{"id":13708,"date":"2017-06-22T01:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=13708"},"modified":"2017-06-22T22:15:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T05:15:19","slug":"a-gospel-of-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2017\/06\/22\/a-gospel-of-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gospel of Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Roger Alcaraz<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in high school, I would always sign my close friends\u2019 yearbooks with a message, and somewhere in that message would be the words, \u201cDon\u2019t ever change.\u201d That was because, in my mind, that was the greatest compliment or sign of love that I could give. It\u2019s like saying \u201cYou\u2019re perfect just the way you are.\u201d It was only after I became a Christian, I realized how wrong I was.<\/p>\n

Nobody is perfect, and the gospel we proclaim is not only about the forgiveness of sins, but about repentance. \u201cThus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins<\/em> should be preached in his name to all nations\u201d (Luke 24:46-47).<\/p>\n

Repentance is a complete change of heart that grieves over sin and, in response, seeks to live a changed life. It\u2019s turning your feelings, thoughts, and actions away from sin and toward Christ. This has always been the heart of the gospel call. We often think of evangelism as preaching the forgiveness of sins, but Christ has told us to also preach repentance. Why? Because without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins. Yet repentance is perhaps the single most neglected aspect of contemporary evangelism, especially in an age when it\u2019s all about accepting people as they are and just letting them be. This nation teaches that if you want to show love to someone, you must accept them as they are, without changing them.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not arguing that acceptance is bad. But there is definitely a good way and a bad way to practice it. If a doctor had a patient with diabetes, and the doctor accepted his patient without wanting him to change, that\u2019s bad. But consider Scripture and how the heart of mankind is desperately sick and how mankind is heading to Hell. Would accepting people without any desire for change be what\u2019s best for them?<\/p>\n

Coaches tell their athletes to change all of the time. Parents tell their children to change all the time. If you saw a child practically inhaling sugar, and the parent casually said, \u201cLet him be,\u201d you would say, \u201cYou\u2019re a bad parent.\u201d And so if calling for change is the mark of a good parent, and it\u2019s the mark of a good coach, isn\u2019t it also the mark of good friend?<\/p>\n

The world has believed that calling someone to change is unloving, but as I consider my life, it\u2019s quite the opposite. The people who have loved me the most were the people who called me to change. And the greater test of love isn\u2019t whether a person accepts you as you are; love is demonstrated when, as a person seeks change and growth another, that they bear with them with gentleness and patience. So we\u2019re not beating people over the head with the command to repent and believe. We\u2019re urgent yet patient, firm yet gentle, always seeking what\u2019s best for them based on the truth of Scripture.<\/p>\n

And so while the world might look at our gospel of repentance and say, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just keep living how I\u2019ve always lived?\u201d you can say, \u201cBecause I love you too much.\u201d If your friend were planning to rob a bank and you knew that this bank was an impenetrable fortress guarded by hundreds of police officers, you would probably tell your friend to stop or else he\u2019ll be thrown in prison. And he might object and say, \u201cI thought you supported me. Can\u2019t you just let me be me?\u201d And if you were a good friend, you would say, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

But would you be quicker to warn people of prison than you would of Hell? We have to remember that as each person dies, they will stand before the God who created them and have to give an account for their entire life. Everything will be exposed before God as he determines their fate. How sad would it be for people to stand before God and think, \u201cI had Christian friends. Why didn\u2019t they tell me I would be here one day?\u201d Therefore, let us warn the world of their fate if they do not turn away from their sins and turn to Christ. It is a loving thing to turn them away from fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Roger Alcaraz Back in high school, I would always sign my close friends\u2019 yearbooks with a message, and somewhere in that message would be the words, \u201cDon\u2019t ever change.\u201d That was because, in my mind, that was the greatest compliment or sign of love that I could give. It\u2019s like saying \u201cYou\u2019re perfect just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affinity-groups","category-singles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13710,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708\/revisions\/13710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}