What Role Do We Play In Repentance?
This past week I preached on Matthew 11:20-24 that captures how Jesus confronts the towns in which He had performed many miracles for their lack of repentance. We took the time to define repentance as more than remorse or confession, but as whole-life change. The great takeaway, I proposed, was that Jesus desires repentance as the only appropriate response to His ministry and that He alone provides the power for repentance through His atonement and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, without his salvific work in our lives, we are powerless to truly change and become Holy as He is Holy.
One astute Elder had a meaningful question for me yesterday that I wanted to take time to answer here as it leads to a greater understanding of repentance. Plus, I always love getting to review, clarify, and (if needed) correct my sermons. (As our brother Gary loves to say, “All sermons are reviewable in Heaven.”) Our Elder pointed out that the sermon takeaway seems to not align with what Jesus himself says in the Matthew 11 passage. Jesus says: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” He says something nearly identical about the miracles performed in Capernaum and how Sodom would have responded. Herein lies the problem with our takeaway from Sunday. Jesus seems to indicate that Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom all would have had the power to repent if they would have seen the miracles. Meaning, how can we say that we are powerless to repent now if Jesus is saying that those cities and their inhabitants would have been able to? And there is precedent for this as well. In the book of Jonah, when the Ninevites are confronted with their sins, they declare a fast, sit in ashes, dress themselves in sackcloth and repent. And as a result God does not send his judgment.
So, is the takeaway that I proposed on Sunday incorrect? Or to phrase the question differently, do we possess within ourselves the ability and the responsibility to repent? There are deeper theological issues at work within this question which we will not fully solve here and now, or ever, really. And for the record, our Elder does not disagree with the takeaway but felt it deserved better clarification. And I agree. So, how do we reconcile this seemingly contradictory perspective on repentance? And, for practicality purposes, what is our role in repentance?
Lasting Repentance
First, let us deal with the contradiction. Jesus is in fact saying that Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom would have repented. But here is what we know about Old Testament repentance: it did not last. Certainly, in the light of God’s holiness, we have many cases in the Old Testament of people repenting and God relenting. But inevitably, those people would return to their sin. The change was temporary. When the emotion of fear and the immediacy of God’s judgment wore off, the power and motivation for change would be gone. Therefore, under the Old Covenant, there was a need for constant sacrifices to cover the guilt of constant sins. Hebrews speaks of this in Hebrews 10:1-4:
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
In other words, all repentance in the Old Testament was temporary. Which makes Jesus’ statement to the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum even more damning. They could not even muster up Old Testament, temporary repentance. But, thanks to Jesus being the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest, a sacrifice has now been given that has the ability to take away our sins and change us for eternity. The author of Hebrews continues on: 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. This sacrifice has the power to change us. It makes us Holy, not just in title, but in actions and deeds.
Paul talks about this difference between Old Covenant repentance and New Covenant repentance in Romans 8:3: For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. And now we see why true and lasting repentance, which Jesus is looking for from his followers, is something that only Jesus can give. It is the result of His atonement and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our Role
But that is not to say we have no responsibility in our repentance. We most certainly play a role in this change. Let us look at five responsibilities:
- Recognize God’s holy conviction: God initiates our repentance by sending His conviction through the Spirit’s work in our life. Maybe through the preaching of the word, through the remembrance of the word, or through the reading of the word, a person feels the conviction of God’s holiness applied to their sinfulness. When this comes, our responsibility is to recognize it as God’s activity. The King of Kings is amongst you and speaking to you. Do you recognize Him as such? At the heart of Jesus’ damning statements to the cities of his ministry were that they did not see the activity of God and recognize Jesus as God in their midst. Repentance is always a response to God’s holiness and love.
- Do not harden your heart: Which leads to the second responsibility. When we hear God’s voice convicting us, we must keep our hearts soft and open to his conviction and guidance. On Sunday, I quoted Hebrews 3:12-13 about how we need to respond to God’s activity today. But let us back up to verses 7-8, 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness. When God speaks we can choose to ignore His voice or we can respond to it. We will not experience true and lasting change until we respond to God’s conviction, until we soften our heart to receive his activity.
- Receive the full Gospel: And what is God’s activity? The work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The only way to receive salvation is to respond to God’s conviction and confess our need for Christ’s atoning sacrifice to cover our guilt. But the gospel is not just that through Jesus we are forgiven. It is that through Jesus we are made Holy vessels so that God can dwell within us through the Holy Spirit which enables us to live new lives of Holiness.
- Put to death the deeds of the flesh: Because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we now possess the ability to change. His power enables us to leave our sinful ways behind us. Romans 8:13, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Every area where God convicts us is an area where the Spirit is enabling us to change. We are to respond by efforting through the knowledge that the Spirit is empowering us to change. Instead of saying, “I cannot change; I will always be this way.” We say, “I am a new person with new power, today in the Spirit I will no longer do this or that sin. Die within me, sin.” We do not allow the sin to remain within us. Like having a house infested with spiders and being given the poison needed to kill them all and clean the house, you do not simply let the spiders stay. You go to work. And so it is with the power of the Holy Spirit. You go to work on the sinful parts of your life, knowing you now possess the ability to put to death the deeds of the flesh.
- Walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit: And finally, you walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit in your life as you cultivate the relationship with God that Christ has made possible. Paul writes in Galatians 5:16, So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. God gifts us the power every day to simply live in relationship with Him. Responding moment by moment to his conviction and guidance. And as we learn to keep in step with the Spirit, we will begin to see the fruit of new life all around us. And oh is that fruit delicious: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).
For those of you who have endeavored and endured to read this full article, I hope it has provided clarity! May God be glorified in our repentance!