Man has made tremendous strides in science, technology and medicine. There are unparalleled improvements in quality of life, particularly within the last century, but man himself has not changed. He may be on the verge of conquering the universe, but he cannot rein himself in. What a paradox!
You do not have to go or look too far. Sit on your couch and switch on your TV set, spend a few minutes on one or two international news networks; you do not need to be Sherlock Holmes to decipher that our world is in a desperate state. What of your own heart, have you checked it?
In reality, man’s spiritual and moral plunge began since the fall of Adam, yet falling deeper and deeper. It seems advancements in knowledge and technology, and the moral state of his heart and mind are inversely related: to wit, the higher his knowledge and technological advancement, the lower his spiritual and moral descent. And in these last days, it is predicted to become worse as we draw closer to the end of the age and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The culprit for this morass is man himself. The state of man’s heart is practically incomprehensible. It is deceitful to the core and exceedingly corrupt. We have lost compass and gone astray, following incoherent pathways like lost sheep.
Sin is at the very core of man’s nature. Sin made him lose his bearings. It confused him with respect to his time, his place, his identity and his destiny in the divine and eternal scheme of things as he began to define good and evil on his terms and at his whims.
At the instance of man’s Creator, the first coming of our Lord Jesus was to recover man. And Christ’s second coming, where He will judge all men individually on their response to His first advent, is at hand.
Solomon, please tell me something else, we have heard this since forever! The patience of God has long been in man’s favour:
This means that, contrary to man’s perspective, the Lord is not late with his promise to return, as some measure lateness. But rather, his “delay” simply reveals his loving patience toward you, because he does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! John, the forerunner of our Lord Jesus blazed into first-century Jewish society under Roman occupation, with a counter-culture lifestyle and message that would seize the attention of everyone from zealot to rabbi, tax-collector to Roman soldier.
Name anyone. The Roman governor? Herod Antipas was petrified at the mention of the name, ‘John the Baptist.’ It took a scheming Herodias to get him to eliminate the one whom he loved to hate. Where John the Baptist stopped, Jesus began.
Now after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel.’
What is repentance? Repentance is the u-turn of the heart and mind. How is repentance a u-turn? Man’s spiritual and moral movement is generally in a direction that is headed away from God and toward sin. When we make a u-turn, we go in the opposite direction: away from sin and toward God.
According to W. E. Vine, In the New Testament, the subject chiefly has reference to repentance from sin, and this change of mind involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God.
The devil, from the beginning, has made man believe that involving God in his life would produce a limiting interference that constrains his liberty. Satan has blinded man into believing that he should be free to do what he likes. But in blinding us to that, we also become blind to the reality that we are actually slaves to sin and Satan through obedience to him.
Don’t you realize that grace frees you to choose your own master? But choose carefully, for you surrender yourself to become a servant- bound to the one you choose to obey. If you choose to love sin, it will become your master, and it will own you and reward you with death. But if you choose to love and obey God, he will lead you to perfect righteousness.
We know what is right to do, but we cannot do it. Chained by sin, man is led, in the direction of evil, like sheep to the slaughter.
Satan blinds man from seeing the reality of the sinfulness of sin and its penalty by making it pleasurable. The pleasures of sin create a false sense of liberty, so man does not realize he is subject to the power of sin.
But God through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ (He died and rose again) has made forgiveness and deliverance from sin available to all of mankind. When God delivers a man from sin, He saves him from the penalty of sin, which is death, and from the power of sin which enslaves him.
The Bible speaks of two types of repentance: repentance from sin and repentance from dead works. Before any of these can be achieved, godly sorrow must precede it. The precursor to true repentance is godly sorrow.
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Some people, motivated by worldly sorrow, ‘turn away from sinning,’ but they do not turn to God. Instead of making a u-turn, they change lanes: from the ‘bad-deeds’ lane to the ‘good-deeds’ lane, but they are still headed in the same direction.
Many become ‘good people.’ They turn to morality; performing good deeds which they hope would put them in right-standing with God. These ‘good deeds’ lead to death, because they have no regard for the redemptive work of Christ, thus they have no bearing with the Giver of Life.
Repentance is not about moral improvement. It is not about changing one’s lifestyle. It is about receiving the New Life that God gives through Jesus Christ and living it through the power of His indwelling presence.
You may or may not be one who frequents church attendance, but if you are going “to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God,” you must place your faith in Jesus Christ.
It is only when you rely on Jesus that you may receive total forgiveness of sins and be made holy, and take hold of the inheritance that God gives to His children.
Why repent? Because sin leads to ruin, it leads to death: eternal damnation and separation from God. God loves you. He never wants this to happen to you.
Paul said he kept telling people, “that they must repent and turn to God and demonstrate it with a changed life.” I want to encourage you today to do just that. Believe in Jesus Christ, make a u-turn of your heart and mind. What will you do?
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning.
References:
Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:1-7; Jeremiah 17:9; 2 Peter 3:9, TPT; Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:14-15, ASV; Romans 7:19-25; Isaiah 53:6-7; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Hebrews 11:25; Matthew 14:1-21; Genesis 3:5; Romans 6:16, TPT; 2 Corinthians 7:10; Acts 26:18-20, TPT.
W. E. Vine: Vine’s Amplified Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Copyright 1991, World Bible Publishers Inc. Iowa Falls Iowa USA.
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