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:
1.
Do you know the deep anguish of repentance, as well as the joy of salvation?
2. 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.
