Repentance

             The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9) 

 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 

           To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (II Peter 1:1-2)

 

Yesterday, one of the key points in my Sunday School class was that grace isn’t just about salvation. We are saved by grace, but (as my teacher said), it’s like the late-night infomercial hosts keep saying, “Wait, there’s more!”[1] That’s the phrase I heard in my mind when I read yesterday’s Biblegateway.com verse. When we read it, we tend to think in term of the Lord being patient with those who need salvation, not wanting any to perish, but wanting them to come to repentance.

But the second passage above makes it clear that Peter was writing his letter to those who were saved. So how can Peter talk about the Christians to whom he was writing needing to repent? Haven’t they already repented? Yes, but we need to consider what repent means. The dictionary says that it comes from Latin terms meaning “to intensely or greatly regret.” Based on this, repentance involves a lot of tears.

Another possibility, and one that makes more sense to me, is that to repent comes from the idea of thinking again or rethinking that results in one turning away from one thing (sin) and toward another (the Lord.) This is more in keeping with Peter’s greeting. He wished them grace and peace, so how could it later be that God’s wants them to be regretful? Only in that the Lord wants them to turn away from things that are wrong and recognize that wrongness. That involves the rethinking and turning away from the wrong thing and toward the Lord.

But what of the word perish? Doesn’t that refer to losing one’s life? Isn’t it what happens to those who aren’t saved? If we consider death to be separation from God, then those who – while saved – separate themselves from him through their behavior are perishing. They are missing out on life. There is blessing they do not experience, and, in some cases, their sin will result in their physical death even if it does not cancel their eternal life.

And while we so often think of repentance as the feeling of shame and regret at having done something wrong, it is also a positive thing, because it involves turning away from that wrong, toward the Lord, toward light, toward love, and toward life.

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[1] Do informercials still exist? Do they still say that? I don’t know because I don’t have a TV and I don’t stay up late enough to find out, but at one point, they did. Now it’s probably the Internet infomercials that I don’t have the patience to watch.