jus writing a post to announce the arrival of one of my really good mates on the blog scene ;p - shall i say, arrived with a succussion splash?!? in a cytokine storm?!? in a menorrhagic torrent?!? (sorry... i'll cut the corny med talk...) - in a river of stars, no less ;p check out galaxy's blog, entitled "nothings of eternity"...
anyway, things on the mind - had been challenged abt the notion of what is meant by repentance, and what it means in light of God's grace... a really important thing, if u ask me!!! coz repentance is such a core element of the gospel, so crucial a part of Christian living... jus to share what my take on it is, and leave it here, so that this moulded notion can be further challenged, corrected, and refined (plz leave comments!!!)...
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REPENTANCE
i see the way we live - i.e. "making every effort to live in peace with everyone and be holy", loving God above all and each other as ourselves - as being the only true and possible response of a Christian to the gospel... it doesn't mean that we are allowed to go out and deliberately sin... we may sin, as we are still sinners, but this is because of our sinful nature separate from our new identity in Christ... God's grace does not give us the right to sin, but in all cases, because of God's amazing love, His grace is sufficient for our salvation...
so repentance, then, is the way we live... we are to live according to the law with "every effort"... but we are no longer bound by the law... because God has sent Jesus, sin is defeated, the law is overcome, and we no longer live in fear of the consequence of sin... - but it's the amazingness of Jesus, who we know personally, that inspires us towards a life of obedience!!! - so while we no longer fear sin's consequence, we live in greater obedience to God, by living in love, forgiveness and humility... because we are loved, forgiven, and raised with Jesus by God...
so what then of those who still sin?!? - for we are all sinners, with a sinful nature... can we escape the inevitability of sin?!? no, i don't think we can... so we continually need to ask for God's forgiveness... there is a warning against deliberately sinning tho (hebrews 12)... for God's salvation is no licence to sin... but rather a pardon from that which we do, because of our shortcomings... ultimately, faith is in the heart, and what is in our heart is reflected in our action... (thanx sally for helping me with that ;p) - so, in short, while being a Christian requires one simply to believe in Christ Jesus, repentance is still definitely a requirement of Christian living...
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anyhow, mind in crazy state atm, i don't know i have a lot of coherent sense to say anything remotely useful or interesting... ;p so, til next time, God bless!!!
love-in-Christ,
dave
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