Tag: sin

What Is Repentance and Why Does It Matter?

On By Jason SmithIn Theology for Life1 Comment

Charles Colson was once known as President Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He earned that moniker through his relentless, no-nonsense way of executing the president’s plans. Even if he had to use what we may call “ethically questionable tactics,” Colson made sure he carried out Nixon’s bidding. Colson’s fall from greatness made the headlines as the Watergate scandal of 1973 broke open to the public, and he became one of the chief scapegoats of the whole debacle.

During the fallout of Watergate, Colson visited his friend, Tom Phillips, who shared with him about how he had recently accepted Christ as his Savior and now had a relationship with God. At first Colson was skeptical, but as Tom read an excerpt from C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, he began to see his own pride in a new light. He recognized it was his arrogance that had led him to deceive, cheat, and disrespect others when it was politically expedient. After Tom prayed for him, Chuck said good night and went out to his car. Something told him that he should go back in and pray with Tom once more. Just then, the lights went out in the house. So he started driving home. But before long, his eyes burned with tears, and he pulled over. Right there, alone in that car, Chuck admitted to the emptiness he felt and asked God to accept him in spite of his failures. In that moment, Chuck cried out to God.

In the subsequent weeks, he read from Mere Christianity, eventually concluding that Jesus Christ had to be the Son of God. So he surrendered his heart to the Lord of the universe. From that point of conversion, Chuck’s life was transformed. His wife noticed it. His friends noticed it. Something was radically different about Chuck.

Still, most government officials were very skeptical that Colson had truly changed. When he was tried for his part in the Watergate scandal, Chuck was offered a plea bargain. He was told that if he pled guilty to a misdemeanor he didn’t actually do, he would avoid prison. Here was Chuck’s ticket to go free! All he had to do was lie about committing this misdemeanor. Astonishingly, Chuck refused the deal. He chose to tell the truth, even though it landed him in prison for seven months. The press couldn’t make sense of it. They didn’t understand how Nixon’s brutal “hatchet man” could suddenly have scruples over what seemed to be an easy decision. After being released from prison, Colson started Prison Fellowship Ministries, an organization with the goal of offering inmates the hope of life with Jesus Christ.

Eric Metaxas explained it this way: Colson “had worked hard, in his younger years, for President Richard Nixon—the most powerful man on earth,” but he “spent the second half of his life working even harder for the King of kings.”[1]

Colson’s transformation is not an isolated case. Across the world–for the last two thousand years–there have been countless persons, including myself, who have had their lives changed by Jesus Christ. His story provides a great example of what the Bible calls repentance.

The Call to Repentance

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1-2, NIV)

The Bible portrays John the Baptist as an eccentric wild man. Matthew describes him as wearing camel’s hair and a leather belt and eating locusts and honey. Some of us imagine a modern day John the Baptist as some half-crazed man running around wearing a sandwich board that says “The End is near.” But John was a prophet – a spokesman – for God. He was commissioned by God to announce the long-awaited arrival of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus had been living a relatively obscure life in Galilee, but He was about to begin His three-year ministry, which would eventually lead Him to the cross. And John the Baptist was the Messiah’s forerunner. The great theme of John’s preaching was repentance.

In a sense, John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. His message of repentance matches what they all said.[2] And the description that we are given of him is meant to highlight the simplicity of his life. He didn’t seek worldly goods. But I think it is also meant to highlight his sold-out commitment to proclaim the Messiah and devote his life to that ministry alone.

John is announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. For the Jew who has been anxiously waiting for the kingdom’s arrival, this is startling news. But John says that one is not automatically admitted into the kingdom. A response is required from us. John calls all the people of Israel to repent – a word that needs to be carefully defined.

The root word (metanoia in Greek) means “to change one’s mind.” But whenever repentance is used in Scripture, it describes a change far more radical than a mere change of opinion. “I used to like plain chocolate, but now I’m more of a chocolate-and-peanut-butter guy” might be a change of mind, but repentance is a total shift in the gravitational center of one’s life. A reorientation of priorities and a renovation of character are the fruits of true repentance. That is why John told those who came to be baptized, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance is like making a U-turn and going in a completely new direction in life—albeit imperfectly.

Chuck refused to take the plea bargain, because he was living in a new direction. Honoring the Lord now mattered more to him than a “get out of jail free” card. So he refused the easy path of deception.

Confession, Sorrow, and Conversion

First of all, repentance involves confession over sin. Those who “were baptized by [John] in the river Jordan” were “confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6). So confession of sin, admitting you have done wrong, is one aspect of it. But merely owning up to sin is not enough.

Secondly, in the Bible, the truly repentant are always sorrowful over their sin. In Psalm 51, we witness the once confident King David humbly confessing to God his great sin of committing adultery with a woman named Bathsheba.

Listen to how broken David is over his sin:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:1-5, NIV)

Notice David says to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (v. 4). This is an astonishing statement when you consider that he sinned against a lot of people when he committed adultery. He sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, and even had him killed. He sinned against Bathsheba by luring her into the sin with him. He sinned against his family by dishonoring them. And he sinned against the whole nation by abusing his power and office as king. But David understands that first and foremost, his sin is against God, because it is God—and no one else—to whom he is most fundamentally accountable. It was God who had created him, given him life, and sustained his life for every moment of every day. It was God who had raised him up to be king over Israel. So, most importantly, by sinning at all, David was sinning against God.

David is an emotional train wreck. And yet, that is precisely what God looks for in true repentance:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

So, repentance involves both confession of sin—admitting guilt—and being brokenhearted over your sin. But this still isn’t everything that repentance is. Most importantly, repentance involves conversion of the heart. It involves turning from the sins we love to the God we were made to love.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
Take with you words and return to the LORD;
say to him, “Take away all iniquity.” (Hosea 14:1-2, NIV)

Sin is what separates us from God, and it is only when sin is truly repented of—not just confessed—that we are brought into right relationship with God. It’s not enough to be brokenhearted or even devastated over our sin. We need to turn from that sin and toward God, trusting in Jesus Christ to free us.

Remorse versus Repentance

Many people confuse repentance with remorse. Remorse is a deep sense of grief and anguish over the consequences of sin. The classic example of remorse is Pharaoh. Time after time, Pharaoh says, “I have sinned!” Outwardly, he appears sorrowful, even asking for forgiveness (Exodus 10:17). He admits his failure, but he still isn’t ready to repent. Pharaoh is like the kid who is sorry that he got caught but not really sorry for disobeying his mom.

Consider what Paul wrote the church in Corinth about the necessity of true repentance:

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10, NIV)

Paul is saying, “Yes, grieve over your sin, but that’s not enough. It must be a godly grief that produces a repentance leading to salvation without regret.”

The clearest example of this difference can be seen in Judas and Peter. Both were disciples of Jesus Christ. Both men ate with Him, talked with Him, and listened to Him teach for three years. Yet both sinned against Jesus in the final 24 hours before the cross. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss; Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. Judas sinned with false affection; Peter sinned with false ignorance.

Both had committed an unspeakable sin against their Lord. Both grieved over their sin. But Judas never repented. Matthew tells us he was so ashamed of what he had done that he went out and hung himself (Mt. 27:5). Peter, on the other hand, “wept bitterly” (Mt. 26:75), but then he repented. After Jesus rose from the dead, Peter returned to Jesus, and he was restored to fellowship with Him (John 21:7, 15-22). He went on to become the first great proclaimer of the risen Lord (Acts 2:22-36). We have every reason to believe that Peter is now in Heaven with Jesus, and that Judas, tragically, is destined for hell since Jesus called him “a son of destruction” (John 17:12; cf. Matt. 26:24-25). Two starkly different eternal destinies, and the difference between Judas and Peter was repentance.

No wonder Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). Repentance is essential, because we will continue to put ourselves at the center of the universe until we turn to the God of grace and forgiveness.

The biblical teaching on repentance and the examples of Chuck Colson, King David, and the Apostle Peter remind us that no one is beyond hope. As long as there is still breath in your lungs, there is still time to repent. It’s as simple and as hard as turning (or returning) to the Lord.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10, NIV)

Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!

[1] Eric Metaxas. Seven Men, 163

[2] See Isaiah 1:16-20; Jeremiah 4:4; 18:8; 26:13; Ezekiel 18:20-32; Hosea 5:4; 14:1-2; Joel 2:12-14; Amos 4:10-11; Jonah 3:10; Zechariah 1:3-6; Malachi 3:7; 4:6.

When a Christian Leader Falls

On By Jason SmithIn Theology for Life1 Comment

In the past several months, there has been an outside investigation into sexual misconduct allegations of Ravi Zacharias, who was a well-known and sought after Christian apologist and speaker. The law firm conducting the investigation, Miller & Martin, released some devastating news in recent weeks: the allegations were all true. The firm found “convincing and credible evidence” that Zacharias had indeed engaged in sexual misconduct with multiple women over the course of many years.[1]

This news stunned many Christians. Zacharias was known for his rhetorical eloquence and powerful presentations in defense of the Christian faith. Perhaps even more troubling is that Zacharias, who died in the spring of 2020, never repented of his secret sin.

