Repentance, the door to life

 
On the day of Pentecost Peter addressed the crowd explaining to them that God had made this Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Messiah (2:36). On that day some three thousand became what we now call Christian.  A few days later Peter, who had gone to the temple with John, healed a lame beggar and the crowd gathered in excitement to hear what this fisherman might say. He reminded them that they had turned Jesus over to be crucified, but God had raised him and everybody knew it. What’s more, it was by faith in Jesus that the beggar was healed, so they should repent, turn to God and have their sins forgiven (3:19). The number of believers now turned to five thousand (4:4).
         So many points are worth consideration. For me the most striking is Peter’s fearless declaration of the truth. Peter and John were immediately thrown into prison, but that seems to be what happens if you turn your life over to someone the opposition has crucified. Filled with the Spirit, he had little choice but to declare exactly what had happened. There is a certain boldness about the gospel. It challenges, because it runs counter to what we now call political correctness. No one wants to be held accountable for anything they might have done. “It’s not my fault” has been the excuse for sin and evil since the beginning of time – Adam said to God, “The woman you put here,” and Eve said, “The serpent deceived me” (Genesis 3:12-13). To listen to everyone, you have to conclude that that it’s a perfect world because no one is guilty of anything – according to themselves, of course.
         Repentance is defined in context as turning to God (3: 17). By nature man is heading the wrong direction. To repent is not to feel bad about something, or even to make amends for it. To repent – that is, to genuinely repent – is go the other direction. It is to agree that what you did/said/felt was wrong. In Peter’s case, many were moved by the Spirit and repented, headed the other direction. With repentance, sins are blotted out and “times of refreshing come from the Lord” (3:19). Those invigorating times are of special importance because they guarantee that life is heading in the right direction. They satisfy our deep need for authentic relationships. In the previous state of separation we knew there was more and that more is realized when God’s restorative Spirit sweeps over us. Life apart from God is a tragedy, but becomes a euphoric experience as the clouds between man and God begin to drift away. That’s how it was until human sin entered the picture. Now we await the return of Christ and the eternal kingdom in which there is neither suffering nor regret. Our current experiences of refreshment from the Lord, no matter how spiritually satisfying, are but a harbinger of the eternal state of unending joy in the presence of God.