“I’m (truly) sorry”
Repentance in the Gospels
Preparing for Jesus’ arrival, John the Baptist preached to the crowds, “Produce fruit that shows repentance”. After his sermon, various individuals asked him, “What does repentance look like for me?”
For some, who had disregarded the needs of others and held onto possessions as their security, a repentant heart would result in giving away excess.
For tax collectors, who demanded more payment than what was allotted to them, a repentant heart would mean turning from that dishonest behavior.
For soldiers, who could use their power against people and who complained about their salaries, a repentant heart would no longer put itself first. (Luke 3:7-14)
Repentance would be evident in their individual actions, specific to their own sin struggle. “After Repentance” would look like an opposite lifestyle of “Before Repentance”.
Zacchaeus clearly models what John preached:
“But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8)
Zacchaeus confessed. He didn’t deny or justify his sin when he could have claimed that it was just the cultural norm for tax collectors to cheat. He didn’t place demands on his victims or paint himself as the victim of his surroundings. Money and possessions had been the center of his life, but with a repentant heart, he would go above and beyond to remove from his life what he had idolized and restore to people what they had lost because of him.
There would be loss of intangibles that he would be unable to repay, but he would do whatever was in his power in order to make amends through his material goods. In repentance, his effort toward compensation would be generous.
Zacchaeus gives us a very specific example of broader principles taught by Jesus:
1.“You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:20) Jesus began this chapter warning His people not to judge others’ hearts and to examine themselves before pointing a finger at others. Then, He illustrated that the condition of a heart can be evaluated by the lifestyle it produces and the effect that a person has on their environment and relationships as time passes.
2.“The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45) In a parallel passage to Matthew’s, Jesus revealed the source of conversations and word choice. Whether harmful or holy, they come from what’s on the inside.
3.Jesus came to call sinners to repentance and declared that heaven rejoices when one person repents (Luke 5:32; Luke 15:7). Jesus and all of heaven expect and celebrate genuine repentance with joy, showing us what our own posture ought to be toward it.
4.“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times in a day, saying, ‘I repent’, you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3,4) These are the steps outlined here by Jesus:
Watch for sin
Rebuke for sin
Repent of sin
Forgive for sin
We keep our eyes open to sin, and when we see it, we confront it. No one is above this process or excluded from it. Forgiveness is necessary as a follow-up to repentance, but this is where we often confuse forgiveness with restoration, relationship, trust, vulnerability, etc.
Aphiemi is the Greek word meaning “forgive, release, set free”, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. When we forgive, we release or set free from the punishment we’d like to inflict on an offender. Instead of taking vengeance ourselves, forgiveness turns the offender over to judgment by the law, and, ultimately, to God’s justice.
But only time, observing whether repentance is lived out in a lifestyle change like Zacchaeus’, will prove whether restoration, relationship, trust, or vulnerability can be possible between two humans. God knows the heart, but we can only see its fruit, revealed by the passing of time. This is a much bigger subject than a blog post or email can encompass, but I hope it’s the beginning of clarity that provokes deeper study on the subject.
Next week we’ll look at repentance as it was demonstrated in the early church.
“I’m (truly) sorry”
But how can you know for sure? Is it a genuine apology? This is a heavy topic, and my heart aches for the relational brokenness you may be walking in today.
For the next few weeks, this mini-series will address the following questions:
Does something as deeply internal as repentance have noticeable external characteristics?
If so, what demonstrates true repentance in my own life and in others’ lives?
First, it’s necessary to lay a foundation by defining two Greek terms that go together like fraternal twins; they’re not identical, but they are meant to arrive one after the next as a package deal:
*Confession: (Homologeo) “to say the same thing; to agree with; not to deny, not to refuse”
When we confess sin, we uncover it. We align ourselves with God’s definition of the sin, as understood from His Word, and we agree with His viewpoint on it.
*Repentance: (Metanoeo) “to change one’s mind; to think differently afterwards; heartily to amend with abhorrence for one’s past sins”
When we repent of sin, we do a 180 degree pivot, no longer justifying the sin as we once did, or shifting the blame like we had before. We abhor the sin to the point of making amends to the offended party, changing our actions as a result of a changed mind.
Confession and repentance in the New Testament build on Old Testament concepts. For example:
“People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
“[They] must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged.” Numbers 5:7
The dual response of confession and repentance become visible in a life, and next week we’ll see what genuine repentance looks like in the Gospels.
*from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon
On the Way to Easter
“When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for Him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.”
Samaritans had their historic tensions with the Jews and vice versa. Neither approved of the other. Samaritans’ law, temple location, and part-Jewish, part-Gentile ancestry repulsed the Jews, and Jewish elitism infuriated the Samaritans. Jesus was not welcomed to step foot within Samaritan borders if that prominent Jewish city with its Jewish temple was His final destination. They didn’t want to play any kind of support role in the direction He was going, but they never imagined that His destination would be the source of their redemption.
