Before going into today's topic, this title in itself demands a question: what exactly is repentance? And why is it so crucial to our daily lives? (And for those of us reading this, I bet there are other statements in our minds as we read this: "this is oh-so-sunday-school"; "I've been a Christian for umpteen years and yes I know all about repentance"; "repentance is saying sorry to God LOR".)
So I guess I should start by stating what repentance is not: Repentance is not saying sorry to God; repentance is not turning away from sin; repentance is not beating your chest and wearing sackcloth to 'prove' to God you have truly "repented". Repentance has all these things within it--but repentance is a lot more than all these things. It's not that the above statements are wrong: it's just that they understate the case by too much.
Some people agree when I say the above, but let me say something even more controversial. Repentance is not just about the moral life. It's not just about what's right, and what's wrong. Repentance extends to the whole of our being and the whole of our Christian existence.
So this is a good time for me to answer the question: what exactly is repentance?
Repentance is a change of mind and of heart. Why is this change necessary? Because of the Fall--when sin entered the world, it separated us from God, instilled in us habits and behaviours far removed from God, and enslaved us into thinking, feeling, and behaving its way. Now 'sin' is more than just a moral term. It is the entire pollution that results from being separated from God. Besides the moral side, sin also involves the corrupt world system that is in power, the addictiveness to certain things (that society deems acceptable), the self-reliance (that we needed in order to survive in a highly imperfect world), self-centredness (the idea that *I* choose what I want for my life and my way is always correct), and our value system: what we think is important, what we deem as success and failure, what deserves more attention than other matters. It also extends to our reliance on formulas: our tendency not to relate to God as a person, or as a friend or Father, but as a supernatural being/force we can bend to our will; that somehow, if we do the correct formulas, pray the correct prayer, make the correct sacrifices and rituals, then God (has no choice but to) bless us, provide for us, anoint us, etc. It also extends to our reluctance to be in touch with the supernaturality of God. We end up preferring the human form of existence (only), fallen and as imperfect as it may be. We would rather God keep his supernaturality for himself. Even when we believe in God, we'd rather he stay as a belief, than as an intrusion into our lives. Because even an intrusion from a loving God is too much for us to take, too freaky for a mind that has been too used to not seeing the supernatural. That is the current state of humanity. We're all the same, all in need of repentance. :) Why are we like this? The Fall. The Fall, that separated us from a good, loving, supernatural, and morally upright God.
Repentance is a total change of mind and heart. It is viewing success from God's point of view. It is viewing honour and power the way he views it. It also involves moving away from fleshly methods of doing things to following the Spirit--in other words, moving from the very human formulas and a rigid kind of relation to God to a dynamic, fluid expression of Biblical principles and a constant following of the Spirit's voice. It is not just a 'different' way of doing things; it is the total opposite from what we are used to. (And of course, with all the above, comes one of the results, which is living life the way God wants us to, in contrast to worldly, evil ways of living life.) I don't know about you, but I think for most of us, the fact that we are living in this world, which operates on its own principles, makes living God's way a really difficult and quite unbelievable way to live.
Thankfully, that's not the last thing that should be said about it, otherwise that would be really terrible terrible news for all of us. In fact, repentance is a fantastic piece of good news. It can be considered THE greatest gift that God has given us (besides the obviously most important one which is His Son). And is it livable and realistic? The answer also is yes. Provided we do it the proper way.
What then is the proper way? Let me explain the one, and only formula for living the Christian life. It is to "follow the Spirit" (check out the books of Romans, Galatians, and even the Ephesians passage that begins with "not to be drunk with wine"). That's it. There is only one formula for pleasing God, one formula for understanding Christian life, and one formula for living the victorious Christian life. Follow the Spirit. Notice that I didn't say follow the Spirit's power: I said follow the Spirit. If you follow Him personally, you will get there.
Translated into today's topic, it also means this: to achieve true repentance, i.e. transformation of heart and mind into what God wants, follow the Spirit. Let me show in a practical way how this can be done.
When praying, 1) invite the Spirit of Jesus to come and speak to you, to sensitise your heart if you haven't done so already so that you can hear his voice. This step alone can take a short or long time, so be patient if you've just started. Trust me, just praying this prayer alone, to hear His voice, so that you can love Him and obey--this is a very very pleasing prayer to Him (John 10:27). 2) He will probably tell you some things that need to be changed. Some of them will be sins, some of them will be mindsets, some of them will be addictions, some of them will be attitudes towards self, world and God, and some of them will involve increasing your level of faith. If it's sin, say sorry. If it's mindsets, I've always found it useful to rebuke the mindset in the name of Jesus (sounds quite silly, because it feels like talking to yourself, ahhaha, but it works!) and to read Scripture passages that deal with the mindset. If it's addiction, too complicated to go into detail here, but get someone who specialises in deliverance to help. :) And finally, if it's a lack of faith you are repenting from, find people of faith to mix with. God will use these people to guide you how to have more and more faith.
