Those who believe in Jesus but do not know the meaning of repentance

 

Those who believe in Jesus but do not know the meaning of repentance

 

People in the church generally understand the word “repent” as “confess, and ask for forgiveness for committing a mistake”. When they do something that is unworthy in God's sight, do something that is not good for others, or when they do something that is not good in the eyes of others as a child of God, they come to church to repent of their behavior, and God Please forgive me. Jesus said to the Israelites, “Repent.” If you understand the meaning of “Repent” that Jesus said as “confess, and ask for forgiveness when you commit a mistake,” you are misunderstanding the Bible.

A rich young man came to Jesus and said, "Good teacher," and said, "He kept the law well." That's why he thought, "I'm not guilty." In the same way, they thought that all the Israelites were “innocent” because they kept the law. Even when Jesus said, “I have come to call the sinners, not the righteous,” the Israelites thought it had nothing to do with them. In John 8:31-32, Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But the Jews asked, "We are Abraham's descendants, and we have never been slaves to anyone, so why do you say we are set free?" Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” The people of Israel thought, “They were not sinners because they had the law and kept it.” But Jesus said, “All of them are sinners.” However, since the Israelites believed that if they committed a sin, offering a sacrifice according to the law, “all sins would be wiped out”, so they thought that they were not “sinners.” The Israelites had nothing to repent of on their own, but Jesus said, “Repent.”

When many church people think they have sinned while living in the world, they think "repent of their sins". What was the sin of the Israelites in Jesus' view? They think that the sins of the people of Israel and the sins of many church people today are “not different”. But the meaning is different. God chose the Israelites as a model for the world. The sins of the people of Israel are the sins of the world, and the sins of people living in the present age. But, in God's eyes, sin is a departure from God. In the book of Genesis, sin is a human violation of God's command, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolizes Satan, and it is a sin for a sinful angel to chase after Satan, and it is a sin to depart from God.

Through the law, God said, “Do not sin against the people.” Among the above prohibitions, it is a sin to eat the “fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” “The result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” is, “Without God, I will come to know what is good and what is evil, and will not do evil and will do good.” The law was given to those who have departed from God to work diligently to achieve righteousness. “Finding righteousness” does not mean becoming righteous on your own, but “discovering God’s life of salvation” in the law. Those who find life in heaven realize that they are sinners who cannot achieve righteousness through the law, and discover Christ, the seed of promise. However, the Israelites thought that keeping the law perfectly was the way to become righteous. That is why the people of Israel thought, “All of them are righteous by keeping the law.”

Keeping the law and eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil have the same meaning to judge good or evil for yourself, because it is not with God, but like judging good and evil on your own. Anything that is not with God is evil. The act of keeping the law is not doing in God, but doing good in the light of the law without God.

To not commit a sin according to the law is to try to avoid sinning by judging and keeping the standard of the law. The standard is the God-given law, but the judgment and execution of it is “man does it himself”. The people of Israel keep the law, “to meet God,” but in the end, “keeping the law itself is in a state of leaving God.” If God exclaims “Repent” to Adam and Eve who were tempted by the serpent and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what did God tell them to “repent”? The word “repent” means “return to God”.

If they have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they must repent, give up judging good and evil on their own without God, and return to God. Because “without God, all become evil beings”. A person who has the thought, “I will protect myself and try to become a righteous person” is a sinner without God. That's why Jesus cried out, "Repent." The law does not make one righteous, so find Christ.

Sin is a departure from God. The thought of “judging good or evil on your own” apart from God or “trying to achieve righteousness” based on the law without God is itself a sin. So, since it is wrong to think this way, the phrase "return to God" is exactly "repent".

Even today, in the light of the law, there are still many “those who judge whether they are sinning”. Atonement for sins can be solved only in Jesus Christ. The word “repent” has the meaning of “turning back and changing direction.” When Jesus said to the people of Israel to “repent,” he meant, “Give them up on their zeal to keep themselves zealous according to the law to achieve righteousness, but meet Christ.” In other words, it means to return to God. It means to give up 『Self』 and return to God. But the people of the world only think of worldly sins about sin. Original sin is the desire to depart from God in the kingdom of God.