If you have ever worn a white shirt or white dress, you know the uncomfortable feeling of seeing a food or grease stain in a prominent place. The whiteness of the material does not hide the stain, it accentuates it. The contrast makes sure everyone will see the ugly splotch. We do our best to wipe it, get some of it out, or otherwise cover it.
Very often, Christians feel like that in God’s presence. The sense of His perfection, of His white-hot holiness makes many a Christian’s sin feel like a black grease stain on a wedding dress. How can we live in God’s presence when we sin?
We’ve been talking about the posture of the Christian life – the kind of attitude we are to have as we live before God. Living in God’s presence is the process of the Christian life. And it’s in living in God’s presence that we come to know Him, and then love Him – which is the priority of the Christian life. To live in God’s presence means we must understand the position of the Christian life, and then respond to him with certain postures of the heart. Last week, we saw that humility is foundational.
Today we consider what posture of heart we are to have to deal with the big blotches on our wedding garments. Since we sin, what posture of heart is needed? Let’s begin by asking.
What is sin?
Sin is anything we do that fails to honour the character of God – Romans 3:23. Sin is choosing to go our own way instead of God’s (Isaiah 53:6). Sin interrupts our fellowship with God because it soils our consciences and weakens our desire to come to God. Instead of communing with God, we want to hide from God. We turn inward (to our own thoughts) and outward (to distractions), but not upward (to come back to God).
If we are to remain in God’s presence, then we need to develop a right posture of heart and life towards the sin we frequently commit. Fortunately, it is a posture we are already familiar with, if we have embraced the gospel. It is the posture of repentance.
What is repentance?
Repentance is agreeing with God that sin is evil, and acknowledging that you have committed it (1 John 1:9, Psalm 51:3-4). It is then forsaking it in principle, desiring to not return to it (Proverbs 28:13). Repentance trusts in the merciful provisions of God to cleanse and restore communion.
In the cycle of communion, conviction, confession, cleansing and conformity to Christ, an indispensable part of our posture is one of repentance. A Christian is continually identifying and turning his back on sin. Within the fullness of joy of the Christian life, he lives with a sense of brokenness over his sin. A broken-hearted contrition, a desire to forsake sin fills his life. Jonathan Edwards said “All gracious affections that are a sweet door to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken hearted affections. A truly Christian love, whether to God or men, is a humble broken hearted love.”
Part of this life of faith, of fearing God, is to allow the Word of God and the Spirit of God to keep convicting us of our sin. If we are willing to live in a posture of continual repentance, we will also reap the sweet fruit of continual, growing communion with God.
Like the posture of humility, we learn to live in this posture by seeing who God is, who we are, and how we ought to respond.
What are some truths about God and us that ought to lead us to a posture of repentance?
Nahum 1:2-6
God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will
take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
The LORD is slow to anger
and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the
storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, And dries up all the
rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, And the flower of Lebanon wilts.
The mountains quake before Him, The
hills melt, And the earth heaves at His presence, Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.
Who can stand
before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, And
the rocks are thrown down by Him.
God is infinitely great – the Sovereign, Almighty Creator who will not tolerate any deviations from His glory and rule, and will punish them infinitely. However, if this was all we had, we might run from God, resent God, or rebel even more. Happily, the good news is that God is also a loving God towards sinners.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us.
Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting
love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
God is infinitely good – the merciful, loving Redeemer, who meets His own just demands so that He can lavish kindness on undeserving sinners.
What about us? What is our position before the holy and loving God?
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face
from you, So that He will not hear.
God is holy and sin separates you from God. Outside of Christ, you cannot reach God. Conversely, in Christ, the picture is very different.
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
All the condemnation you deserve has already been faced by God the Son. As we saw when we considered the position of the Christian life, you are accepted in Christ, completed in Christ, secure in Christ. God sees you as righteous, clean and forgiven in Him. You are pleasing to Him in Christ.
The way He treats His Son is the way He treats you. You have access to God at any time because of Christ.
