I live in South Africa. We drive on the left-hand-side of the road. Things get complicated if you drive on the other side! Some years ago I travelled to the United Sates. They drive on the right-hand-side of the road. They’re allowed to, because they are American! But it was a serious head-spin for me! I remember pulling out of a campus drive in Texas one day, noticing the road to be clear of traffic. My hard-wired, ingrained, rutted South African-driving-brain (which note, had saved my life many times in South Africa), instinctively turned left at the STOP, only to find, to my horror, some 200 meters down the road, a fleet of American vehicles rumbling towards me in the “wrong” direction! (Of course, it would never enter my mind that I was wrong!) I was in the “crumple-zone”! Realising that I was out-gunned about 30:1, I executed a U-turn that a talent scout for “Fast and Furious” would have drooled over! It was life-saving!
The point of my story is that there are so many instinct-based decisions that we make in life that seem "right up our alley", but they lead us "up a blind alley"! We think we’re on the right track, but we’re heading in the wrong direction! “The way we’ve always done it” simply cannot cut it for running headlong like a crazy into the crash-zone! That’s why I want to speak to you about “REPENTANCE” today… It can be life-saving!
Luke 3:8 says, “… who warned you to flee from the wrath to come (the oncoming traffic)? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance (do a U-turn!)…”
Good fruit in our lives is rooted in the nourishing soil of REPENTANCE. Jesus said that we would know a tree by its FRUIT (Luke 6:44). So, Biblically speaking, true repentance is beyond simply saying “Sorry”. That’s a great start, but our sincere remorse for transgression is evidenced by a U-turn in behaviour! (It’s both, Show AND Tell)
I know that the word “repentance” may read a little archaic in our culture, like old-school, but this beautiful lifestyle is such a saving grace! In the Greek Scriptures, the word means to “change your mind” - to have such an intense compunction (regret) for guilt that we not only change the way we think, but we turn around and head in the opposite direction! (Rom 12:1-2) And, as if that were not enough, repentance also reverses the decision of another! Meaning that, the “wrath to come” is appeased and averted, because our changed lives are waving a “white-flag” to God!
Since life can hard-wire our plastic grey-matter, and rut our decision-making, God throws us a grace-life-line through repentance that saves us from the crash and burn! (Acts 5:31). Here’s a question, though: “How do we know that we are repentant enough?” Should we be dragging our knuckles on the floor in a perpetual state of remorse and regret? It’s a good question, because many people get “spiritual” identity out of protracted guilt as a kind of humility-look-alike, saying in effect, that, if they live this way, then God will be good to them. But God is GOOD. Period. Not only does Goodness from God precede repentance - it leads us to repentance! - Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
So, again, we go wide-eyed and white-knuckled into the CRASH-zones of life because we get a different kind of “brain-freeze” - we are just crazy stubborn! "I did it my way!"
It seems pretty clear from Scripture that repentance is given to us as a gift from God to avert disaster. Does the Scripture have a type of Repent-ometer - a fruit-reader? If the “Fruit Inspector” comes into the garden of my soul, will He find export quality? I would like to offer you a crystal clear answer to that question from 2 Corinthians 7. It's awesome! I promise:
That passage begins with these words: "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God…"
Fear is a very good change-agent, not that we panic, but that we are made more alert for action. Those who have a deep reverence for God, carry the aroma of the freshly tilled soil of repentance, and exhibit the most holy fruit! The great song-writer, King David, wrote that, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." As this compunction for guilt intensifies, the Corinthians passage delineates the most beautiful fruit that accompanies this kind of sorrow:
Paul writes in verse 9, "Now I'm glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. 10 Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. ("Produces repentance" - ESV) It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. 11 And now, isn't it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You're more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you've come out of this with purity of heart." Good that!
8 WONDERFUL FRUITS OF REPENTANCE:
We are MORE:
- Alive
- Concerned
- Sensitive
- Reverent
- Human
- Passionate/enthusiastic/excited/animated
- Responsible
- Pure
Let's juggle these words a little bit, and see what they spell out for us:
We are MORE:
- Pure in heart
- Reverent
- Enthusiastic (BTW, the etymology on this word is, "divinely inspired, possessed by God")
- Concerned/Caring
- Responsible
- Alive
- Sensitive, and
- Human/e
These are the PRE-CRASH fruits of repentance from the Holy Spirit that safeguard us from hitting the wall over-and-over again! Let's cultivate these fruits by developing a lifestyle of renewal shaped by the fear of the Lord. It can be life-saving.
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