Nathan E. Lewis

(sermon preached by Nathan E. Lewis to Chehalem Presbyterian Church in Newberg,Oregon and to Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon on January 7, 2007)

“Repentance”
Deuteronomy 30: 1-10

We return to the great address of Moses at the conclusion of the book of Deuteronomy. Moses has clearly outlined the curses that will fall upon those who abandon God’s covenant. He has isolated the stubbornness of the human heart as the source of disobedience. The curses are nothing less than God’s anger, fury, and wrath unleashed upon those who would worship the idols of this world. Moses is concerned for an Israel comfortable and secure in the Promised Land, forgetting to worship the one, true God who had graciously given to them this fruitful land. Moses prophetically foresees the scattering of disobedient Israel, and so he speaks to the people about repentance. Should the people’s hearts become stubborn, they must return to worship God with their whole heart and soul. Should the people be punished being dragged into slavery in foreign lands, they may humbly obey God who will restore their fortunes and land.
God’s plan for our lives has included from the beginning clearly marked paths returning to his blessing. God is not the God of the second chance. He is the God of inexhaustible grace. We may return again and again to his blessing. It is not that God’s Plan A has failed and so he cooks up Plan B. God’s one and only plan has included from the beginning the gift of repentance. This gracious gift of repentance pilots our return to obedient living and to God’s blessing.
Some of us have experienced this repentance. We have returned to God after wandering for years. We have experienced God’s restoration of our faith and obedience. Many of us presently worry for our loved ones, especially our children, who have abandoned the covenant, whose hearts are stubborn and whose minds are clouded with idolatrous pursuits. Let us trust in God and be strengthened in hope. The same God who has laid before us the path of repentance can also lay before our children the clearly marked path returning to his love and blessing. As our children find this path of repentance and begin their return to their loving, heavenly Father, may they, like expert trackers, find the footprints of their parents in the dust ahead of them.
Repentance begins in our hearts. Moses says, “return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul.” Repentance begins with a desire to do the right. It begins with a longing to live according to God’s covenant. It begins with a love for God.
In the second stage of repentance God restores our fortunes, extends his love to us in compassion and gathers us to himself. Repentance is not merely experienced in our remorse for sin, in our doing penance. Repentance is not merely a morbid ritual of self-denial. Repentance is also a homecoming. It includes the restoration of material blessings. When we sin, some of the consequences that befall us may be the stripping of material blessings. In this second stage of repentance, God gracious restores his material blessings. He expresses his love for us in compassion. God’s compassion includes his sympathy for our suffering. It includes his help in our present predicaments. In this second stage of repentance, God cleans up the mess we have made of our lives and while he is doing so, he does not scold us, but he sympathizes with us.
Remember the father who sees his prodigal son returning home. The son falls before his father and begins to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called you son.” But the father quickly said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” In this second stage of repentance, God shall gather us to himself and celebrate our homecoming.
In this gracious gift of repentance, God may actually restore us to more prosperity than we enjoyed at the time of our stubbornness. God does not treat the sinner as we do. One of our loved ones sins and hurts us and so we say, “I forgive you but you will be living in the dog house for the next 20 years. Sure, I forgive you, but I will not fully restore you to my love.” God does not do this, but instead, he does the opposite. Upon the sinner’s return, God pours out a blessing larger than he did at first. Moses promises, “God will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.” This is not incentive to repent. Rather this is the bounty of repentance! This is the result of God’s forgiveness.
A third stage of repentance is the purifying, sanctifying work of God. In (6) Moses says, “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” The mark of God upon us is his holiness. We are set apart and identified to be children of God. In the Old Covenant, the sign of circumcision was placed upon every baby boy eight days after birth. This mark set him and the entire community apart as those who belong to the God of Abraham. Those of us who have read the New Testament discover that the apostle Paul refers to this sign of circumcision, applying it to the spiritual cleansing of our hearts. He writes to the church at Colossia, “In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with a circumcision done by Christ.” Paul was not the first to speak of God circumcising our hearts. Moses, the great prophet of the Old Covenant spoke of the reality of the sign of circumcision being the work of God making the hearts of the people holy.
As an aside, let us make note of the sign and the reality distinct yet inseparably connected in the Old Covenant. Israel under the authority of Moses, did not merely have the sign of holiness. Israel possessed knowledge of both the sign and the reality. Every circumcised boy and all of his family members knew from Moses’ teaching that they must have the reality of the sign that was placed upon their community. The circumcised boy may grow up to abandon the covenant in the stubbornness of his heart. But when he returned to God, forsaking all idols, then he would discover in repentance the reality of God’s cleansing. God would circumcise his heart, making him holy.
The result of the circumcision of the heart is our love of God. In repentance God gives to us the capacity to wholly love him. Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul? As God works repentance in your life, you will experience this whole-hearted love of God more and more.
What are the vital signs that you are alive? A heart beat? A pulse? Brain waves? Healthy pallor? What do we mean when we say, “That guy knows how to live! She is full of life! Grab the gusto of life! Live a little!” What makes life worth living? What is the cherry on top? What is the ultimate life experience? Whole-hearted love of God. To be able to return God’s love through wholehearted love of him is the fullness of life.
Our Lord Jesus displayed for us this fullness of life ironically in his death. The Father wholly loved him, his one and only perfect Son. Jesus Christ responded to this love by loving the Father in return. The greatest display of Jesus’ love for his heavenly Father, was laying down his life to save all of his Father’s children from their sin. It is true that Jesus died in our place, for our benefit. It is true that in doing so, he expressed a deep love for us. But at an even deeper level, Jesus rescued us to display his wholehearted love for his heavenly Father. We are Jesus’ gift of love to his Father! What does the Father desire more than anything else in this world he created? He desires that none of his children should perish. And so, Jesus embarks upon the mission of the incarnation and of the cross to redeem us from death, to present us before God, an offering, a token of the Son’s love for his Father.