Repentance

We are a culture that stands on our own two feet. We are a people reliant on our up-right posture, our confidence, our strength. Should we falter or fall from that expected position, we grasp our proverbial boot straps and pull ourselves right back up. God forbid that we should actually remain on the ground, that we should feel our own weakness, our own humanity.

I have sinned. Often. Greviously. Without thought, without remorse, without change, I have repeatedly stabbed at the heart of love which my Heavenly Father so freely offered when his Son was murdered for my black, persistent depravity. But so flippant am I, so content in God's "amazing grace" that I shake off the remnants of my error, cloaking it as completely as possible, so that I may once again appear confident, upright, in control.

Shame is not in my posture. "Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame." (a) As I was confessing a grave error to my God- He who knows each thought, I was amazed at my flippancy. I wiping down the sink in the bathroom, I said "I'm sorry." just as a four year old would after stepping on your toes. I gave a little shrug and moved into the kitchen to finish dinner, when I stopped.

When God instructed, through His prophet Joel, that His people repent, He said, "Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar." (b) When the children of Israel built their golden calf, Moses recounted, "Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger." (c)

Nothing in my repentance spoke of that searing pain, that fear, that wrenching sorrow that I had sinned so heartily, so prevalently, and so consistently against my God.

I don't stand on my own two feet, I lie prostrate before a God who forgives and forgives again, exhibiting awe-inspiring patience to my selfish actions.

(a) Jeremiah 3:3
(b) Joel 1:13
(c) Deuteronomy 9:18

Note: It is recognized that the verses and examples in this post are from the Old Testament, and while a new covenant has been administered to us as "New Testament" believers, I believe that we all too often lazily pawn off our sin with a thoughtless, "Well, God's love will cover it" not recognizing the true blackness that is sin.
********************************************

There are three Greek words used in the New Testament to denote repentance. (1.) The verb _metamelomai_ is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas (Matt. 27:3). (2.) Metanoeo, meaning to change one's mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge. This verb, with (3) the cognate noun _metanoia_, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised. Evangelical repentance consists of (1) a true sense of one's own guilt and sinfulness; (2) an apprehension of God's mercy in Christ; (3) an actual hatred of sin (Ps. 119:128; Job 42:5, 6; 2 Cor. 7:10) and turning from it to God; and (4) a persistent endeavour after a holy life in a walking with God in the way of his commandments. The true penitent is conscious of guilt (Ps. 51:4, 9), of pollution (51:5, 7, 10), and of helplessness (51:11; 109:21, 22). Thus he apprehends himself to be just what God has always seen him to be and declares him to be. But repentance comprehends not only such a sense of sin, but also an apprehension of mercy, without which there can be no true repentance (Ps. 51:1; 130:4). (Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary)