Within The Struggle: Repentance: Bottom Line It’s About Change

By Gracie

By The Grace Of God M/M

Ephesians 4:23-24 "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Acknowledgement & confession brings repentance. Repentance brings brokenness and forgiveness. And forgiveness brings cleansing, freedom and sanctification. Bottom line? Real repentance is about change.

God’s love is pure, is just, is righteous, is faithful, is sovereign, is full of grace and mercy, yet it is not without requirement or condition. The 10 commandments are laws of requirement containing both blessing and consequence. These were given to show us our sin, and that we were out of relationship with Him. "For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." Romans 3:23 If God didn’t have conditions of relationship, then Christ would not have needed to die for us. "For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God's approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die." Galatians 2:19-21

Each of our struggles with sin is different, but we share a common bond in that we are sinners, all, and need to die to self. This is why it is so vital that we let the Holy Spirit put us in front of the mirror of truth. It’s hard to see ourselves as we really are, but we must fight to be honest. It is our only hope of being changed into His image. We cannot give Him access if we don’t see our need. Seeing in truth is not about spewing to yourself, others and God, the "this-is-the-way-I-am-so-accept-it" mantra. It is about God’s love meeting us where we are, and finding that His love is too deep and grand, to leave us where we are found by Him. His love sees us in truth, and truth demands that we see.

God’s love for us IS. His provision of salvation, finished. They stand before all men, continually offered. Yet they, like gentlemen, wait, for they cannot be appropriated, even though freely offered, until we do something. The choice to accept, receive and believe by faith, is what gives them movement, access & purpose. Without a choice being made on our part, the value & worth they hold cannot be manifest within us. It is kinda like having a coat in the closet - you know it’s there, you know its purpose, value and worth when it’s cold, but until you take action and actually put it on - its value is not applied and it’s purpose is not accomplished.

We must realize that our choice or lack of choice does not effect the fact that God’s love IS, neither does it put God into, nor take Him out of existence, He and His love just ARE. The gift of choice was given so that we could and would be the only one to put into motion what He had already done for us and has already set before us...His love, His salvation, His plan, purpose and will for our lives. God has done everything for us, but one thing...He cannot give us, what we have not made the choice to accept and receive by faith. And therefore the requirement we must fulfill is to take action and receive the gift He extends. And we do that through the process of repentance. Once we are saved, God’s love is no longer waiting, it has been given permission to move in our lives and we have to "put on Christ". Romans 13:14 "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."

God’s love is not a pampering love - it is a perfecting love. He meets us where we are, but will not give us permission or ever justify our staying where we were found. He won’t because He does not tolerate sin and we still sin. God is in the business of changing us, changing us into the image of His Son, Jesus. And that kind of change requires intimacy, access and His attention to every detail of who we are, every last dot and tittle. To have our mind, our emotions, & our wills transformed & conformed into the image of Christ, we must surrender any right we have to hold onto who & what we are - the good, the bad and the ugly. He is always pursuing us to where He is, and to be where He is, requires our change.

For most of us, this truth might be frightening and may give cause to run from His grasp. But remember, He is longsuffering, always faithful, in spite of our unfaithfulness, and consistently loving us through the process. Some might believe that their lives don’t have any "real" value, that they can’t be changed, or that the past or even present grief, pain or sin are so far gone that nothing can be redeemed, healed or forgiven. The truth is that when we accept what He has done for us and give ourselves to God, there is NOTHING that cannot be redeemed! This is about the Living God really wanting you to know Him, really wanting you to love Him, really wanting to have relationship with you. He has gone through all the hoops, sot-a-speak, to bring you to Himself through Christ’s death and resurrection, and really all He asks is that we make a choice giving Him access rights to all that we are, holding nothing back from Him. Is this really too much for Him to ask? 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Every step on the path leads us from the awareness that we need to change to the completion of being changed. This is about God convincing us of our need by showing us our sin. He sees it. He wants us to see it. It is about God cleansing & healing us of our past, our pain, cleaning out our infected wounds, binding up our broken hearts and setting us in a place of such love, gratitude and ultimately in relationship with Him. Repentance’s work is complete when it produces change in us. If any point is missed or skipped, it will not produce true repentance in us. The enemy wants us to believe that if we are sorry, or have regret or remorse that it ends there, it does not. Repentance has not completed its perfect work in us - change. It requires our minds, our attitudes, actions & behaviors, all be changed, so that they line up with God’s will and we find that we are indeed changed, deeply and forever. Ephesians 4:23-24 "Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness--righteous, holy, and true."