“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’.” (1:15)
If we follow the structure of today’s text, repentance is a prerequisite for believing the good news. Or you could say repentance must be a precondition. Then why did Jesus say, “repent and believe the good news”?
The reason is not that complicated. If we don’t have an experience of repentance that means a change toward God, we cannot accept the good news. I am afraid that you might not follow my reasoning, so I think I should refocus. People regard repentance as regretting something that they did in the past. What is worse, some people said they cried to repent that they had crept into someone’s orchard to pick out the fruits without permission. Some people are saying that after starting to go to church they repented drinking or smoking before. People! These kinds of thing are not repentance. These are just a matter of refinement in life. To repent means to pay spiritual attention to God who created this world and keeps life and make it complete. Does this sound a little abstract? A phrase like “you are a sinner, so repent” sounds more appealing? A preacher in Seoul asked the youth group who were gathering for “Arise Up Korea”, which was such a big conference. He was saying to very sensitive teenagers that watching pornography is a sin. This is a non-sense.
Repentance means to change direction of life of self-achievement, self-satisfaction, and self-motivation toward mystery of life. I am not saying that aspects of conscience are not related with repentance. But those are the result of repentance. And we should make up our mind every moment, because we are not at certain stage of ethical point. People misunderstand that having refinement means being very ethical. It is a big mistake. America has some refinement, but she does not feel any moral guiltiness even after invasion to Iraq. They have many atomic bombs, but criticize the North Korea very seriously. Ethics and refinement could be different according to the time and situation, so it is not a proof of repentance. Only the person who pays attention to God of mystery of life shows clean fruits of life as a result.
The Lord said that we should repent and then believe the good news, but on the while we just pay attention to believe. So the Gospel appears like a form of religion or expansion of religious desire. Sometimes it works as worldly desire, religious escape, or psychological self-conviction. Without any attention to God’s sovereignty they live with big religious greed, I am saying.
Do I criticize our faith too harshly? Maybe I do, but what I am saying is not untrue. Is my diagnostic view correct about being passionate for church meetings and the world mission but not for sovereignty of God? These phenomena appear through the pulpit, too. It is very regrettable that we cannot find many preachers who are very sincere and having good personality and also successful ministry, but are missing the point of God’s sovereignty in their sermons. Their attention is only towards the audience. They only like to say about blessings and revival of church. I don’t have to explain why such sermons and ministry are not related with God’s sovereignty, I think. What we should need now is that we should reduce our religious things in order to pay attention to God’s sovereignty and His revelation. That is repentance. It is very highly possible for faith without this to be another kind of idolatry.
Lord, are we really peoples who had repented?
If we follow the structure of today’s text, repentance is a prerequisite for believing the good news. Or you could say repentance must be a precondition. Then why did Jesus say, “repent and believe the good news”?
The reason is not that complicated. If we don’t have an experience of repentance that means a change toward God, we cannot accept the good news. I am afraid that you might not follow my reasoning, so I think I should refocus. People regard repentance as regretting something that they did in the past. What is worse, some people said they cried to repent that they had crept into someone’s orchard to pick out the fruits without permission. Some people are saying that after starting to go to church they repented drinking or smoking before. People! These kinds of thing are not repentance. These are just a matter of refinement in life. To repent means to pay spiritual attention to God who created this world and keeps life and make it complete. Does this sound a little abstract? A phrase like “you are a sinner, so repent” sounds more appealing? A preacher in Seoul asked the youth group who were gathering for “Arise Up Korea”, which was such a big conference. He was saying to very sensitive teenagers that watching pornography is a sin. This is a non-sense.
Repentance means to change direction of life of self-achievement, self-satisfaction, and self-motivation toward mystery of life. I am not saying that aspects of conscience are not related with repentance. But those are the result of repentance. And we should make up our mind every moment, because we are not at certain stage of ethical point. People misunderstand that having refinement means being very ethical. It is a big mistake. America has some refinement, but she does not feel any moral guiltiness even after invasion to Iraq. They have many atomic bombs, but criticize the North Korea very seriously. Ethics and refinement could be different according to the time and situation, so it is not a proof of repentance. Only the person who pays attention to God of mystery of life shows clean fruits of life as a result.
The Lord said that we should repent and then believe the good news, but on the while we just pay attention to believe. So the Gospel appears like a form of religion or expansion of religious desire. Sometimes it works as worldly desire, religious escape, or psychological self-conviction. Without any attention to God’s sovereignty they live with big religious greed, I am saying.
Do I criticize our faith too harshly? Maybe I do, but what I am saying is not untrue. Is my diagnostic view correct about being passionate for church meetings and the world mission but not for sovereignty of God? These phenomena appear through the pulpit, too. It is very regrettable that we cannot find many preachers who are very sincere and having good personality and also successful ministry, but are missing the point of God’s sovereignty in their sermons. Their attention is only towards the audience. They only like to say about blessings and revival of church. I don’t have to explain why such sermons and ministry are not related with God’s sovereignty, I think. What we should need now is that we should reduce our religious things in order to pay attention to God’s sovereignty and His revelation. That is repentance. It is very highly possible for faith without this to be another kind of idolatry.
Lord, are we really peoples who had repented?
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