contrition

Repentance (also translated as "repentance") towards the gracious God is a change of attitude, brought about by the Holy Spirit and rooted in the Word of God. Repentance includes becoming aware of one's own sinfulness and accompanying a new life, sanctified through faith in Jesus Christ. (Acts of the Apostles 2,38; Romans 2,4; 10,17; Romans 12,2)

Understanding remorse

A terrible fear,” was how one young man described his great fear that God had forsaken him because of his repeated sins. "I thought I had regrets, but I always did," he explained. “I don't even know if I really believe because I worry that God won't forgive me again. No matter how honest I am with my regrets, they never seem enough.”

Let's look at what the gospel really means when it speaks of repentance of God.

We make the first mistake when we try to understand this term using a general dictionary and turn to the word repent (or repent). We may even get a hint there that the individual words are to be understood according to the time in which the lexicon was published. But a dictionary of the 2nd1. Century can hardly explain to us what an author who z. B. wrote down things in Greek that were previously spoken in Aramaic, understood by them 2000 years ago.

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary explains the following about the word repent: 1) turning from sin and dedicating to the betterment of life; 2a) feel regret or contrition; 2b) Change of Attitude. The Brockhaus Encyclopedia defines repentance as follows: "The essential act of repentance...includes turning away from sins committed and resolving to sin no more."

Webster's first definition accurately reflects what most religious people think Jesus meant when he said, "Repent and believe." They think Jesus meant that only those people are in the kingdom of God who stop sinning and change their ways. In fact, that's exactly what Jesus didn't say.

General error

When it comes to the subject of repentance, a common mistake is made into thinking it means stopping sinning. "If you had truly repented, you would not have done so again," is the constant refrain afflicted souls hear from well-meaning, law-bound spiritual advisers. We are told that repentance is "turning back and going the other way." And so it is explained in the same breath as turning from sin and turning to a life of obedience to the law of God.

By firmly imprinting on this, Christians with the best intentions set out to change their ways. And so, on their pilgrimage, some ways seem to change, while others seem to stick with super glue. And even the changing ways have the horrible quality of reappearing again.

Is God content with the mediocrity of such sloppy obedience? "No, he is not," admonishes the preacher. And the cruel, gospel-crippling cycle of devotion, failure, and despair continues, like a hamster cage wheel.

And just when we're frustrated and depressed about our failure to live up to God's high standards, we hear another sermon or read a new article about "genuine repentance" and "deep repentance" and how such repentance is a complete turning away result from sin.

And so we rush in again, full of passion, to try and do it all, only to end up with the same miserable, predictable results. So frustration and despair continue to mount as we realize that our turning away from sin is far from "complete."

And we come to the conclusion that we didn't have "genuine repentance," that our repentance wasn't "deep," "serious," or "sincere" enough. And if we haven't really repented, then we can't have real faith either, which means we don't really have the Holy Spirit within us, which means we wouldn't really be saved either.

Eventually we get to the point where we get used to living that way, or, like many have, we finally throw in the towel and turn our backs entirely on the ineffective medical show that people call "Christianity."

Not to mention the disaster where people actually believe that they have purified their lives and made them acceptable to God - their condition is much worse. Repentance of God simply has nothing to do with a new and improved self.

Repent and believe

“Repent and believe the gospel!” declares Jesus in Mark 1,15. Repentance and faith mark the beginning of our new life in the kingdom of God; they don't do it because we did the right thing. They mark it because at that point in our lives the scales fall from our darkened eyes and we finally see in Jesus the glorious light of freedom of the Sons of God.

Everything that needed to be done for people to receive forgiveness and salvation has already been done through the death and resurrection of the Son of God. There was a time when this truth was hidden from us. Because we were blind to her, we could not enjoy her and rest in her.

We felt we had to find our way in this world ourselves, and we used all our strength and time to dig a rut in our little corner of life just as we could.

All of our attention was focused on staying alive and securing our future. We worked hard to be respected and respected. We fought for our rights, trying not to be unfairly disadvantaged by anyone or anything. We fought to protect our good reputation and that our family and our habakkuk and property were preserved. We did everything we could to make our life worthwhile, that we were the winners, not the losers.

But as anyone who has ever lived, this was a lost battle. Despite our best efforts, plans and hard work, we can not control our lives. We can not prevent catastrophes and tragedies, nor failures and pains that invade us out of the blue sky and destroy our remnants of somehow patched up hope and joy.

