Ideas about Repentance
(Study 2 of 5)
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Ideas about Repentance - Part
2 ------------------------- Date: 11/02/1999
Keywords: "repent" "sinners"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the
face of sexual temptation.
This is part two in a five part study.
Click the number to see other studies in this series: ---1---3---4---5---.
Passage: Luke
15:3-7*
3. Then Jesus told them this parable:
4. "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of
them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep
until he finds it?
5. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6. and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together
and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'
7. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in
heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need
to repent.
Question
The sheep did nothing to find its way home, yet Jesus uses this
story to illustrate repentance. Why?
Practical help
Repentance is foremost about what God does, less about what
remorseful sinners do.
What better way to show this than with the rescue of a clueless
creature, a lost sheep that probably was panicked over its predicament but not penitent.
This is good news for folks stuck in smut. If you're among them,
know that God has taken the initiative to free you. No contrition on your part is required
in advance.
This is what grace is about anyway -- God coming to you, not vice
versa.
There'll be time later to confess your sins and repent.
But first, God is setting the stage for your rescue, perhaps, as
we'll see later in Luke chapter 15, with misfortune to get your attention.
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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.