Repentance

REPENTANCE

By Apostle Felix

28  Jesus said to his critics, “Tell me what you think of this parable: “There once was a man with two sons. The father came to the first and said, ‘Son, I want you to go and work in the vineyard today.’ 

29  The son replied, ‘I’d rather not.’ But afterward, he deeply regretted what he said to his father, changed his mind, and decided to go to the vineyard. 

30  The father approached the second son and said the same thing to him. The son replied, ‘Father, I will go and do as you said.’ But he never did—he didn’t go to the vineyard. 

31  Tell me now, which of these two sons did the will of his father?” They answered him, “The first one.” Jesus said, “You’re right. For many sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes are going into God’s kingdom realm ahead of you! 

Matthew 21: 28 – 31

I am prompted to share this devotion with you regarding repentance because my son recently was telling a story of some of university students, who are well behaving at home and yet misbehave at school. And the motivation is also to make us realize that each person has a second, third and just infinite chances with the Lord. The Lord’s invitation is always open and welcoming. He will not reject anybody based on what one had done in the pass. Everyone has a messy past, however that does not determine how the Lord treats us. This is the reason why heaven is full of former lawbreakers. The grace of God is for people who decided to turn to the Lord after they had realized their need of the saviour. Repentance is the change of mind regarding a matter. A prodigal son in Luke 15 came to his senses and returned to his father. The prodigal son was in a very bad state when he returned home. It was his father that changed his state of deprivation and shame. He had no power to change his state. The power was in his father’s hands. The father took his own robe and put it on him. He took his own ring and put it on his son’s finger. He took his own shoes and put on his son’s feet. The point is, the robe, the ring and the shoes were already there even when the son was suffering in the countryside. His coming back simply availed the items to him that had already been made available.

In the morning of Friday, the 7^th June, the Lord impressed on my heart that we can only see provision in the areas of life that we have surrendered to Him. Not because He does not want to provide but because we have not acknowledged the Lord’s provision in that area. He has already provided but we stubbornly want to do it our own way. The above portion of scripture from Matthew 21 is about a parable of two sons, who had two different responses to their father and produced different results. The first son  refused to go when the father had asked him to go and work. But he later repented and went and worked. The second son readily accepted to go and work but did not go. The parable of course is referring to the teachers of the law, who had rejected Jesus when they were claiming to be law keepers. And it was also referring to people like tax collectors and prostitutes who had embraced the teachings of Christ and had become followers of Christ. The first group of people was unrepentant, even though they had the form of godliness. The second group was repentant hence they attracted grace.

4  If you want to be made holy by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from the Anointed One and have fallen away from the revelation of grace! 

Galatians 5: 4

The apostle Paul cautioned the church of the possibility of falling away from grace. When we examine the above scripture, falling from grace in that context is not actually committing a terrible sin such as adultery and the like. Falling from grace is when we dare want to be made holy by fulfilling the law. The law itself is good but has no power to make anyone holy. The purpose of the law was to point us to Jesus Christ. Now that Christ came, died, rose from the dead and ascended and sat at the right hand of God, the Father, then we are not obliged to rely on the law. Christ fulfilled the law and it is Him that has the power to make us holy. What is the big deal then? We need repentance. Repentance is not only for sinners. It is also for christians. It is when we accept all what the Lord Jesus has done for us and we turn away from legalistic way of christianity. We repent from dead works and we turn to relying on what the Lord has accomplished for us. We shouldn’t be like the law keepers, who were self righteous and judgemental. They relied on their good deeds and performance. Trusting in God’s grace requires repentance from dead works.