I for one looked up to Zacharias as an incredible man of faith, who spoke the truth boldly yet with genuine love for others – a truly rare quality. I have been helped by many of his books and talks, and I was equally shocked to read the report.

As I considered this news, two thoughts entered my head. What will be the long-term impact of Zacharias’s sin? Will this devastate the faith of thousands of young men and women that he greatly influenced? Secondly, I considered the pain this must cause his family. I can’t even imagine their grief. I’m praying for their hearts, as they desperately need the comfort and peace only God can give.

Although very saddened, I do have some takeaways from all this.

Sin always has consequences

Although we know this intuitively, it’s so easy for Christians to forget this: sin always has consequences. It always harms both ourselves and those around us. Especially grievous sins – and sexual sin definitely makes the list. It shatters trust. It boggles the mind. It cuts through bonds meant to last a lifetime. It divides couples who promised to love each other no matter what. It tears families apart. And sexual sin is always shrouded in deception. Unless it is quickly confessed and repented of, lies inevitably abound. It also has a distorting effect, twisting the way we view our relationships.

I’ve spoken to a man who cheated on his wife about this. While still feeling numb in the aftermath of his sin coming to light, he shook his head and said, “I never meant to hurt her. I never meant to hurt anyone.” That’s how it always goes. Our tendency as fallen people is to put all our focus on the pleasure of the moment, rather than the long-term consequences of one sinful choice. Only the Holy Spirit can break the power of sin and lead us to walk in faithfulness and self-control.

Christian leaders must hold themselves to a higher standard

It is both sad and reprehensible how some Christian pastors, authors, and thought leaders have not taken the influence they carry seriously. They abuse the power they have been entrusted with by manipulating others or hurting those who oppose them.

Others ignore biblical standards and mock those who still cherish historic Christian teachings. Perhaps they forget all the warnings the Bible gives about those who abuse spiritual influence. “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1, NIV). Whether you are a pastor or teacher or blogger, this verse should be engraved on your heart.

Christian leaders carry a lot of influence among the Lord’s people, and they should not downplay the seriousness of their role. If you lead others, please remember that you will be held accountable for how faithfully you stood against the tide of worldly influences.

After surveying the grandeur of His creation, God says in Isaiah: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2, ESV). Do you still tremble at the thought of teaching God’s sacred Word? Don’t be so concerned with being admired among the cultural elites. Make your aim the faithful teaching of God’s Word. You have been entrusted with the life-changing message of the gospel, and that is no small thing.

It is the better part of wisdom to gather around you wise and godly believers who will have access to you, to correct you when you’re wrong, to ask you the hard questions, and to encourage you to stay the course. You have been put in a position with so much potential to advance God’s kingdom for good. God takes your role seriously; so should you. This is a loving warning all Christian leaders – including myself – need to hear.

Never put yourself in a compromising situation

One stand out example from the Bible is Joseph. Betrayed by his brothers, Joseph ended up as a slave in the house of Potiphar, an officer in Pharaoh’s army. Because Joseph trusted in God and worked hard in his master’s service, Potiphar put him in charge of his whole household. When Potiphar’s wife summoned Joseph to her quarters and tried to seduce him, he responded, “My master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God” (Genesis 39:8-9, NLT).

But apparently she didn’t give up easy. “She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible” (v. 10). Joseph knew that temptation is something to avoid at all costs – not something to go exploring out of curiosity.

Finally, the time came when Potiphar’s wife catches him alone in the empty house. Once again, she tried to lure him into the bedroom. So how did Joseph respond? Did he stand his ground to see how much temptation he could resist? No! He bolted out of there as if the whole house was about to burst into flames. Joseph understood the importance of avoiding compromising situations. He cared more about God’s honor than his self-serving pleasure. He did exactly what the Bible commands us to do: “Run from sexual immorality!” (1 Corinthians 6:18, HCSB).

Jesus Is the Real Hero of the Story

Never forget that the gospel makes everything about Christ and what He has done – not you or what you have or haven’t done. That doesn’t take away our sense of responsibility, but it does offer us incredible hope. Jesus, through His cross, can overcome all your shame, sin, and failure. His grace allows us to live out of our identity in Christ, not some self-made identity.

Since Jesus is the real hero of the story, we should never put all our hope in a Christian leader. God has put them in our lives to help guide us, but they are not our Lord. They did not die for our sins.

This should make us treasure the perfect life of Jesus. Whereas Christian leaders will always be fallible and inevitably make mistakes in this life, Jesus is the King who will never fail us. If a Christian leader has failed you, keep in mind that this doesn’t change the truth about Jesus. He was, is, and always will be the sinless Savior you and I desperately need. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Make Jesus your ultimate hero, because He will never let you down.

