As we continue our way through the New Testament, I’m moving ahead into 1 John.  This book has a special place in my heart, because I have found myself coming back to it often amidst trials, and when I am in need of reminding of the gospel (which is every day).

In the passage below, I want us to hear from God the answers to the following questions -What role does repentance have in the life of a Christian?  What does it look like?  How does the gospel of Jesus enter into repentance?

1 John 1:5-10 – “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Let’s walk through this together.  It’s good news, and Truth, that God is perfectly good, perfectly righteous, and there is no sin or evil either outwardly, or inwardly in His motivations.  This is our God.  This is the God who loved us enough to die to ransom us, and with whom everyone who hopes in Jesus alone for salvation will spend eternity.  We could sit in those truths and rejoice for eternity, (and we will in Heaven) but for today let’s keep moving.

Knowing that about God’s holiness and righteousness, it follows that we cannot say we have fellowship (intimate relationship) with God, while we are walking in sin.  What does this mean?  It means that if we have unchecked sin in our life, unconfessed sin that we are practicing, and hiding from others – we do not have fellowship with our holy God.  It’s an important question to check our own hearts when we find ourselves in sin – Why do we want to stop sinning?  If we want to stop sinning simply because the guilt we feel or consequences we have from sin, we are no different from a non-believer.  We pursue righteousness, personal holiness because we have tasted the goodness of God, and the sweetness of fellowship with Him, and we want fellowship with Him more than we want whatever temporal pleasures or comfort sin may seemingly offer.

Repentance literally means to change ones mind about a thing.  It means before I sought pleasure and comfort in this way, and now I see there is no lasting pleasure or comfort in those things, and instead I see and savor God as my ultimate treasure and pursue Him.  So it doesn’t mean that I never struggle with sin, but it mean that the gospel of Jesus Christ has destroyed the lie of sin, that joy can be found there, and so we push forward seeking more of God each day.

I love the next verses John gives, because it kills any pride or root of self-righteousness that may want to spring up in a Christian.  verses 8-10:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  Let’s stop there for a moment.  When is that not true?  What moment in our earthly life, will that statement of God not be valid for every one of us?  Among our Christian friends, if they ask us how they can be praying for us – there is always something to be prayed for.  If they ask what sin we are struggling with, and how they can encourage us and pray for us, there should always be an answer other than “I’m ok”.  None of us are ok, apart from the grace and mercy of God, and so we need to be running back to the cross of Jesus as often as we can, to be reminded of what He has done for us.

What is the good news?  If we confess our sins – God is faithful and right to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Now, in reality, all of our sins were atoned for, and we were made right with God through Jesus 2,000 years ago, so what does this mean for us?  It means our soul will be cleansed and renewed to have fellowship with God, where our joy is found.  Looking at the flip side, if we are not confessing our sins, it means that we are actively disbelieving the gospel because at a heart level it means that we are not trusting in God’s grace and forgiveness through Christ.  I’m going to be explicit here, because many will try a type of compartmentalization here that is deceiving and unhelpful if someone simply takes this confession to be to God – this confession should be both to God and another Christian brother or sister.  There is so much healing God wants for you in being known by other followers of Jesus – to hear your sin, and have someone look at you and mourn your sin and it’s devastation with you, but also remind you of the gospel.

John wraps up his call to confession with yet another reminder, that we are all sinners, and to say otherwise is to betray our own ignorance of God and His holiness.  We are all in this together.

Humility, Repentance, Forgiveness, Grace, and Mercy – these should mark the daily lives of Christ followers.  Humble because we’re all sinners.  Repentant because we have tasted the goodness of God, and want more of Him for our joy.  Forgiving, because we are constantly being forgiven by God.  Gracious because all good things in our life have been undeserved and a gift of God, so we are gracious to others.  Merciful, because we have been extended great mercy by God through Jesus, and so we are able to extend mercy to fellow sinners.  All of this bears itself out in walking in repentance daily.

