Day 1
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2 NASB
Repent – “He, who truly repents, is chiefly sorry for his sins. He, whose repentance is spurious, is chiefly concerned for their consequences. The former chiefly regrets that he has done evil; the latter that he has incurred evil. One sorely laments that he deserves punishment; the other that he must suffer punishment. One approves of the Law which condemns him; the other thinks he is harshly treated, and that the Law is rigorous. To the sincere penitent, sin appears exceeding sinful; to him who sorrows after a worldly sort, sin, in some form, appears pleasant. He regrets that it is forbidden. One says it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against God, even if no punishment followed. The other sees little evil in transgression if there were no painful consequences sure to follow.”[1]
Plumer’s comment about the appearance of sin as pleasant but forbidden is very instructive. The truth of the matter is that for some of us sin does seem appealing. We just wish it weren’t. We wish we hade a vile hatred for sin so that it would be easier not to be tempted. But if we examine our actions very carefully, we just might find that the reason we try not to sin is because we fear the consequences. And if those consequences were removed, we might just go ahead with the anticipated act. Until sin becomes putrid, it will always appeal. Until we truly repent, we will be deterred but not altered.
Now Feinstein’s insight that biblical pollution is firmly set within a cultural acquisition of what is disgusting makes perfect sense. The Torah isn’t rules that prevent us from doing what we really wish. The Torah is a way of teaching us about repulsion. The Torah creates a culture where some things are so repugnant, so vile, so offensive that we just can’t even imagine doing them. For the culture of Torah, sin is like drinking sour milk. It reeks to high heaven. Now we can appreciate Oswald Chambers’ comment that for the true believer there is no such thing as a “moral vacation.” Saturnalia is a completely pagan holiday.
Now we also realize that John the Baptist did not use the Greek word metanoeo. This verb is derived from noeo, meaning “to perceive, to think, to know.” It is about a mental state chiefly determined by cognitive processes. But sin isn’t about wrong thinking. It is about disgusting behavior. “There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.”[2] Until sin makes me sick, it isn’t biblical. Repentance is not about changing my mind. It is about changing my moral taste buds. It is about acquiring the taste of heaven in a mouth made from the earth.
So this is Day 1. Day 1 of what? Day 1 of learning to be disgusted by the tastes we have grown accustomed to. Day 1 of not simply deciding to practice righteousness but rather of tasting the vomit we have been consuming. Here’s what I am proposing. Beginning today, and for the next 30 days, we will eat what we have sown so that we can reap what only God has planted. In other words, we will begin the process of truly hating sin, of finding it disgusting and nauseating so that we don’t want anything to do with it. This will require some serious self-examination. We will have to dig deep into those hidden spots where only consequence really keeps us from moral vacations. We will have to endure some vomit, some purging, so that we can get rid of the toxic accumulation that we have come to view as normal. As Peter said, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,” (1 Peter 1:14).
Write down that one thing that gnaws away at you, that one thing that you secretly wish just didn’t have fearful consequences so you could get away with it. Write it down—and then feel the idea. What does it taste like? Is it in some way appealing? Time to throw up.
Topical Index: sin, repentance, Plumer, Bennett, metanoeo, Matthew 3:2
[1] Dr. William S. Plumer, Repentance and Conversion
[2] Arnold Bennett
TRAVEL NOTE: Today I leave for Israel to prepare for the upcoming tour. My internet access will be limited for the next several weeks. Don’t be concerned if I can’t answer and comment for awhile.
CALENDAR NOTE: 2 events have been added in Portland and Salem, Oregon for September. Please check my calendar on the web site.
I used to think repentance was something I manufactured to bring to the altar. Silly me. I cannot be repentant in my flesh because nothing in my flesh finds sin repugnant!
I then despaired of being able to repent sincerely, until I realized that the Word tells me that repentance is a GIFT! Oh! That means that I don’t have to make it up, and it also means that I can ask for it! Now I go through my day asking to be sorry for (disusted by) things that are not of G-d. Much better results! Does that then make it G-d’s fault that I am not sorry? G-d forbid! It is MY responsibility to look into that perfect Law of liberty and see what I SHOULD be sorry for.
I have found something else. So often I have to be actually delivered from something BEFORE I find it repugnant. That makes sense, if you think about it. I naturally am in agreement with my own actions. That is the way I was made, in fact. Its not wrong, its just human, but it means that in my flesh I cannot even find the correct way (reason) to repent! In my flesh all I can do is be sorry that it didn’t work! I have to bring that disgusting(!) offering – my fake repentance – to the Temple like the polluted offering it is, and ask to have it redeemed – exchanged for a perfect one.
True repentance is like an alien force that crash-lands on my planet and splits my atoms apart. I was discussing the Second Law of Thermodynamics with my son, and he was observing that in a perfect world, atoms would not be decaying. Righteousness, I truly believe, resets even the physics of life; it superimposes a new reality – it rewinds our molecular clocks, so that our “youth is renewed like the eagle’s”. (So why am I going to die anyway? Perhaps it may be because some of the sins I have committed were “sins unto death” where, even though I am repentant and forgiven, have still sentenced me. But then, there were the perfected walks of Enoch and Elijah. I look at Moses, though, who repented but died.) So often I realize that I am being truly sorry (gifted with repentance) for something – repulsed and horrified by my actions – only AFTER I am delivered from it (from being in agreement with it). Deliverance, in fact, is a package deal. I get given not only the marvelous freedom from the bondage, but I also get given the correct reaction to it (disgust and just plain not interested anymore) after the fact, too. The miasma in front of my eyes and nose clears and I can see (and smell!) it for what it really is. And I used to think I had to do all that up front, in my own flesh, BEFORE I could get forgiven! No wonder I spun wheels for so long! Repentance in the flesh, then, is just another “dead works” – something that is going to get me dead. It is just another way to attempt to work my way to heaven.
I read somewhere that Yeshua is the only man Who was able to repent perfectly, but that was because He had nothing to repent of. And He offers His repentance to me, as a gift. Then His baptism becomes mine. He warned me, though, to get ready to die (sure wouldn’t want to be buried alive under that water!). Die to what? Sin. How? True repentance is a killer. It kills my flesh. And “no man yet hateth his flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth it”. I cannot even kill myself correctly! So, every day, I ask Him to kill me. Softly. With His smile. He does. And though He slays me, yet I trust Him. Sure does beat getting myself killed by my own actions, though! Halleluah!
This resonates clearly in my soul .
Thank you for this view of repentance being a gift .
Sounds like a Nefesh Detox… very good
Maybe if I vomit enough and literally enough, I can lose the weight that I so want to lose, but then weight is a Greek thing. Sorry. I have enough of the Hebrew stuff to change that will cause me nausea. This is not an easy assignment!
“For, brothers, you were called to be free. Only do not let that freedom become an excuse for allowing your old nature to have its way. Instead, serve one another in love. For the whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”, but if you go on snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other! What I am saying is this; run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism. And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; idol-worship and misuse of drugs in connection with the occult; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue, and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before; those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God! But the fruit (left by the actions) of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things. Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.” Sha’ul’s letter to the Messianic communities in Galatia 5.
Ahh…so – all the boundaries given to us by Torah are found in the life lived in the power of the Spirit – left here for us by the risen Messiah – therein is victory over re-awakening the desires for those death giving snares and traps yet once again. Spirit of God! Give us Your Power!
Precisely. I’m in 🙂
Day 1
Scarewwy Stuff!! 🙂 day 1 me also.
Don’t be scaward Robert-: ) just remember the secret David knew, “Nevertheless, You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our ancestors put their trust; they trusted, and you rescued them. They cried to You and escaped; they trusted in You and were not disappointed.” Ps. 22 When the scaway comes around-praise Him and He’ll come to rescue you – He’s got your back!
How To Make Heaven Happy
“Think Different”
“Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2)
Solomon prayed for wisdom, God was pleased with his request and wisdom was granted (given) unto him.
But as for this man, as for me, what would I – what should I ask for to make Heaven happy?
I would ask for the gift, (yes, it is a magnificent gift!) of repentance.
~When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted (given) repentance that leads to life.” ~ (Acts 11:18)
Yes, “even to the Gentiles!” May I? Hallelujah! Thank you God, for extending Your grace, Your mercy, Your salvation, the gift of Your love to “whosoever will!” (Gentiles also included!)
Thank You, my Heavenly Father for inviting and including a sinner, such as myself, not only for the forgiveness of sins, but also to feast at a King’s table and to know experientially, when I bow the knee and pray, my prayer is heard and is answered according to Your good pleasure. Thank you for the recognition and realization of the amazing gift of Your grace given unto me by the effectual working of Your power, at work in all who are willing to confess, Jesus Christ is LORD, ‑ all to the glory of God.
Thank You for your unbreakable and unshakeable promise – that if we “draw near unto You – You will draw near unto us.” Give us, perhaps only a much needed glimpse of “the exceeding greatness of Your power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of Your mighty power, the very same Authority actively working in us that raised the Anointed One from the dead and has seated Him in the place of honor at Your right hand in the heavenly realms.” Amen.
LORD, unto us, and through Your active and living Word You have spoken:
~ there is great rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” ~ (Luke 15.10)
“I’ve done far more repenting after I got saved than I did when I got saved. ” (Adrian Rogers)
http://www.lwf.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12107
Repentance is …. “not only to feel conviction, confession, and contrition for sin, ……..—to turn from our wicked ways.” It is a process of walking and keeping ALL His commandments, FROM the beginning – Genesis to Revelation, no skipping over the first FIVE Books of the Bible (Torah), nor, skipping over certain verses. And, not ‘studying’/reading just the “NT”.
Don’t miss out the blessings of keeping Torah! Study the Torah, a vital foundation to built upon, and be blessed. As rabbi Bob said, “you can’t built a second storey without the first”!
An old Lays commercial. You can’t eat just one. I’ll start with just one but the flood is huge.
WOW
-Wow. Looking forward to this process. Very timely.
-Can’t tell you how much of an impact your study on sin, sinful nature has made on my life/family’s life.
-G-d bless your travels Skip.
“… we will eat what we have sown….” naturally! We sow discord/chaos, we reap discord/chaos when we are not walking in YHWH’s ways/order according to His Word.
May we be so nauseated by our moral taste buds, and repulsed to throw up, never to go that way ever again. Amein.
“… so that we can reap what only God has planted.” Amein!
May we begin the process of truly hating unrighteousness, a heart issue; all unrighteousness is SIN/transgression; not loving truth nor justice, nor humility.
Sin, as most of us know is the transgression of the ‘law’/Torah, no choosing part nor portion of His instructions!
It is about disgusting, unjust behavior, and not being in awe/fear of YHWH, nor having respect for those seeking His ways.
So, true repentance is really about turning back to walk in ALL His ways/instructions spelt out in His Word. Shalom.