“She saith unto Him, ‘Yes, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.'” John 11:26
Dear Ones:
When John the Baptist came upon the scene, to prepare the way for Christ’s coming and ministry, he came preaching “…the baptism of repentance for the remission (or forgiveness) of sins.” (Luke 3:3) What was the essence of his message that was to prepare the way of the Lord? What is the meaning of repentance? Let us look at two illustrations, one New Testament, and the other in the Old.
The story of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman who came to the well where He was sitting, is a picture of how God brings one to faith. She comes to the well, thirsting, both for physical water, and for “living water,” that which is eternal.(Jn. 4:14) However, this woman cannot receive this living water, for she is drinking from another well, one that God deems unacceptable and useless. The Lord Jesus tells the woman that she has had five husbands, and the man with whom she is living presently, is not her husband. Only God could have put his finger on this one issue that would convict her of sin, and of the fact that Jesus is of God, for she declares him to be a prophet. With the disciples returning from the village, she puts down her water pot, and goes into the village to declare to the men of the village, “Come, see a man who told me all things that I ever did: is not this the Christ?” (v.28) The point, with regard to repentance that this woman came to know, was born out of a conviction of her need, to the point where she left her pot at the well. She forgot that pot, turning away from the consideration of all things, in order to deal with the true need of her heart, her sin. Repentance, in this picture and story, can be represented by the woman’s action of putting down, and leaving, her water pot. That was the point of beginning, turning away from her pursuit of all else, in order to turn towards God. The result is that she answers her own question that she asked of the men in her village: “Is not this the Christ?” The woman was now on her way to know this One who had said: “I that speak unto thee, am He.” (v.26)
In the book of Jeremiah, we find the second illustration concerning true repentance is, that which is preparatory for true faith. Jeremiah writes concerning Israel, “For My people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (1:13) The picture here is that of Israel who has chosen a false fountain, seeking to drink from containers that cannot hold water. On the one hand, there is a fountain of “living waters.” This is that which the Lord spoke of when addressing the Samaritan woman, “…If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give me to drink,’ thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee “living water.” In both cases there are living waters to be received, but there is not drinking from that fountain, unless there is the putting down of the pot, the laying aside of the broken, and useless, cisterns of this world. Repentance is the abandonment, and turning aside from, the false concepts of this world which declare that there is eternal life in the fabricated schemes and ways of men. Repentance is a turning from these things that God considers sin, and evils, to turn wholly to Christ.
The great gift and provision of repentance is to enable us to receive by faith all that is true of God. Christ died on the cross that we can be forgiven for all our sin. He rose from the dead that we should receive the “living water” of His everlasting life. The man who truly believes is the man who truly receives.
Dear Father, Make us good receivers of all in Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad