REPENTING UNLOCKS THE DOORS TO GREATER
FREEDOM
I love this quote from T.L. Osborn,
one of the great healing evangelists of the ’70s: “Jesus did enough! He did enough even to cover the
worst thing we can do. He did enough for ALL mankind, FOREVER. There’s nothing
we can do to shock Him, scare Him away, disgust Him so much He’d ignore us. He
got tempted by whatever tempts us. And when He was crucified for all the
results of giving in to those temptations, He took it to the devil and shook it
in his face and dumped it off at the devil’s feet: ‘There, finished for all
time!’”
Jesus paid the
ultimate price for every sin against nature, against God Himself, against each
other, and the things we do against ourselves, as well. But if someone doesn’t
think they’ve ever really sinned, then they don’t believe the Bible, and
they’re not going to ask the Lord for forgiveness because they don’t think
they’ve done anything wrong.
People may not be
concerned about changing anything they do or think. Some who can’t say they are
truly sorry for anything they’ve done to God, themselves, or anyone else will
not perceive any need for a savior. And they don’t think they need a Lord
because they believe they’re doing okay by themselves. They think life’s full
of necessary bumps, and they’ll handle it themselves in their own ways. These
people have been taught to accept themselves as they are. This philosophy is
deceptive.
God, our creator,
accepts us as we are so that He can help us change into better. Anyone who
believes they can’t be better is being deceived. And anyone who doesn’t want to
be better is also deceived.
To be a better
version of ourselves, we need to be genuinely sorry for things we’ve thought,
said, and done in our lives that we know in our hearts were wrong. It’s not
necessarily shameful that we did them, but it is shameful never to say we’re
sorry about them. Jesus told his disciples to repent.
The word “repent”
is translated from a Greek word, “metanoeo,” meaning to think
differently afterward, to reconsider morally. It means changing one’s mind for
the better and heartily amending oneself.
Right after Jesus’
experience in the wilderness, where the devil tried to get him to say and do
things against God, Jesus came back to the people, and the first thing he
preached was repentance. “From that time Jesus began to preach,
and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.
4:17). We learn from Jesus that repenting is paramount to one’s freedom from deception.
Jesus also said: “I will have mercy,
and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance” (Matt. 9:13). And Matthew 11:20 tells us this about
Jesus: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works
were done, because they repented not.”
When a person first decides to believe
in Jesus and want Him in their lives, repentance is essential. They say they’re sorry for all past
sins, and they accept Jesus as Lord of their lives because they know they have
not done a very good job at leading themselves. They believe He took their sins
to the cross and that He even went to hell for them and then was raised from
the dead to everlasting life.
But repentance is
an ongoing thing. A lot of Christians think that repentance is for things like
thinking evil of others, being rebellious, swearing, sexual sins, stuff like
that. Yes, those things need to change, but we also need to repent for thinking
too little of ourselves. We are not to be doormats that people walk over and
wipe their dirty boots on!
The older and
wiser we get, the more we may reflect upon our past, which means we discover a
few new things we need to think differently about now, things to reconsider
Biblically. I know that has been the case with me. Things I’d written off,
things I did where I thought I was right, and didn’t find out until I was 50 or
60 that I wasn’t right at all. But I found that when I told God I was sorry and
repented of my past ways of thinking, I experienced new freedom, and it’s been
awesome! Heavy loads I didn’t even know I was carrying were lifted off.
It is always God’s
will that we have a better and better life physically, mentally, emotionally,
and spiritually. Repentance is a significant part of freeing ourselves from
specific ideas and deeds that God knew about, but maybe we didn’t, so they
continued to burden us, popping up in our minds and holding us captive. Everybody
has had wrong thoughts and done wrong things, so if they continue to bother us,
let’s get free! Repent NOW and receive a renewed liberty and righteousness in
Christ.
“Stand fast therefore in the LIBERTY wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”
(Gal. 5:1).
Paul speaks to the believers in Corinth: 2 Cor. 7:8b-9a: “I perceive that the same epistle hath made you
sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye
sorrowed to REPENTANCE: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner” (2
Cor. 7:8a-9b).
2 Cor. 9:10 “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread
for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and INCREASE
THE FRUITS OF YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Love, Carolyn
