Hello again! I have been gone and am returning after a ten day break due to being out of town. Hopefully I am able to pick up right where I left off without too much of a disconnect. Ten days ago we looked at the concept of repentance and how it differs from "doing penance". Repentance is the changing of our mindset away from sin that separates us from God and towards life that is lived as God meant it to be lived.
“Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."”
Acts 17:29-31 ESV
http://bible.com/59/act.17.29-31.esv
Paul's preaching of the message of repentance is central to his delivery of the Gospel to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17. God has shown us the way to truth through Jesus and raised him from the dead in order to validate the message. If you still have doubts about Christianity, researching the resurrection is a great place to start. Jesus's resurrection from the dead makes his message not just a collection of "good teachings" but rather a way of life endorsed by God. If we wrestle with this and accept it as truth then we should be highly inclined to change our lives and our mindsets in response (repent). Judgement will come and God is no longer going to overlook our ignorance. The facts and the history are all laid out for anyone seeking God to examine. The only reason I believe some don't is because they know what must happen to their worldly lives if they believed the truth.
“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, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
Acts 3:19-21 ESV
http://bible.com/59/act.3.19-21.esv
In Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and our turning away from sin, we are eligible for our sins so be blotted out and to receive the presence of God in our lives. We will look at this in more detail when we look at baptism.
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV
http://bible.com/59/eph.4.17-24.esv
Repentance requires a change in us of action proceeding from our change in mindset. We must put on the new self and no longer persist in out sin.
“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:25-32 ESV
http://bible.com/59/eph.4.25-32.esv
I really love the example that Paul gives in Ephesians about what repentance looks like for the thief; it is not merely ceasing to steal. The sinful mindset of the thief is "what is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine if I want it". Jesus's teaching of giving to others is more like "what is yours is yours, and what is mine I will give to you if needed". The thief should do honest work AND use the proceeds to give to those in need. This repentance is more than just a change in mental condition (although that is a necessary starting point), it is a change in lifestyle. Another great example of repentance is in A Christmas Carol with Scrooge. We know that after Scrooge is visited by the spirits and wakes up, he is a changed man. He is not bitter or self-loathing like we sometimes view penance. Instead, he is filled with joy at the opportunity he has had to change and immediately proceeds to share his joy with others.