we must submit to the Law of God in order to be saved. God is the one who defines the terms of our coming to Him; we don’t have a say in it. God is our Creator. He is the one who is holy. He is the one who has been offended by our sin. As David wrote, “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight”—Psalm 51:4. We will not give an account to any man at the end of time, but to the one true and thrice-Holy God. Our sin is a stench in God’s nostrils and we must feel deep sorrow over our sin before we can come to Him. Our sin cost God’s son His life; therefore we must repent with hearts broken in godly grief,  

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death”—2 Corinthians 7:10. 

May we repent of our sin before it’s too late, and may we embrace the Lord of life—Christ Jesus who gave Himself for us so that we might live. Amen.