One day, for no other reason than that, that he wanted it to be so, God let us see how things really work. The world belongs to him and we belong to him.

We are dead in sin, there is no way out. We are lost, blind losers in a world of lost, blind losers because we lack the sense to hold the hand of the only one who alone has the way out. But that is all right, because through his crucifixion and resurrection he became the loser for us; and we can become winners with him by uniting with him in his death, so that we can be partners in his resurrection.

In other words, God gave us good news! The good news is that he personally paid the big price for our selfish, unruly, destructive, evil madness. He redeemed us in return, washed us clean and clothed us with righteousness and made us a place at the table of his eternal feast. And by this Gospel Word, he invites us to believe that this is so.

If by the grace of God you can see and believe this, then you have repented. To repent, you see, is to say, “Yes! Yes! Yes! I think it! I trust your word! I leave behind this life of a hamster running on an exercise wheel, this aimless fighting, this death I mistaken for life. I am ready for your rest, help my unbelief!”

Repentance is the change in your way of thinking. It changes your perspective of seeing yourself as the center of the universe so that you now see God as the center of the universe, entrusting your life to His mercy. It means to submit to him. It means that you lay down your crown at the feet of the rightful ruler of the cosmos. It is the most important decision you will ever make.

It's not about morality

Repentance is not about morals; it's not about good behavior; it's not about "making it better".

Repentance means putting your trust in God instead of yourself, neither your reason nor your friends, your country, your government, your pistols, your money, your authority, your prestige, your reputation, your car, your house, Your job, your family heritage, your skin color, your gender, your success, your looks, your clothes, your titles, your degrees, your church, your spouse, your muscles, your leaders, your IQ, your accent, your accomplishments, yours charitable works, your donations, your favors, your pity, your discipline, your chastity, your honesty, your obedience, your devotion, your spiritual disciplines, or anything else that you have to say about what is related to you and I omitted in this long sentence have.

Repentance means "putting everything on one card" - on God's "card". It means taking your side; what he says to believe; to associate with him, to remain loyal to him.

Regret isn't about promising to be good. It is not about "removing sin from one's life". But it means believing that God has mercy on us. It means trusting God to fix our evil hearts. It means believing that God is who He claims to be - Creator, Savior, Redeemer, Teacher, Lord and Sanctifier. And it means dying - dying to our compulsive thinking about being just and good.

We speak of a love relationship - not that we loved God, but that he loved us (1. John 4,10). He is the source of everything, including you, and it has dawned on you that he loves you for who you are - his beloved child in Christ - certainly not because of what you have or what you have done or what your reputation is or what you look like or whatever quality you have, but simply because you are in Christ.

Suddenly nothing is what it was before. The whole world suddenly became light. All of your failures are no longer important. Everything was made right in Christ's death and resurrection. Your eternal future is assured, and nothing in heaven or on earth can take your joy away, for you belong to God for Christ's sake (Romans 8,1.38-39). You believe him, you trust him, you put your life in his hands; come what may, no matter what anyone says or does.

You can be generous in forgiving, exercising patience, and being kind, even in loss or failure - you have nothing to lose; for you have won absolutely everything in Christ (Ephesians 4,32-5,1-2). The only thing that matters to you is his new creation (Galatians 6,15).

Repentance isn't just another worn-out, hollow promise to be a good boy or a good girl. It means to die of your own self in all your great portraits and to place your weak losing hand in the hand of the man who smoothed the waves of the sea (Galatians 6,3). It means coming to Christ to rest (Matthew 11,28-30). It means trusting his word of grace.

God's initiative, not ours

To repent is to trust God, to be who he is, and to do what he does. Repentance is not about your good works versus your evil works. God, who is completely free to be who he wants to be, decided in his love for us to forgive our sins.

Let us be fully aware of this: God forgives us our sins - all - past, present, and future; he does not book them (Johannes 3,17). Jesus died for us when we were still sinners (Romans 5,8). He is the sacrificial lamb, and he was slaughtered for us - for each and every one of us (1. John 2,2).

Repentance, you understand, is not the way to cause God to do something he has already done. Rather, it means believing that he has done - that he has saved your life forever and given you a priceless eternal inheritance - and to believe such makes love for him blossom in you.

"Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us," Jesus taught us to pray. When it dawns on us that God, from His innermost heart, has simply decided to write off our lives of selfish arrogance, all our lies, all our atrocities, all our pride, our lusts, our treachery and our wickedness - all our evil thoughts, deeds and plans - then we have to make a decision. We can praise and eternally thank Him for His indescribable sacrifice of love, or we can just keep living by the motto, “I am a good person; don't let anyone think it's not me" - and continue the life of a hamster running in a running wheel, to which we are so attached.

