Mercy Might Precede Repentance
This past Sunday we had a conversation about repentance in our morning service as part of our series on key concepts from scripture. When I shared the topic with the crowd it was met with a collective groan. Nobody wants to talk about repentance. I asked why.
There were a variety of answers. Many of them had to do with fear of punishment. If we bring our misdeeds from the darkness into the light, aren’t we inviting punishment? Some took if a bit further. Perhaps God will be gracious with us up to a point, but if we continue to slip up in life won’t his mercy run out? Will he tire of of offering us forgiveness and, eventually, stop giving us second chances?
This speaks to the insecurity many of us live with when it comes to our standing before God. We might believe, for instance, that God is willing to offer us grace to become a part of His people…but after that we’re kind of on our own. What happens if we slip up after we’ve become “insiders”? We believe that He’ll forgive our pasts but not necessarily that He’ll forgive our futures.
We then looked at a few passages.
Those who hide their sins won’t succeed, but those who confess and give them up will receive mercy.
~ Proverbs 28:13, CEB
Followed by:
Change your hearts and lives! (Side note: in other translations this first phrase would simply show up as the word, “Repent!” Which means: Change your hearts and lives.) Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away.
~ Acts 3:19, CEB
I chose these first two verses because there is often this thought that the Old and New testaments present distinctly different visions for a life of faith. I do not believe that is the case, although I do believe that scripture is challenging enough that, without some guidance, it could easily appear that way. But these two verses represent a fundamentally similar spirit about the attitude that we take towards our misdeeds and God’s response to them.
In the service we had a debate about the differences between confessing and repenting. Many of you felt that confessing is merely acknowledging something whereas repenting involves a change. If we take a big picture perspective I believe the spirit of these two passages is roughly the same. Confession, ideally, leads to change. Repentance (a change of heart and life) doesn’t really happen without confession. So I see no reason to turn these into completely independent ideas. Also- I don’t want us to miss for the forest for the trees because the point here is the same: God is willing to offer a clean slate.
Yes, it’s important that we acknowledge the reality of our lives and important that we attempt to change. And- God is willing to offer mercy. I would argue it’s His default stance, not based on whether or not we do the proper rituals but based solely on His desire to offer love. But we have been so often taught that His love and mercy are conditional such that we become afraid of living with nothing hidden because if we expose the reality of our lives then surely He will reject us. And so we look at another passage.
Remember these things, Jacob; Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you; you are my servant! I won’t forget you, Israel. I swept away your rebellions like a cloud, and your sins like fog. Return to me, because I have redeemed you.
~ Isaiah 44:21-22, CEB
This comes from a section of the Old Testament where God's people are in exile. In short- they were taken over by the Babylonians and forced into slavery. God allowed this to happen because the people had forgotten their call: to take care of the poor, the widows, and the orphans among them (as well as had gotten in the habit of worshipping other gods).
Now, according to the conventional logic of repentance and forgiveness, we might assume that God's people need to confess and repent and then God will save them and restore them from their troubles. The logic of Isaiah 44 is the opposite: I have redeemed you, so come back to me.
If God's mercy were conditional, Isaiah wouldn't be able to get away with this. It makes no sense to consider that mercy might given in order to inspire change as opposed to being given in response to change.
You see, it's the faulty (but logical) formula that gets us in trouble. We think God gives mercy only in response to change. But what we see here is that God also has a history of giving mercy to inspire change. He works in multiple ways, not just one. God also gives mercy in response to change, of course, but the fact that this isn't the only way He works tells us something important: It's not our ability to change that leads to mercy, it's God's desire to give mercy. His desire can arise before or after confession and/or repentance. The desire to give is always there, which means mercy can come upon us at any time.
Mercy can come upon you at any time.
