We Are Called to a Life of Repentance and Faith

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.” Deuteronomy 4:9

Repentance and faith are not only what unbelievers do to become Christians. Repentance and faith are what believers do to live the Christian life.

God calls us to a life of repentance and faith—that is, a life in which we sustain an ongoing struggle against what is in us by nature, by laying hold of what Christ has for us by grace.

In order to live the Christian life, we need to be realistic about what is in us by nature. By nature, we are rebels who treat God’s kindness with contempt, blame others for our problems, resist God’s Word, and refuse to believe. So, every day we have a fight on our hands.

In order to live the Christian life, we need to lay hold of all that Jesus is for us. The Son of God loves us. He gave Himself for us. He reigns in heaven, and nothing happens to us except what has first come through His loving hand.

It is possible to be a Christian atheist: A person who believes in God, but lives and acts as if He does not exist. The people who came out of Egypt received God’s promises, experienced His provision, and carried His name. But they lived, thought, and acted in unbelief. It is one thing to profess faith—to say you believe—and another to speak and act and live with faith.

Are you realistic about what is in you by nature? Are you laying hold of all that Jesus is for us?