Articles
Repentance
Repentance is often underestimated in the redemptive scheme. Even in the old law repentance was important. As John the Baptist began to prepare the way for Christ, he showed the importance of repentance.
Early in Jesus' ministry, He declared the importance of repentance.
As soon as the church was established the apostles declared the importance of repentance.
The Hebrew writer showed that repentance is one of the basic principles of the gospel.
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
In our lives we fight a spiritual battle daily. Many times we have not fully repented of sins. Until we overcome these sins we are still not past the "principles of the doctrine of Christ". Also, it is clear that if we do not repent we will perish. Yet sometimes we seem to be apathetic.
As we mature we realize the importance of repentance. Many times early in our spiritual life we might behave like those Jesus spoke of.
Matt 7:4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Matt 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Instead of examining ourselves, we thrive on finding faults in others. All the time we might have sins in our lives that we need to take care of. Many times some will even accuse and harp on others of sins in their life when in fact they are only breaking "traditions". All the while the person throwing the stones actually does have sins in his or her life. We see the irony of this in the Bible. Jesus' disciples are accused of sinning by not washing their hands before they ate (Mark 7:2). It was simply a tradition of the Pharisees to wash their hands before they ate. Jesus made it clear that they were vipers and hypocrites. Yet here they were casting stones at others who were not even sinning.
Let us all strive to be more mature. Let's realize the importance of repentance in ALL of our lives especially our OWN. How much less contentions and gossipings there would be if everyone obeyed what Jesus said in Matthew 7.
Sometimes Satan seems to have the upper hand on us. We truly want to get sins out of our lives, but we lose heart and feel that we just can't do it. Remember what the Bible tells us.
1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
We are assured that we CAN overcome any temptation. We can get these sins out of our lives. It might take some studying. It might take some growing. It might take some sacrificing, but we can overcome. So many people have expressed how comforting the following verse is.
You CAN become more like the master.
It is not the intent of this article to address the boldness with which we need to confront false doctrines and false teachers. I have also not addressed the proper way to approach a brother that we feel has wronged us or that has sins in his or her life. Jesus also gave instructions on these matters. The main intent of this article is to have each of us look honestly at our own lives and the sins that might be dwelling in us.