With God’s greatness and goodness in mind, and with our position outside of Christ and in Christ, considered, what is to be our response? Well, think back to when you first believed the gospel. What was your responsibility when you first heard the gospel?
Your responsibility was to acknowledge your condition and turn from your sinful bent of self-trust and self-centredness. You needed to confess your rebellion against God and then ask for forgiveness. Secondly, you needed to trust in the provisions God had made available in Christ and surrender to His Lordship. If God is holy and punishes sin, I need to have it forgiven. If God is loving and good and wants to forgive me, I must go to him. If I am helpless outside of Christ, and accepted in Christ, I want to do nothing except cling to and embrace the person and work of Christ.
How does this work out into an ongoing ‘posture’ of life?
Just as you repented and trusted in His provision at the moment of regeneration, God wants you to continue to repent of sin and trust in His righteousness. You are to continue to believe by faith the effects of the cross and resurrection of Christ. By faith, you are to keep counting the death and resurrection of Christ to be true of you and respond appropriately.
This is the argument of Paul in Romans 6. Since it is already true of a Christian that he is dead to sin, and has died with Christ, he must keep counting himself dead to living for self. We must daily repent of every instance of acting contrary to God’s glory, seeking to live for ourselves apart from, or in defiance of, God (Romans 6:1-14).
The other side of the coin is the resurrection. If by faith we count Christ’s death to be true of us, then by faith we turn to count His life and righteousness to be true of us. We must continually count ourselves alive to Christ, and therefore, alive to the empowerment of His Spirit to enable obedience to Him. We must daily embrace the life of Christ living within us as our only life (Galatians 2:20).
Unless we preach this gospel to ourselves frequently, we will become little more than moralists – people who believe in human morality by human effort.
With these gospel truths firmly entrenched within us, we respond to God’s convicting power with unreserved confession.
1 John 1:7-9
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Why do we continually confess? Two reasons:
- Confession of sins is a sign of true salvation.
We do not confess our sins because they are not forgiven. We confess our sins because that’s what forgiven people do when they sin. Husband and wives do not renew their vows every time they fail each other. They confess their wrongs to each other precisely because they are in a permanent relationship which requires honesty, openness and taking responsibility for your actions.
The ‘if’ of verse 7 and 9 is not saying, “C’mon, Christians, do this and you’ll be in the light, and you’ll be cleansed.” It is saying, “If you are a Christian, you are in the light, and the blood of Jesus keeps cleansing you, and you will keep confessing your sins”.
This is not a condition for cleansing, but a characteristic of those being cleansed. It is not a command, it is a statement. This is what the ones in the light do, and this is what God continually does for them.
We keep confessing our sins not because our cleansing and forgiveness stands in doubt, but precisely because we are children of light, who keep uncovering their sins to God, knowing that He keeps covering them with His blood. - The second reason we confess our sins is because that is how God’s children live to please their Father.
Do you notice something about verse 1 of chapter 2? With whom do we have an advocate – with God the judge – no, with the Father. The Father is never going to judge His children as sinners again. The judicial penalty for our sins has been paid. Christ is our propitiation. Christ keeps applying that offering for us, meaning there is no wrath against us ever.
However, does that mean that God does not know when we sin? Does that mean God is never displeased with us? No, God does get displeased. He gets displeased the way a Father is displeased with a son who disobeys. There can be real anger. But it is the anger of love. God indeed gets angry with His children. God is able to be angry and delighted at the same time. We know a similar experience. When a child does something destructive to himself, physically, spiritually or otherwise, the parents’ love will cause them to be very angry.
Hebrews 12:5-9
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not
despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
God gets angry with us when we sin. He is displeased. He will train us, chastise us, and get us to see the painfulness of sin. But there is world of difference between a Supreme Court judge, sentencing a serial killer to the death-penalty, and a father spanking his son for rebellion.
When we confess, we are not seeking forgiveness from judicial guilt. We are seeking forgiveness from Fatherly displeasure. We are seeking forgiveness for walking away from His embrace. We are seeking forgiveness from an accusing conscience, for breaking trust. We are returning to honesty, openness and sincerity, which are so fundamental to loving relationships.
