Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, – Acts 3:19
Repentance is a word not often heard from pulpits in today’s America. Even in the most scholarly, Bible-teaching churches, weeks may go by without a mention of Calvary and Jesus’ atoning death for the forgiveness of sin. Repentance is a prominent theme in the Book of Acts. When Peter began preaching, he urged people to repent. His message to the predominantly Jewish listeners was the need to receive the Messiah they had rejected, and it was necessary for them to change their thinking in order to do that. It would be a difficult U-turn for many, coming to recognize they were moving in the wrong direction.
Pastor and professor Dr. Mickey Anders writes, “Repentance speaks to an urgent need which we all feel to reorient life so that it will be centered around the right goals, centered around God. … It means to step back and take stock, to evaluate the present direction of life, and then to decide if we are headed in the right direction.” Author and preacher Henry Ironside said without repentance, there is no salvation. “But repentance is a changed attitude on the part of man. This is what takes place when he believes the Word of Truth as to his lost condition and need of a Savior. Thus faith and repentance are indissolubly linked together.”
The believer is called to maintain a penitent heart. After your life is changed at the Cross, you are called to hear and obey the words of Jesus. Confession, repentance, and reorientating your life are consistent needs. 1 John 1:9-10 was written to believers, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” John Piper writes, “Let these simple, straightforward, weighty truths sink into your mind and you will have a great ballast to keep your boat from capsizing in the winds of contemporary fads and traditions.” Pray that Americans would come to realize their need for a Savior, repent, and be born again.
Today’s Verse: Acts 3:19
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: 1 John 1:7-2:6
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
