The Dreaded R-Word

Most of you know I have a son named Isaac who has Down syndrome, a sunbeam source of unique fun, wisdom, and love I can’t describe. Long before Isaac, I found the “R” word offensive and it's now widely considered an unacceptable, dated, and disparaging way to describe people. While that R word can make us bristle, there’s another, more important R-word that rubs folks wrong, ironically, for similar reasons. It seems offensive and outdated: “Repentance,” a critical practice even many Christians have seemingly abandoned.  

Please know that repentance is not passé with God. In fact, it’s urgent and believe it or not, the panacea for our escalating global dilemmas. I know I’ve been belaboring this point, but it needs belaboring. The world is groaning for it. Contrary to popular belief, it’s all about love. Hang tight.

Why Repentance is “Unpopular”

Apart from not believing in God or believing in a Higher Power who doesn’t care how we live, there are a few reasons why repentance is widely unpopular and unpracticed, even in church these days.

First, let's begin by clarifying to accurate term from the gospels and Book of Acts, where the Greek term used is "metanoia," which means a transformative change of mind, heart, and way of life relating to spiritual conversion.

I believe one of the biggest reasons repentance is unpopular is we’ve lost a healthy fear of God, either because our belief in God is superficial and vague or because we’ve misunderstood or misused the grace of God in Christ as carte blanche to sin; the other dreaded word. There are other factors including but not limited to:

• In our post-modern, post-Christian, anything goes culture, the concept of sin has been diluted, numbing us to the reality of how God (still) defines right and wrong. It’s hard to honor truth when “everyone’s doing it.”
  

• Many people don’t hear about sin in church or read their Bibles and don’t even know what sin is. We may not tie our unmanageable anxiety, depression, health issues, or wide-ranging problems (personal and global) to the consequences of being out of sync with a Creator, and instead, attribute it to something else. This is a big deal.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in clinical conditions, global warming, socio-political factors, blah blah blah, but could all of it correlate with being out of alignment with God? We may even find our suffering and troubles subside if we realign in earnest.

This is not anti-intellectual or anti-science! God created intellect and science. They prove one another more every day!

• We minimize some sins and demonize others to our advantage. At the moment, for instance I don’t believe either U.S. political party can claim the moral high ground.
  

• We think we’re smarter than God. Cray-cray.
  

• We seem to think God is an old-fashioned, unreasonable killjoy who needs to get with the times. Nope. No provision for that. The Word is timeless.

• As a result, we don’t view God’s laws for living as loving guidelines to maximize health and harmony. We see them as oppressive or arbitrary.

• On a related note, many think of the Bible as a spiritual work of instructive fiction compiled by random guys and thus, subject to our critical judgments, like a Book of the Month selection.

• We focus exclusively on God’s love, fully expressed in Jesus, but not God’s holiness, judgment, and sovereignty, also expressed in Jesus, however overlooked.

• Moreover, we distort love (if it feels good, if it's not hurting anyone, if it's "loving" by our definition) as though any loving parent, especially THE CREATOR, would allow their child to do anything they wanted , no matter how harmful, indefinitely.

• We misunderstand “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1) or “Perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18), as though that means we’re not subject to God’s discipline, for our sake and the sake of the community. The term used for this discipline is often “wrath.” (Think your mom or dad when you got your third speeding ticket or you secretly flunked out freshman year.) I’ve experienced it. No fun.

• Our material comfort, attainment, or affluence, particularly in America, may obscure our sin to us and to others.

• We may confuse our compliance with rules and rituals as right relationship.

• Ego (what recovering folks call "edging God out"--itself the big daddy of sins--may prevent us from seeing ourselves clearly.

• Hey, BTW, don’t tell me I’m wrong either.

• We think we’re one and done; i.e., accept Jesus and we’re good to go.
  

• The organizational church has eliminated or minimized the notion of ongoing self-examination, confession, and repentance or made it a rote, disconnected practice devoid of meaning or accountability.
  

• We think “feeling bad” about our chronic sins—whether gluttony, gossip, or adultery—is enough, without taking action to change. Jesus, Paul, and John's reporting in Revelation forcefully suggest otherwise.

• Conversely, in hopelessly human fashion, we think if we don't feel bad about our sin, it's not sin.

• As individuals under the influence of all these factors, we’ve become self-blind, and skilled at rationalizing or denying our destructive defects, numbing the conscience that would signal our need to repent and change. This is a form of hypocrisy… or even narcissism.

Guilty as charged. Lord, have mercy!

This is not pride- and fear-driven perfectionism or legalism, also sins, by the way. Nor does it nullify Christ’s sufficiency or minimize the cross. It's the paradoxical tension between law and grace.

