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Repentance is a decision to IMMEDIATELY
STOP DOING WHAT YOU WERE DOING, STOP SINNING and to follow Jesus.
Repentance is not a process. If you repent, you are DONE with sin,
you are finished with it, you don't want to do it any more, because
you KNOW that the wages of sin is death, you have decided to follow
Jesus and YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SIN ANY MORE. You HATE SIN, you CUT IT
OFF! You GET RID OF IT! That is repentance.
SANCTIFICATION IS A PROCESS, that takes
time, to cleanse and purify us. That takes time. But repentance takes
place like a CUT-OFF, like you cut it off with a knife. You die to
sin and you live for Christ! Paul explained this very nicely in
Romans 6:2 “How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore WE HAVE BEEN BURIED
WITH HIM THROUGH BAPTISM INTO DEATH, in order that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life.” Through baptism we bury the old man of
sin, he has DIED TO SIN and from that water comes a new man who is
regenerated in Christ. That is why a person must REPENT FIRST BEFORE
HE IS BAPTIZED. The old man must DIE, you must put to death the old
man of sin and then you make a public confession that:”I am
following Jesus! I am alive FOR Jesus. I am not dead in my sins any
more. I am DEAD TO SIN but I am ALIVE FOR CHRIST!”
We read in verse 5: “For if we have
become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this,
that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might
be done away with, that WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE SLAVES TO SIN; 7for he
who has died is freed from sin.” When you repent, you DIE TO SIN
AND THEN YOU ARE FREE FROM SIN, YOU LIVE FOR JESUS. You come out of
that water and you are a NEW MAN! You have died to sin and you are
alive to Christ.
“8Now if we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ,
having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no
longer is master over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to
sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11EVEN SO CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD TO SIN, BUT ALIVE TO GOD IN
CHRIST JESUS. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
that you should obey its lusts, 13and DO NOT GO ON PRESENTING THE
MEMBERS OF YOUR BODY TO SIN AS INSTRUMENTS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; BUT
PRESENT YOURSELVES TO GOD AS THOSE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD, AND YOUR
MEMBERS AS INSTRUMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TO GOD. 14For sin shall not
be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”
We have been made free from the power
of sin so so that we can follow Jesus in the POWER of His Spirit
“16Do you not know that when you
present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves
of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of
obedience resulting in righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that
though YOU WERE SLAVES OF SIN, YOU BECAME OBEDIENT from the heart to
that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been
FREED FROM SIN, YOU BECAME SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 19I am speaking
in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you
presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,
resulting in further lawlessness, SO NOW PRESENT YOUR MEMBERS AS
SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, RESULTING IN SANCTIFICATION.”
Sanctification is the process whereby
we are cleansed and purified. As we walk with Jesus we are convicted
by the Holy Spirit of areas in our lives that are not pleasing to Him
and the moment that He convicts you, then you STOP doing that thing.
You don't carry on and go back tomorrow and do exactly the same
thing, The you have not repented. When the Holy Spirit identifies
that specific thing in your life, you IMMEDIATELY OBEY. You CUT IT
OFF! And in that way you are cleansed, you are purified, you are
sanctified, THAT IS THE PROCESS. But repentance is IMMEDIATE. You
decide:”I am going to follow Jesus! I am not going to do that sin
any more! I obey Jesus1” and then the process of cleansing comes
after that but if we go on to the same sin all over again, then we
have never repented! Then we are just still sinners.
A child of God is NOT A SINNER! HE
WALKS IN HOLINESS AND HE IS BEING PURIFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT all the
time. He walks in OBEDIENCE to God. The moment that he identifies
something in his life that is not right he STOPS DOING IT because he
wants to be pleasing to God. You become holy like He is holy. WITHOUT
HOLINESS NO MAN SHALL SEE GOD!
REPENT AND BE HOLY! That is what God
requires of us.
May Jesus bless you.
