Repent And Believe For Heaven Is Near

"Today's Devotion" For April 27, 2005

Read: Matthew 12:38-45; II Peter 2:1-22

REPENT AND BELIEVE FOR HEAVEN IS NEAR

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Mt. 4:17)

If you want to start an argument, just tell someone they're not good enough to get into heaven on their own merits. If you want to push it to the brink of life threatening disaster, tell that same person that heaven is a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That person is either going to hit you, run screaming away because he or she thinks you're crazy, or they're going to laugh you to scorn. To the mind of sinful humanity, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Cross are either gross foolishness, or incredible wisdom impossible to be grasped by human thought. Yet the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross are not foolish by any means. God's message of salvation is very simple: repent of your sins, believe that Christ Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world from sin, and by faith in Him your sins are forgiven and the hope and promise of eternal life in heaven is yours. Three times in Matthew 12 Jesus asserts that He is the true revelation of the Father's plan of salvation (vv.6, 41, 42). To the scribes and Pharisees that was foolishness and they demanded proof by demanding a sign. As with all people who demand proof that God's promises are sure and certain, the scribes and Pharisees wanted some sort of proof of what Jesus was saying so their own repentance and faith might be unnecessary.

Theirs was a foolish position. Jesus makes that very clear to them. He points out that the Gentiles, like the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba, will condemn their unbelief because those people had believed the sign of Jonah and Solomon's wisdom and repented. While Jonah's and Solomon's messages of repentance and turning to God were believed by Gentiles, the leaders of God's people, Israel, refused to believe the signs and message of repentance of the very Son of God, the Messiah, Himself. The picture Jesus paints of the man who had been cleansed of an unclean spirit is a reflection of Israel and its leaders. Just as the man who was delivered from evil but failed to change his life, so it is, Jesus says, with the chosen people and all who refuse the Gospel. Evil will return and have its way in even greater measure when God is rejected and kept out of one's life. Such were the dire consequences facing Israel and its leaders because of their rejection of the Christ.

We are just as much in need of this message today. The world around us is lost in Sin and unbelief and has the same desperate need of the message of faith and repentance as did Israel in Jesus' day. In the same way, we Christians need to be careful that we don't become complacent in our faith and forget our need for daily contrition, repentance and forgiveness. Each day it's important for us to hear the message of the Gospel so that we are strengthened in our faith, receive courage for living, and live joyously with the hope of heaven in our hearts. It's essential for us to be in the Word daily so that our spiritual house doesn't become empty, swept clean, and opened to the advances of Satan. Repent and believe the Gospel is a message we need to heed each day. We belong to Christ and we want to stay that way for eternity.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, it's just as easy for me to become as complacent about my relationship with You as the scribes and Pharisees were. It's very easy to take my relationship with You for granted. Even though I believe Your promises in the Gospel and believe the power of the Cross, I'm also capable of allowing Sin to have its way with me and lead me to live foolishly without You. Each day I need to exercise the "repent and believe" of the Gospel in my life. By Your amazing grace keep me ever firm in my faith toward You and lead me to continue diligently in Your Word that Your Spirit may keep me in You and I may serve You faithfully throughout my life. Let my life of faith and trust in You be a living witness to the importance of the foolishness of the Cross so that I may touch the lives of others with the Gospel so they may believe in You and be saved also. In Your precious name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.