From that time Jesus began to proclaim,
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
Matthew 4:17
Jesus’ main message – his first and repeated sermon – was “Repent.” Why? “Because the kingdom is here.”
What does “repent” mean?
Yesterday on Ash Wednesday, we talked about confession. What is confession? It is admitting that we’ve done wrong. And this is a first, critical step.
But repentance is the next step. Indeed, don’t confuse it with confession. After admitting our folly (confession), repentance is covenanting to fix the problem!
Read that again. It’s one thing to say, “God, I’m a hit man. I’ve killed twelve people.” That’s step one, but it’s clearly not enough – especially if I go on killing! My murderous heart needs to be fixed – whether I’m a hit-man … or a gossiper … or verbally abusive.
To help us understand part two of confession, repentance can be translated as “turning away from sin and turning toward God.” And that last phrase – turning toward God – is crucial.
We can’t fix ourselves by ourselves.
Ultimately, trying to fix ourselves leads to hopeless frustration. Sometimes, yes, we can reign in our behavior for a while … but have you ever screamed, “I swore I was never going to do that again! Why am I so weak?”
Repentance, however, involves turning to God. Yes, we turn to him as the true source of our worship and strength, which is part of repentance – re-centering on him rather than wrong priorities and false idols. (That alone is important.) But equally importantly, we turn to God for strength! We can’t fix ourselves by ourselves. But he can fix us, heal us, free us, reshape our hearts, reprioritize our desires. And if Christ sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Confession is good. It’s the necessary starting point. But it’s through repentance (with God’s power) that we begin to truly experience freedom.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who has learned that when
I turn away from our sin and turn to God,
I begin to see the kingdom that
Jesus says is right here!
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