Repentance! What comes to mind when you hear this word? I imagine for some, especially those who are not-yet-Christ-followers, do not think highly of it. I’m afraid their mental picture of repentance is giving up something they enjoy and which brings pleasure in turn for taking up a life of hum-drum boredom made up of rules. It’s like the guy who was asked why he didn’t talk to people about God of which his reply was: “I don’t want to burden people with him!”
Is this idea of turning from a life of excitement to a life of drudgery really the idea behind repentance? I hope we know it’s not. God did not call us to himself to heap a burlap sack of demands over our shoulders, but to lift us out of the quicksand we drudge through every day trying to make sense of our lives. Repentance is, according to Peter, refreshing!!!
Personally, I’m not sure I have always thought of repentance as refreshing. I guess some of it has to do with my mindset of “Repent and be saved” as a an old-school hell-fire and brimstone revivalist preacher phrase. More emphasis was placed upon what you were repenting from than what you were repenting toward though no doubt we must not deny the reality that we have sinned against God.
But Peter, in his second recorded speech in Acts, declares to the Jews to “repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:19-21).
To repent, to change one’s mind, to head in a new direction, to pursue God and pledge allegiance to him, is refreshing! This word “refreshing” that Peter uses refers to a “cooling” to relieve trouble or to dry out a wound. The only other time this word can be found in Scripture is in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Exodus 8:11 “where it refers to relief from the plague of frogs” (Darrell Bock, Acts). Bottom line, this word refers to a new life of rest (consider Hebrews 3-4).
When we offer people the opportunity to turn back to God therefore, we are asking them to join a “time of refreshment.” We are encouraging them to experience the presence of God, to have their sins completely removed, and to be a part of God’s kingdom coming to earth as he will one day restore all things. It is to join a life of “shalom” or wholeness. It is to live life as was designed by our Creator.
Granted, not all is as it should be…yet! Though there are times of refreshment in the present, there is a future day in which “new heavens and new earth” will be made (Revelation 21:1). There will be a day when the whole creation will be “set free from its slavery to decay, to share the liberty of the glory of God’s children.” (Romans 8:21). Ultimate refreshment is on the horizon.
So let’s repent! And may we encourage others to do the same. Let’s enter into the rest and refreshment of God knowing that there is much more to come. This is indeed good news!
Photo by Tadeusz Lakota on Unsplash
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