REPENT AND FIND REDEMPTION

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?

Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of Your unfailing love. Among the dead no one proclaims Your name. Who praises You from the grave?

I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.

Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

Psalm 6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Repentance. It’s one of the most important “R” words in the Christian vernacular. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it is one of the words we don’t focus enough on and maybe this is why we find our world in the state it’s in.

For if we were truly serious about repentance, we would turn from our sinful ways and instead walk in righteousness. The world would be more right than wrong – more good than bad. But the reality is that we’re off track, walking the wide road of destruction that Jesus said many would travel. And the only way to get back where we need to be is to do a u-turn spiritually and we only pull off that maneuver through repentance.

So why don’t we repent? Maybe because we have become too desensitized to sin and how much God hates it. Maybe we have forgotten the image of the bleeding Jesus nailed to the cross of Calvary, nailed there because of our sins that He was willing to die and pay the price for so we wouldn’t have to. Perhaps our attitude would be different if it was you and I who faced crucifixion for sin if we didn’t turn from it. I think there would be a lot of u-turns made if that was the case.

But that’s not the way it is. God told us that He despised sin, He showed us that He will bring wrath on those who turn from Him and choose sin instead, and He promised us that we are destined for the fires of Hell, short of having a Savior. Because of this, we should turn from sin because we stand before an Almighty God that we should fear out of reverence for His power and might and authority over us, His created people. But we don’t behave as if we’re afraid. We behave as if we wish to challenge God and we had better wake up.

As we look at the 6th Psalm, we certainly don’t see David with an attitude of indifference toward God and where he stands before Him in his sinfulness. Look at David’s words:

“Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish.”

David is in anguish. He knows God is a God of judgment and he knows he is a sinner. Why else would he ask for God to not rebuke him – to not discipline him in His wrath? David knew he was in trouble coming before a God of judgment and he knew he needed pardon. In humility, he came before God, knowing that no one else was his judge and no one else could deliver Him.

We could learn a lot from David.

David knew he had no chance for salvation without God’s mercy and so he cried out for it. He knew the Lord was his Deliverer, the only One who could save him. Why would God do this? Because of His unfailing God for David and because of His unfailing love for all mankind. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God did not wish for His creation to perish and so He sent a Savior to pay the price for our sins and bring us pardon. The same God who David knew would deliver is the God who delivers us today.

But we must turn from our sins. We must see ourselves as hopeless without Jesus, the only One who brings us hope, the only One who delivers us from God’s wrath and judgment, and the only One who can bring us to the Father and eternal life (John 14:6).

Have you turned to God today, repented, and asked Him for His mercy and grace? Have you thanked Him for His deliverance through His Son Jesus who He gave willingly through His unfailing love for you? And have you made a renewed commitment to turn from sin, committing yourself anew to live as Jesus lived, walking toward full righteousness and away from sin.

We need to pray like David and see the great mercy of our Father as expressed through His deliverance by the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

God’s grace is amazing. His love is unfailing. But we’ll never experience either to its fullest measure if we don’t repent. For when we do, we discover another important “R” word, redemption.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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