3) Don't nitpick. This is not the time to get all sorry for yourself about ALL your weaknesses and to go headhunting for some unconfessed sin that you haven't got out of your system. No. Stick with the Spirit's agenda. Let him decide what needs to be changed. Let him deal with the rest of your imperfections some other time. And for the benefit of those not familiar, the Spirit doesn't always have to communicate to you supernaturally. If you find yourself going through the same scenario over and over again, either always having to forgive someone, or having to deal with ostracism, or etc etc, and it keeps coming back like deja vu, then I can tell you that the Spirit's orchestrating your circumstances purposely to teach you something. And learning that lesson = repentance.
4) Be prepared to repent again. Let me explain. God is usually more concerned about the things that can't so easily be changed than all the small things. Any known sin, when known, should be confessed--but like a master builder, God really deals with core issues of the heart first, because these are the deepest cracks and the biggest stumbling blocks to your SUCCESS (i.e. spiritual maturity) in him. So there's a good reason why he didn't deal with your egocentrism, insecurity, pride, laziness, spiritual insensitivity, fear, disobedience, wilfulness, lack of self-control, lust, lack of perseverance, anger management problem, spiritual ignorance and religiosity (!) all at once, because as the list suggests, it's too much for anyone to bear. It's like being in surgery and trying to operate on the brain, heart, lungs, kidney, and legs ALL at once. You'd die halfway thru surgery! Trust the Lord, deal with the issue that he wants you to deal with, and you will be a healthier, stronger individual at the end of your 'surgery'. And you will find that these core issues usually don't clear off so fast. They usually need years and months of work to clear. So, just stay the course, be committed to repentance, and you will see fruit the moment the power of the Lord invades your life. In short, be prepared to repent, about the same sin, or about the same addiction, or about the same mental habit, again. And remember the Lord is very generous and doesn't despise your need to continually repent.
(to be continued)
Translated into today's topic, it also means this: to achieve true repentance, i.e. transformation of heart and mind into what God wants, follow the Spirit. Let me show in a practical way how this can be done.
When praying, 1) invite the Spirit of Jesus to come and speak to you, to sensitise your heart if you haven't done so already so that you can hear his voice. This step alone can take a short or long time, so be patient if you've just started. Trust me, just praying this prayer alone, to hear His voice, so that you can love Him and obey--this is a very very pleasing prayer to Him (John 10:27). 2) He will probably tell you some things that need to be changed. Some of them will be sins, some of them will be mindsets, some of them will be addictions, some of them will be attitudes towards self, world and God, and some of them will involve increasing your level of faith. If it's sin, say sorry. If it's mindsets, I've always found it useful to rebuke the mindset in the name of Jesus (sounds quite silly, because it feels like talking to yourself, ahhaha, but it works!) and to read Scripture passages that deal with the mindset. If it's addiction, too complicated to go into detail here, but get someone who specialises in deliverance to help. :) And finally, if it's a lack of faith you are repenting from, find people of faith to mix with. God will use these people to guide you how to have more and more faith.
3) Don't nitpick. This is not the time to get all sorry for yourself about ALL your weaknesses and to go headhunting for some unconfessed sin that you haven't got out of your system. No. Stick with the Spirit's agenda. Let him decide what needs to be changed. Let him deal with the rest of your imperfections some other time. And for the benefit of those not familiar, the Spirit doesn't always have to communicate to you supernaturally. If you find yourself going through the same scenario over and over again, either always having to forgive someone, or having to deal with ostracism, or etc etc, and it keeps coming back like deja vu, then I can tell you that the Spirit's orchestrating your circumstances purposely to teach you something. And learning that lesson = repentance.
4) Be prepared to repent again. Let me explain. God is usually more concerned about the things that can't so easily be changed than all the small things. Any known sin, when known, should be confessed--but like a master builder, God really deals with core issues of the heart first, because these are the deepest cracks and the biggest stumbling blocks to your SUCCESS (i.e. spiritual maturity) in him. So there's a good reason why he didn't deal with your egocentrism, insecurity, pride, laziness, spiritual insensitivity, fear, disobedience, wilfulness, lack of self-control, lust, lack of perseverance, anger management problem, spiritual ignorance and religiosity (!) all at once, because as the list suggests, it's too much for anyone to bear. It's like being in surgery and trying to operate on the brain, heart, lungs, kidney, and legs ALL at once. You'd die halfway thru surgery! Trust the Lord, deal with the issue that he wants you to deal with, and you will be a healthier, stronger individual at the end of your 'surgery'. And you will find that these core issues usually don't clear off so fast. They usually need years and months of work to clear. So, just stay the course, be committed to repentance, and you will see fruit the moment the power of the Lord invades your life. In short, be prepared to repent, about the same sin, or about the same addiction, or about the same mental habit, again. And remember the Lord is very generous and doesn't despise your need to continually repent.
(to be continued)
2 comments:
Can I summarise and say that repentance is the lifestyle of sin (egocentric) to the lifestyle of worship (theo/christo-centric)? Perhaps then, it is in the clarifying and explaining the biblical understanding of "sin" and "worship" one can understand repentance better then.
Comments from anyone? :) Anyone wants to reply to Zhehao's question?
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