A Sermon for Flinders Park Community Church
Introduction
When our children were little, one, in particular, liked to experiment a lot. He found the little flap on the VCR really interesting. He would post his cars into it. Of course, the VCR did not work properly with cars inside it. He also posted his crayons into the gas heater. When we turned on the heater the crayons melted and then the heater no longer worked. You might say that as the owner of the VCR and a gas heater, we could do whatever we liked with these appliances. However, the appliances were not made to be put to these uses. When they were misused they no longer functioned properly. Human beings are a little like our poor VCR and gas heater. We imagine that we own ourselves and thus can do whatever we want with ourselves. However, when we act like that we no longer function as we should. We become dysfunctional and distorted.
Human Destiny
We, therefore, need to know who we are as human beings. God made human beings in his image and likeness (Gen 1:26-27). Consequently, humans are different to every other creature. We were made to be like God so that we can have relationship with God. We were created to share in the relationship of love that God the Father shares with God the Son. Galatians 4:4-6 tell us just that. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Eph 1:5 expresses the same idea. “[God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” This is our destiny as human beings, to be in intimate relationship with the God who made us. This fact is the foundation of who we are. Without knowing this we will not understand repentance.
Although humans were made like God, when the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he promised, “You will not certainly die, for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4-5). When human beings disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, they thought that they were opening up a world of knowledge and becoming like God. In reality, they distorted their humanness through sin. Sin is fundamentally opposed to who we are created to be as human beings. Every time we sin we act in rebellion against our Creator. And rebellion against the God in whose image we are made can only distort that image. How can we be our true selves while we distort the image of God since we are the image of God? Sin is fundamentally bad for us as humans. We can only truly be who we are when we are in right relationship with God. And right relationship with God involves obedience and trust in him.
Salvation is what God does in order to restore humanity to its rightful destiny. He takes sinners who are bent on rejecting him and reconciles them to himself so that they can be what they are meant to be. Salvation is restoration to fellowship with God. So heaven is the place where we will be in the presence of our Creator and forever experience his love. There can be nothing in heaven that is contrary to the intimate relationship of love that we are intended to have with God. There can be nothing there to break the relationship between Father and Son that we are destined to share. In other words, there can be no sin in heaven. This means that the Christian life includes sanctification in order to make us people who love God and hate our own sin. This is the most basic reason why God calls us to repentance.
God’s loving discipline aims to bring about repentance
Some people think that God is a kill-joy and wants us to stop doing all the fun things. This is not so. God is opposed to us destroying ourselves with our rebellion against him. Because sin distorts our humanness, God wants us to repent of sin and turn to him. Isaiah tells us: “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’” (Isa 30:15). When we reject sin and rest in God, trusting in his love for us, this is the place where we are most human and will thus be most fulfilled and happy. This is why the NT tells us that God’s kindness leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4) and why Jesus told the church in Laodicea, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (Rev 3:19). Every time God calls you to repent, it is because he loves you.
But people do not always choose to repent, turn from their sin and turn back to God. That is true of Christians as well as people who are not believers. Consequently, God sends judgements on the world. This is not because he wants to get rid of all the wicked people. Rather, God’s judgements are sent in order to bring people to repentance. “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezek 18:32). He warns of judgement so that people will turn away from sin. He told Jeremiah, “if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned” (Jer 18:8). Unbelievers experience God’s judgement and Christians experience God’s discipline. But it has the same purpose. The purpose is to turn us away from sin and direct us towards God. For it is only as we are in right relationship with God that we become who we are created to be. Repentance makes us more human.
Repentance is a gift from Jesus
Repentance is an important aspect of our relationship with God, but we should not fall into the trap of thinking that our repentance is what fixes that relationship as such. If only we could repent fully then we would need no salvation? No. We cannot repent fully. In fact, our repentance is woefully inadequate. We have mixed feelings about sin, knowing that it is wrong and yet still wanting to cling to it. We have mixed motivations about repentance, often turning away from sin because of the consequences of that sin rather than because we know that it is against God. But the good news is that like all other aspects of salvation, Jesus is the one who has done it perfectly and done it on our behalf.
