Greeting CrossTrain family! How encouraging it is to hear someone such as the Apostle Paul continued to battle between his heavenly identity and the flesh he continued to inhabit until God took him home. We are in good company! It couldn’t be a better time to continue in our family verse memorization. We’ve learned what the Bible is, who God is, who we are, what we deserve from our sin, and what Jesus has done on our behalf to save us. OK, so let’s say we believe this. So what does Jesus then call us to do???
“REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL.” Mark 1:15
Jesus calls everyone, everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30)! For bonus points, redeemable only through family ministry, families may feel free to learn Mark 1:15 along with this week’s verse. But beginning this week, we will dive into what we are called to do by Jesus when the Spirit convicts us of our sin and God, through the word, saves us through the hearing of the Gospel. We are first called to repent.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.” Psalm 51:10-13
Why this verse? This shows us what repentance looks like. We see here that repentance is not something we can muster on our own, but it is granted by God. We acknowledge that we have filthy hearts because of our sin and we need God to make us right again. Repentance is not just deciding not to sin, for as we’ve seen in Romans 7 we will battle with sin our whole lives. Repentance is turning from our sin, TO GOD, and throwing ourselves at His mercy. We then trust in His goodness to forgive us, save us, and change us so that other sinners will also turn to Him and He may be glorified.
Questions Psalm 51:10-13 answers:
What should we do if we believe the Bible and what we’ve learned in it?
What is repentance?
If we repent, does this mean we will never sin again?
Give two reasons why God grants us repentance?
There is nothing we pray more earnestly for in family ministry than this: that God would grant all of us, our children foremost, repentance and faith in Jesus. This is where the rubber begins to meet the road. As parents, we don’t want to simply correct behaviors in our children and treat the symptoms. We want their snakebitten, sinful natures to be brought to life. We want them to repent and place their faith in Christ ALONE. Out of changed hearts will the good fruits begin to grow. Just as we learned in Romans 7, we all continue to struggle with this “body of death”. We DAILY must be turning from sin and to God in faith. This is for all of us. In doing so, the God who saves will grant us peace that surpasses all understanding and strengthen us to continue His Kingdom work.
Be encouraged, church. Repent and believe the Gospel. Our God saves sinners, little ones like our children, and big ones like you and me. Until next time, may God richly bless you by the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Adam and Audra Griffin
Family Ministries