[1] Daniel Silliman, “RZIM Confirms Ravi Zacharias’s Sexual Misconduct,” Christianity Today: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/december/rzim-evidence-confirms-ravi-zacharias-sexual-misconduct.html

Our Anthem Is Hope

On By Jason SmithIn DevotionalLeave a comment

By Jason Smith

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5, BSB)

Hope is something our world desperately needs right now. Widespread suffering and bleak economic projections have left people feeling lost and disoriented. Many feel caught in the perpetual cycle of hearing messages of gloom and doom.

Into this dreary darkness, God wants to shine a ray of hope. I love the chorus of a Switchfoot song that goes, “My heartbeat, my oxygen. My banner, my home. My future, my song. Your hope is the anthem of my soul.” Now, perhaps more than ever, Christians must recognize our anthem really is hope.

The beauty of Christianity is that it heralds a message of spectacularly good news especially for dark and dismal times like the present. The message of Jesus Christ carries a hope that nothing in this world can snuff out. What makes it so unstoppable is that it’s a hope that shines all the brighter as the world looks darker. It’s a message for this world precisely because it is a message that transcends this world. It stands above even a global pandemic and urges every person to listen and believe.

This hope found in Jesus does not rest on the success of political campaigns or how quickly a coronavirus vaccine is discovered – which I pray is very soon. The Bible calls this hope “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19, NIV), something strong enough to weather even the fiercest storms. In Scripture, hope is something solid and sure – not a whimsical and flimsy pipe dream. Our “hope of eternal life” will never let us down because the “God who cannot lie” promised this “before time began” (Titus 1:2, BSB). We say things like “I hope it won’t rain on Saturday” or “I hope our team makes the Super Bowl,” but such hopes often ring hollow and really belong to the category of wishful thinking. The Christian hope, on the other hand, “does not disappoint us” (Romans 5:5, BSB).

So what is the Christian hope? Many have supposed that Christianity is about God rewarding the faithful. In other words, Jesus came to save the good, moral, and godly among us. What else could they think? After all, aren’t Christians engaged in a culture war eager to impose a biblical morality on the rest of society? I’ve spoken to many who see it that way.

But… what if Christianity’s message is filled with hope and joy, not because it’s first and foremost about moral reform, but about redemption in Christ. The reason I say it’s not about Jesus saving “the good, moral, and godly” is because the Bible itself says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Read it again. Jesus died for the “ungodly” – the immoral, the vile, the perverted.

Does that offend you? Well, it could be that you’ve missed the fact that, according to genuine Christianity, no one is saved except “by grace” (Ephesians 2:8). Grace is a biblical term that means “God’s infinite love to the infinitely undeserving.” The reality is that every last one of us has inherited the brokenness of our first father, Adam. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

As a human race, we essentially told God to shove off, thinking we could become gods apart from Him. Because of our sinful nature, we all come into this world separated from God and justly condemned. We have all gone wrong, which is why our greatest need is to be reconciled to God and somehow put in the right. But “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God’s moral standard cannot change. “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). God loves us dearly, but if He failed to punish our sin, this would lead to the moral order of the universe crumbling to a heap. Justice would be out the window forever. So what is God to do?

There is only one way God could save us while remaining perfectly just. He Himself would have to come and bear the punishment for our sin in our place. This is where the hope of the gospel glows with the brightness of heaven itself. You can probably think of someone you’d be willing to die for. But can you imagine dying for your enemy – for someone who has offended you, insulted you, and devalued you incessantly? Because that’s what Jesus did.

“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:7-9). To be justified is to be “declared righteous” by God because when Jesus hung on the cross, He took your sin and gave you His righteousness.

The truly astonishing thing is that while we were plotting to become gods in our rebellion against God, God became a man in order to rescue us. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (v. 10).

This is the greatest message of hope our world could ever know. The moment you trust in Jesus Christ and His death for you, you are reconciled to God. From that moment on, “the wrath of God” (v. 9) no longer hangs over your head because you are covered in the grace of God. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1)

The Bible says that when you know this peace with God, it changes everything. Your whole world turns upside down… or, rather, right side up. Paradoxically, you can now have tremendous joy in the midst of trials.

“…and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (vv. 2b-5).

More than that, ours is a “living hope” because Jesus Christ is alive today. This is why Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord every Easter. His defeat of death signals to the whole world that the suffering of this world has an expiration date.

Do you see why this is the message of hope the world most needs? Whereas other hopes are dashed on the rocks of adversity, here is a hope that actually is strengthened by suffering. It’s a hope that God is offering you right now, because “Christ died for the ungodly” (v. 6). No matter how badly life looks, the Christian can always have this confidence: Our anthem is hope.

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