What are Repentance and Faith?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: What are Repentance and Faith? or What is our response to this news?

            There is a side of the gospel message that is often left out. We love to hear that “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.” It makes us feel safe. So many hear that line thinking that they have their ticket to paradise which they will keep in their back pocket for the day they need it. But few are those who see the gospel defining every moment of their lives.

Repent is a common word in the New Testament yet it is a word that is quite unpopular today. Simply, it describes a change of mind, a change of attitude toward something. When Jesus and his apostles command us to repent they aren’t suggesting we now think nice things about Jesus, believing that he is now our buddy. It implies that the way we are living right now is offensive to God and we need to immediately stop and search desperately for a new way of life. Repentance isn’t just the moment one asks for forgiveness in order to get into heaven; the life of a Christian is one of continual repentance. Martin Luther proclaimed, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent,” he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” To profess to be a follower of Jesus is to always be denying yourself, not defending yourself. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” A life of repentance is marked with continual processes of questioning our own desires and asking God to replace them with his own.

Not only must we turn away from ourselves, we need to turn toward something with power to overcome our problems. We use the words faith and belief in strange ways. They are words that are supposed to indicate our relationship with something, and attitude toward something. But we often use them as objects themselves. We say that faith will help me through a problem. Or we vaguely say that we have belief that things will work out. But the Bible uses them differently. They are essentially the same word and they are the opposite side of the repentance coin. When we turn away from ourselves (repent) we must turn toward Jesus (believe). We must have faith in something. And our faith is worthless if it isn’t in something of greatest value. Only Jesus can satisfy the wrath of God toward us in our sins. We cannot simply say that God is forgiving and he will forgive me, somehow convincing ourselves that we are okay with God. The payment for sin must be satisfied. God would not be good if he just let us go free. Our only hope for mercy is to throw ourselves desperately at the blood-stained feet of Jesus and put all of our hope in his payment for our sin.

Repentance and faith are complementary actions. They define the entire life of a believer. We make every decision, we express every attitude, we establish our very identities through the actions of repentance from our former self and faith in Christ’s past work on the cross and his renewing work inside of us. Repentance and faith are the outworking of Christ’s work within us. He changes us from the inside, out day-by-day turning us away from our old desires and revealing to us greater joy in following his.

Who is Jesus?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is Jesus? or What is our hope for restoration?

            The history of the world hinges on a unique man who lived 2,000 years ago. Some say he was simply a wise teacher with good things to say about generous living. Others believe he was merely a prophet with an important message about God. The Bible, however, says this man, Jesus, is infinitely more.

From the beginning of time people anticipated someone who would restore what Adam and Eve had lost in the garden. God promised that a particular offspring of the woman would crush the deceiver and restore peace with God. God promised Abraham that through his descendants would arise a man who would become a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. God called to himself a ragtag group of people to be his representatives on earth as he worked to restore humanity and he promised to them a king who would rule with kindness, justice, and mercy. The Jews expected a priest who would go before God for them to seek reconciliation with God when they went astray. They longed for a prophet who would bring words of life from God to guide them to a new creation life. How all of these expectations could be met in one person was a mystery.

Then, after hundreds of years of silence from God, in a small village in Israel, not among the important and mighty but among the meek and lowly, a little baby boy was born in a stable. He was born to a woman who had never been with a man. The broken human nature that each person received from the union of their father and mother passed by this boy in his unique conception. He wasn’t born of two people like all other people, he was specially conceived by God’s Holy Spirit; he was God’s Son, God himself in the flesh.

His earthly parents named him Jesus (meaning God saves) because he will save his people from their sins. He lived a perfectly obedient life, never once straying from the will of God. He spoke the words of life from God like a prophet. He interceded before God on behalf of his people as a priest. He brought his kingdom of peace, justice, kindness, and mercy to dwell within his people. Everywhere he brought his kingly authority people were changed; blind people received sight, paralyzed people could walk, hungry people ate plentifully. The promised redeemer had arrived!

However, in a confusing twist of events the people turned on him. He threatened the authority of the rulers and religious leaders. He didn’t fit the mold of what the people though the redeemer should be. So they condemned him to die like a criminal. They mocked his claim to be king by putting a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe around his shoulders. The Romans killed him by hanging him on a cross to starve, to suffocate, to bleed. When he died, his friends took him off the cross and laid him in a tomb, hearts aching and confused about how the redeemer could die.

But God knew what he was doing. This was all part of his plan. The redeemer had to die; he wasn’t coming to redeem an earthly kingdom, but to make it possible to bring rebellious people into his heavenly kingdom. The curse that every person bore since the beginning of creation, the punishment that every person deserved for turning against God Jesus took upon himself on the cross bearing the wrath of God on behalf of his own people. Right before he died he cried out, “It is finished!” proclaiming that his mission was complete; the debt that people owed to God was satisfied.

