" “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster." (Joel 2:12-13, ESV)
It is an unmistakable truth that repentance is a necessary ingredient of salvation. “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.(Luke 13:3)”
Too many people today are “soft-pedaling” the true gospel. They make an appeal to the lost to come to Jesus because He will make your life better. And, that is partially true if correctly understood. They continue with the soft-sell by saying that Jesus will give you joy and peace. Again, this is another partial truth. But, what they fail to make clear is that all of this is predicated upon the removal of sin.
We have joy, peace and a better life because through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can have forgiveness of sin. Salvation is not to save me to a better circumstance in which I live. Salvation is saving me from the punishment I deserve because of my sin.
It is that understanding of sin that leads to true repentance. If the offer is just for better circumstances there will not be sufficient cause to truly repent.
In Joel we see that the message of the Lord is for genuine, sustained repentance. They were to return to the Lord will all their heart. They were to rend their hearts, not their garments.
When the Israelites mourned they would commonly tear their clothes. It was an outward showing of humility. But, this seeming act of contrition often was just perfunctory. It was something a person did in order to get what they wanted. It was a routine, a tradition and it was done without thought or meaning.
God can see through false humility. He can see through actions that look pious but are really self-serving. The sacrifices that God desires is a broken and contrite heart.
The other ingredient of true repentance is time. Repentance is not just a one time action. It is to continue. The effects of true repentance can be seen in the lifestyle of the person. It is verified by time. Jesus says, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.(Matt. 3:8)”
I love the motivation for repentance in the passage in Joel. The call to the Israelites was to return to God because – He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love. Wow! All of those characteristics relate to our sin. We deserve His anger, because of our sin – and He offers grace and mercy and love. Therefore, just like the Israelites, we should return to Him in repentance.
It is an unmistakable truth that repentance is a necessary ingredient of salvation. “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.(Luke 13:3)”
Too many people today are “soft-pedaling” the true gospel. They make an appeal to the lost to come to Jesus because He will make your life better. And, that is partially true if correctly understood. They continue with the soft-sell by saying that Jesus will give you joy and peace. Again, this is another partial truth. But, what they fail to make clear is that all of this is predicated upon the removal of sin.
We have joy, peace and a better life because through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can have forgiveness of sin. Salvation is not to save me to a better circumstance in which I live. Salvation is saving me from the punishment I deserve because of my sin.
It is that understanding of sin that leads to true repentance. If the offer is just for better circumstances there will not be sufficient cause to truly repent.
In Joel we see that the message of the Lord is for genuine, sustained repentance. They were to return to the Lord will all their heart. They were to rend their hearts, not their garments.
When the Israelites mourned they would commonly tear their clothes. It was an outward showing of humility. But, this seeming act of contrition often was just perfunctory. It was something a person did in order to get what they wanted. It was a routine, a tradition and it was done without thought or meaning.
God can see through false humility. He can see through actions that look pious but are really self-serving. The sacrifices that God desires is a broken and contrite heart.
The other ingredient of true repentance is time. Repentance is not just a one time action. It is to continue. The effects of true repentance can be seen in the lifestyle of the person. It is verified by time. Jesus says, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.(Matt. 3:8)”
I love the motivation for repentance in the passage in Joel. The call to the Israelites was to return to God because – He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love. Wow! All of those characteristics relate to our sin. We deserve His anger, because of our sin – and He offers grace and mercy and love. Therefore, just like the Israelites, we should return to Him in repentance.
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