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Lesson Five: Repentance
Reading: Acts 3: 19- 21 and Acts 2:38
In the last lesson, we discussed how Jesus died for all of us, becoming the sacrifice for our sins and spanning the gap between us and God. This allows us an opportunity to convene with God. However, God is a gentleman. He will not force you to do anything that you are unwilling to do. For us to come into the full promise of this covenant and receive the blessings of God we have to be fully saved and committed to God. The process by which we are saved is called salvation. So how are we saved? What do we have to do to be saved? The Jews asked this very same question to Peter after Jesus ascended into heaven. God in His infinite grace has given us a thorough guide and if followed earnestly it is quite simple. The verse Acts 2:38 says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
What does all that mean? If that is the process by which we are saved how do we start? The first step Peter gives is repentance. Now repentance has a lot of different connotations in our modern culture. We will be talking about how scripture defines repentance. There are many different beliefs in our society and the only way we can be sure of what we practice if following the word. God's word is infallible and can not be contested. It is important moving forward to address that there is no condemnation with repentance. No matter what you've done or haven't done God will forgive you. That is His promise to all those who repent. If you are actively seeking God and want to follow after HIm you have no need to fear condemnation with your repentance. To speak plainly no one in the church or in heaven will judge you for what you repent of. Repentance is not a subtle way of shaming the congregation. It is also not a tool by which we judge someone’s goodness or righteousness so to speak.
That being said, what is repentance? Repentance is apologizing for what you did wrong and actively turning to God and away from sin. This is demonstrated in Acts 3: 19-21.
Reading:
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
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To be forgiven we need to ask for forgiveness in prayer. Praying is conversing with God. For some people, praying can be a daunting task. It's understandably difficult to speak to someone you can neither see nor hear. I want to encourage you though. No matter how it feels God hears you loud and clear. With time He will reveal Himself to you bit by bit. So to repent start talking to God. You can do it anywhere you want. In a room, in your car, or the church. God will meet you anywhere.
Just tell God all you've done. Begin asking Him to forgive you of your sins. Sin separates us from God, but once we ask God forgives us. Tell the Lord you are sorry and turn away from your sin. The passage we read says to turn to God and therefore away from sins. In repenting, we are telling God that we are sorry for our ways. He will help us to change and turn back to Him. Like a child who was caught misbehaving. You only know they were genuine when they cease the behavior that caused the problem.
God will help us to change too. He will not leave us to fight alone. God takes our old garments, our old selves, and gives us white ones, pure as snow. This is that new heart we talked about previously. When we ask for forgiveness God renews our spirit. He gives us new garments and helps us to live. He even gives us new tools to help us achieve this purpose, which we will be discussing in the coming lessons.
All of these things God does freely. The Bible says all of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. God is so ecstatic with your confession that He throws a party! It's the joy of watching your child do something good. There is no shame here. The only stipulation God has for repentance is that we forgive other people.
God says that if we repent then we need to forgive. This makes sense, God forgave us of so much. In comparison the trespasses against us are small. God says we need to forgive others to be forgiven ourselves. We model Christ in forgiving others and He blesses us in turn. When we forgive others and God forgives us He makes us a promise.
God promises to blot out our sins from the book of life. There are many mistakes I'm sure we all wish we could undo or forget. While we can't reverse time God does blot it out as if it never happened. When God pulls our record He no longer sees the sin! That means we can live without shame. We do not have to worry about God seeing us in a bad light, He's already marked it out.
The Bible goes to great lengths to describe God's forgiveness. It says that He casts it into the sea of forgetfulness and our sin is as far from Him as the east is from the west. Not only does He forgive us but God chooses to forget as if it never even happened. Our sin is as far from God as the east is from the west and since the two never touch or meet that's remarkably far. God chooses to do this because He loves us. God wants all who've repented to live a free life.
To that end, God has put into place the baptism of the water and the spirit. These two will continue where our repentance has taken us and allow us to live a life free from sin. The next lesson on baptism will go into greater depth on this very idea.
Points for Discussion:
Have you ever done something you regret?
Have you ever had someone do something to you that you held against them?
What has your prayer looked like in the past? Do you want more from God?
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