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Colin Smith: Jesus said that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Why did Jesus say that? I mean, if repentance is beating up on yourself, how in all the world do the angels have joy when they see you doing it?

If the angels have joy over human misery, then they're not angels; they're devils, right? So when Jesus says there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, clearly he's talking about something very different from beating up on yourself.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to *Open the Bible* with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, let's begin right there. How could angels rejoice over that?

Colin Smith: Well, the first thing is that God tells us that they do, and that tells us something of huge importance with regards to repentance. Far from being a miserable beating up on yourself about all your failures, this is actually the hidden path to a transformed life.

Steve Hiller: So we have the wrong definition of repentance.

Colin Smith: Well, I think often the wrong understanding of it. It's something wonderful. Faith and repentance are transforming to a human life, and here is the way in which a life actually changes.

In this series, Steve, I want us to get a new, fresh, positive, wonderful view of what repentance actually is. It causes joy for angels, and it should cause joy for us. When you see that, then it's going to draw in a whole new and very, very wonderful way.

Steve Hiller: Well, we see that as we begin this new series called *Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life*. Today, we're going to be in Hebrews chapter 12, so open your Bible and join us there as we begin the message "The Man Who Couldn't Repent." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I wonder what your first reaction is to a series on repentance. We come from all kinds of different backgrounds, so it seems to me that the very word "repentance" is likely to trigger off all kinds of different thoughts in our minds.

Frankly, your first reaction to a series on repentance probably reveals a great deal about what your understanding of repentance actually is. For some of us, I'm sure the first reaction is going to be, "Ugh, sounds heavy."

If that's your first reaction when you hear about repentance, it probably means that you think repentance is beating up on yourself. Quite honestly, if you think that repentance is beating up on yourself, you are hardly going to be inspired by the thought of a series of Sunday mornings on this subject. You'll probably be saying as you take a look at the title, "Oh my goodness, I feel bad enough about myself already. Maybe I need to go and find some other place where I'm going to be affirmed."

If you think that repentance is beating up on yourself, quite honestly, you will not be able to hear the Word of God. So let's clear away the baggage of misunderstanding, and indeed, that is the primary thing that I've asked of the Lord we may be able to accomplish together today.

Let me ask you a question to help you get rid of the baggage if you come from a background that causes you to think that repentance is basically beating up on yourself. Here's the question: Jesus said that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Now my question is, why did Jesus say that?

If repentance is beating up on yourself, how in all the world do the angels have joy when they see you doing it? If the angels have joy over human misery, then they're not angels; they're devils, right? When Jesus says there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, clearly he's talking about something very different from beating up on yourself.

I want us therefore, if that's the background from which you come and that's what you think of as soon as this very word is mentioned, will you try now to open your mind and to think again about what repentance actually is? Jesus makes it clear in stating that there is joy in heaven over this. He's making it quite clear that it is not beating up on yourself. It is not an odyssey of self-recrimination and regret. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. If there's joy in it for heaven, there's joy in it for you; must be.

We have a worship team meeting every Tuesday to plan for the services in the sanctuary and in the gym. We were talking about the music for next Sunday in the sanctuary when the plan is for the choir to sing a piece called "I've Got Joy." In our discussion, it came up that someone had asked if the song "I've Got Joy" would be appropriate on a Sunday morning when the sermon was on repentance.

Well, the answer is, of course it's appropriate! If you think there would be something strange about a choir singing "I've Got Joy" when the preacher's about to get up and speak on repentance, what I'm asking of you is that you open your mind to let the Bible reshape your understanding of what repentance is all about.

Remember, Jesus told a wonderful story about repentance. We know it as the Prodigal Son. He takes his inheritance, goes to the distant country, and wastes everything he has on riotous living. Eventually the bottom falls out of his life. He ends up scratching a living on a pig farm, comes to his senses, and then says, "I will arise and I will go to my father."

Jesus tells how he begins the long journey home, and when he sees the house on the horizon, he sees a distant figure coming running towards him. It's the father who's been watching and waiting for him every day to return. Instead of recrimination, the father hugs him and will not stop kissing him.

He leads him back to the house and puts a robe on his back and puts a ring on his finger, calls the servants and says, "Let's kill that fatted calf because we're going to have a celebration." Why? Because of the father's joy.

If there is joy in it for the father, there has to be joy in it for the son. All right, the son may be embarrassed, and he may feel unworthy, but look at the transformation that has taken place. He's been scratching a living with the pigs; now he's feasting on the calf. That by any standards is an amazing transformation, and that is why we have called this series *Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life*, because that is what it is.

