Whatever Happened To Repentance?

The idea that since the emergence of Christ into our world there is no longer any sin problem is completely preposterous, and not less so is the notion that the approach of the lost man to God is theological instead of moral. Yet this is what the not-the-sin-question thing has taught the religious world to believe. This idea has been expanded, extended and illustrated in how many thousand sermons over the last fifty years till it has become part of the total belief of evangelical groups all over the world. I have personally heard earnest men tell their hearers that they need never fear being sent to hell because of their sins; that the only thing that could possibly condemn them is their failure to “accept” Christ. Thus the whole terrible sin question has been reduced to a theological technicality, and sin itself, that damning and destructive enemy of God and men, has been whitewashed and rendered tolerable, contrary to the whole spirit and mood of the Scriptures and to the beliefs of Christians since the days of the apostles.

Regardless of what men may say, we are still face to face with the sin question, and no man who has neglected to deal with his sins can even remotely understand the question of the deity of Christ and the mystery of the Godhead. Until the sinner has been brought before the bar of God and convicted of personal guilt, any notions he may have about Christ are bound to be academic, nothing more, and wholly unrelated to life. One deadly result of our failure to face up to the fact of sin is the widespread moral insensitivity which characterizes Christians these days. Because there is only a Son question and not a sin question at all, there is little or no repentance required as a preparation for saving faith. The new convert accepts Christ and adopts a certain easy code--a bit above that of the irreligious world, to be sure, but infinitely below that of the New Testament. The nerve has died in the Christian conscience and the sin that would have driven our Christian fathers to their knees in a paroxysm of repentance leaves us almost untouched. It’s lots easier to shift the whole thing over to the “Son question” and escape the pains of repentance. Lots easier, but extremely dangerous, and this latter is what we appear to have forgotten.

by A.W. Tozer

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Living for the Will of God

- by AW Tozer

The temptation to gear our lives to social consequences is frightfully strong in a world like ours, but it must be overcome all the way down the line. The Christian businessman when faced with a moral choice must never ask, How much will this cost me? The moment he regards consequences, he dethrones Christ as Lord of his life. His only concern should be with the will of God and the moral quality of the proposed act. To consult anything else is to sin against his own soul.

Again, the pastor when facing his congregation on Sunday morning, dare not think of the effect his sermon may have on his job, his salary or his future relation to the church. Let him but worry about tomorrow and he becomes a hireling and no true shepherd of the sheep. No man is a good preacher who is not willing to lay his future on the line every time he expounds the Word. He must let his job and his reputation ride on each and every sermon or he has no right to think that he stands in the prophetic tradition.

And the same principle is binding upon the religious writer and editor. The scribe who will trim his copy to hold his job is unworthy of public confidence. The editor who will reject an article or a paragraph of an article because he is afraid to accept it is standing in the shadow of the fear of consequences. The publisher who allows desire for profit or the fear of losing sales to decide what books he shall print is on a moral level not too far above the money-changers Christ drove out of the Temple. All these examples point up to a grave modern evil, permitting temporal consequences to decide eternal issues.

Prayer
"I choose Thee, blessed will of God! In Thee alone my heart can rest." Those words of May Stephens are my prayer, Father.

Scripture
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.—First Peter 4:1-2

Thought
God's will extends into every area of life--public and private, secular and sacred, temporal and eternal. There can be no compromise when it comes to the clear will of God. We obey it or we disobey it.

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