John the Baptist: Repentance

Today people don’t need to clean up their lives first in order to become Christians.

I’m not waiting until I get my act together before I go to Jesus for forgiveness!

I’m coming to Jesus right now,
* just as I am, tossed around with all kinds of conflicts and doubts.

* I’m coming just as I am, with lots of fears and struggles inside me;

* I'm coming just as I am, poor, wretched and blind.

For you and me today, Messiah has already come and He presents the full gospel.

Do you believe this is true: That Jesus, in history, is the Messiah, a real man Who lived two thousand years ago, Who also is and always was God?

Do you believe that He died on the cross for our sins, that He was, in real life, raised from the dead, that He actually rose up, bodily, into heaven, and that He has sent His Spirit to literally live inside every person who believes and accepts these truths?

Repentance happens as a person hears the gospel, understands it and accepts it, and as God's regeneration of that person changes them from being dead in their sins to being spiritually alive.

Repentance is the first step in getting right with God

It is the power that comes from Jesus’ Spirit living in you and me who believe these truths that makes it possible to live a holy life.

You and I need to repent every day, even after we have entered into new life, even after having been made into "new creations" by the power of God. We need God’s grace every day. What wrong thinking do you need to abandon? What sin have you been having a hard time ‘fessing up to?

Trying to live a holy life is not enough. Going to church, reading the Bible, keeping religious disciplines, does not make you and me today automatically eligible to enter the kingdom of heaven. Confession is good. Commitment is good. But you and I can’t keep it up on our own. You and I need something more. We need the Holy Spirit’s power to live a holy life.

Repentance is a prerequisite, a necessary condition for salvation. But even after a you and I are saved, we continue to sin. The Bible calls us to repent again and again as we are convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit.

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