Biblical Repentance and the Gospel- a heart transplant, war and the divine grace of God. Part 1

Biblical Repentance and the Gospel- a heart transplant, war and the divine grace of God. Part 1

When asked what they, the masses of people coming to be baptised by John the Baptist should do to prepare for Jesus coming, he replied: 'repent.'

The general principle involves a change of heart and direction - you were following the course and the spirit of the world, now worship God and pursue walk after the Holy Spirit. Turn from the wicked, self serving direction you were living and now walk and live for God and serve Jesus your master, now seek to please His desires, not your own.

Not only is it just a heart change, it is a change in particular deeds and works as well. He replied those of you with 2 portions of food, give some to the poor, those with clothing, share it out, do not exploit people in business -take no more than is required for your living. The words of John pierced and condemned the wicked, selfish deeds of his generation, which pointed to deeper heart attitudes which needed to be corrected, that needed much changing.

How do we then proceed to change the heart? How do we obey the call to repent?

No one can change the heart, only God. Sin is so far wound up in our heart, our selfish desires do far woven in that only a surgery of His Spirit can untangle the mess. Untangling is just the first step. Tracing the chords of sin, seeing the magnitude of the problem and cutting the chords of sin – that is the beginning of repentance but we don’t just need untangling - we need a whole heart transplant. First untangle, remove heart then replace heart. Simple. Impossible with man, but entirely possible with God. This is God’s work and miracle in repentance.
It involves a deliberate act of the will.

A doubled resolve and Holy Spirit empowered choice to obey the Lord. A choice when taken will take you to war with your flesh. It is a violent, bloody, all or nothing war. Bow before the enemy of sin and the flesh and be willing to accept your state of enslavement to slave to sin for life or die on the battlefield, gloriously or win everything and triumph gloriously in Christ, thus gaining your freedom from sin and adding that final seal of God's grace that causes you to walk worthy as a child of God, prooving in undeniable experience that you are, a child of God and that God’s grace is powerful in your soul to free you of the influences of your flesh. Prooving that God’s power to destroy sin in your life is perfect and powerful and effective.

It takes nothing short of the revelation of the divine grace of God, without which there is no resolve to repent, no strength to battle, no grace to empower any kind of change. Only God's grace can show a sinner where he goes wrong and cause him to understand 1) the error of his ways- the fact that you know you are wrong is God's grace to you, 2) grace reveals sin and the depths of its wickedness to a man

With the revelation of grace comes a grasping for hope a grasping in the darkness, a desire and desperation to be free - sin is so terrible and black, how can i walk free from it, how can I be holy? A desperate cry to God: "How then can I a sinner be saved!"