Excerpt from Chapter Two
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on August 14, 2009
The second chapter of my book Repentance and Recovery tends to be so dry and filled with dry, doctrinal language that I have reconsidered having it so near the front. My fear has been that some readers may get that far, become board in thumbing through my rants on dictionary definitions, and put the book down assuming the following chapters will follow the same pattern. I have kept the chapter titled “The Difference between Confession and Repentance: a post-modern, post-tribulational, Calvanistic view in relation to the impeccability of Jesus” (just kidding about the last part).
If I’m going to deal with one subject (repentance) in such detail as I do, it would be good to clearly define the term, show how it applies, and mention any other terms it may be linked to or confused with; which is what I feel we do with the word confess. Amidst the quotes from 3,500 page theology books and original language meanings though, I tell this story, showing how the dry, doctrinal term came to life and touched me right where I was at.
……..I was preaching through a series I titled “We Believe” with the youth at our church in which my point was to express how Christianity is not about condemnation or rules, but about faith, hope, and empowerment. I was trying to take some of the negative things Christians are known for and show how they are actually positive things we have interpreted or represented in the wrong way. One of these was the term repent. When I used to hear the word, I would think of street corner preachers yelling, “Repent or go to hell!” I used to picture fundamentalists condemning others, using this word repentance as the only option for others in order for God or Christians to love them. I spoke to this one night during the series and used Mark 1:15 as my text. In the first chapter of Mark, John the Baptist is inviting, not demanding, others to come and repent and be baptized. He speaks of this as a freeing effort and we see in the chapter that there were lines of people volunteering to do this. It was obviously a positive thing people were drawn to. It was not a spiritual beat down.
I had read this passage several times and even consulted some good commentaries in preparation for that message. It was not until the week after I had been asked to resign that my eyes were really opened to this verse. I was at home reading Mark chapter one for my personal devotions at a time when I thought I had already experienced repentance because I was feeling guilt, shame, and remorse. I had just ordered a copy of The Message, a Bible paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, and was reading from it. The Message is an amazingly rich version of the Bible that rephrases many passages differently from all other translations, giving a fresh insight to the meaning of the passage. Such is the case with Mark chapter one. I immediately realized that the actual word “repent” was not being used in the chapter. Instead, The Message used the term “life change”.
Wow! Life change! What a great thought. Repentance is not about taking spiritual punishment, though at times that may be necessary. Repentance is not about going in front of a church and saying you messed up and are now a second class Christian. Repentance is about change – life change. I sat on my couch and read the phrase over and over. No commentaries. No sermon notes. Just a verse about this great evangelist inviting others to come and receive the power for life change. They could be dead in sins, but once they meet Jesus they receive the power to make that 180 degree turn and live a changed life. That’s repentance.
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