What is Repentance? How do we Repent and be Saved?

Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Luke 13:2-3
Satan is very crafty. He knows how to piggy back on one calamity and provoke another.

Jesus was speaking to a crowd. Luke 13:1 tells us that some in the crowd told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

There are many unanswered questions here. Were those Galileans involved in some rebellion or were they doing nothing wrong at the time? Did Pilate have them killed for a justifiable reason or was he behaving like a senseless tyrant?

Jesus doesn’t answer those questions. And that is the point. Satan is the ultimate reason for death and sin in the world. Satan was trying to cause another problem here by leading the onlookers to speculate about the ones killed. Were they worse sinners? Were they worse than us? Worse than me, and that is why they died and I am safe?

“I tell you, no!” Jesus says. Again today, the devil is trying to turn one calamity into a worse one. There are so many unanswered questions regarding the coronavirus situation, even after the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision. There is tremendous temptation to anger, frustration and conflict, even among Christ’s people, so much temptation to speculate on other people and their woes.

Where our flesh would have us judge people that we don’t know and focus on their downfalls, Jesus puts the attention back where it needs to be.

On your heart for you. On my heart for me. There we don’t need to speculate. Examine your own heart, and you see the weaknesses, the flaws, the sins. I look at my heart, and I see its sinful condition. No wonder Satan tempts me to focus my attention elsewhere. Admitting that I’m no better than anyone else is not pleasant.

“Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Those stern words are spoken to us in love by the One who knows we need a regular wakeup call to repentance. How blessed we are that his mercy far surpasses his sternness. Jesus tells us “repent, or you too you will perish!” So that in the next breath he says. “Come to me and you will not perish, but will have eternal life.”

To repent is always to turn away from evil and Satan. Praise be to the triune God that repentance is also turning to someone, our risen Savior. He died for us. He lives to protect us, and he will never turn us away.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for showing us our sin. We praise you that you have cleansed us from all sin and have presented us sparkling and holy to your Father, by your blood of the cross. Move us to be merciful to others. Amen.

Pastor Greg Pope

Trinity, Liberty (Manitowoc)