Truly Repentant

We who believe in God have a problem defending His justice. He is supposed to reward the good and punish the wicked. Yet God rewards the good, how do we explain the persecutions of Christians throughout the world? If God rewards the good, shouldn’t they be treated better?


Punishment for the wicked is even more perplexing. Innocents suffer, while guilty do not. How can He punish the wicked sometimes, and not others?

An easy answer would be to say that there is no God, or that God exists but doesn’t care about us. But then we see things that happen that cannot be explained naturally. Sometimes God does something so spectacular that we cannot deny His existence. Sometimes, he does miraculously punish the wicked and reward the good.

But God does not make a habit of breaking into time and space, violating the laws of the nature he created. If He did, then the laws of nature would not exist. Yet He always rewards the ood an punishes the wicked. Look as Ezekiel 18; 26-32.

If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin, he will die for it; because of the sin he has committed he will die. But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die.

Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Are my ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

"Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”

God punishes the wicked and rewards the good in two ways.

First, when we die. Even if a wicked man escapes now, he will not escape in the next life.

Jonathan Edwards illustrated this in his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of And Angry God.” Edwards preached on the text in Psalm 73, which says “Their feet shall slide in due time.” Edwards offered three points of explanation. 1) That their feet will certainly and inevitably slide 2) That they would not know the end time or the means of that sliding. It could come at any second. 3)When the it comes, it will be utter, complete and permanent.

He concluded that sinners are like spiders, dangling by a single thread over the yawning flames of hell, to which they may plunge at any moment and meet their doom, unless they find repentance and forgiveness.

Not a very cheery thought, is it?

With the same certainty, those who trust Jesus will receive riches and blessings in heaven. He will welcome His faithful to Him, were we will rule with Him. We who suffer in this earth receive reward in the next.

But this is not, I think, what Ezekiel is talking about. There is another judgment—an earthly judgment. The laws of nature bring their own rewards and punishment. He has given His word to show us the way to navigate this life. Ignore that guidance and you will be lost.

Michael Shaara’s book The Killer Angels, a novel about the battle of Gettysburg, opens with the arrival of a southern spy in General Lee’s camp. The spy tells him that the Northern army is just ahead. Lee is suspicious of this message. For one thing he is an actor--a profession that was despised by many in his day. Besides that, he is also a spy. Like most commanders of his day Lee considered espionage to be unmanly and unfair. He ignored the warning and marched into defeat.

There are certain virtues which lead us to reward--thrift, generosity, love, self control, perseverance, and others. There are also certain vice which, when practiced result in disaster—waste, self indulgence, laziness, procrastination, gluttony, arrogance, selfishness, stinginess, drunkenness--the list goes on and on.

Repentance means to turn around. We have to reject our vices before we can embrace our virtues. We must reject the darkness before we can embrace the light. But how

One of the best known prayers of the church begins by saying “Lord, we know we have sinned by thought, word and deed. We have left undone those things we should have done, we have done those things we should not have done, and the truth is not in us.” This prayer suggests that the idea of being good is much more complicated than most people imagine. We sin in attitude, appetite, action, and omission.

We have allowed ourselves to have the wrong attitude. We harbor arrogance and hatred, selfishness and sloth. We know we shouldn’t feel this way, but we tell ourselves we can’t help it. Instead of stopping right there and digging out the roots of our bad attitudes, we allow them to take root in our hearts.

We have indulged our appetites. We hang over sin like a drunk college student hanging off a balcony ad Myrtle Beach. We get as close to danger as we can, thinking that we’ll never fall. We’re wrong. We will.

We have sinned in action. We have committed awful sins. What makes it even worse is that we’ve done it so much that we no longer notice how awful they are.

We have omitted to do the right thing. Sins of omission are worse than sins of commission. The worst part about sins of omission is that no one even enjoys doing them. We do them because we are lazy. Because we don’t enjoy them and can be committed so easily, we assume they must not be as bad as the other kind. We’re wrong. They are.

At the heart of every sin there are three lies—not lies we tell to others, but lies we tell to ourselves.

First we tell ourselves that we don’t have a problem. The first lie of the addict (and all sinners are addicts of one kind or another) is that there is nothing wrong with what we are doing. We deny it to others and even to ourselves. An sin addict has learned to compartmentalize his life, so that he can be good at times and wicked at others.

We tell ourselves we’re normal. It’s normal to drink a six pack of beers a night. It’s normal to eat whatever you want whenever you want. There’s nothing wrong with sleeping with strange women if you are not in town. We say it’s not a problem and we hide our sins even from ourselves.

Brendan Manning writes about an incident that happened while he was in rehab, recovering from alcoholism. A new patient had just joined his small group. He complained that he did not belong here—he was only here because his wife nagged him into coming. He was not an alcoholic. He was confined there unjustly.

“Do you drink?” asked the therapist.

“Sure,” he answered, “but not much. A beer or two a day.”

“Oh, really?” said the therapist. “Let’s find out.” The therapist brought out a telephone and called his wife. She said he at least a six pack every night, until he passed out.

“She’s exaggerating,” he said.

“Okay, let’s call your bartender.” He called the bar where he usually drank on his way home. The bartender told that he was a sloppy drunk and had been repeatedly asked to leave.

“Anyway,” he said. “It’s never interfered with being a good father and good worker.”

“Let’s call you daughter.” He said. His daughter told of the times he beat her in a drunken fit. His boss told of the missed hours and the sloppy work. By the end of the session the man was lying on the floor, sobbing. His deception had been broken. Now his healing could begin.

Second, we tell ourselves that we have a problem, but it’s not so bad. We play the comparison game. We point fingers at everyone else and say that we all do it. There is always someone worse than we are. If we can’t find anyone worse, then we say “I can stop any time I want to.” We can’t stop. We are addicts. If we could have stopped, we would.

Then there is the “tomorrow” lie--procrastination. We simply put it off. We assume that there are things more urgent than our problem Once we get those things straightened out, we’ll deal with what’s really ruining our lives. But tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow there’s another excuse, and another, and another. There is always something more immediate. We are today is what we will be tomorrow, unless we change today while we have it.

Disaster does not come at once. It results from the slow collection of little sins. We didn’t become fat in one meal--we did it day by day, always eating a little more than we should. We didn’t suddenly fall into adultery. We allowed ourselves the indulgence of ogling women and pornography. Then one day, we discover we’ve crossed a line from a sin of the appetite to a sin of action.

If we admit to all this, there is one more lie we must overcome, the “old dog” lie. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” We do not believe we can change, so what is the use of trying? We run from our despair to the very sins that are already ruining our lives.

Ezekiel exposes this lie. If we repent, we live. We will not escape the consequences, but at least we won’t add to them. In time, we will recover the way we have lost with God’s help. But if we do not change, we will die. It is as simple as that. Sin and die. Repent and live.

What do we do about it. We must reverse the lies. Instead of denying our problem, admit it. Instead of telling ourselves that it is not so bad, admit that it is even worse than we imagined. God only hold us accountable for the sins we know, not the sins we don’t know. But that doesn’t mean we can ever know all our sins. The closer we come to God, the more we realize that our righteousness is filthy rags. Instead of putting it off, do it now. Instead of saying that we can never change—change, not matter what the cost. If you are struggling with addictions, resolve that you will do whatever it takes to change it. If you’re appetites are out of control, flee temptations. Don’t let your appetites bring you to destruction.

Repentance is not about God’s wrath. If God were a wrathful god, then repentance would do you no good. But God has provided a place of forgiveness at the Cross of Christ. He died to forgive our sins, and set the prisoners free.

Don’t let your sins ruin your life. Turn around now, while you still have the chance and discover the wonderful path to strength in Jesus Christ.