This is illustrated by an incident in the gospel of John:
John 13:3-10
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come
from God and was going to God,
4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded
Himself.
5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them
with the towel with which He was girded.
6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are
You washing my feet?"
7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now,
but you will know after this."
8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I
do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head!"
10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely
clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."
Jesus explains the standing of a true Christian. He or she is ‘bathed’, that is, the penalty for their sins is paid, and they have been forgiven their sin debt. They are fully and finally reconciled to God. But as they go along, their feet pick up dirt. Their acts of knowing sin hurt the intimacy between Father and child. Wilful sin is a breaking of trust. Jesus says this is the sense in which you need to be washed.
How quick is God pleased when we confess to Him? Verse 9 tells us He is not simply merciful and kind, He is faithful and just. He has promised to forgive and to keep cleansing His children. His own truthfulness is the guarantee here. If you honestly confess, His cleansing work which continues in the background regardless, guarantees that the Father dismisses your sin.
What are the results of continually repenting and believing?
- A cleansed conscience and boldness before God. (Hebrews 10:19-22)
A person who continually repents and believes is becoming increasingly aware of his or her sin. The strange irony of spiritual growth is this: The more you grow, the less you sin, but the more aware you become of your sin. You are actually sinning less, but your sin seems more.
Many people want to withdraw from God when this happens. Instead, you should understand that it is a good sign of increasing maturity. Instead of fleeing from the Lord, embrace Christ’s sufficiency all the more. - A sense of increased communion with God (John 14:21)
There is no doubt that becoming progressively more like Christ results in a deeper experience of fellowship with Him.
A posture of heart characterises your whole life, not just your times of private worship. If that’s true, then we ought to see this posture of heart affecting our relationships with others.
What does the posture of repentance look like with other people?
Jesus clearly taught that forgiveness from God has ‘horizontal’ implications:
Matthew 6:12-15
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. ...
"For if you forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
"But if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mark 11:25-26
"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him,
that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
"But if you do not forgive, neither will
your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."
If we are continually repenting and believing, it ought to have these effects in our relationships with others:
- A willingness to confess your wrongs and claim ownership for sins:
James 5:16
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. - Being willing to ask for forgiveness and grant it
Matthew 5:23-24
“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Luke 17:3-4
“Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
The posture of continual repentance is not a posture of continual self-loathing, or continual guilt. It is the opposite. It is a posture of humble recognition that we sin, but the Holy God has made provision for us in His Son. We acknowledge His full payment, believe we have died to sin and live to righteousness and so turn away from sinfulness, and openly confess to our Father when we have sinned. He is the One who takes care of the cleansing and the application of Christ’s blood. We cannot do it, or try to do it, with our tears or our sincerity.
In fact, it’s probably safe to say that the better a Christian understands the gospel, the more she will be confessing and repenting, exactly because she is so confident of her position in Christ, and growing in awareness of sin. To know the gospel is both to grow in sensitivity to sin, and in confidence in Christ’s sufficiency.
The Christian who barely knows the gospel, hovers between confession and trying to earn merit, and pendulums between broken-hearted repentance and confession, and full-fledged running from God, like Jonah.
Christians must keep preaching the gospel to themselves, if they are to live in God’s presence and accept broken repentance as a normal part of communion with God.
How do we make sure the gospel is prominently in our minds?
- Make sure you are present for every instance of corporate worship. The prayers, hymns and preached Word will re-iterate the truths of the gospel.
- Make sure you have been baptised and are present for the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances preach the gospel to us in symbolic form.
- Read Scripture, which powerfully unpacks the gospel and the sufficiency of Christ. The books of Romans, Galatians, Colossians, and Hebrews are important epistles, which emphasise the completeness of the work of Christ and the Gospel.
- Read books which explain the gospel. Also, read books which apply the gospel to everyday living.
Fearing God, is living before Him in humility. It is living before Him in repentance.
Next week, we’ll consider a third aspect to the posture of the Christian life.