It's good news. That is why the Bible tells us that right at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, he went into Galilee and he preached good news. What was the first word of the good news he preached? "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Repentance is good news. It is possible for your life to be changed, Jesus is saying, because God has come near to you in and through my ministry. That is what Jesus is saying: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

My prayer for our time in the scriptures this morning has been that God will clear away the baggage of misunderstanding that many of us carry about this whole business of repentance so that we will be able with fresh understanding to receive the Word of God in its wonderful, joyful, transforming power into our lives and our experience.

If you have thought at the back or the front of your mind that repentance is beating up on yourself, please will you think again? Stop thinking misery and start thinking joy. Now for those of us who carry that baggage, do you think you can do that? Let's ask that in God's grace we will.

There's a second misunderstanding of repentance that I think also could keep us from receiving the Word of God in these coming Sundays. For others of us who come from a very different kind of a background, our instinctive reaction when we hear the word "repentance" is, "Been there, done that."

If that's your instinctive reaction, it's pretty easy to understand why. Many of us were brought up under teaching that emphasized repentance as the beginning of the Christian life. Sermons that we heard over the years ended by calling sinners to repent, inviting them to come to the front of the church, raise their hand during the prayer, or whatever it was if they wanted to receive Christ.

We were told the ABC of the gospel: Admit that you are a sinner, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Commit your way to him. We did that. We did it. Over the years, we have seen many, many other people who have done the same: repent and believe and commit to Jesus Christ. So when we hear the word "repent," we say, "Yes, that is what I did a very long time ago."

If that is your understanding, you'll completely miss the Word of God. So let's try and clear away that second kind of baggage. Let me ask this question: When you made a commitment to Jesus Christ, how long was that commitment for? You say, "Oh, it was for a lifetime. It's a continuing commitment." Okay. And when you said you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, how long was that believing for? You say, "It's for a lifetime. It's a continuing believing."

So when you said that you repent towards God, how long is that repenting for? Well, it's for a lifetime. It's a continuing repenting. You see, that is one of the great truths that the Reformers in the 16th century—Luther and Calvin and others—rediscovered in the Bible way back in the 16th century.

As many of you know, Martin Luther wrote a famous document called the *95 Theses*, which he nailed famously to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. Many people know about the *95 Theses*; not many people have much of a clue as to what any of them were. Do you know what the first of the *95 Theses* states? Here it is. First Thesis of Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said 'Repent,' he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

That's the first of the *95 Theses* of Martin Luther. When Jesus Christ called us to repent, he was calling for the entire life of believers—their entire life—to be one of repentance. Of course at this point, all the "beating up on yourselves" Christians who are reverting to their former understanding are going to go, "Oh no, not a whole life of beating up on myself!" No, we're trying to think again.

Martin Luther had understood that repentance wasn't beating up on yourself, but that it was a life of continuing change—not a moment, but a continuing process throughout the entire Christian life. The Reformers understood this in the Bible in a way that had long been lost.

A few years later, John Calvin wrote about the Anabaptists. He said they "limit to a paltry few days the repentance that for a Christian man should last an entire lifetime." Evangelical type folks who limit to a paltry few days the repentance which for a Christian man should last his entire life.

All of us who have this kind of "been there, done that" feeling about repentance because of the way in which it's in our minds as the initial thing only, I want us to ask, can we also now think again? Can we push that baggage out of our mind that would clearly hinder us from hearing the Word of God over these coming Sunday mornings? Can we come to the place where we grasp that this is a continuing process throughout the life of a Christian woman or man?

Steve Hiller: You're listening to *Open the Bible* with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "The Man Who Could Not Repent," part of our series *Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life*. If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, or you want to go back and listen again, you can do that at our website, openthebible.org.

*Open the Bible* is listener-supported. We're able to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching because of your generosity. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new 30-day devotional book called *Grow in Faith*. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, it's for everyone who wants to grow in their faith, and hopefully that's every Christian believer. You know, the disciples at one point said to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith." They'd been following Jesus for some time when they said it. They'd left everything in order to follow him, but they came to a place at one point where they realized, "We're going to need to grow in faith."

I think every Christian comes to a place like that. I've been trusting Jesus for some time, but now I'm facing circumstances where I'm really going to have to trust him. "Lord, increase my faith." This 30-day devotional book is designed to help and encourage growing in faith. I've loved working on this and I'm very excited about the opportunity of sharing it with you.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to share a copy with you as our thanks for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want to offer a definition of repentance that I have found to be extremely helpful. I found this a number of years ago in the writing of Dr. Jim Packer, and the moment I read this, it was as if a light went on in my mind and I thought, "That's repentance. That's it stated as clearly as ever it could be stated."

Over many years since that time, this definition has remained with me and has been so very, very helpful in so many ways. Dr. Jim Packer puts it like this: "Repentance," he says, "is turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God."

It's a marvelous definition, very helpful if we can get it into our minds. Repentance is turning from as much as you know of sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God. Turning from as much as you know of your sin.

