What a life of repentance looks like.
The following is excerpted and adapted from a sermon by Pastor Jordan, called "Redeeming Life from Dead Desires." You can listen to the whole sermon or read the text here.
The battle for righteousness starts with battling for affections for Christ. This is what a life of repentance looks like. We turn from presenting our bodies and minds as instruments for sin, into instruments for righteousness. When we do this, sin becomes clear, its pull gets weak, and moving away from it becomes possible. That is why pursuing Christ is the solution for health in every relationship. That principle is illustrated in marriage. Proverbs 5 asks how do we uncover the call of an adulterous woman? By being satisfied in the wife of our youth. We uncover the conspiracy of sin by thinking rightly and pursuing what is true, better, and truly satisfying.
What does this all mean for redeeming relationships?
Death to sin in the gospel of grace redeems:
- Marriage - Remembering and living out the reality of our death and resurrection in Christ qualifies us to redeem marriage from the sinful realities stacked against us
- A broken past - We remember that our past has died and been buried with Christ, a something new has been raised. This helps give us he power to forgive, because there has been payment made for sin.
- Present struggles - Grace gives us the power to say "no" to acting out on our desires that are not in conformity with the character of Christ.
By remembering who we are, the reality of our position in Christ, and the ability of the gospel to change our desires, we can move toward Christ away from sin:
- By turning continually from our sin - by turning to Christ and pursuing obedience
- By saying "no" to sin daily - because we can
- By praying and waiting for our desires to change - It may not be all at once, but God can and will change us into conformity of Christ.
By God's great grace we can think rightly and live purposefully to the reality that we have died to sin, death does not reign, and we are now "in Christ."