Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?  Romans 2:4 NLT

Are you a rule breaker?  Rule-breakers are often glamorized– the bad boy, the rebel in real life, the guy who says, “I’ll do it, my way.”  Religious people, of course, also do things, “their way,” proudly keeping the rules and feeling pretty good about it. Both rule breaking and rule keeping are both just symptoms of sin. The rule breaker says, “I don’t need God,” and the rule keeper says, “Aren’t you impressed, God?  Look at my checked list of dos and don’ts!  I’m doing everything right!”

If we’re living either one of these ways of life, we aren’t experiencing the heart-to-heart relationship with God that He longs to have with us.  We’re missing the sweetness of a surrendered life that He made possible for us.  This is the life that we find as we live in a posture of repentance.

The Bible uses the word metanoia, for repentance, which means we’re answering a “summons to a personal, absolute and ultimate unconditional surrender to God as Sovereign.”[1] So often, however we think of repentance as something we do only after we’ve blown it.  We need to live, all the time, in what Tim Keller calls “gospel repentance” rather than “religious repentance.” “Legalistic remorse,” explains Tim Keller, “says, ‘I broke God’s rules,’ while real repentance says, ‘I broke God’s heart.'[2]

Repentance in Scripture is followed by times of refreshment that come from God’s presence with us (Acts 3:19-20).  Let’s return to living the refreshing lifestyle of repentance today.

 

Resource Reading:  Acts 3:12-20

[1] “Repentance.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repentance.

[2] “The Falling Tower.” Gospel in Life, 25 August 2021, https://podcast.gospelinlife.com/e/the-falling-tower/.