Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• Acts 2:38

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

• 2 Corinthians 5:12

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”

• Exodus 33:17-23

“If forgiveness and reconciliation are at the heart of the Gospel, if Christ can reconcile murderers with their victims’ loved ones and even bring about peaceful settlements of religious wars, what then do we say about division among true Christians? We must repent of it. The scandal to the world must be the cross, not our division.
“In a world where Christianity is being assaulted on all sides, true believers must stand together in common defense of the faith. It is the challenge of the Church to work toward this, imperfect though our efforts may be, as we profess one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.”

• Charles Colson (with Harold Fickett), The Faith

John the Baptist (Baptizer) told us to repent.  Jesus started His ministry with a call to repent.  Peter and Paul both preached repentance.

I read it somewhere recently that God accepts us as we are, but He does not leave us there.  The theme in last week’s foundational discussion is that we simply must have faith, but is it that simple?  The key is that the Holy Spirit comes in and starts cleaning the house.  The basic key to knowing that God is within us is that we begin to hate the sin and love God’s holiness.  God’s holiness will become so desirable that nothing else matters, but it takes a while.  To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, the Holy Spirit starts by sweeping, but then He starts breaking out walls.  After all, He is making a mansion.

It is not optional to repent.  We cannot pick and choose which sins we wish to cling to.  God’s reconciliation of us to Him must happen.  God is holy.  We cannot be in His presence in our present state.  Note the conversation with God and Moses.  Moses, as good of a man as he was, would die if he saw God’s face.  He was even hidden in the cleft of a rock so that he could see what he did see.  We underestimate God’s awesomeness.  We will not when we are in His presence.

And although I have heard the reconciliation in the reverse, but that cannot happen.  God does not reconcile Himself to us, lower Himself to a sinful being.  Jesus lowered Himself to become man, but He did not sin.  Even in His state during His ministry, not in His Glory, He was untouchable in His perfection, although we could touch Him in the flesh.

But do not sweat this arduous task that Chuck Colson calls reconciliation and others call sanctification.  We cannot do it without the power of God within us.  And He gives us the desire to make that happen.

Lord, show me what are the foundations of “the Faith.” Repentance and reconciliation are needed.  Sometimes we hold onto things and activities that we need to release.  Repentance is hard at times, but You give us the strength and the desire to move in a direction that gets us to be more like Jesus.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.