Repentance... Repent from What?

The condition of our cars reflects how and where we maintain our car. I am a car lover, and I love my car. I follow the manufacturer’s recommendation on the service schedule. When I send my car for servicing, I will make sure that the mechanic is reliable and he has adequate knowledge on manufacturer’s requirement for my car. He must also have the up-to-date knowledge on latest technology. I choose premium lubricating oil for my schedule oil change and I would make sure that there is no mixture in the lubricating oil. I also make sure that all the body’s moving parts are greased to minimize friction and to achieve maximum protection. With all these requirements, I have to pay the expenses accordingly.

We go to Sunday Service every Sunday. Have we ever made sure that our preachers (mechanics) know precisely what our Creator’s (Manufacturer) requirement for us? Are we receiving the pure gospel (premium lubricating oil) from our preachers (mechanics)? Is there any mixture in the gospel (lubricating oil)? Is the doctrine (lubricating oil) mixed with law (old oil) and grace (new oil)?

We need the preaching of pure gospel that magnifying His grace as our premium lubricating oil! Only through the preaching of His grace can make our repentance worthwhile because through pure grace, we repent from death into life. Through the preaching of pure grace, we repent from eating from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil to abiding in the Tree of Life.

If the preaching is of the mixture of law and grace, do and don’t, or can and can't, we are only changing ourselves from “doing evil” to “doing good”. Doing good is as equally bad as doing evil because these acts are from the same tree – The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. From that tree comes legalistic preaching, which is deadly. This kind of preaching causes us to renew of our action, not our mind. These renewals of action involve our effort, our determination, our will power and self control… and eventually, these actions give birth to another religion.

God is more concerned in the root of our believing system. If we believe right, our action will be right. If we believe right, we will live right. He wants our repentance to be effected at the root, i.e. repent from believing in our death work to His Grace full of resurrection life.

We send our car to workshop to renew the lubricating oil, whereas, we go to Sunday Service to renew our mind. True repentance started with the preacher. If the preacher does not dispense the pure gospel of grace, there will be no true repentance in our midst.

We repent from death to life not from evil to good… cos' the word "Repentance" in Hebrews language means to return to His grace!