ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Sunday March 19, 2017

“True repentance”

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

True Repentance

Faith and repentance are twin doctrines and cannot be separated. All true evangelical experience necessarily involves both. If we truly believe in Christ, it must be penitently; if we repent of sin, it must be believingly. Furthermore, these twin responses to the grace of God are not only joined together at their birth, they remain inseparable throughout the whole of life just as we continue to trust in Christ as our Savior and Lord, we continue in in the life of repentance. It is in this sense that John Calvin understands repentance when he defines it in these terms:

Repentance… Is that food turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of him; and it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit.

Although we are still at the stage of considering the privileges and experiences would stand at the gate to the Christian life, we must not lose sight of this lifelong dimension in repentance.

A.        The nature of repentance

in the Old Testament, several ideas are included in the vocabulary for repentance. The word nacham, expresses a sense of sorrow sometimes including the consequence of a change of purpose or action. In other form, it refers more to the consequences of sorrow, and conveys the idea of comforting oneself. Possibly this included the general idea that through repentance one discovers a psychological release and comfort. These words can even be used of God in the Old Testament. The most important word theologically is shud which means ‘to return’. It conveys the idea of leaving something behind, being quit with it. It has strong physical connotations and is used of the people’s return from exile in Babylon to Jerusalem what God had promised the blessing of his presence with them. This is the heart of repentance. It is a returning to God.

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 6-9; Luke 7