Repentance
By Peggy Kleckner
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9
(NIV)
Christ has died. Christ has risen.
Christ will come again.
Three very short sentences. Three
sentences that most of us have heard more than once in our lifetime, but do you
believe all three?
We live in an age thousands of years
removed from Christ’s death. We weren’t there but we have read the written
testimony. We can do extensive research, but ultimately, we have to come to
believe what we have read. The same is true of the resurrection of Christ.
We get to the place in our Christian
walk when the questions should not be who do others say He is, but who do we -
- ourselves - - believe that He is.
God wants us with Him, so much so
that He sent His Son to pay our penalty and to guide us home. However, He does
call each of us to repentance. We cannot skip knowing and acknowledging the
price it took to pay for our sin. Too often we want to skip over the ugliness
of our sin and what it took to remove it:
the death of Jesus, the death of the innocent, the death of God’s one
and only Son.
Sin is no laughing matter, we cannot
just say “oh, sorry” and sit down to eat with the Creator of the universe. He
is God most high and we should bow down in reverence to who He is and what He
has done out of His pure and amazing love for us. We didn’t deserve what He has
done and we also cannot earn it. But, most certainly, it should cause us to sit
in grief for a season. We should grieve over our sins, the places where we
wanted to go our own way and do our own thing. We should also grieve over
Jesus, experience that pain of the cross so that our hearts can know the
expansive love it took to send Him. Love is just, but it is also compassionate.
It is not one or the other. Christ is the visual of perfect love…God Himself.
Finally, after the grieving comes
the joy of resurrection…relationship restored. Let us rejoice and be glad in
Him. Then let us, after enjoying restored relationship with Him and His great
love, tell others that indeed Christ will come again...one heart at a time.
GOING
DEEPER:
- Do you know the deep anguish of repentance,
as well as the joy of salvation?
- Are you resting in
His great love for you?
FURTHER
READING:
Peggy is a wife
and mother of four adult children - - two sons and two stepsons, and is an
active encourager at Oakwood Church in Delafield.
