Walking in power and freedom through a lifestyle of repentance: 4 of 8

SEEKING THE DEPTHS SO WE CAN TRULY AND SAFELY ATTAIN THE HEIGHTS

We need to intentionally challenge negative views of repentance, which cause us to downplay or avoid it.  This is particularly urgent in our current culture (by which the church is influenced) where there is a focus on being positive and focusing on your positive identity.

Now understanding our identity in Christ is an essential biblical truth and there are many Scriptures that talk about being loved and secure in our identity in Christ.  Christians are repeatedly addressed as saints and children of God and called to righteousness, precisely because of their identity (1 Cor 5:7; 2 Pet 1:8-9; 1 Th 5:8; Col 3:1). 

AVOIDING EXTREMES

However, even the most essential truth can become unbalanced.  For example, the Bible teaches that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  His humanity was obvious to His fellow humans and it was His divinity that his followers took longer to recognize and accept.  And yet some took his divinity to an extreme and taught that Jesus was not really human in the sense that we are.  Doceticism was a 2^nd century heresy that believed Jesus did not have a real body during his life on earth but only an apparent or phantom one.  Early forms of this gnostic belief were already present at the time of the New Testament and it is strongly condemned:

2Jn 1:7  I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

In the Bible, our identity in Christ is precisely an identification with Christ, walking in His footsteps and sharing in both His identity AND His humility and suffering (2 Ti 2:11; Rom 6:5; Rom 6:8; 2 Co 4:10; Gal 2:19-20; Php 3:10-11).

When the church takes a cheap view of identity, it is basically following the world’s culture, with its focus on positively confessing our specialness, simply because of our humanity.  This is classic humanism and it has little place for repentance, for humanism views people as misunderstood victims, not as sinners who need to repent.  One can see the church has been infected with this imbalance when Christians who are dealing with sorrow and sin are not encouraged to fully process this in order to come out into a rich security and identity on the other side (Php 2:5-9).  They are hurried along and given stock phrases like “stop being negative”, “you need to love yourself” and “God loves you just the way you are”.  There is a truth in these statements, but they lack depth; a depth that can only be gained by meditating on and integrating the following kinds of verses:

Jas 4:8-10  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (9)  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Rev 3:17-19  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  (18)  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.  (19)  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

The point is not to go to the opposite extreme and only focus on these challenging verses.  The goal is to have our “toolbox” full with the complete range of truths and verses God has revealed, so that the Holy Spirit can bring to bear, on our hearts and minds, the exact nuance of truth that we need at a particular moment or in a particular season of our life.  Consequently, when we read a verse like Romans 2:4, “God’s kindness leads to repentance”, we must resist the temptation to turn that into a technique or an invariable order in which we do things.  We must simply receive the truth repeated throughout Scripture that we cannot separate love and truth, kindness and calling to account, comfort and rebuke. 

Working with a complete and comprehensive truth will rescue us from fear and legalism as well as complacency, presumption and cheap grace. Repentance can be pursued because we understand that there is no life without truth.  We understand that God is holy and without holiness we will not see God or enjoy intimacy with God (Heb 12:14; 1 Pe 1:15-16; 2 Pe 3:11).  Repentance can be pursued because we desire all of God and all of the life God wants to give us (1 Pe 3:10-11). And we can purse this repentance wholeheartedly without fear because of what is written about on every page of the New Testament.  God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  God gives us what we completely lack.  And He does it joyfully, wholeheartedly, without reserve or resentment.  Not because He does not see our true state, but because He knows His ability and His power and His grace.    

Luk 10:21  At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

Luk 12:32  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

Therefore we don’t need to put on a brave front.  We need not pretend to be what we’re not.  We can repent deeply, from the heart and fully humble ourselves.  And then just watch the identity and power and life flow!

RESISTING THE SOLUTION OF HUMANISM

We struggle with this because of the positive thinking culture we live in.  It’s understandable because secular society doesn’t believe in God and it consequently doesn’t believe in salvation.  Yet people cannot deny what their spirit knows.  Deep down, they are aware of their guilt and sin.  As a result, they end up frantically hiding their sin, like Adam and Eve putting on a fig leaf to  cover up their shame. 

Another technique is to reframe or put a spin on the sin, calling it by a different name to justify it.  “It’s not a sin it’s an addiction.  I’m not rude, I’m on the spectrum.”  I believe in addiction and spectrum-related diagnosis, but I don’t believe in them when they are used to deny the reality of God, of sin and how our sin is the root cause of our personal and social problems.

These dynamics explain the proliferation of psychological positive thinking methodologies; there’s a new book every week on harnessing the power of the mind with the latest findings in neuroscience.  These don’t really work, just like a fig leaf is not really going to clothe you very long, or rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is not going to stop the ship going down, or revaluing the failing currency in a failed state is not going to change the crime and poverty in that country.

GOD’S SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT AND BETTER

We can turn in complete trust to the one who is absolutely true and reliable:

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Num 23:19)

God’s heart and wisdom is revealed in the cross of Jesus.  Through the cross event we know that God is forgiving and we can bring the worst of ourselves into the light.  Because of what Jesus has done on the cross God will forgive us, accept us and fully restore and bless us.  Therefore in the church we must be careful of too quickly moving towards that positive self-image and shallow slogans (“I’m the kings kid” “I’m just so loved and accepted”).  We have to take the time to come into God’s presence and be still and wait, buried like Jesus was for three days, until God does his work in us:

Isa 1:18  “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Isa 30:15-18  This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.  (16)  You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift!  (17)  A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”  (18)  Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

GOD’S INVITATION TO FEAST (ISA 55:1-2)

 I have this picture of God inviting us to this rich meal of repentance and restoration and true sonship, and we just want to bypass it.   It’s like choosing to go to McDonald’s instead, because it’s so quick and easy.  Not only do we go through the fast drive-thru window, we grab the junk food and we eat it as we drive.  That’s the kind of impatience and rush that characterizes our world.  Sometimes the church lets itself be squeezed into the world’s mould (Rom 12:2); consequently we struggle to truly examine our hearts and take the time to repent with God.  It is hard to take the time to go through the pain of facing our sin, but that’s like not wanting to go to the doctor and just putting a bandaid on top of the infection.  It is not going to ultimately help.  God calls us to something deeper, he calls us to fellowship.  This is what God is saying to the church in Laodicea.  This verse is in the New Testament, part of the New Covenant, so we can’t dismiss it as Old Testament Law.  Note how hard Jesus’ words are but also how kind they are.  See how heavy the challenge is, but simultaneously how great is the invitation:

Rev 3:14-22  “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  (15)  I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  (16)  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  (17)  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  (18)  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.  (19)  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.  (20)  Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.  (21)  To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.  (22)  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.“

In Jesus’ Middle Eastern culture, the invitation to share a meal is an invitation to friendship and shared life.  It is very different from driving past McDonald’s and grabbing a cheap burger from a stranger and eating it alone on the go.  Physically and spiritually, we end up malnourished and hungry.   

Isa 55:1-2  “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  (2)  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.