As the Holy Spirit shines the light of truth from His Word into your life, you will go on seeing more and more that is wrong than you ever saw before. There's an old hymn that puts it like this: "None, O Lord, has perfect rest, for none is wholly free from sin." No Christian believer is wholly free from sin. And those who want to serve you best are conscious most of wrong within.

If you are growing as a Christian, you will become more conscious of sin in your life now than you used to be. Frankly, many older Christians will testify to the truth of this. Sometimes it feels alarming. "Am I making any progress? I feel that I see more wrong in my life now than I did 10 years ago."

That is not a reason for fear; that is a reason for thankfulness. It's a sign of growth. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to shine the light into your heart so that more and more you see your sin so that you can turn from it. That's what Christian growth and the hidden path of repentance is really all about.

And then Packer says repentance is giving to God as much as you know of yourself. When I became a Christian at the age of six, I was absolutely convinced that I had given my whole self to Jesus Christ. And as I grow older, I find that there are hidden subversive parts of myself that haven't heard that Jesus is Lord and that need to be brought into submission to him. Paul talks about this when he says we have to take every thought and make it captive to Jesus Christ.

The more that we go on in life, the more we discover that there are dimensions and levels of who we are that need to be brought more fully under the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. It's giving as much as I know of myself, and it's giving to as much as I know of God.

As you grow in the knowledge of who God is—in all his beauty and all his glory—there is a deeper self-giving that comes as a result. Over these next weeks, we're going to use, God willing, Packer's definition as a kind of framework for learning what repentance is and how we can pursue it joyfully together throughout the entire course of our Christian lives.

Repentance is turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God. As we grow at each of these points—knowing my sin, knowing myself, and knowing my God—so my repentance will grow deeper.

The effect of that is to be transformed increasingly into the likeness of Jesus Christ or, as Paul puts it, to move from one degree of glory to another. This is a wonderful thing. So we're trying to clear away the baggage of misunderstanding.

To the "beating up on yourself" Christians, I want to say this morning: repentance is positive. There's joy in it for heaven, so there's joy in it for you. For us "been there, done that" kind of Christians, I want to say: repentance is progressive. It is God's purpose throughout your lifetime that this repentance will grow and deepen as you have a fuller understanding of your own sin and of your own self and of who God is in all his glory. The Christian life is a life of repentance as much as it is a life of faith, and that was something that Martin Luther grasped in the very first of his *95 Theses*.

The last thing that I want to say this morning—and here we come to Hebrews in chapter 12 more clearly—is that repentance is possible by the grace of God. It's positive, it's progressive, and it is possible by the grace of God.

It seems to me that this is very important to say because some of us will, in our first response to this word "repentance," feel a great sense of sadness. You feel defeated. You come into church, you hear, "Okay, we're going to focus on repentance," and you think, "Oh dear, here we go again. I already know that I can't change." You feel that very deeply.

Maybe you've been a Christian for a long time and there are certain sins that have taken root in your life. You've tried to get free, but in some particular area, you've not yet been able to do so. You feel the need for repentance. You would very much like to see change in this area of your life, but you are deeply convinced that because it has been there a long time, this is no longer possible for you.

When you hear the word "repentance," you say in your head, "I would if I could, but I can't." The truth is that you feel trapped, you feel defeated. You say to yourself, "I just can't change." What a great definition of repentance in today's broadcast: turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to *Open the Bible* with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "The Man Who Could Not Repent," the first in our series *Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life*. A lot of us may want to change; we're just not really sure how. Well, that's what this series is all about.

We're discovering God's hidden path to a transformed life and how real and lasting change happens in our lives by the grace of God and how that first step is repentance. If you want a copy of this series for yourself, ask about "Repentance" when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

Colin, I'm sure that there are a number of people listening today who still have in their mind they just can't change. They've tried in the past, but they always seem to go back to their old patterns.

Colin Smith: I hear that all the time, Steve. "I just can't change." I really want to challenge you in that if that's what you're thinking today. This is a matter of believing the gospel, because the gospel says that you can change. Christ says that you can change. That's the hope of the gospel.

We are given more than forgiveness and more than heaven; we are given in Jesus Christ the power of the Holy Spirit making it possible for you to change. The starting point of change is believing the gospel in which Christ says that this is possible for you by his power through the Holy Spirit.

You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, and your hope of being a new and different kind of a person comes from the presence of Jesus Christ in your life. So start by believing the gospel and you will find that as you start believing God's promise that you can change and that he's at work to change you, you will find change becomes much more possible than you ever found it before.

Steve Hiller: Thanks, Colin. I'm sure that that is helpful for many of us today. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller, and I hope you'll join us for the next *Open the Bible*. This program is a listener-supported production of *Open the Bible*.

Colin Smith: At *Open the Bible*, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. To that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. In the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress.

That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. This is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website, openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.