What are the benefits of Repentance?

The benefits of repentance? We get to be borne on Christ's shoulders (the place of Strength) where we have unfettered access to every single promise of God for the righteous throughout our journey here on earth. Through Christ, we get to live in triumph over sin and death - the same death process that Adam died which began on the day that he sinned: all earthly ills are symptoms of death.

But what is Repentance?

When many of us, even believers, think of the word Repentance, the following steps come to mind:

• Feeling really bad because we sinned
• Promising ourselves and telling God that we will not do it again
• Making the decision to live a holy life from now on
• Doing our best to right our wrongs in order to get back into God's good books.

But did you notice that there is no Saviour Jesus in this equation? Jesus does not do anything in this definition of repentance. Did you notice that Judas who betrayed Christ went through those “repentance" phases? This is a Judas kind of repentance - towards self and not towards God. This is repentance to death and not repentance to life. This is a Christless repentance so there is no Salvation here. Galatians 5:4 buttresses this point:

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace.”

Thought to add that law-keeping is anything at all that one does by his own human effort in order to make God view him favourably; this after Christ suffered and died to put us in right-standing with God. The religious Pharisees were not anti-God. They were anti-Christ, just like some churchgoers today who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins but reject the outcome of Christ's death and His resurrection (see the outcome of these two actions in Romans 4:25.)

Such reject Christ's finished work for our salvation by believing that their own human effort at obedience counts for something before God. This is why some can boast about how God gave them “this” because they did “that” and not freelybecause of what Christ has done. See Romans 8:32-

“He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”

“The letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life" is a very popular Bible verse. With the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by (human) might nor by power. It is impossible for doers of works of the Law that kills to deceive themselves in this matter: if you knew and believed that it is Christ in you doing your good works and not your own might and power, it would be difficult for you to help Satan the accuser with his work by pointing accusing fingers at sinners who are still living in sin and threatening them with judgment if they don't change by their own power. Rather, you would see how helpless man is to overcome sins and produce good works by himself and point such to Christ who saves from sins and transforms the sinner who acknowledges his sins and truly believes to live right, as you say He is doing for you.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep shows us what true repentance is - a gift from God. See Luke 15:4-7 -

“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:

• The sheep got lost. It wandered off either by some unintentional miscalculation, on purpose or because it had a mental breakdown. The Law of Moses is not interested in backstories as to why a person sinned. The devourer is not going to consider the sheep's state of mental health or the reason behind its lack of protection before tucking into its prey. Whether by the way of Peter who began with good intentions and sinned or Judas whom “Satan entered,” and also sinned, the bottomline is the sheep went astray.
• The Shepherd went to look for and found the sheep
• The Shepherd was not mad at the sheep when he found it. He didn't care if it was dirty, smoking, fornicating, gay, stealing, bleeding, sick, whatever sins. He didn't tell the sheep "Stop all the bad things you are doing or else I will not save you. In fact, I will punish you." Rather, He was ecstatic! He was just very happy to have found His sheep.
• After the sheep was found, it consented to be carried. It did not try to right itself or walk home by itself. The Shepherd carried it on His shoulders just the way it was- whether smelly, dirty, full of worms and fleas, with a broken leg, not in bad shape, etc. He carried it warts and all, rejoicing. He never asked it to walk by itself or do anything to make up for its bad behaviour or earn the right to be carried. His job is to make the often foolish, self-soiling and helpless sheep whole.
• We know the sheep repented because Jesus said "likewise there will be more 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:

1. It got lost.
2. It allowed itself to be carried by the Shepherd all the way after it was found.

Neither action involved the sheep determining to put an end to being bad by its own will-power, doing good works in order to get the Shepherd to see how serious it was about changing its ways, trying to justify or normalise its erring ways that are against God's Law by saying “I was born this way" or walking home on its own feet.

This sheep knew that it had gone astray (flouted God's Law), knew that it was utterly helpless to save itself and knew that it was utterly in need of the Shepherd's salvation, or else it would perish. It knew that it had no strength to stand by itself and that it needed to be borne on the Shepherd's strong shoulders, all the way home.

This is true repentance: Acknowleding that one is a sinner through and through, knowing that of ourselves, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get into God's good books by our own will-power and consenting to be saved from sin and death by Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd.

Very crucial the part in boldface. Look what happened in Mark 2 and Christ's response in verse 17:

“15 That night Levi invited his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners to be his dinner guests so that they could meet Jesus and His disciples. (There were many men of this type among the crowds that followed Him.) 16 But when some of the Jewish religious leaders saw Him eating with these men of ill repute, they said to His disciples, “How can He stand it, to eat with such scum? 17 When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Very crucial, the part in bold face: a person who does not believe that he is sick isn't likely to want the services of a doctor. Such are still blinded. One has to acknowledge his sins in order to benefit from God's saving Grace who saves from sins, and this we do by Grace alone. Professing to belong to the Good Shepherd while trying to normalise, accommodate or shove whatever God's Law describes as sin down the throats of others doesn't make any sense. Such who do this do not (yet) see their need for the Good Shepherd who came to redeem us from slavery to the Law and to save us from our sins. No repentance here.