Even though he died horribly on that cross and he lay lifeless in the tomb, death could not hold God. After three days Jesus rose from the grave showing himself to hundreds of people so that nobody in Israel could deny it. He crushed death under his heal. He stood victorious over the curse, over death, over sin. He became the hope of resurrection for all his people. After spending many days with his disciples he ascended into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to live within all who put their trust in him. Dwelling within his people he helps them live the same victorious life over sin and temptation, and he gives them hope for the day when all creation will be restored.

Who is Man?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is man? or What has gone wrong with the world?

            Before God spoke the first word to bring creation into existence, he had a special plan to fashion a being to bear his likeness and reflect his joy to one another. On the sixth day of creation he set that plan into motion with the creation of people. Up until that point he had created multitudes of stunning, beautiful, and extraordinary scenes and creatures: the sun, stars, and moon; great seas and continents; the largest land creatures and tiniest crawling bugs; exquisite flowering plants and thick, luscious forests. But the crowning glory of creation was people.

These people were made to live in harmony with God. The love and joy this Trinitarian God shared within himself was extended to humans. People would walk with God, knowing his perfect love. They would explore his creation seeing how every detail pointed to his powerful creativity. God made these people to live in loving relationships with one another reflecting the joyous relationship God had in himself. In the beginning God declared this garden-life to be very good. But it didn’t take long for everything to go terribly wrong.

Soon these people decided that they had the ability to find something better than God’s joy. They wanted to decide for themselves what would bring them the most happiness. They wanted to escape the oversight of their kind and generous Father and discover the world on their own terms, for their own purposes. The God who just spoke them into existence and gave them a perfectly happy home with abundant provision suddenly became a means to the purposes of someone far lesser. They wanted to make themselves god.

Clearly the world today is not what God created in that original glory. What happened? When people decided to subdue the world for their own purposes they committed cosmic treason and flipped the entire creation upside down. Work became a burden, not a blessing. Relationships became battle grounds, not sources of pleasure. Instead of having dominion over creation, creation’s power threatened the lives of people. Most severely, people attempted to subject their loving Father into a servant to fulfill their own desires.

Without the proper source of joy this upside-down creation began to deteriorate quickly. Pain and suffering result from broken relationships, enslaving addictions, and dysfunctioning bodies. Societies develop for the benefit of the privileged instead of the good of all. Creation is subjected for the selfish purposes of people instead of protected for all to witness the creative glory of God. Rather than calling out to God to deliver creation from our mishandling of our privileged position, we double down on our failure by constructing our own paths back to created glory; and we fashion gods who will affirm our efforts to make ourselves god.

It is a deceiving path that appears to get brighter the deeper we run into its darkness. How will we escape this destructive cycle?

Who is God?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is God?

          God is the creator of the entire universe. Because he made everything he owns it all; he rules over it all; he holds it all together with the same power by which he created it. He set it in motion and set the rules by which it operates. God created everything and upholds it all simply by speaking it into existence. Nothing can thwart his design.

For all eternity God exists as one singular being with a mysterious relational essence. He is unified in purpose, in power, in glory, yet he has always been satisfied in his perfect intertrinitatarian relationship of love; the Father, his perfect image, the Son, and the everlasting love between themselves, the Holy Spirit. God was perfectly joyful in his own relationship, but out of the overflow of his goodness he created the world, with a particular emphasis on people who would reflect his relational joy, so that his loving Spirit would indwell them as he does God himself.

Throughout history God has revealed himself to be a strong provider and protector, supplying every need for his people and lovingly keeping them from greatest harm. God is a judge who will punish every evil and right every wrong which has infected his perfect creation. God is the commander of the most powerful host of angelic soldiers while at the same time he is the kind and gentle father to his weak and needy children. He has a tender heart toward the outcasts of society, toward the meek and lowly, toward the abused and broken. He guides all of history to bring them to himself that they may be healed, lifted up, and cherished experiencing his perfect joy.

In one of the greatest mysteries in the world, God became a man, Jesus, who lived, breathed, walked on this earth experiencing hunger, sadness, joy, pain, and longing as we have yet without once straying from the perfect will of the Father. By his eternal power he performed miracles of healing, miracles of creation, miracles of forgiveness. Even though he deserved all honor he worked for the honor of others. Even though he possessed all the riches of the world, he had no place to lay his head. Even though he himself was the source of life, he died at the hands of Roman executioners. But death could not contain him; rising from the grave after three days in the tomb and ascending into heaven after 40 days among his people he now sits upon his throne in heaven as sovereign ruler of the world working for the good of his people.

But he did not leave his people alone; he sent his Holy Spirit so that he would not only dwell among us, but within us. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin and judgment. He reveals truth to the darkened heart and brings sight to the blind. He exists as the enactment of God’s perfect will and proceeds from the Father and the Son as the perfect love they enjoy forever. This same Spirit dwells not only in the Godhead but also within his own people, enabling them to experience true joy, to know his truth and his will, to love others as he has loved his own. The Holy Spirit guides his people through this broken world, comforting them through difficulty until he renews it all back to perfect glory.