Repentance - What is it?

If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with the Parable of the Lost Sheep. If you could just take a minute to refresh your memory:)

Luke 15: 4 - 7: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."

Let's note five things that happened in this passage:

1. The sheep was lost (it left the flock either by mistake or on purpose, bottomline is it got separated from the shepherd)

2. The shepherd went to look for the sheep

3. The shepherd was not mad at the sheep when he found it. Rather, he was ecstatic! He didn't care if it was dirty, or smoking, or fornicating, or stealing. He was just happy to have found it

4. After the sheep was found, the shepherd carried it home, on his shoulders, rejoicing

5. We know the sheep repented because Jesus said likewise, there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

If you look closely, you'll find out that the sheep did ONLY TWO THINGS in the passage. The first is it got LOST. The second, it ALLOWED ITSELF TO BE CARRIED when it was found by the shepherd. Neither involved determining to put an end to being bad or doing good works. The shepherd did all of the work, just as Jesus is offering to carry you today. This level of love and compassion shown to someone who has gone astray is what leads to true repentance.

Repentance is not just the decision to stop wrongdoing. No one can sustain that kind of lifestyle on their own. If we could, there would have been no need for Jesus to come and save us.

Repentance is having a change of heart and it comes from knowing the love of Christ. True repentance comes from realising just how much God loves us and that He gave Jesus to die for our sins. It comes from knowing that there is no condemnation for you when you are in Christ. 1 John 4: 19 We love Him because He first loved us. After this, not only will you have a change of heart, you will also have no desire to return to your vomit! It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Romans 2:4.

We Christians often do our best to 'get right with God' by trying to change our ways on our own, 'doing good', engaging in serious fasting and prayer in order to receive from God and running from pillar to post looking for salvation even after accepting Christ, even with the knowledge that 'our righteousnesses are like filthy rags'. According to the the law - you will reap what you sow - but just how much good works can you sow when the wages of sin, even a single one, is death? Relief from such is often no relief at all or at best, temporal.

Notice that the only way the sheep got home was by riding on the shepherd's shoulders. Our good works can't take us to heaven or help us fully enjoy here on earth. Only God's grace can. And all who are in Christ can have it. All you have to do is ask.

God's grace will make doing the right thing easy for you - like ordering a proper Ekiti man who has not eaten in 5 days to finish that delicious plate of pounded yam with efo riro and assorted meats, or else!! You find that you pay your tithe not because you think something bad will happen if you don't but because you just feel driven to do it, and you do it happily too. You find that you used to love porn two months ago but today it just disgusts you. You find that you were comitting adultery/couldn't stand your wife touching you last month but today, she's all that you want! Also, no wolf can snatch the sheep away while it is with the shepherd - John 10:29 - "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”

A little further down in Luke 15 we find the Parable of the Lost Son, aka The Parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son didn't remember his father when he still had his inheritance. He did not repent/return home to his father because he was sorry. He returned because he was hungry! I like to think that he was dirty, hungry and smelly when he returned home. Everyone would have done SMH at him. Yet, his Father embraced and kissed him in his state, treating him to the best clothes and the fatted calf. This is the treatment you get when you come to Jesus just the way you are! No effort. No trying. He will clean you up and set you up after you have lost everything.

Luke 15 aptly opens with sinners drawing near to Jesus and those who professed to be 'clean and knowledgeable'- the Pharisees - complaining that Jesus received and ate with sinners - which is what He still does today! None of the know-it-all Pharisees (who needed no repentance) was blessed by Jesus back in those days when he walked on earth as a man. Only the sinners, adulterers, tax collectors and those who had neither strength nor hope enjoyed his free gifts and blessings.

Why don't you take break from trying to break those habits and just ask Jesus for help? In fact, that is why He came - to bear your sins, burdens and judgment. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 - Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, it says ALL and not just people who have managed to not "do bad things".  In fact, if you can manage, then you don't need Jesus. John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."

Would you like to enjoy God's Grace and live righteously in Christ Jesus? Please pray this prayer -

In Jesus name, thank you Father for the grace to cast all my problems and worries on Jesus. Thank you for He laid down His life for me and by so doing made my sins - past, present and future - forgiven. Thank you for all my sins have been judged in Him. Thank you for now I am free indeed. I believe that He did all these things for me and I am thankful. Thank you for you give me the willingness and the ability to do your pleasure. Lord, I ask that you take control of my life from this moment on. In Jesus name, it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me. Thank you Heavenly Father, in Jesus name. Amen