ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Saturday March 25, 2017

“With YOU, there is forgiveness of sin”

"If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You,

That You may be feared. O Israel, hope in the LORD;

For with the LORD there is mercy,

And with Him is abundant redemption." - Psalm 130:3-4,7

True Repentance

The Nature of Repentance

Elements in repentance – (continued)

5)  but there is another element which is all too often and easily forgotten, perhaps because it scarcely seems consistent with these other aspects. True repentance always involves the recognition of the pardon of God. As the Westminster shorter catechism rightly says, ‘we repent because we have an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. It is the grace of God which teaches us to fear as well as he leaves out fears.’

The classic illustration of this is found in Psalm 130, which Martin Luther called a ‘Pauline Psalm’ for this very reason. There, the Psalmist is conscious of his sin to the point of being nearly overwhelmed: he cries to God out of the depths (verse 1). He knows that if God kept a record of his sins, he could not hope to stand (verse 3). Yet his hope is this: ‘with you there is forgiveness; that you may be feared… For with the Lord steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption’ (Psalm 130:4, 7). Only when we turn away from looking at all sin to look at the face of God, to find his parting grace, and we begin to repent. Only by seeing that there is grace and forgiveness with him when we ever dared to repent and thus returned to the Fellowship and presents of the father.

This is why, in the New Testament, repentance is seen as a gift of the gospel which comes to us through Christ (acts 5:31; 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25). It is, says Paul, the kindness of God which leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). The law may lead to conviction, exposing a sense of guilt and need, as it did also in Paul’s experience (Romans 7:7 – 13). But only when grace appears on the horizon offering forgiveness will the sunshine of the love of God melt our hearts and draw us back to him.

Challenge:

As repulsive as sin should be to us, the flip side of conversation is God’s kindness. God’s grace always balances out the “doom and gloom.” Give thanks for God’s unsearchable and unbelievable heart in extending His open arms to wicked wretch like us!

Memory Verse:

Pea hae homou loto, ‘o ‘ikai ko homou kofu, pea mou foki kia Sihova ko homou ‘Otua; he ko e Angalelei ia mo e ‘Alo‘ofa, Tuai-ki-he-houhau, pea Fonu-‘i-he-kelesi, pea ‘oku ne momou ‘i he kovi. – Sioeli 2:13

So rend your heart, and not your garments;

Return to the Lord your God,

For He is gracious and merciful,

Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

And He relents from doing harm. – Joel 2:13

Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)

Week 12 – Deuteronomy 6-26; Psalm 5, 115, 6; Luke 7-11