2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Wittenberg, Germany is the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation, when an Augustinian Catholic monk named Martin Luther (Father of the Reformation) nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church. Reformation was required to get back to the original intent of “the church” (which is the body of Believers with Jesus as its head), due to current secular abuses in the papacy at the time. Do we need any reformation and revival in all our churches today? Martin Luther addresses one of the root problems of sin as his first theses reads: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ said ‘Repent’, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” I read lately that our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ’s teaching is that repentance not simply a one-time action, but is that which is to characterize the entirety of a believer’s life. The unholy trinity of our natural man’s sinful flesh desires, the God-rejecting world system and the influential lies and deceptions of the devil tempt us all to turn our attention inwardly to self-gratification, instead of outward God glorification. In Galatians 5:16-25, Paul explains the battle that each believer has this side of eternity and the need to crucify the flesh daily in faith and repentance and walk in the Spirit. It makes sense that faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin – that we cannot express true faith without genuine repentance. We tend to remember faith side and forget the repentance side(how great the fall by sin, how horrific the consequences of sin against God, fellow man and nature, how high a price and sacrifice paid by our Creator Father in heaven that rescued us when we didn't deserve or earn.
Luke 9:23 “Then He (Jesus) said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross daily and follow me.
Pastor Parsons brought to light that repentance takes place not only when the sinner is converted to Christ but every day of a believer’s life. In this, the Christian differs from the God-rejecting world system around us that entices the sinful nature of our fleshly desires. Christians are not perfect, just forgiven and that makes all the difference in the world (for today and eternity), so we are called to live accordingly in both faith and repentance by the Word of God. We cannot trust Christ without turning away from our trust in ourselves. Who is on the throne of our heart, directing our thoughts, words and actions? In this egocentric world of sensual hedonistic materialism, who is truly Lord of our life? Worldly pride always proclaims: “Glory be to me!” We who have been justify from sin on account of God’s grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone (Mark 1:4) have been forgiven fully and finally, and this forgiveness humbly leads to a Christ-centered life of asking forgiveness in repentance, forgiving others (Luke 11:4), and trusting and following Jesus alone as His devoted disciple and children of God. By faith and repentance, we proclaim: “Glory be to God!”
Luke 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
In Christ, Brian
2 comments:
Hi Brian,
I have been away from blogger for a bit as it has just been very busy around the farm.
Just recently I read a quote by Charles Spurgeon that goes along with your post. You are not mature if you have a high esteem of yourself. He who boasts in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all. Young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing. The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves.
As days go by and we repent of our sins that seem to creep up on us, the more we realize just how wretched we really are and how desperately we need a Savior.
You are so right in saying, Christians are not perfect, just forgiven... I am so thankful we have a God that loves and forgives us.
Blessings brother,
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Child of God, I hope that the family farm is well this year. The holy scriptures are plain and agree totally with the great English preacher ... Isaiah 64:6, Romans 12:3, Ephesians 2:1-3 & Philippians 3:8 come to mind immediately as examples. Believers have not been "saved" by our good works and earned our way to heaven. All of us have sinned and deserve the wrath of God, hell and eternal damnation. But as Ephesians 2:4-10 goes on to say "it is by the grace of God alone that anyone is saved through faith alone in the blood of Jesus alone." This is what we are grateful for and why we give praise to God continuously. We need to grasp and understand the gospel truth and devote our lives to the Blessed Savior and make Christ Lord of our lives, knowing and following Jesus and making Him known. Blessings to you sister. Thank you for taking time out from your farming to write.
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