Repentance requires taking in a whole new point of view; looking at it God’s way. God simply asks us to turn. This is the way we accept His gift. When we do, certain outcomes are promised. If we don’t, or we “turn back”, alternate outcomes are promised.
Look And Live
Numbers 21:8-9 (NIV) The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” …Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
John 6:40a (NIV) “For my father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.”
John 6:29 (NIV) Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Turn Or Burn – always a choice until you die
We all have been bitten, and sin is coursing through our veins. It will most certainly lead to death. There is only one solution, but it is an offense to our ability to save ourselves
Luke 13:3b (NIV) “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Matthew 4:17 (NIV) From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matthew 3:2 (Phi) “You must change your hearts and minds, for the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived!”
Mark 6:12 (TEB) So they went out and preached that people should turn away from their sins.
Acts 2:38 (NIV) 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.”
The Two Ways
The Wrong Way——–
The “way” we are looking: 1) will make sense if we look long enough; 2) will create desire to move in that direction; and 3) will lead to something. First, we will look at how this applies to man’s way.Proverbs 14:12 (NIV) There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
If our line of sight is along our own way, or the way of the world, then this will begin to make sense to us as we continue to meditate on it, even if the way we are looking is really stupid. With this mind set, desire will spring up, which is the fuel that will lead us to destruction.
James 1:14-15 (NIV) But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Ezekiel 33:11 (NIV) … “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!…”
The Right Way<——————————–
Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV) So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 2:1-3 (Phi) You were spiritually dead through your sins and failures, all the time you followed this world’s ideas of living, and obeyed the evil ruler of the spiritual realm, who is indeed fully operative today in those who disobey God. We all lived like that in the past, and followed the desires and imaginings of our lower natures, being, in fact, under the wrath of God by nature, like everyone else.
Galatians 5:16 (NIV) So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Ephesians 5:8-10 (NIV) For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
The Gift Of God That Goes With Repentance: New Appetites
1 Peter 2:2 (NIV) Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Ps 119:104-105 (NIV) I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore, I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Ps 16:11 (NIV) You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Col 3:2 (NIV) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Ps 101:3a (NIV) I will set before my eyes no vile thing.
Rom 13:14 (NIV) … clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of your sinful nature.
Ps 105:4 (NIV) Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
John Hargrove Seeking Truth and Reality 