REPENTANCE AND SALVATION

   Back in 1935 there was a western called “Goin’ To Town.” A cowboy was in the saloon talking with a Dance Hall girl and said “For a long time, I was ashamed of the way I lived.”
   You mean to say you reformed?” the girl asked.
  “No,” replied the cowboy, “I got over being ashamed.”

   You might say that cowboy was UNrepentant. He liked his life just the way it was, and he had no intention of changing. It was a “laugh line.” And you can do that in a movie and get a laugh… but you can’t do that with God. God doesn’t laugh when it comes to an unrepentant heart.

   When Peter preached to a crowd of Jews and told them “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” (Acts 3:20-21) In other words, unless they repented, their sins would NOT be blotted out, and they could not become Christians.

   Scripture maintains that ALL of us needed to repent to become Christians. None of us is righteous, and we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Repentance means to “turn around.” Essentially, the Bible declares that we’ve all gone the wrong way - AWAY from God - and we needed to turn and go back TOWARD God in repentance.
  And Biblical repentance meant more than just having a feeling of “regret.” Repentance was to be reflected in a of change of our behavior. John the Baptist told the people who came for baptism “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance…” (Luke 3:8) In other words, the person who says they believe in Jesus, but who have no intention of changing their lives, isn’t going to heaven.

   Most people recognize that truth. In fact, I’ve visited men in jail who understood it... but it bothered them. They wanted to become Christians, but they’d messed up a lot in their lives – which, of course, was why they were in jail. How could they make a decision to become Christians (they reasoned) if they just knew they were going to blow it later and disappoint God.

   I would explain to the prisoners, that once they made a decision to become Christians, it was likely that they would sin and feel guilt. That would be normal. Once they rose from the waters of baptism, their goal would be to not sin - but if they did, they had a promise in I John 1:9 that declared: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When Christians sin, and when they recognize the pain that gives God, they can confess what they’ve done. When they REPENTED of that sin and confessed it God, God would forgive them of ALL unrighteousness and they could start out with a clean slate again.

   Then I told them a “parable.” I would ask them if they’d ever skated (most of them had) and then I asked if they’d ever fallen down when they skated. Yep, they had. If they went skating today, I asked continued, would they fall down as much as they did when they first learned to skate? No… they’d still fall down, just not as much.
  I asked if they’d ever watched professional figure skaters on TV. Many of them had. Had they ever seen a professional skater fall down (I continued)?
  Yes, but when these professionals fell down they did it when they were doing things that would kill most of us. How was it that professional skaters fell down so much less than we would? Well, those skaters spent so much time on their skates that skating was like walking for them. It was as natural as breathing. They’d still fall down, but not nearly as much as you or I would.

   The point of the parable was this: when we first become Christians, we’re like children just learning to walk. If you’ve watched children learn to walk you notice they fall down a lot, but then they get back up and have a go at it again. The older they get, the more assured children become in walking and running and jumping. In the same way, new born Christians may stumble in their righteousness, but – when they confess their sins – the get back on their feet and have a go at it again. And the more the walk with Christ, the less often they’ll fall. Even the most righteous of us will stumble now and again, but not as much as we might have when we first became Christians. Repentance and confession of sin is the way we get back on our feet and get back to following our master again.

   Repentance is one of the hallmarks of Christianity. It’s how we start our journey with Christ. And it is how we deal with the sins and failures along the course of our lives that can cause us to stumble and fall. If we repent it leads to salvation in the beginning, and as we stumble along the path, our repentence leads to continuing forgiveness throughout our lives.