How could Jesus repent of sin when he never sinned? Jesus is the only human being who has never had unmixed feelings about sin and unmixed motivations for turning towards God. He alone has the right understanding of sin and thus can be repentant for us. “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, “Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God”’” (Heb 10:5-7). His desire is absolute obedience because sin is utterly heinous and Jesus knows this. The fact that it cost God his Son underscores this fact. Jesus is the only human who fully agrees with God about how dreadful sin is. This is why he willingly went to the cross. He agreed with God that sin is evil and must be dealt with. He agreed that God is utterly holy. Jesus is the only utterly holy human being, so holy that he refused to do anything outside the will of God. That choice cost him his life.
Because Jesus is the only human with a correct view of sin and because we need Jesus to open up our hearts to the possibility of repentance, the Bible can say that repentance is a gift from him. The apostles proclaimed this to the Jews in Jerusalem. “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins” (Acts 5:31). After the Gentile Cornelius was baptised the Jews realised that this applied to the Gentiles as well. “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). So repentance is a gracious gift from Jesus, given as part of the salvation he has won for us by his death and resurrection.
Fruit of repentance
So what does repentance look like? Paul explained to King Agrippa, “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20). The first part of repentance is turning to God and away from sin. It involves acknowledging that our actions are wrong. In this we confess, that is, we agree with God that our actions or thoughts are sinful. That is, they are offensive to God, who is holy. We deliberately set our hearts and heads towards doing what pleases God and away from sin, which God hates. We choose to stop our rebellion against him. This is true at the beginning of the Christian life and it is true every day of the Christian life. We need to continually turn to God and away from sin.
The second aspect of repentance is demonstrating repentance by our deeds. Another way of saying this is “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8). How do you know what is in the heart of someone? You can only tell that by what the person says and does. So real repentance includes doing things differently. Instead of engaging in sinful rebellion, choose to obey God. Instead of being self-absorbed, act in love towards other people. Instead of stealing, go and earn money and give some away to others. Instead of being indifferent to God’s word, set a time to read it every day. Instead of ignoring the poor, help the needy. Instead of being unforgiving, make an effort towards reconciliation. Etc. Changed actions are part of repentance.
An illustration of false repentance: Saul.
We should not confuse regret for repentance. Repentance is not simply feeling regret that you did a particular thing. It involves a change of heart towards God and away from the wrong action because that action offends and displeases God. Paul explains the difference: “yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Cor 7:9-10).
To illustrate the difference between true repentance and false repentance let us look at the example of King Saul. In 1 Sam 13 Saul went out to fight the Philistines. He was expecting Samuel to come and offer burnt offerings to the LORD, but after seven days Samuel had not arrived. So Saul took matters into his own hands and offered the burnt offering himself. He thought that this would give him God’s favour in the battle. But it did not since kings are not permitted to offer sacrifices. That is the task given to priests. That is why he had to wait for Samuel. When Samuel arrived he said to Saul, “You have done a foolish thing. You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command” (1 Sam 13:13-14).
You might think that Saul would repent of his foolishness, but he did not. In chapter 15 we find Saul ignoring God’s commands again. He was told to punish Amelek. No person and no animal were to be left alive. But Saul kept the best cattle and sheep for a sacrifice. Samuel rebuked him with the now familiar saying, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam 15:22). “Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them’” (1 Sam 15:24). Saul did the same thing as he did earlier for the same reason. He had not really changed in his heart or in his actions.
Saul was only concerned with maintaining the power of his kingship. This is evident in both these examples and throughout his life as he spent his days trying to kill David so he could hold onto power. He did not repent truly because he did not really want to please God. He had no heart for God. He did not realize that repentance towards God is intended to enable relationship. His focus was only on power and avoiding consequences of his “mistakes”.
Conclusion
If you have been carrying around a sin that you know full well is wrong and displeasing to God, what is preventing you from repenting? If you know that God loves you and wants your best then it is much easier to repent of your sin. God does not require our repentance for some arbitrary reason or because he does not want people to enjoy life. He wants us to become more like Jesus and therefore more fully human. He wants a deeper relationship with you and with me. The closer the relationship the more you become who you are, since walking with God is what makes you a complete human being. But the closer the relationship the more important it is to repent of your sin. Love for God will make you unwilling to do things to offend him. So don’t stubbornly cling to your sin. Don’t wait for God to discipline you before you repent. Repent now because you know that it is the best choice. Repentance is a good gift from God.