We can believe God or ignore him or run from him in fear. If we believe him, we can go our way with him in friendship filled with joy (he is the sinner friend - all sinners, including everyone, even bad people and also our friends). If we don't trust him, if we think he won't or can't forgive us, then we can't live with him with joy (and therefore with no one else, except people who behave the way we want). Instead, we will fear him and ultimately despise him (as well as everyone else who does not stay away from us).

Two sides of the same coin

Faith and regret go hand in hand. When you trust in God, two things happen simultaneously: you realize that you are a sinner who needs God's mercy, and you choose to trust God to save you and save your life. In other words, if you put your trust in God, then you have also repented.

In Acts of the Apostles 2,38, e.g. B., Peter said to the assembled crowd: "Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." So faith and repentance are part of a package. When he said "repent," he was also referring to "faith" or "trust."

In the further course of the story, Peter says: "Repent and turn to God..." This turning to God is at the same time a turning away from one's own ego. It doesn't mean you now

are morally perfect. It means turning away from your personal ambitions to be worthy of Christ and instead putting your faith and hope in His Word, His Good News, in His declaration that His blood is for your salvation, forgiveness, resurrection and blessing eternal heritage flowed.

If you trust God for forgiveness and salvation, then you have repented. Repentance to God is a change in your own way of thinking and influences your entire life. The new way of thinking is the way to trust that God will do what you could not do in a million lifetimes. Repentance is not a change from moral imperfection to moral perfection - you are incapable of doing that.

Corpses do not progress

Because of the fact that you are dead, you are unable to become morally perfect. Sin killed you like Paul did in Ephesians 2,4-5 declared. But even though you were dead in your sins (being dead is what you contributed to the process of forgiveness and salvation), Christ made you alive (that's what Christ contributed: everything).

The only thing the dead can do is they can not do anything. They can not be alive to righteousness or anything else because they are dead, dead in sin. But it is the dead people - and only dead people - who are raised from the dead.

Raise the dead is what Christ does. He does not pour perfume on corpses. He does not support them to put on their party clothes and wait to see if they will do something just. They are dead. They can not do anything. Jesus is not in the least interested in new and improved bodies. What Jesus does is to wake her up. Again, corpses are the only kind of people he raises. In other words, the only way to get into Jesus' resurrection, his life, is to be dead. It does not take much effort to be dead. In fact, no effort is needed at all. And dead is exactly what we are.

The lost sheep did not find itself until the Shepherd looked after it and found it5,1-7). The lost coin did not find itself until the woman sought and found it (vv. 8-10). The only thing they added to the process of being wanted and found and the great party of joy was being lost. Their utterly hopeless loss was the only thing they had that allowed them to be found.

Even the prodigal son in the next parable (verses 11-24) finds that he has already been forgiven, redeemed and fully accepted by the very fact of his father's bounteous grace, not by any plan of his own like such as: "I'll earn his grace again." His father felt sorry for him before he heard the first word of his "I am so sorry" speech (verse 20).

When the son finally accepted his state of death and being lost in the stench of a pigsty, he was on his way to discovering something astonishing that had already been true all along: the father he had rejected and disgraced, never had stopped loving him passionately and unconditionally.

His father simply ignored his little plan for self-redemption (vv. 19-24). And even without waiting for a probationary period, he reinstated him in his full sons' rights. So our totally hopeless state of death is the only thing that allows us to be resurrected. The initiative, the work and the success of the whole operation are entirely due to the Shepherd, the woman, the Father - God.

The only thing we contribute to the process of our resurrection is to be dead. This applies to us both spiritually and physically. If we can not accept the fact that we are dead, we can not accept the fact that we were raised from the dead by the grace of God in Christ. Repentance is accepting the fact that one is dead and receives from God his resurrection in Christ.

Repentance, you see, does not mean to produce good and noble works, or that we try to motivate God to forgive us through a few emotional speeches. We are dead. That means there is absolutely nothing we could do to contribute anything to our revival. It is simply a matter of believing the good news of God that he forgives and redeems in Christ and raises the dead through him.

