When I was kid growing up in Ohio I always looked forward to Thanksgiving. Yes for the food, but I also went with a group of men and headed to Salk Fork, OH for a week of hunting white tail deer. I really enjoyed this year in and year out. I recall the first time I ever shot a deer. It was exciting. It was hard to keep focus. It was an adeline rush. I was the most eager 12 year old in all Ohio. I shot a deer. Now it was about obtaining a goal not just shooting an animal. I wanted to eat the meat and make use of everything, but the big deal is that I kept focus and accomplished the goal. It was such a big deal that my Dad made a little certificate for me about that day.
When you lift your gun and take aim you must be carful not to take aim to quick or pull the trigger prematurely. You must not take your eye off the deer because you could very easily lose the target. Its extremely easy to forsake the goal in the rush of it all. Not intentionally of course, but just simply not keeping focus on the target can do this. Its easy to jump the gun (pardon the pun).
This can be likened to the Gospel. We can get caught up in all the hustle and bustle of life, the excitement of people, the false hope of a good life and the many other distractions that this world can bring to disfigure the Gospel. Sharing your faith can change things, but only done in a proper manner. I’m not talking about methods or anything like that. Just keeping the Gospel as it is. Keeping focus on the good news. We should look to what God says and not the excitement or adeline rush of someone wanting to hear about Jesus.
I’ve been recently reading through the Gospel of Luke. The other morning something caught my eye I just don’t recall seeing before. As John the baptist preaches repentance to the people of Israel. The scripture says that this is good news (Luke 3:18). Repentance is good news?! Yes. It’s good. To turn from sin, change your mind in accordance with sin and walk towards God is good. The latin for good news is ‘evangel’; it is where were get the modern word for evangelical. Simplified meaning, bringer of good news. Thinking about the good news in line with repentance is different, but very much what the Bible teaches.
Today repentance seems to be taken one of two ways. First, its talked about in a ‘turn or burn’ mentality. And second, its downplayed to ‘you shouldn’t live that way’ mentality. Either extreme is bad. Very little is it talked about in light of being ‘good news’. Repentance is good news. We are offered by God a chance to come back to him. In the midst of God’s love he calls us to come and die. He loves you right where you are but leo won’t leave you where you are. He is righteous and must bring change (we repent) so that we live different, so we live like his Son. Hebrew culture says repentance is a change of lifestyle and Greek culture says its a change of mind. Both are biblical teaching. Both are necessary for this to remain true.
John “proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). What? Repentance is part of forgiveness. Repentance is an act of the grace of God. His kindness and forbearance leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). What about today’s Gospel? Saying God has a wonderful plan for your life or God wants the best for you or any man centered gospel is not God. Well, just like hunting, when the focus is lost you lose the target. We end up missing the mark of what is the good news.
All these outside influences change things. We lose the good news of repentance. Repentance is an act towards God as is our faith to be towards Jesus as Messiah (Acts 20:21). God commands repentance but also delights when we commit this to him as we see with the prodigal son (Luke 15:17-24; Acts 17:30). Repentance is about new life. It’s meant to bring us unto life. Its resurrecting. It is filled with hope. It kills the old and brings in the new.
“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no lose through us. For godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas wordily grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)
In the verse above we see a few practical aspects to focus on in repentance…..
1) Focus on God
2) Focus on proper grieving
3) Focus on moving past regret
4) Focus on your new life
If we build a foundation when we must have God in focus when all parts take place. First we need to reptant towards God and not man or the world. We must be broken towards God and who he is. He is Holy. There is God and everything else. God and what he created. As we see this we can see our sin in light of who God is. Having a God focus brings us closer to how God acts and moves in the world. It teaches us to live in light of who God is.
Focusing on God’s character moves us into a proper grieving. It should push us closer into the heart and calling of God. God focused repentance brings change in us. It brings a change in our minds; “Godly sorrow produces repentance”. Being grieved into repenting brings life and change, it brings about a life in the midst of sanctification (Romans 6:20-23). Regret can kill this all. If we look over the past and only see mistakes then we never fully move past them.
Our God redeems, even our past. Remember I said that repentance brings life and is resurrecting. It raises us from the depth of sin. It brings us past our faults into the redeeming work of God in our lives. We should no longer regret what we’ve done because God uses that to make us into who we are today in Christ. Our choices and aspects of life help shape us to live for God. To “redeem” means to “by back” in the simplest form. God bought us back to himself from the power, presence and penalty of sin. We must focus on redemption and that we belong to God alone. He is your Father, brother and friend. Redemption brings reconciliation within our own lives and the lives of others. As we repent others see our love and passion to truly follow Jesus and the work of redemption in the cross. In this the gospel is lived out in word and deed!