The reaction of Jesus’ disciples to Samaritan rejection proves how quickly the simmering hostilities could boil over:
“And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But He turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.”
If the Samaritans or the disciples could have had their way, they would have stood in Jesus’ way; their stipulations, prejudices, and preconceived ideas had drawn certain boundary lines about what was acceptable for Jesus.
“Those people, that place, doing such a thing as that? Unacceptable!” Declared both sides about the other.
But a passive “No Trespassing” sign couldn't deter Jesus. An aggressive “Hellfire and Brimstone” judgment call wouldn’t distract Him. He quietly detoured around the Samaritans and verbally rebuked His followers. He was on His way to redeem the world, and He would do it in spite of them all. His face was set toward Easter.
Like the Samaritans, have I passively set up barriers for Jesus, because my role in His plan hinges on certain conditions?
Like the disciples, have I aggressively preferred judgment over redemption in certain cases?
Will I have a part in Jesus’ redemptive work in someone’s life or will it happen in spite of me on the way to Easter?
For more, see Luke 9:51-56; Luke 10:29-37; John 4:1-30
Your workday matters
In the beginning, God, the Master Designer, created a physical world that He deemed good. He included humanity in His good creation, but he distinguished us above the rest of the created order by making us in His image. Our responsibility was to steward the abundant potential He’d woven into the earth for the sake of the world’s flourishing and to the glory of the Creator.
But mankind rejected this plan, wanting to define good ourselves, instead of living by how God had defined it. Now, instead of stewarding all that God made, humanity neglects, destroys, or worships God’s creation to the destruction of our own souls. Everything is out of alignment, physically and spiritually.
The promise we cling to for our future is that, through Christ, God will one day completely restore his creation that’s been misaligned by sin. He will turn chaos into order; He will make the broken whole; He will make what’s wasted, useful, what’s ruined, beautiful. Everything lost under the curse is finally reversed entirely.
Until that day, we participate in God’s restoration process every time we put our hands to work, bringing order, wholeness, or beauty to the world through our jobs. While we're on this earth, we’ve been entrusted to research, discover, and utilize the built-in laws and principles that uphold our world and lead to its beneficial use. We’re entrusted to apply our abilities, giftings, strengths, insights, and responsibilities for the good of those around us and in reflection of our Master until He returns. We take part in:
God’s orderliness if we’re accountants or secretaries
God’s creativity if we’re designers or chefs
God’s justice if we’re in law and government
God’s truth if we’re teachers or researchers
God’s care if we’re in the medical field or parenting a three year old
The list goes on. As we steward our Master’s entrustments, we also anticipate the completion of His work when His kingdom fully comes. Somehow, the way we steward our responsibilities on this earth, affects our future responsibilities in his kingdom. There is an inheritance awaiting us, where the little we’ve been faithful with, becomes much for our role in God’s kingdom. The little bits of joy we’ve experienced in our role on earth become full joy in the Master’s presence.
May you experience a glimmer of that joy in your workday, because it matters to Him.
For more, see Genesis 1-3; Matthew 25:14-29; Romans 1:20-23, 8:18-28; Colossians 3:23-24
For the college-bound
Inspired by Proverbs 3:1-6
We’re in the season of making college visits with our oldest son, so when I came to Proverbs 3 in my devotions, all I could think about was when his actual send-off comes next year. I’ll need as much help as I can get on that day, and these six verses prompted me to parallel each one with what I’d say if I wasn’t sobbing my eyes out…so maybe a letter, tucked between layers of clothes in his suitcase, would be better. I’d write it like this:
My son,
Keep this instruction in your heart:
Those phrases I repeated every time you walked out the door
and those things I’ve said about the kind of lifestyle that’s best - remember it all!
You’ll experience a better life and a more peaceful one if you do.
I’ve tried to follow my own advice, and now it’s your turn. (v.1,2)
Carve these initials on your heart:
L+F. They’re together forever.
Love + Faithfulness go hand in hand like an aged couple
with decades of character between them.
These qualities, straight out of God’s heart,
form the foundation of all lasting relationships, between God and you
and between you and others. (v. 3,4)
Trust the Lord with your heart:
You might feel grown up and like you understand everything (at least, I did at your age)
but don’t just live by your instincts or your best guess.
Instead, with every decision ahead of you, talk to God. Ask Him.
You’ll be surprised at how He makes the unclear, clear
and the crooked, straightened out. (v.5,6)
Of course, there’s more I could say, but if you’re intentional about what you do in, on, and with your heart, you’ll be off to a good start.
With love,
Mom