Understanding repentance--what it is (and is not) and why it is necessary--is a futile pursuit without understanding the context of repentance, namely, its placement within the gospel and, in addition, the gospel's placement within the ultimate story of God. The gospel--understood to be the proclamation of Christ crucified and resurrected--only finds meaning within the ultimate story of God, namely a story of redemption and renewal. At the expense of simplifying something quite complex, the story of God begins in Genesis 1 and culminates at the end of Revelation. It is a story of creation, spoiled creation, and then renewed/restored creation. By creation I refer not just to nature and the cosmos--everything from millipedes to swirling galaxies--but the whole of creation, including man itself. Thanks be to sin for the current state of spoil and corruption; the ultimate plan of God is reconciling all things to Himself, Christianese language speaking of God making everything right again. That's the ultimate purpose of God, and he is doing it through Christ. Christ's resurrection inaugurated the dawning of the new age--the beginning of the restoration--and his "return" or "second coming" or "appearing" will be the great victory against evil and death and will be the moment when the new age dawns brilliantly and fully. The gospel proclamation--of Christ crucified and resurrected--finds its home within this story; specifically, it is Christ who has inaugurated this new age in the present, and Christians are those who have already stepped into this new age, indwelt by the Spirit of Christ as the down-payment and guarantee of our final resting place in the renewed creation. Obviously I am simplifying all this a great deal, but this post is not about that so much as it is repentance.
Repentance--what it is--is essentially a "change of mind," a change in one's mental disposition towards something. Specifically, it is a change in disposition towards God. No matter the processes that spurn repentance, a person repents in the biblical sense when he puts his allegiance in Christ--the bare-bones meaning of faith--and forsakes his own kingdom for the kingdom of God (another Christianese word which refers to the rule of God, experienced presently in part and fully in the future). Thus repentance is basically "stepping into" the new age, living it in the present. The benefits of repentance are experienced in the present and the future. In the present, repentance rescues us from the foolish pursuits and lifestyles of the world and the obvious consequences therein; and in the future, repentance is that which grants us grace so that we can take share in our inheritance in the renewed cosmos. This is all quite simplified, and I'm going to sketch it out in greater detail, though probably not on this blog.
Basically, I am a firm believer that any study of repentance--or, for that matter, faith, to which repentance is, in Jewish thought, the "first half"--must not simply make room for the story of God and the gospel but make its home within it.
Repentance--what it is--is essentially a "change of mind," a change in one's mental disposition towards something. Specifically, it is a change in disposition towards God. No matter the processes that spurn repentance, a person repents in the biblical sense when he puts his allegiance in Christ--the bare-bones meaning of faith--and forsakes his own kingdom for the kingdom of God (another Christianese word which refers to the rule of God, experienced presently in part and fully in the future). Thus repentance is basically "stepping into" the new age, living it in the present. The benefits of repentance are experienced in the present and the future. In the present, repentance rescues us from the foolish pursuits and lifestyles of the world and the obvious consequences therein; and in the future, repentance is that which grants us grace so that we can take share in our inheritance in the renewed cosmos. This is all quite simplified, and I'm going to sketch it out in greater detail, though probably not on this blog.
Basically, I am a firm believer that any study of repentance--or, for that matter, faith, to which repentance is, in Jewish thought, the "first half"--must not simply make room for the story of God and the gospel but make its home within it.
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