To understand the meaning of repentance and redemption, it’s necessary to have an understanding of sin. The 1828 Webster's Dictionary defines the word "sin" as:
The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity. Sin is either a positive act in which a known divine law is violated, or it is the voluntary neglect to obey a positive divine command, or a rule of duty clearly implied in such command. Sin comprehends not action only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts purposes, words and desires, whatever is contrary to God's commands or law.
God said to Jeremiah to tell the people that God will give Israel a heart to repent, to return to Him. This is amazing grace. Israel had fallen by forsaking God and the truth of His word. As a consequence, God allowed them to be taken captive into Babylon. How do we reconcile our hearts back to the Lord? How do we pray as David did, “Create in me a new heart O Lord”? Pride and a self-serving attitude keeps our hearts from approaching God for His mercy and forgiveness.
As it says in Corinthians, thinking themselves to be wise in their own conceits, they became fools, turning their backs on the Lord. However, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. According to Gary Leachman, there is a difference between a pardon and justification. To be pardoned means that a person is released from prison, but his guilt persists. He is still guilty as charged and his criminal record remains. However, justification means “just as if I never sinned.” Justification means that my debt has been paid in full by the payment of Jesus’ innocent blood on my behalf. Through my confession of rebellious sin, repenting of my sin against God, believing in and accepting the free offer of salvation and because Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice on the Cross on my behave satisfied God’s righteous judgement against me, I’ve been redeemed and released from my obligation to pay and "make right" my debt of sin.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Our sin nature is born from our mother’s womb due to "original sin". This is the nature that we inherited from Adam as a result of Adam’s original doubt of and disobedience to God and His Word. All are born in sin. As children of God, we’re wounded and feel the pain of the injustice of this world. Many children grow up with a resentment bank against their earthly fathers. Many of their own fathers never learned what it means to be a godly father. You cannot teach what you do not know. This neglect from our earthly fathers is often passed down from generation to generation. These hurtful relationships make deposits into a child’s resentment bank. This is especially true of little girls. They are more easily hurt and suffer deeply from father wounds.
Hurt and woundedness is a reciprocal relationship. Our fallen nature seeks retribution. How do we seek forgiveness for our wounded hearts that lash out to hurt those who have hurt us? How do we empty our resentment bank? How do we rid ourselves of vindictiveness, and a heart that seeks retribution? Our first priority is to restore our vertical relationship with our Heavenly Father. According to 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. To take this verse to heart means that we need to forsake our pride. Humility and meekness is the requirement to approach the throne of God according to the Word of God.
According to Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest you also be tempted.” Those who have been wronged can recite the evils that others have perpetrated against them. Victims in their victim mentality convince themselves that they are righteous and others are guilty who have wronged them. Their right “not to be offended” has been violated. They say to themselves, “my anger against them is justified because they, having hurt me, are evil and I’m not. Jesus explained in The Sermon on the Mount, I’ve come to establish a new kingdom. I’m changing the paradigm for justice. If someone sins against you and slaps you on the cheek, then turn the other cheek. If someone demands by law that you carry their pack for a mile, then volunteer to go the second mile. The first mile is of obligation. The second is of love. Love your enemies. Bless them that persecute you and despitefully use you. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake for great is your reward in heaven.
The devil works to divide and conquer. He sets up strife, contention and division for where there is strife, there is confusion and every evil work. The devil convinces his subjects to maintain a victim mentality. A victimized heart of resentment distances a person’s heart from others and from God. However, according to 2 Timothy 2, the Lord’s bondservant must not strive ... must not be quarrelsome. They must teach others by their life’s witness of truth in action. they must be patient when wronged, gently correcting those who oppose themselves. The benefit is if perhaps God would grant them repentance. The principle is “be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Whom the Lord loves, he reproves. Our prescription as individuals and as nations is to return to God with a heart of repentance. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
The devil holds people captive in his snare of sin and guilt to do the devil’s will by subjecting their wills according to his own evil heart. However, God will use sin to show those He has chosen that “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” In Psalm 51, David repented. He acknowledged his own sins of adulatory, plotting to murder, and murdering Bathsheba’s husband Uriah. David said, “against you Lord and you only have I sinned so that you are justified when you judge me according to your righteous standard. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and create a new spirt in me.” When we repent, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. When we repent, God doesn’t leave us on the trash heap of sin and iniquity. He’ll pick up the threads of our broken hearts and weave them together again. God is a God of forgiveness ... not because we’re deserving of forgiveness, not because we’re deserving of love, but because forgiveness and love is the nature of God himself.
For God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. As Cory Ten Boom said, “there is no pit so deep, but that God is deeper still.” For in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. In the power and comfort of God’s Holy Spirit, we don’t need to change our political systems to the politics of the kingdom of God. As citizens of Heaven need to change our hearts. Then when we approach God's throne of grace, having been forgiven, we can enter into our Father’s presence clothed in the righteousness of Chris that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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