Thank God that the church is like a hospital filled with believers, all of whom were raised to life from death (in sin), are in different stages of recovery and are being transformed to wholeness by our Shepherd and Physician, Jesus Christ. And on His shoulders- utterly dependent on Him for righteousness and strength - with no self-medication whatsoever, we never remain the same.Our path gets brighter and brighter… Matthew 1:21 says of Him-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Also Titus 2:14- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

In Christ, we are not under Law but under Grace, not so that we should normalise or accommodate what God's word says is sin and continue to wallow in same but for us to be freed and saved from those sins by Christ. We have been given Grace to see that everyone born of Adam is a helpless sinner by default (Romans 5:19;) held captive by sin and death from which no man is able to save himself.

For anyone to be under Grace and to enjoy the benefits of God's saving Grace (to be a Christian,) he must first acknowledge his sins, hate them, want to be rid of them and see His need for Christ as Saviour- the sole Source of Salvation from sin and death, and this we do by Grace. The sheep in the parable knew that it needed to be saved and was willing to be saved. It knew that it was helpless and could do nothing by itself, as Christ said in John 15:5-

“...for without Me you can do nothing."

The word for Repentance in the original (Greek) text of the New Testament is Metanoia meaning change of mind, It is seeing God not as a hard Taskmaster who is just waiting in the wings to see us go astray so that He can set the devourer upon us and pour out His wrath on us unless we save ourselves but as our loving Abba Father. He gave His own Son to be our Good Shepherd who gave His life to save His error-prone but beloved sheep. This repentance aka change of mind - borne of the goodness of God - leads to life. The Judas kind of repentance that involves trying to rectify one's life by will-power leads to death.

Repentance is seeing more of Christ and less of self in our everyday living. As believers, we are repenting everyday- our minds are being renewed by Grace. We are letting go of our former beliefs and thoughts about God (many of which even the most Grace-filled amongst us don't even know that we still hold on to) and seeing Him more and more as our loving Abba Father that He is; our Daddy who gave up His most Precious and most Beloved for us, because He loves us so.

Repentance entails realising that there is no good in us of ourselves. It is knowing that our will-power is useless against sin - God's mercy is the “skeleton" that holds man upright and keeps man from devolving into the worst of his sinful nature. Without His restraining Hand, we would all crumple into the mass of useless and helplessly sinful flesh that we all are of ourselves. See what God's word says concerning the will-power that many churchgoers depend on to bring out the non-existent good in man from Paul's experience in Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail says:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power and sheer determination (like pre-denial Peter.) I am not entirely helpless. I know the way, or at least some of it. I can walk home by myself, at least a part of the way, and do not need the Good Shepherd to carry me on His shoulders all the way.”

Did you also notice that the sheep did not find its way to the Shepherd by itself, as it is written in John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."

And there we were thinking that we, in our good sense, decided to forsake sin and follow Jesus when in reality, it was our heavenly Father that made it happen!

The Good Shepherd Jesus Christ did everything in the Parable of the Lost Sheep, as He is offering to carry all who are yet to consent to resting in His strength (shoulders) or see our constant need for Salvation as we rest in on His shoulders. This level of love and compassion aka the "goodness of God" shown to someone who has gone astray is what leads to true repentance.

In order for repentance that leads to life to take place, one needs to see how utterly helpless to be good we are without Christ and even this takes God’s Grace as we see in the story of Cornelius' repentance to life in Acts 10-11. Peter's sermon did not even hint at "repentance" as the world knows it yet the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard him. But some Jews were aghast at this. How could Peter associate with this Gentile sinner Cornelius? Peter explained what happened and "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”"

Repentance is a gift.

Repentance to life is not beating your breast in regret for your sins, making restitution to assuage your guilt and promising God that you will be good from now on. These Christless actions can't save anybody. This Judas kind of repentance smacks of self-righteousness (how could "I" have done this?) and leads to death. It also usually happens when a person is suffering the consequences of particular actions, like Judas who felt remorse when he saw that Christ had been condemned or the prodigal son whose motivation to return to his Father was hunger and not because he was sorry or loved and missed the Father. He was going to go home to earn his keep as a servant. How clueless and entitled he was at the time: according to Jewish Law, he should have been met with wrath and stoned to death for his riotous living: Deuteronomy 21:

“18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.”

But many among us follow after the prodigal son's example and think that those well-intentioned smatterings of remorse, restitition and promises to be good from now on can undo the bad and restore one into God's good graces after one has sinned. Not so. No amount of good works will suffice for God the righteous:Romans 3:20-

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The Law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

Only the sacrifice of Jesus can save from God's wrath: Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Suffering and feeling remorse for sins while having some hope in human effort at restoration like Judas or the prodigal son before he was met with his dad's goodness is not true repentance. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. See Romans 2:4 -

"Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"

The kind of attitude that the Father showed to the returnee prodigal son is what leads to true repentance. Repentance to life is a gift that only God can grant. But many among us do not see how helpless we are and how much we need God's gift of repentance to life because His mercy in our lives is so supernaturally natural that we think that we "did good all by ourselves." We don't watch porn/steal/fornicate, etc so we look down on others who do and tell them to "repent, or else...!," not realising the log in our own eye and James 2:10 which shows us that all it takes to be guilty of breaking the whole law is to slip up in one area: without God's gift of righteousness by faith through Christ, the one who feels relief to learn that it is his neighbour's house that is on fire and not his own house (this one does not "love thy neighbour as thyself.") is in the same boat of unrighteousness as the one who fornicates or molests children.

