Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

• Acts 11:18

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

• Acts 2:37

Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.

• Joel 2:13

See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

• 2 Corinthians 7:11

“I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:
    ‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf,
    and I have been disciplined.
Restore me, and I will return,
    because you are the Lord my God.
After I strayed,
    I repented;
after I came to understand,
    I beat my breast.
I was ashamed and humiliated
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

• Jeremiah 31:18-19

to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

• Acts 26:18

I have considered my ways
    and have turned my steps to your statutes.

• Psalm 119:59

“Q. 70. What is repentance to life?
“A. Repentance to life is a saving grace (Acts 11:18), whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin (Acts 2:37), and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ (Joel 2:13), does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it to God (Jer. 31:18-19), with full purpose to strive after new obedience (Ps. 119:59).”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Catechism (Scripture proofs in bold above)

“Q. 87. What is repentance unto life?
“A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.”

• The Shorter Catechism (Westminster Assembly)

The Spurgeon Catechism and the Shorter Catechism differ in only one verb.  The Scriptures are the same except the Shorter Catechism adds a second Scripture to the fourth point.  The Larger Catechism went a different direction.  We will reintroduce the Larger Catechism in two weeks.

Let’s break this down like the biblical proofs do.  Repentance to life is a saving grace, but what does that entail?  The first step is to have a true sense of our sin.  Today, people do not wish to talk about sin.  Those who do not believe do not think that what they do wrong is that terribly wrong.  Many Christians think that since God has forgiven their sin, they do not have to worry about that.  Worry? No.  But since we still sin, we need to recognize that without God within us, we are powerless to even resist much of the sin in our lives.  When a Calvinist reduced Calvin’s key points down to the acronym of TULIP, the “T” stands for total depravity.  At some point, our best efforts are still tainted by our sin nature.

When I taught the Video College of Biblical Knowledge, my name for a video discussion Sunday school class, the person on the video questioned whether anyone could be sinless for an hour.  One person in the class thought she might pull it off if she sat in an empty room with no distractions.  I joked with her that after fifty-five minutes, she would start becoming full of herself because she was about to pull it off.  The lady laughed and nodded that she probably would do that.  To understand the true sense of our sin, we must know we fall short of God’s glory, and that means we are unworthy to be in His presence.  And we must understand that we cannot get out of our own way without help from God.

Second, our citadel that holds our will, our heart, must be rent.  We must realize that if God’s Son, Jesus, did not come and die for us, there would be no way we could be saved.  Again it shows our humility and inadequacy, but it introduces Jesus as the One true light in this life of darkness.

But then third, we see that Jesus coming into our lives makes sin repulsive to us.  We hate the sin and we wish to turn from it.  Turning from it is not just hard, it is impossible without God, and the person who experiences repentance unto life, is not perfect from that moment on, but that person hates the sin in their lives and desires God’s will.

And that is the last part, a striving for obedience.  In my Bible study of Jeremiah, on this site and in Sunday school, I noticed that not obeying is a big deal.  Jeremiah has twenty verses that contain the words “not” and “obey” in the same verse, nearly one third of such verses in the Old Testament.  Twice Jeremiah admonishes the people, but the other 18 times, God is telling Judah through His prophet Jeremiah what will happen because they do not obey.

We do not need to be legalistic here, but God wishes us to strive toward obedience.  In hating our sin, we will have a receptive heart in which God can give us the motivation and the strength to obey.

And Jesus pursues us. When we stop going after the sins of this world, and we repent, or in other words we turn around, Jesus is right there to catch us.

And now let us sing.

The following song is I Repent, sung by Steve Green who cowrote the music for this beautiful little song.

“I regret the hours I have wasted and the pleasures I have tasted that you were never in. And I confess that though your love is in me, it doesn’t always win me when competing with my sin.

CHORUS
And I repent, making no excuses. I repent no one else to blame. And I return to fall in love with Jesus. I bow down on my knees and I repent.

I lament the idols I’ve accepted, the commandments I’ve rejected to pursue my selfish end. And I confess I need you to revive me, put selfishness behind me and take up my cross again.

And I return to fall in love with Jesus. I bow down on my knees and I repent.”

• Dave Noel, I Repent

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
You are all we need.  But we need to know that we need You.  We keep making mistakes, but that only tells us that we need more of You within us.  Each time we turn back to You we desire You even more, knowing that we are incapable of going down this road of life without Your strength and Your guidance.  Be with us, Lord.  And thank You for always being there.  I turn from my sins and You are there to embrace me and be my God.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.