"How Do You Repent?"

This semester, I have the privilege of taking four amazing classes. Of course, working almost 40 hours per week and taking them does not give me quite as much pleasure! Nonetheless, I certainly see God's hand in each of them and am amazed at how they are blessing me in different ways. One of the classes is Christian Ethics with my supervising professor, Dr. Liederbach. This past tuesday, I sat absolutely captivated as I watched a brilliant intellectual who has an amazing gift for teaching and articulation also desplay unquestionable humility and spiritual depth. He completely blows the concept of "Whitewashed Southern Baptists" out of the water by exploring the depths of the idea "ethics as worship."

One of the points he made that particuarly struck me related to a discussion on living a life wholly acceptable before God. He noted that when Paul says he is perfect in the eyes of the law, he doesn't mean he never sinned, but, when he did, he appropriately handled it.

For the Christian life, of course our desire is to become more chistlike every day and flee from sin. However, the key is not to never sin but, when we do, do appropriately handle it.

He then offered a scenario:
Bob struggles with sin X day after day. Bob commits sin X and becomes so frustrated with himself for not being able to overcome it. "I just can't talk to God right now. I need to cool off and clear my mind first." We all know this is the "wrong" response - but how often do we actually say this in reality without realizing it? I know I do.

How different is this from "works based salvation?" The point of grace is that we don't have to clean ourselves up before coming to the Lord. All of us who have grown up in good Southern Baptist Churches know this. The concept of "works based salvation" immediately raises every red flag in the fiber of our being. However, we are not too quick to dismiss "works based sanctification" whether consciously or unconsciously. To think of it another way, works based sanctification is actually a refusal or even denial of God's grace!

Liederbach then asked the question, "How do you repent?" This question has indeed been on my mind. For the past several months, God has been convicting me of my lack of repentance before him. I recognize and acknowledge my sin and I ask for His help to overcome it through the power of the Holy Spirit, but do I actually repent?? Do I literally drop to my knees in humility and brokenness before him? No, I want to "pretend" before my Father who knows every whim of my heart. More precisely, I look toward the future and how I want to change rather than acknowledging the past in humility before him. I don't humble myself; I try to "improve" myself. Of course, this is not "purposefully" done because I know better. It is amazing how the sin of our hearts gets away from us so frequently! The key is to have hearts that are continually broken and contrite before a perfect, holy, and ever-gracious God. God forgive us for being so focused on salvation by grace that we forget about sanctification by grace!