CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE

WHAT IS CONVICTION?

Conviction is the subconscious mind within us that rebukes the evil thing that we may have done or the ungodly deeds that we may have committed in an ungodly way. The Holy Spirit indwelling in the life of a believer is the One who gives us (1 Cor. 6:19-20), “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s,” spiritual illumination (1 Cor.10-12), “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, and the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God,” and convicts our hearts to repentance from sin that we may have committed, the evil that we may have done and the ungodly deeds or act of our ways (John 16:7-11), “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

HOW DO WE REPENT?

This is how the Lord pleaded with His rebellious children to turn from their wicked ways (Ezek. 18:30-32), “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to His ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourself a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the one who dies.” Says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” Repentance is being sorrowful for sin with a genuine heart to turn to God. Repentance involves a conscious sorrow for one’s past way of life- a heartfelt “I am sorry” expressed to God- but it is far more than that(Lev. 5:5-6),And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of this matters, that he shall confess that he had sinned in that thing; and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.” We repent by turning away from an old way of living to a new way. God requires this change in us because of our sin, which apart from the experience of God’s grace, holds such power over us (2 Kgs. 17:13), “Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets,” And those who do not repent are judged; merely to regret one’s sinful ways leads only to death (Gen. 2:16-17), “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” The Bible provides powerful examples of prayers of repentance such as, Ezra chapter 9 and Psalms chapter 51. For those who do confess their sins and turn to the Lord in an open and honest repentance. God promises forgiveness and eternal life. Beloved, God’s deepest desire is that we repent from our set ways and return back to Him. This call to repentance went out from the Old Testament prophets, from John the Baptist and from Jesus and His disciples. It is an urgent call that must go out today as well and let us not harden our ways my brethren.

CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE FROM THE HEART

In the opening chapter of Lamentations the prophet describes the miseries which have fallen upon Jerusalem. She is like a widow who formerly was full of joy and happiness, but now sits alone and weeps (Lam. 1: 1-2), “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.” Formerly, she was honored, but now she is despised. She has lost all the blessings of her religion, the feasts are unattended, and the priest sigh instead of singing and praising the Lord (V. 4), “The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.” All these calamities have come upon Jerusalem because of her sin, and it is the Lord who has caused her grief because of her disobedience (V. 5), “Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.”  And even so the writer asks for compassion from those who were the spectators of her misery (V. 12), “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the Lord has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.” In the midst of his bitter complaint the writer becomes convinced of the righteousness of the Lord in judging the nation (V. 18), “The Lord is righteous, for I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now all peoples, and behold my sorrow; My virgins and My young men have gone into captivity.” He acknowledges the justice of the Lord’s actions by admitting the iniquity of the nation’s actions.  “I rebelled against His commandment”; “I have been very rebellious” (V. 20), “See, O Lord that I am in distress; my soul is troubled: my heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, at home it is like death.” Such conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit. Just has Jesus had told His disciples that the work of the Holy Spirit would be to “convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8).

THE ESSNTUAL ASPECTS OF CONVICTION AND REPENTANCE

When David the son of Jesse committed two grievous sins that blemished his perfect record and God was displeased. This serves as a warning to each of us, who have been saved by grace and sanctified by the Holy Spirit that we too can fall into temptation. 1. Committing adultery with Bathsheba Uriah’s wife after which when she conceived, David sent a message for the husband to be brought, unfortunately , Uriah could not go into his wife , saying, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are  encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing” (2 Sam. 11:1-11). The thing displeased David who sent a massage to Joab the commander to put Uriah at the forefront hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die (2 Sam. 11:15). 2. The second sin was when Satan stood against Israel, and moved David to number Israel without the permission of the Lord (1 Chro. 21:1-30). These two grievous sins that David committed displeased the Lord and struck the son that was born to David in the first incidence; and in the second incidence He struck Israel by a great plague and many perished about seventy thousand men of Israel.  The psalmist acknowledged his sins and poured out his heart in repentance before God (Ps 51:3-4), “For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight- that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” We too, like David, can have the joy of our salvation restored and once more experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, enabling us to live in obedience to the laws of holiness and righteousness recorded in God’s Word. Job in his despair over his condition and his hurt at his friend’s accusations, he justified himself before God (Job 32:1, 2). So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, and of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God.” He could not understand God’s ways. But then God spoke. He revealed His character and ways more clearly to Job. The pride and haughtiness of Job ceased. Where he had been arrogant and assertive before his friend, he became meek and humble before God. He repented “in dust and in ashes.” (Job 42; 2-6). Such is the attitude God wants in those who serve Him. Apostle Paul in his epistle to the (Rom.11:33), adds, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments (1 Jon 2:3).

“Grace to you and favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”