I recently preached a sermon on the prophet Jonah (Yunus) so I have been thinking about repentance. For those who aren’t familiar with the story of Jonah, here it is in a nutshell (or you could read the whole book in the Old Testament in about 10 minutes).
The Lord told the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and call out against it for all their evil. Instead of obeying he tried to flee from God by getting on a boat sailing to Tarshish. The Lord then caused a great storm on the sea and the only way for the sailors to be saved was for them to throw Jonah overboard. Jonah was then swallowed by a great fish and after praying from its belly, the fish vomited Jonah on dry ground. God again told him to preach to the Ninevites and finally he went. When the Ninevites heard his simple message of judgment they repented. All of them. From the king to the lowliest servant. God then showed mercy to them all.
One thing that Jonah teaches us is that we must be repentant people. After God showed mercy to the Ninevites Jonah was angry because he didn’t want them to be saved. He didn’t want them to repent. God chastised him for his anger and asked, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle” (Jonah 4:11)? That is the last verse of the book and leaves us wondering whether Jonah will repent of his lack of compassion.
The tricky thing with repentance is that so few of us understand what it means. Here is my basic four part definition. 1) Repentance means that we are sorry for our sin. We actually grieve our sin for how it affects others and the way it brings dishonor to God. 2) Repentance means that we confess our sin as sin. We don’t blame others (“I’m sorry I got angry, but if you hadn’t . . .”). Our sin is our sin and when we repent we say so. 3) Repentance means we ask for forgiveness. We recognize that our sin is an offense and that it needs to be forgiven. 4) Repentance means that we turn away from our sin and turn towards God. Repentance doesn’t guarantee that we will never commit that act of sin again, but it does mean we won’t tolerate it in our lives and we will do all that we can to see change come in our lives.
God commands that people everywhere repent (Acts 17:30-31). It is the call to repentance that God gave after Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 238).
This is hard to do. I cannot repent and be proud at the same time and unfortunately pride is my common disposition. I am naturally inclined to think I am better than you. This is why I need to God’s grace. I need him to overcome my sin and give me the gift not only of faith, but also the gift of repentance (see 2 Timothy 2:25). There isn’t one of us who does not sin everyday. Therefore we each ought to repent everyday. Do you?
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