The Repentant Follower of Jesus: It Is Not Just What We Do, It is Who We Are
In my last post I wrote that repentance is about turning. We repent when we turn away from evil, sin, or the lies that satan tells us about who we are; and we turn to Jesus. Turning away is renunciation. Turning toward Jesus is faith. And we are saved by grace through faith.
This word ‘saved’, or ‘sozo’ in Greek, means both life with Jesus for eternity but also a healed and whole life with Jesus now! When we live with Jesus in the Kingdom of God today, and therefore for eternity, we have access to His joy, peace, hope, power, and faith. We are given the indwelling Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit. When we turn away from a life of self-sufficiency, self-glorification, and self-righteousness – also known as pride, the gateway to hell – we renounce that life of fear, hatred, anger, and despair – and instead, by faith, choose this incomparable life with Jesus, who is the all-sufficient One. This is the life we lead by grace through faith. According to Jesus, the essential condition for this life is repentance.
Repentance is more than what we do. For sure, we need to repent of our sins. I might need to repent on Monday afternoon, Wednesday evening, and Sunday morning (usually more often). This is one meaning of repentance. Jesus often grabs my spirit and tells me, “You need to repent. Right now!” Scripture tells us that our sins are not forgiven apart from repentance. This is the ‘doing’ part of repentance. But there is more to repentance, much more. Repentance is not just what we do, it is also who we are. Repentance is an attitude, a posture, and a way of living as a follower of Jesus.
In this sense repentance is closely related to humility. I would never say I will be humble on Monday afternoon, Wednesday evening, and Sunday morning. No. I am either humble or I am not. Humility is a state of mind, heart, and spirit, manifesting in a life lived continually turning to God and depending Him for everything. And so is repentance.
Pride is depending upon self for one’s ultimate value – my possessions, power, accomplishments – including the things I do for Jesus if they are where my value comes from; money, knowledge, gifts, etc. Pride has a satanic core. It is a force or power at work in me over which I have no control. Pride is the dethroning of God in my life and placing myself on the throne of my life, where satan can exert dominion over me. This is Sin (capital S). Pride is always accompanied by the lies: you are not enough, you are not good enough, you are helpless and powerless, you and your situation are hopeless; and the big lie – you can fix all of these problems by yourself. You can make yourself good enough.
Humility is depending upon God for everything in my life, including my ultimate value as a human being and the truth of who I am. A life of humility is a life with God on the throne of my life. Like pride, there is a force or power at work in the life of a humble person – that force or power is the Spirit of Christ.
A life lived in the power of pride is a life of sadness and sorrow. Maybe not all of the time. But over time a life of pride will create a bitter person with a critical spirit, and a joyless, sorrowful heart. How, then, do I move from this type of life to the life Jesus prepared for me from before the beginning of time. How do I move from a life lived in my own power, which is pride; to a life lived in the power of Christ, which is humility? I repent. Repentance is the word that describes this transformation, this shift in my whole being. Repentance is turning from darkness to light, from death to life, from the kingdom of the world to the Kingdom of God. It is a turning from curses to blessing. As Moses said, “I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.” Moses is telling the Israelites to turn from a life of pride to a life of humility. Moses is calling the Israelites to repentance. Not just what they do, but who they are. Sadly, they went their own way. Jeremiah writes, “They have turned their backs to me and not their faces” (Jeremiah 2: 27). They were unrepentant.
Repentance is much more than confessing sin. In the church today, there is a sense that this aspect of repentance reinforces the lie that satan uses to oppress us, “Look at you”, satan tells us, “you really are not good enough. You’re a sinner. Go ahead, repent. But do you really believe that God is going to forgive you?” There is enough truth in that to make it believable. We are sinners. But it is a lie because when we truly repent, God does forgive us. He even wipes the slate clean, so to speak. As I wrote, repentance is not just about the forgiveness of sins. It is about Jesus making us a new creation. It is about freedom from oppression and torment; faith instead of fear; hope instead of despair; power instead of weakness; and joy instead of depression. It is about Jesus forming in me an unoffendable heart. Who doesn’t want that kind of life? The way to that life lies on the highway of repentance.
When I repent, Jesus takes my negative emotions like anger, fear, bitterness, and resentment and turns them into the fruit of the Spirit. When I repent, Jesus takes my fears and turns them into faith. When I repent, Jesus takes my sins and turns them into righteousness. And when I repent, Jesus takes all of my occultic activities and turns them into the gifts of the Spirit.
How can I live the Kingdom life, a life of humility, if I am still living a life of pride in the kingdom of the world? I cannot. They are mutually exclusive; I cannot have dual passports. Turning from the life of pride to the life of humility in Jesus is repentance. And this turning from a life in which I am overshadowed by satanic forces, to a life in which I am overshadowed by God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit is never entirely my work. I have my part to play for sure, but the transformation of my heart from prideful to humble is the work of the Holy Spirt. To truly repent, I am totally dependent upon Jesus.
“Even as we need to look to the first Adam and his failure to know the power of sin within us, we need to know the Second Adam and His power to give us the life of humility as real and abiding and enabling as was the life of pride . . . It is of the utmost importance that we study to know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ as the life that is now ours, and waits for our consent to gain possession and mastery of our whole being” (Andrew Murray, ‘Humility”, pg. 25).
This quote from Andrew Murray is about humility and pride. It also describes repentance. Our first life is a life of pride descended from the first Adam. Our second life is a life of humility given to us by the Second Adam if we consent to gain possession of this life. Our consent is our renunciation of the first life and the appropriation of the second through the power of the Holy Spirit. Gaining humility requires turning away from pride and turning to Jesus. Humility and repentance are related: there can be no humility without repentance; and paradoxically, no repentance without humility.
Writing about Jesus in the same book, Murray said, “He was nothing that God might be all. He resigned Himself to the Father’s will and power that He might work through Him. Of His own power, His own will, His own glory, His whole mission with all its works and teaching – of all this, He said, “I am nothing. I have given myself to the father to work; He is all”. This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father’s will, Christ found to be the source of perfect peace and joy” (Andrew Murray, ‘Humility”, pg. 32).
How do I reach the place where I submit and depend upon God for everything? How do I leave the place of pride, where my flesh rules over me and I believe that I am totally self-sufficient, to arrive at the place where I can honestly say that, “I am nothing? The Father is all”? How else but by repentance? And not one time, but continuously. In this sense, humility – saying that God is all and I am nothing – is indistinguishable from a repentant heart.
One more quote from Murray, “The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it” (Andrew Murray, ‘Humility’, pg. 34).
I think this sentence can be rewritten, “The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow and with deepest repentance to wait upon God for it”.
“The root of . . . all acceptable worship” is humility. But what is worship, if not repentance? To worship is to ascribe ultimate value or worth to the object of our worship. And in the Scriptures worship always involves a sacrifice laid on the altar. When we worship Jesus, we ascribe value and worth to Him. We tell Him, “Jesus, there is no one (especially me) and no thing more valuable and worthy than you.” And then we offer Him a sacrifice. What sacrifice does He want more than anything else? Our self! So, when I worship I lay my pride on the altar to be ‘burned up’, and I turn to Jesus and tell Him, “You are the Lord of my life. I surrender and submit my life to you, the all-sufficient One.” Worship involves repentance and repentance is essential for worship.
The repentant life is a life of humility; humility cannot exist without repentance. Repentance is a life of total dependence upon Jesus – it is a life of denying myself, picking up my cross daily, crucifying pride (after Mark 8: 34) which together constitutes renunciation; and turning to Jesus by faith and following Him. Humility is pretty much the same thing. True, repentance is necessary for humility. But repentance is not just what we do, it is who we are. It not only leads to humility, but is walks hand-in-hand with humility. They are in this sense co-dependent; perhaps even two different ways of describing the same life.
On November 10, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of All-Saints church in Wittenberg. Here is the first thesis:
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent” (Matthew 4: 17) He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance”.
Repentance is everything in the life of the believer; or at least it is in every part of the believer’s life. We cannot follow Jesus apart from humility. There is no humility without repentance. In this sense, repentance is the bedrock of the Christian life. And although we have a role to play, true repentance is the work of Jesus. Repentance involves renunciation and faith, and faith is a gift from a gracious Father. So, repentance is a supernatural, spiritual gift.
Repentance, humility, faith, obedience, gratitude, dependence, submission, love, and grace (plus other things) are all ingredients of my life as a follower of Jesus. It is tempting for us to pick up each ingredient separately, examine it, dissect and define it, study it, give it a name, think we understand it, and then move on to the next ingredient. But too often when we do this, we do not see the larger picture. Think about baking a cake. I lay out all the ingredients in front of me on the counter top – eggs, milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. I understand each ingredient separately. To make the cake, each ingredient goes into a mixing bowl separately (perhaps in some order determined by the recipe) and I begin to stir. In a few minutes each individual ingredient has disappeared and something new has emerged. The cake batter in the mixing bowl is the product of the interaction of all the ingredients. Each individual ingredient has disappeared as a discrete entity to make the whole.
When the batter is poured into a pan and put into the oven, the baking begins. Under the influence of heat, chemical transformations take place in the batter. When I remove the cake from the over, the transformation is complete. I have a new creation composed of individual ingredients that have been amalgamated into a single thing called a cake. The whole is more than the sum of the parts. And if I have made it correctly, it tastes good.
It is much the same with the life of a Christian or of a Christian community. Like baking a cake, all of the ingredients are mixed together in the Christian’s life under the influence of the One who knows the recipe. We can, and probably should, try to understand the ingredients individually. But we should never lose sight of the truth that a Kingdom life is made up of all these ingredients amalgamating into a single whole – the new creation – a man or woman walking with Jesus in the Kingdom of God. We have been baked in the ‘oven’ or fire of the Holy Spirit. How much of how I live now is repentance, how much humility, how much grace and faith, etc.? It is all of them, all the time. No one ingredient is more important than the other. We need them all, continually, every day.
Repentance is everything. Faith and grace are everything. Obedience and dependence are everything. And of course, love is everything. But I think too often we lost sight of repentance. Or we say, “That is just about the forgiveness of sins. If I just confess, won’t my sins be forgiven? Who needs repentance?” Repentance is not just a one-time thing when I first accept Christ. It is not just the occasional thing I do when I remember my sins – say, 3 times a week. And it is more than confession. It is a posture, a state of my heart. It is everything. What is a cake without flour? What is the Christian life without repentance? Exactly!
“From that time on Jesus began to preach, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 4: 17).
Praying for a repentant heart,
John
PS. How do I repent? That is the topic of the next post.