Repentance and Grace

“From that time on, Jesus began to preach: Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the taping of a pilot for a proposed talk show. The host was a former pastor who is nationally known, the producer has had a string of hits in the last decade, and the show is to be centered on the topic of spirituality. The format was fresh and compelling, the music was attractive, and the host was winsome in his presentation. I have no doubt this show will be picked up.

During one segment, the host answered questions from the audience about God and spirituality, and while his communication style was captivating, the content of the answers left me frustrated. I understood that this program was not necessarily designed for believers, and I appreciated the clear desire to share the message of the grace of God with a population who does not understand that. But when given solid opportunities to declare the whole story of grace, this former pastor expertly dodged every chance he got.

I’m a HUGE proponent of grace; it’s one of my very favorite things about God. But grace isn’t just God giving us a pass on our sins. Grace is God encountering us when we are most messed up, then reclaiming and redeeming our lives. Grace is God stepping in to help when we don’t and can’t possibly deserve it. Grace was Jesus dying so that you and I could live fully, free from sin and bondage, the way God created us to live.

Grace is freely given, but in order to walk in it, repentance is necessary. Repent means to change the way you think, to turn the opposite direction from where you are heading. If a person is not willing to head a different direction than where they are going or is not willing to be transformed into something completely different than what they currently are, then they have missed the truly good news Jesus offers us.

This message is important for christians,—even (especially) leaders—too, because we also need to repent. Repentance is not just a one-time event, it’s a continual turning towards God; it’s a constant recognition that God’s undeserved favor allows me to turn around when I’m not on the right track. When I get stuck in my thinking, I need to repent. When I get pulled into sin, I need to repent. When I realize I’ve been leading people down the wrong path, I need to repent.

A constant position of repentance keeps our hearts soft before God and our lives open before people. When we refuse to acknowledge our sin and mistakes, we build a wall around ourselves that works to keep grace out. I want to suggest that as believers we should seek to look for an area every day that we can repent over either to God or to others—an attitude or a word or an action or an inclination—because I believe that posture of repentance will open our lives even more to the reality of the nearness of the Kingdom of heaven.

Spend some time today considering where you may need to repent. And then do it.