Take up Your Cross Daily (Part 4)
Posted in: Email Gospel Teaching Ministration by ANTHONY OSARIEMEN ASABOR. August 28th, 2010.TEXT SCRIPTURE: Luke 9:23 “And He said to all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”
MESSAGE: In the last three studies we dwelled on denying yourself as a requirement for effectively following Jesus. In this study we shall progress to look at the relationship between denying yourself and repentance. Repentance is undeniably the key to denying yourself. The action is self denial but what produces it is repentance. We can say that repentance is the cause while denying yourself is the action. Thus without repentance you can not truly deny yourself. Put in another way, without genuine repentance your efforts at denying yourself will not be from the heart. Therefore, it is only the man who has repented that can deny himself in a way that is acceptable to God. The truth is once you repent you will not have difficulty denying yourself. We can therefore say that in pursuing self denial repentance must be the first step. Let’s take a quick look at repentance.
Repentance is a necessary foundation for the Christian walk. “Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God” Hebrews 6:1. Repentance from dead works is the starting point for a successful Christian walk that is why it is referred to as a foundation. You cannot succeed in the Christian walk beyond your level of repentance. From this scripture we can see also that repentance is one of the first principles of Christ. No wonder Jesus gave it so much attention during His earthly ministry. In fact the early part of his earthly ministry was devoted to calling people to repentance. “From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 4:17. Also, in His assessment of the early church in the book of Revelations, His major demand from them was repentance. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent” Rev 2:5 “Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth” Rev 2:16 “Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” Rev 3:3 “As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” Rev 3:19. No matter how far we may have strayed or missed the mark all the Lord require of us is repentance. It also doesn’t matter how small your sin is the Lord still demand repentance.
We need to understand that repentance just like salvation is progressive which means God does not insist on complete repentance before getting us born again. All He requires to get us started (born-again) is confession of our sins which is different from repentance. Every time you confess your sin God forgives you (1John1:9) but that does not necessarily mean that you have repented. Repentance means a complete turnaround. The difference is that when you confess your sin God forgives and forgets it but you can still commit that same sin again but when you repent of a sin or an act you will not commit it again. Thus, we can say repentance wipes the sin away from your life. I believe strongly that the reason salvation is progressive is because of repentance. Until repentance is complete salvation is not complete. That is why the Bible admonishes us to “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance” Matthew 3:8. The fruit of repentance is simply righteousness. I can confidently say that the day your repentance is complete your salvation will also be complete because once your repentance is complete your righteousness is complete. Jesus said “I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” Luke 5:32. Repentance is not required of us when our righteousness is complete. But as long as there is still sin in our lives we are in need of repentance.
This is not meant to be a full study on repentance but to show the relationship between repentance and denying yourself. However, we cannot conclude without emphasizing that repentance is a work of grace which can only be appropriated by faith. The fact that God demands repentance from us does not mean that He expects us to achieve it by self effort, it must be by grace and it is only of grace when it is by faith. Finally, never forget that genuine repentance is the key to successfully denying yourself. Thus, if you truly desire to deny yourself you must work on your repentance or that you are truly making progress in repenting of the sins in your life.
• Pray that God will help you to understand and appreciate the place of repentance in denying yourself
• Ask God to help you to begin to give repentance the priority it deserves in your life.