From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
The concept of returning to God is called “repentance” (teshuvah). It is one of the most important messages of the Bible. Repentance is a central thrust of Yeshua’s teaching and the Gospel imperative. Yeshua’s message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). What is true repentance? Return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:2) – Nitzavim-Vayelech: The Greatness of Repentance
Return to the Lord your God… was God’s call of repentance to His people, because sin (primarily idolotry) had turned them away from Him. With Jesus, God had come near to the “lost sheep of Israel”, and was calling them to repent. To turn from their sin and their idols and turn back to Him.
And here we are today and I wonder if we still hear the call of repentance, to return to Him. In my western church world, we repent when we commit a sin, which isn’t wrong theology, just incomplete, I think. Because I find that when our heart wanders, the solution given is to spend more time with Jesus, more time praying, more time reading His Word. Again, not bad things, but going through the motions of worship with an idolotrous heart is not repentance. We must return, not with our activities, but with a heart that grieves the sin that created the distance between us and Him.
It means leaving every idol behind. The things we have turned to for comfort, for help in our time of need, including ourselves. Our self-help Christianity is a lie, we are not the masters of our own fate. We cannot get better by trying harder. We cannot manifest the life we want. A better job, bigger house, or another diploma isn’t going to fill the void that is left when we turn from God.
God isn’t just a means to make our life better, He is our life. To think otherwise calls for repentance. To believe that we can make our way in this world, calling the shots and living our best life all while claiming to follow Jesus, calls for repentance.
Choosing to believe man-made theology that makes sense to us and makes us feel good about Christianity, but is contrary to what the Word of God has spoken, needs repentance. When we form our faith around what we think God should be like, we have made a god in our own image and it calls for repentance.
If we try to love everyone around us without first loving God (the one true God), then we need to repent. The greatest commandment is to love God with our whole selves, and THEN, we love our neighbor as ourself. To think we can love others without loving God first turns our ability to love into an idol.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.“
It is not harsh, it is loving. It is God saying to us, come back. The problem might be that we are unaware of our own wandering. For that, I pray.
Father, open our eyes that we might see if we have moved our hearts away from You, and from truth. I pray that true repentance will come to mark us, Your people. I pray You will pursue every sheep that has wandered away, and that as our good Shepherd, You will protect us from the wolf that seeks to destroy us.
May all who have wandered, return.
Thanks for reading! See you next time.
Karla Jo Wasion 