It is easy to say ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’ but it is much harder to do.
Repentance is a change of direction: turning away from the wide path of the world to take the narrow path of Jesus Christ. Jesus teaches us that ‘few’ find this path.
Repenting of our worldly ways
When we first repent we turn away from our relationship with the world to a relationship with our Father in Heaven; we turn from a life in the flesh to a life in His Spirit; we turn from our old thinking to His thinking, and from our ways, to His ways.
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Mark 1:15
Once we have turned and are walking in the right direction, we are then dependent upon His grace and mercy, to wash our feet from the daily dirt.
Repenting of our worldly Christianity
But what happens when our Christianity has become worldly?
We must also repent from areas of our faith and Christian practice, when the Lord reveals that they are not His ways.
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.
Mark 7:6-8
It is very hard to repent of our ‘Christian’ ways and to follow Jesus Christ in to a renewed life of faith, especially if we believe we already have this life.
It is difficult because often we do not realize that many of the things we do (and endorse), are fruitless activities for the Kingdom – and it is not until God opens our eyes that we are able to see this.
This realisation is then hard to accept because we have invested so much time in building upon these beliefs and these ways of worshipping Him, that to discover the foundations are not from God is confusing.
It is also challenging because many people that we love, continue to affirm and build upon these foundations, so the act of repenting and walking away from parts of our Christianity, adversely affects these relationships.
Even once we reach a point of repentance and we have taken the new path the Lord has given to us, it is tempting to go back to where we have come from and there is an overwhelming pressure to do so.
Repenting is hard – very hard
Repenting often results in some injury as we extract ourselves from a life we are no longer willing to conform to. It is impossible to repent without facing both grief and joy, and often experiencing these at the same time. It is not possible to remain whole within as the Lord breaks our heart calling us to change direction, so that we may be counted amongst the few to receive His prize.
Remember Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and the capstone, our death and our resurrection.
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.
Matthew 21:44
Remember the great reward for all those who are faithful no matter what the cost.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
Luke 6:21-23
Be ready to repent of our worldly Christianity
Repentance of our worldly ways has always been the foundation of our salvation in Christ.
However, we must also be prepared to repent of our worldly Christianity when the Lord reveals that our ways are not His ways – even if this occurs years or decades after the day we first followed Jesus.
When Jesus calls us to repent and surrender aspects of our Christian practice, we should not resist Him; for resisting this radical reformation of our Christian identity will place us in a similar position to the hypocritical Pharisees, who refused to let go of what they had been building.