Paul describes this mystery - or paradox, if you will - of our death and resurrection in Christ, in Colossians 3,3: "For you died, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

The mystery, or paradox, is that we died. Yet at the same time we are alive. But the life that is glorious is not yet: it is hidden with Christ in God, and will not appear as it really is until Christ himself appears, as verse 4 says: "But if Christ, your life , will be revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.”

Christ is our life. When he appears, we will appear with him, for after all he is our life. Therefore again: dead bodies cannot do anything for themselves. You cannot change. You can't "make it better". You can't improve. The only thing they can do is be dead.

However, for God, who is himself the source of life, it is a great joy to raise the dead, and in Christ he does so (Romans 6,4). The corpses contribute absolutely nothing to this process, except their state of death.

God does everything. It is his work and only his, from beginning to end. This means that there are two types of risen corpses: those who joyfully receive their salvation, and those who prefer their usual state of death to life, who, as it were, close their eyes and hold their ears and continue to be dead with all their strength want.

Again, repentance is saying "yes" to the gift of forgiveness and redemption that God says we have in Christ. It has nothing to do with repentance or making promises or sinking into guilt. Yes it is. Regret isn't about endlessly repeating "I'm sorry" or "I promise I'll never do it again." We want to be brutally honest. There is a chance that you will do it again - if not in actual action, then at least in thought, desire and feeling. Yes, you're sorry, maybe very sorry at times, and you really don't want to be the kind of person who keeps doing it, but that's not really at the heart of regret.

You remember, you are dead and the dead just act like the dead. But if you are dead in sin, you are also alive in Christ (Romans 6,11). But your life in Christ is hidden with him in God, and it doesn't show up all the time, or very often - not yet. It doesn't reveal how it really is until Christ himself appears.

In the meantime, if you are also alive in Christ, you are still dead in sin for the time being, and the state of your death is as good as ever. And it is precisely this dead self, this self that apparently can not stop behaving like a dead man, that was raised from Christ and brought to life with him in God - to be revealed when revealed.

At this point, faith comes into play. Repent and believe in the gospel. The two aspects belong together. You can not have one without the other. To believe the good news that God has washed you clean with the blood of Christ, that he has healed your death, and made you eternal in his Son, is to repent.

And turning to God in his utter helplessness, forlornness and death, receiving His free salvation and salvation, means having faith - believing the gospel. They represent two sides of the same coin; and it is a coin that God gives you for no other reason - for no other reason - than that he is just and merciful to us.

A behavior, not a measure

Of course, some will say that repentance towards God will show good morals and good behavior. I do not want to argue about that. The problem is rather, we want to measure remorse by the absence or presence of good behavior; and therein lies a tragic misunderstanding of remorse.

The honest truth is that we lack perfect moral values ​​or perfect behavior; and all that is lacking in perfection is not good enough for the kingdom of God anyway.

We want to avoid nonsense like, "If your repentance is sincere, you will not commit the sin again." That's not what repentance is all about.

The key to repentance is a changed heart, away from your own self, out of your own corner, no longer wanting to be your own lobbyist, your own media representative, your own union representative and defense lawyer, to the God Trust to stand on your side, to be in his corner, to die to his own ego and to be a beloved child of God, whom he has forgiven and redeemed.

Regret means two things we don't naturally like. First, it means facing the fact that the song's lyric, "Baby, you're not good," describes us perfectly. Second, it means facing up to the fact that we are no better than anyone else. We're all in line with all the other losers for mercies we don't deserve.

In other words, regret appears in a humbled spirit. The humbled spirit is one who has no confidence in what he can do; he has no hope left, he has, so to speak, given up his spirit, he has died himself and has placed himself in a basket in front of God's door.

Say "Yes!" to God's "Yes!"

We have to give up the mistaken belief that repentance is a promise never to sin again. First of all, such a promise is nothing but hot air. Second, it is spiritually meaningless.

God has declared to you an almighty, thunderous, eternal "Yes!" through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Repentance is your "Yes!" answer to God's "Yes!" It is turning to God to receive His blessing, His righteous declaration of your innocence and salvation in Christ.

To accept one's gift means to admit your state of death and your need for eternal life. It means trusting, believing and holding in your hands all your ego, being, existence - everything you are. It means resting in him and giving him your burdens. Why not enjoy and rest in the rich and spurting grace of our Lord and Redeemer? He redeems the lost. He saves the sinner. He raises the dead.

He stands by our side, and because he exists nothing can stand between him and us - no, not even your miserable sin or that of your neighbor. Trust him. This is good news for us all. He is the Word and he knows what he is talking about!

by J. Michael Feazell

contrition