It's a very common experience that God wants us to repent from something that isn't morally wrong, but rather from something which is accepted to something that is more perfect. (Which also reminds us that repentance has nothing to do with you not being good enough). :) Let me give you two examples of this.
1. Religiosity. In very quick terms, God wants people to repent from religiosity, because it represents man's effort to reach God, and to move towards grace, which is the free gift of God given to all mankind. What's so wrong about putting in effort to reach God? - you may ask. When God first created us, there wasn't a problem--just like God, who puts in effort to create the world, maintain it, and to develop his relationship with his creation, man technically is not wrong in putting in effort to maintain life around him, doing good, and developing relationships with others. In fact, in God's creation plan, Man was to "be fruitful and multiply" (yes, it's fun, but it's also work HAHAHAHHA) and to "dominate the earth and subdue it" (i.e. to make the most of Earth's natural resources, to build cities etc, and to make sure there's a replenishment plan so that nothing runs out or gets extinct). So God does expect people to put in effort into their work: it was his plan all along. And that's also why putting in effort is technically, not sin.
But the problem came with the Fall. With the Fall, man became separated from God, the source of all life. What happened then was that artificial (and Additional) effort had to be put in to maintain the world as is. While previously under God food was plentiful, now Man had to eat food "through the sweat of his brow". God created work, but Man through sin created toil. And the effect of sin is very very profound--it affects all our relationships, our attitudes and knowledge of God, and the way we see the resources on Earth and our meaning of "dominating" the world. Don't want to go into too much detail here, but give you a tidbit about what I'm thinking: God dominates the world and the people within it, but he doesn't crush them or deny them their free will--Man, on the other hand, crushes and dictates wherever he dominates; God created male and female to have pleasant and supportive relationships with each other, but because of sin, males started to dominate their spouses, and wives have some kind of addictive dependency on the ones they fall in love with; God created procreation for fun and further creation, but because of sin, even the act of giving birth is tarnished with so much pain and trauma. Once God as source is separated from Man and his world, there is this tremendous lack, and a whole load of effort is needed to "plug the leak" (which never happens anyway because our strength is so infinitesimally small). And I need to add one additional point: because of the Fall, we began to think we could plug the leak. We don't need God, we said. All we need is us.
So the problem with the Fall is that 1. some things got so irreversibly changed that our human effort is never enough; 2. our human effort is so corrupted by sin that even when we have the noblest of motives, when it is executed, it becomes dictatorial, uncaring, or simply imperfect; 3. in terms of spirituality, (big surprise) God isn't impressed at all with our effort. One sin is more than he can take. Effort doesn't answer the question of taking away sin. Sin is such a terrible virus that can only be taken away by the removal of the life that contains it.
Can you now see why religiosity, although not a 'sin-sin' per se, is definitely not what God has in store for any of us? You can't come outright and say "it is bad"--some of the most caring, conscientious, and responsible people fall within this category; the problem is that it's hard to detect such people because they are the 'most wonderful' people around! But the thing is, God is only pleased with something a lot better than that, something other than external observance. He wants a change that comes from the heart.
In fact, what is appalling is that if anyone thinks religiosity is the way to go, God demonstrates through his Word that it is the surest way to get manipulated by Satan. Satan has a field day manipulating the "zeal" of legalist nuts (e.g. Paul). What led Jesus' enemies to lie, slander, play political games, bribe, and do all kinds of things just to get rid of Jesus? Answer: religiosity. This is the hidden trap that is so lethal precisely because it's so unnoticeable. And yet, the Pharisees were consistently morally right in most things they did, if you think carefully. The Pharisees were absolute keepers of the law and ultimate scholars of the Scriptures. They kept EVERYTHING, man. Compared to them today's church member or even Pastor would feel like an absolute sinner. Notice also that there is no way to criticise them 'cos everything they did was morally 'right'! Which also means usually such people are hardly ever the centre of controversy. They are respectable, fantastic people who keep whatever law you might have. And don't forget that, as far as the people were concerned, they "can't be wrong" because the Law of Moses backs them up.
But let me at this time also show you Jesus so you can understand that the real Christian life can sometimes be marked by controversy. If you let a Pharisee write his 'testimonial', you can be sure Jesus would be labelled as a sinner. He allowed people to eat with unwashed hands (i.e. there's a chance some of them might be ceremoniously unclean and therefore would defile him), he ate at the table of sinners (contradiction to the Psalms), he broke the Sabbath (bad boy, how could you go against the Ten Commandments!), AND he wasn't even a trained scholar, yet he was so 'presumptuous' as to teach. Yet, from God's perspective, it is Jesus who is our hero, and the Pharisees who are the villains. Think that gives us a lot to think about as to what Christian life should really be like.
Let's come back to some definitions. Repentance is letting God change us from the inside out, not just from the bad to the good, but also from the acceptable to the better. And 'better' is not defined by the people outside, but defined by God himself. There are countless people in church today who don't lie, don't smoke, attend church faithfully every Sunday, give their tithes and offerings, speak in tongues, attend cell group, play music for church, etc. And obviously there's nothing wrong with all of this (in fact, it is good that they are doing such things!). That's not what God wants us to repent about. God wants us to check our hearts--if the source of power to get these things done comes from Him. God wants us to check our minds: if these things are done using the framework of the world, the assumptions of organisation, and like in the last post, whether we are having the right motives but using the human, fleshly methods. Some people may never ever have to repent from moral failures. But I'm sure we need to repent, and probably repent often, from the mindset and ways of the world that so easily creep into our churches and into our daily lives. And perhaps the greatest thing to repent about is whenever we think we are capable of 'sweating' out this Christian life using our own fuel, rather than 'sweating out' using the supernatural fuel which is so available to all of us today. :)
But let me at this time also show you Jesus so you can understand that the real Christian life can sometimes be marked by controversy. If you let a Pharisee write his 'testimonial', you can be sure Jesus would be labelled as a sinner. He allowed people to eat with unwashed hands (i.e. there's a chance some of them might be ceremoniously unclean and therefore would defile him), he ate at the table of sinners (contradiction to the Psalms), he broke the Sabbath (bad boy, how could you go against the Ten Commandments!), AND he wasn't even a trained scholar, yet he was so 'presumptuous' as to teach. Yet, from God's perspective, it is Jesus who is our hero, and the Pharisees who are the villains. Think that gives us a lot to think about as to what Christian life should really be like.
Let's come back to some definitions. Repentance is letting God change us from the inside out, not just from the bad to the good, but also from the acceptable to the better. And 'better' is not defined by the people outside, but defined by God himself. There are countless people in church today who don't lie, don't smoke, attend church faithfully every Sunday, give their tithes and offerings, speak in tongues, attend cell group, play music for church, etc. And obviously there's nothing wrong with all of this (in fact, it is good that they are doing such things!). That's not what God wants us to repent about. God wants us to check our hearts--if the source of power to get these things done comes from Him. God wants us to check our minds: if these things are done using the framework of the world, the assumptions of organisation, and like in the last post, whether we are having the right motives but using the human, fleshly methods. Some people may never ever have to repent from moral failures. But I'm sure we need to repent, and probably repent often, from the mindset and ways of the world that so easily creep into our churches and into our daily lives. And perhaps the greatest thing to repent about is whenever we think we are capable of 'sweating' out this Christian life using our own fuel, rather than 'sweating out' using the supernatural fuel which is so available to all of us today. :)
I think if we let God be God, the greatest God with all the power in the world, the power even to raise Christ from the dead--and if we allow the Spirit of truth to impart his power and his life-giving Word into us, we will not have a perfect life, but we will have a drastically improving life. We are not undergirded by our 'purity' or perfection, nor will we be easily unsettled by the accusations of non-Christians that we are not perfect enough. I think if we let God be God, we will come to the conclusion, that we were never perfect in the first place, and that's why we need Jesus. There is no difference between us and the non-Christians, except one big difference: Jesus Christ. And he indeed makes ALL the difference. Thanks to him, we have hope and a great faith for the future. Thanks to him, we see ourselves changed in our behaviour, our speech, our actions, and our thoughts. Thanks to him, we develop new spiritual abilities and can tap into the realm of the unseen where true deliverance can take place. And thanks to him, we "no longer see this world from the perspective of a mere human being". We see the unseen: Jesus Christ glorified, Jesus Christ redeeming a very fallen world to himself, and Jesus Christ returning to claim his Bride. And when we see the world, we see with new eyes too: they, and us, honestly have not much difference. All lost, all in need of a Saviour. All facing tremendous pain. But all have a hope and a destiny, no matter how broken we might be (or how much we refuse to admit it). All can turn to Jesus. And He will be your friend and be your closest family forever. If we will let God be God, he is more than capable of doing all this for us.
May we stop striving in our own strength. May we leave aside the ways of the world. May we come to his compassionate heart, and find safety and refuge for our imperfect souls. Because "when Jesus saw the crowds, he saw that they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd". Today, maybe that is you. You know the Lord, you serve him, and yet you feel harassed and helpless, because you can see your flaws all around you, and maybe even this message has reinforced your sense of imperfection. Take heart. Come to Him. He will give you a good rest for your soul. You will strive no more, and yet see yourself "led beside streams of quiet waters", where your soul will be satisfied. Let Him be God, and let you be you. Come to Him today.