This lack of true repentance is why many people are quick to judge and condemn others for the bad things they do instead of pointing the sinner to Christ who saves from sins and unveiling His love as shown in the Parable of the Lost Sheep. We who believe were previously all lost sheep. No sheep can find its way home on its own. We all need the Good Shepherd in every facet of our lives.

Repentance to death is being ashamed of sins committed because we think they are beneath us, trying to set things right by our effort and making the decision to stop wrongdoing on our own. There is no Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd saving here. 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 to life is a gift from God. It is having a change of heart about God and it comes from knowing the love of Christ. True repentance comes from realising just how much God loves us and that He gave His Beloved Jesus to die for our sins. It comes from knowing that there is no condemnation for you when you are in Christ.

The repentful sheep that the Shepherd carried on His shoulders in the parable would not have been a healthy sheep. Do we think for one moment that it would have asked the Shepherd for permission to get down from His shoulders to clean and dress its wounds or use the bathroom whenever it needed to go? Beloved of God, for all of our sins and imperfections, God sees all who are Christ's as righteous, “even though we are guilty of many sins.”

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins." Romans 5:16.

Antichrist pastors who, as Satan did with Eve, preach that one can be godly (be like God) by human effort call this truth “blasphemy” and “license to sin.” But God's word in the very next verse (Romans 5:17) says differently:

17 "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Only by receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death. To believe this is to have a repentant heart.

We don't get good to get Christ; we get Christ to get good, His kind of good. This is Grace- undeserved, unmerited favour. He saves from sin and death. Even when you sin and mess things up like wandering sheep, He will help you‘(warts and all) and love you into wholeness with no questions asked, so in His care, you get to live right.

Repentance is knowing God as "Abba, Father" whose desire is for you to "prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."- 3 John 1:2.

In essence, repentance to life is realising that you have in God a loving Father who gives us all things freely with Christ and not a bartering Taskmaster who is waiting intently to catch you when you mess things up so He can let the devil have a go at you or will not give unless you grovel and work to earn your keep!

1 John 4: 19 says "We love because He first loved us." When you start to realise just how much you are loved by our heavenly Father, not only will you have this change of heart (repent) and love God, you will also have no desire to return to your vomit! It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Romans 2:4.

Notice that the only way the sheep got home was by being carried on the Shepherd's shoulders. Our human effort-driven good works can't take us to heaven or help us fully enjoy God's blessings here on earth. Only God's grace can. And all who are in Christ can have it. "...much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) Romans 5:17.

Also, no one can snatch the sheep away while it is with the Shepherd - John 10:29-30 - "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. I and My Father are one.”

You can't lose your salvation when our Abba Father is the one holding you, and not the other way round. He will never let you fall. Never loosen His grip on your life. No matter what you do, He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will help you and uphold you with His victorious right Hand. Good works are evidences of our Salvation in Christ, not conditions.

God demands absolute righteousness from those who are trying to notch up points of righteousness with Him by keeping the Law. If your salvation depends on how well you keep the Ten Commandments, on you, you've already failed.Like the rich, young ruler who boasted in his having kept the Law from his youth but went away sorrowful when Christ used the same Law to make him see his error, there will always be “one thing you lack." Putting zero confidence in the flesh (human effort) and utter trust and dependence on Christ is how to live a godly life.

A little further down in Luke 15 where the Parable of the Lost Sheep is recorded, 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 smelling of pigs when he returned home. Everyone would have done SMH at him. To practicing Jews, pigs are unclean animals. Yet, this rebellious son's Father embraced and kissed him in his unclean (pigful) 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, putting no confidence in what you think you can do to make God like you. Christ finished that work for us. He will clean you up and set you up after you have messed everything up.

Why don't you give up trying to break those habits and making things right between you and God on your own (repentance to death like Judas) and just ask our Saviour Jesus for help? In fact, that is why He came - to free us of our sins, the burden of guilt 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.”

He says all and not just people who think they are not that bad because they have managed to not "do bad things." In fact, if you think that you can manage to be just a tad good by your own will-power, you don't need Jesus.

Would you like to enjoy the benefits of true repentance towards God which leads to life, even churchgoers? It is found only in Christ and His finished work of saving us. Just ask Him now to give you a repentant heart, rid you of every wrong theology that you've been holding on to and completely take over the running of your life. No need for flowery prayers. Like our heavenly Father, we prefer our kids’ badly drawn and typo-filled birthday cards to the fanciest Hallmark cards in the world. He already knows what's in our heart. He will never cast away the one who comes to Him for salvation. 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."