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LIVING IN THE STATE OF DAILY

REPENTANCE

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.” – 1 John 1:9-10

These words are addressed to believers. We all need to live in the true reality that none of us are able to live lives that are totally righteous and without sin. Romans 3:10 tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one. Yes, some may want to think that this applies to others and not to themselves, but Paul states the fact clearly, that our only righteous standing before God is “in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). His blood alone gives us our justification.

The Pharisees believed in their own self-righteousness and that they were thus acceptable to God Lord. You remember the parable that Jesus used to challenge this so-called righteousness. It is found in Luke 18:9-14: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’”

Consider even the sin of omission in James 4:17, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” It is important to realize that while we are in this human body of flesh we continually “miss the mark.” If this was not so, there would be no need of God’s grace which is the means of our forgiveness through the meritorious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are no exception to Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” This fact is exactly why we need the cleansing blood of Jesus applied to us at all times so that we can stand before God in the reckoned righteousness that His grace provides. We read of this gracious provision in 1 Corinthians 1:27-31, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”

Acknowledgement of our need of daily cleansing is absolutely essential to our Christian walk. 2 Corinthians 7:1 instructs us that “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” We find a similar admonition in 1 John 3:2-3: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” How does one go about purifying himself? This is an ongoing process of going to God continually in prayer, confessing and repenting of our failings and asking His forgiveness and victory in Jesus to overcome.

Psalm 19:12 tells us, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” There may be many faults from which we need cleansing that are not known to our conscious minds. This was so of David, and because he was aware of this possibility he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). This should likewise be our daily prayer, and as we pray thus, we will be surprised what God reveals to us, that needs cleansing and purification.

Though all this may seem like negative thinking to our natural minds, it will produce just the opposite spiritually. The result will be peace of heart and mind because God has provided His mercy and grace through the blood of His beloved Son; forgiving us and helping us to eradicate these sins through Christ. How thorough is His forgiveness? Psalm 103:11-12 tells us, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Have you ever thought deeply on the meaning of this wonderful promise? How far is “the east is from the west?” Note that it does not say it is as far as the north is from the south, for this would limit the scope of His forgiveness. Both north and south have endings at their poles. But try traveling east to west and no matter where you are in your travels, you will never reach the west for it is always in front of you. Such is the forgiveness of our Great God.

There is beautiful account about the merciful and gracious forgiveness of God in the Book of Jonah. God told Jonah to go to the city

of Nineveh and announce that the city would be destroyed because of their great wickedness. The Ninevites believed God and repented, declared a fast and putting on sackcloth. In Jonah 3:10 we read, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had promised.” It is interesting to note the reaction of Jonah to God’s mercy. “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.” How contrary man’s judgment is to God’s! He probably reasoned in his mind that they deserved the punishment that he predicted, even though Jonah states, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love. A God who relents from sending calamities.” Knowing this, apparently that would not have been Jonah’s choice. How strange!

Man cannot fathom the mind of God. We read of this in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” We also read in Psalms 145:3, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise, His greatness no one can fathom.” It is only as He gives us “the mind of Christ” that we can even begin to take in God’s thoughts and ways!

How wonderful to have such a wonderful Heavenly Father who is so loving, gracious, compassionate and merciful towards us. What a joy to our hearts knowing “The LORD is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call on Him in truth” (Psalms 145:17-18).

May we endeavor to be more aware of our need for continual repentance so that we will be sure we are walking in the “light” and not in darkness, trying to justify ourselves by our own standards or that of others. Let us not be of those we read of in 2 Corinthians 10:12, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” Let us daily go to the Throne of Grace in fervent prayer seeking cleansing and desiring an even more intimate closeness to our loving Father and precious Lord and Savior, who at such great cost, has made available to us our standing as sons of God.

E. Weeks