September/October 2000
Lost, Blind Losers
by J. Michael Feazell
| Everything that ever needed to be done for human forgiveness and salvation has already been done through the death and resurrection of the Son of God. |
If you had really repented, then you wouldn't have done it again" is a refrain many tormented souls have heard from well-meaning spiritual counselors. We are told that repentance is to turn away from sin and turn toward a life of obedience to God's law.
With that idea firmly in mind, Christians set out with the best of intentions to change their ways. But along the way, some ways change, and some ways seem to stick like super-glue. And even the ways that change have a nasty way of cropping up again.
Repent and Believe
"Repent and believe the good news," Jesus declares in Mark 1:15. Repentance and faith mark the beginning of our new life in the kingdom of God. But not because we did the right thing. They mark it because that is when the scales fall off our darkened eyes and we at last see in Jesus Christ the light of the glorious liberty of the son of God.
Repentance is not offering God a new and improved you; it is a change of how you think. It is a change of perspective, from seeing yourself as the center of the universe to seeing God as the center of the universe and trusting your life to his mercy. Repentance means to surrender, throwing down our crowns at the feet of the rightful ruler of the cosmos.
Everything that ever needed to be done for human forgiveness and salvation has already been done through the death and resurrection of the Son of God. There was a time when we were in the dark about that.
We thought we had to make our own way in this world. We devoted our attention to keeping our life and our future safe and secure. We worked hard to be respected and appreciated. We stood up for our rights. We fought to protect and preserve our reputation, our family, our belongings. We did everything in our power to make something worthwhile of our lives, to be winners and not losers.
But like everybody who has ever lived, we found it was a losing battle. Despite all our best efforts, we cannot keep disasters and tragedies and failures and pains from coming out of nowhere and shattering what little scraps of hope and joy we have managed to piece together.
Good News
Then one day, for no other reason than that he wanted to, God let us in on the way things actually are. The world is his, and we are his. We are dead in sin, and there is no way out.
We are lost, blind losers in a world of lost, blind losers, because we don't have the sense to hold the hand of the only One who knows his way around. But that's okay, because he became a loser for us through crucifixion and death, and we can be winners with him by joining him in his death so that we can also join him in his resurrection.
God gave us good news! The good news is that he loves us so much that he has personally paid the heavy price for all our selfish, rebellious, destructive, evil lunacy. He has freely saved us, washed us, purified us, dressed us in righteousness and set a place for us at his eternal banquet table. And through his word of the gospel, he invites us to trust him that it is so.
When, by the grace of God, we come to see that and believe it, we have repented.
Repentance is turning over the steering wheel of your life to God. To repent is to say, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I believe you! I trust your word! I'm leaving behind this pointless struggle to hold together with chewing gum and baling wire this death I thought was life. I'm ready for your rest. Help my unbelief!"
Trust him. He doesn't condemn sinners; he forgives them!
-- J. Michael Feazell