My exhortation is to find people whom you can do this with.  If you have barriers from past experiences, I would encourage you to talk with a pastor or elder about that, and work to find a group of people who will love and encourage you towards Christ, and whom you can likewise love and encourage towards Christ.  If you are walking in darkness, hiding from others because of shame from your sin – I want to ask you gently, how is that going?  What good has come from hiding?  The peace you are seeking, the freedom and joy you desire, can only be found in a transparent relationship with God.

One of my elders of my own church said it very well in this way – Better to be honest and broken, but secure in your salvation, than to be hiding and seemingly ok, but condemned.  God will meet you wherever you are, just come.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Our hearts yearn for fulfillment.  Sin is deceptive and will tell us that we cannot be happy unless we have what the world offers.  How can we, sinners in a world of sin, hope to overcome temptations that would draw us away from God?  What holds us to God, when the world is constantly seeking to pull us from Him?

1 Peter 2:1-5 – “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

God, in the passage above, has much to encourage us with.  This passage is a wheel that turns on the center statement – “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good”.  I found myself laboring to try to explain what this means.  I have a feeling for those who have tasted the Lord’s goodness, no explanation is needed, yet for those who have not, I can try to explain, but it is like trying to explain love or loss to someone who has never experienced it.  The Lord is good to us beyond anything we can fathom.  He is perfect love, perfect faithfulness, and He is for us; even to the point of suffering shame, beatings, death, and the wrath of God in our place.

What does your heart say about God over everything else in your life?  The goodness of God, being the place where your heart finds rest in this world broken by sin, allows for both repentance and a heart that pursues Christ in holiness from His Word.  The heart wants what it wants – unless you have tasted the goodness of God, then every bit of repentance the Bible calls you towards will be burdensome to you.  1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”  

Repentance is more than just feeling bad about your wrongs, it literally means to change one’s mind.  The repentance that God calls us to is not burdensome because we see the goodness of God, we see the lies and deceitfulness of sin, and we joyfully reject sin and run after God, trusting that whatever happens in our life, wherever God leads us, we are in the hands of a God who loves us and is always for us.  We don’t want to sin against God, because we love Him – we’ve tasted the goodness of God, we do not want to bring dishonor to His name, and we trust that in Him and in following Him there is peace and a fullness of joy in fellowship with Him.

Psalm 84:11 – “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Repentance is fueled by our coming to God daily to be reminded of His goodness and promises towards us.  Many people, myself included have often come to God’s Word looking for answers about what things we should do or not do.  God doesn’t work that way.  God doesn’t give us a list of things to do, He just calls us to love Him with all our heart.  That may seem simplistic in a world where decisions have to be made every day, but that is the peace of God – that we can seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness and trust that whatever that looks like will be the best possible path for us to take.  So we come to God, in His Word often to be refreshed by the Truth of God for us, worked out by the Spirit of God in us, so that we would find greater freedom and joy in Christ.

The outcome of this, is that just as Christ was rejected by men, we too will be rejected by many.  There will be trials that come from following God, but for those who have tasted the goodness of God, we can persevere through any trials knowing that Christ is with us and for us every step, every moment of our lives.  Philippians 4:12-13 – “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  

I’m going to try to land the plane here.  The goodness of God is tasted and savored by every Christian indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God through faith.  It is the goodness of God that fuels both true repentance from the deceitfulness of sin, and delight in the pursuit of God in holiness.  We come to God’s word not from obligation, but meekly, in need of regular refreshment in the goodness of God and His promises towards us in our Lord, Christ Jesus.  As those who have tasted the goodness of God, we are being built up into Him, after His likeness, so that as time goes by we will find less of our old selves, and more of Him for our joy.

As one who is with you in the fight for faith, my encouragement is to keep going to the One who has eternal life.  We cannot change our hearts, but God can, and promises to do so.  We have no hope in ourselves, but perfect hope in Christ, our savior.  Together we ask, for Him to reveal more of His goodness to us, and for our hearts to be knit together with His for our good and His glory.

Grace and Peace,

Adam