contemplations

What is repentance? Repentance is a turning of the heart towards God, propelled by God’s Spirit. It is a matter of our disposition towards God: our natural mental and emotional outlook, mood, and attitude towards God. In repentance, our disposition towards God is transformed. While we were once cold, bitter, and calloused towards God, we become concerned with God (we “seek His face”). Indifference to God and His ways evolves into a concern and care for God and His ways. I believe this is what repentance is all about.

Where does lifestyle change fit in? An ill disposition towards God produces a rebellious lifestyle indifferent to God’s desires for how we live. A renewed disposition, however, produces a lifestyle within us where we seek to live according to His desires for our lives because we generally care. We are placing God’s interests for our lives above our own. The heart of repentance is not in behavioral change: it is in a renewed disposition towards God. The reality or genuineness of our repentance is evidence in our lives: “Are we seeking to conform to the patterns of God’s ways or to the patterns of the world? Are we seeking to honor Him in the lives we live, or are we seeking to honor our own wishes, wants, and desires? Are we seeking to live in ways that reflect that status of our identity as God’s people, or are we seeking to live in ways that reflect the identity of those without Christ whom are perishing?” Note that the word seeking is used over-and-over. No one conforms to God’s behavioral desires perfectly. The issue lies within our true intentions—sometimes we can convince ourselves we are intent on doing something but really we are just deceiving ourselves. Our intentions speak to the reality—or lack thereof—of our repentance.

How does one come to repentance? Repentance is a gift of God: God works on our hearts through the teaching of the gospel, convicting us and prodding us towards repentance. However, the choice is ultimately ours. No one is forced into repentance. God does not draw us to Him so loudly that we cannot resist, nor does He draw us so quietly that we have to struggle to hear His voice. Mankind has the freedom to choose God or reject Him. In choosing God, a metaphysical shift takes place in our lives: as we turn our hearts to God in faith, the Holy Spirit enters into us and transforms us from the identity of “those whom are perishing” to “the holy and blameless children of God.”