Clearly, we all fall way short on our very best days and will until heaven.

True repentance--a changed life--is an outward demonstration of humble, grateful, right relationship with the God of the Universe, who loves us immeasurably.

Why Bother?

The short answer is, “God said so.”

Okay, aside from the obvious fact that God is God and we're not, and the ramifications of that reality...Have you noticed that the world feels a little wobbly? Do you have a vague sense that something is about to happen that may not be altogether wonderful?

God knows that sin does us in.

What if that's a loving, all-powerful God trying to redirect us toward Himself? Away from the precipice a la Thelma & Louise?

The Remedy

Repentance to reconcile us to God is the way, but with all the aforementioned obstacles, we may find it difficult to identify our need to repent, even if we're suffering mentally, spiritually, or physically...in our Barca lounger or worldwide.

Again, Christians may be inclined to self justify a casual attitude towards sin under the guise of salvation by faith alone. Bad idea. Read on:

Hebrews 10:26-31...

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For,“In just a little while,    he who is coming will come    and will not delay.”38 And,“But my righteous[d] one will live by faith.    And I take no pleasure    in the one who shrinks back.” 39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

This terrifying passage in Hebrews echoes Jesus' earlier warning in Matthew:

10 "And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved." Matthew 24:10-13

Practical Perspective on Sin & Salvation

If we heed Hebrews and Jesus's own "end time" warning (the whole chapter is quite the read!), we want to act as though our life depends on it, which these two passages convey, along with many others. Most churches, however, don't convey the urgency involved, partly because we don't look and feel as broken as we really are. I suspect many churches are more concerned with people pleasing and bottom lines. That's called idolatry.

This is just one way Twelve Step programs are more closely aligned to the early church than most modern-day Christian traditions. Among many other things, Step 10 calls for ongoing (like 24/7) self-examination, confession, apology, and restitution.

Of course, all this elegant simplicity only “works if you work it.” Thus, there are plenty of hypocrites in recovery, too. Still, the original program design is a helpful framework for re/turning to authentic relationship with God.

Abject dependence, really.

Twelve Step programs sprung from an early twentieth century evangelism movement called the Oxford Group, which employed six steps grounded in the gospel. Unfortunately, but understandably, it was “neutralized” to welcome people who may have been rejected or otherwise injured by organized religion, often turned off by the hypocrisy therein. Hmmmmmmm.

On the other hand, though many people re/connect with Jesus in recovery, others remain offended by Christ's inclusive exclusivity, though He's really the best deal going, and the One who has all power.

One key underlying reason Twelve Step recovery works for many people is they tend to land in recovery when they’ve hit bottom, usually involving some major humiliation. Reaching the undeniable end of themselves, they’re finally desperate for God’s help.

Unfortunately, we stigmatize addicts of all kinds, gravely overlooking the severity of our own sins in God’s holy light, or concealing them beneath a façade of religiosity.

Jesus, is a friend to sinners. Thank God.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.”1 John 1:8

If you think you’re sinless or better than the next guy, read Romans 1 start to finish. Before you self-righteously finger-wag the sexual sins Paul calls out early on, self-assess the list in Romans 1:29-32, lingering on the last verse that definitely levels the field.

If you don’t see yourself there, check out Galatians 5:19-26, noting that closing warning.

And in the unlikely event you don’t find yourself there, the Seven Deadly Sins are a fine, biblically grounded measure, too: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth.

Simpler still, you can take a recovery approach that’s focused on pride-fueled selfishness, fear, resentment, and sexual conduct. Here are some worksheets to help you.

Good News

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17

God is love and His ultimate purpose is loving liberation, freeing us from the bondage of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

As I hope you can now see, we’re all in this together, and equally in need of rescue through Christ. That’s Good News. Not only because the gospel restores us to right relationship with God, it diffuses destructive divisions based on self-serving, self-aggrandizing definitions of sin, and unifies us under Christ, the Great Equalizer.

He’s the One who has the power not only to heal us individually, but collectively.

No candidate or cabal can do that!

If you’re feeling the pain of conviction, repent now. Call on God. He loves you! Hurry home!

"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

PRAYER:

"One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:6) forgive us for forgetting who You are and who we are. Unify us in Christ. Help us to see how much we ALL need You! Have mercy! Please forgive us our sins, change us, and restore to perfect union with You in Christ, in whose name I ask it. Amen. Thank You. I love You.

 

RESOURCES:

• Pray Psalm 51

• Prayerfully, honestly complete these moral inventory worksheets to help you, adapting for your particular sins. Refer to the Bible passages above if you need help identifying them.