The Mark of Repentance

“Therefore, bring forth fruits
worthy of repentance.”
Matthew 3:8

The Greek word meaning here worthy, or in other translations meet, corresponding, or in keeping, would best be translated as “of equal weight.” Too often, a quick confession, a repeated phrase, or a simple echoed prayer is considered sufficient for salvation. The wonder of the new birth and the miracle of salvation have been reduced to something base and mundane.

The imparting of the Divine nature into a human life is beyond comprehension, for such a glorious transaction to take place without the corresponding change in a life is utterly impossible. There are unmistakable “fruits” that must accompany such an important step.

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life”
Romans 6:4

“Newness of life” is the atmosphere of a heart that abides in Christ. Repentance is a recurring work of the Holy Spirit within those who welcome His correction. Change is the evidence of Jesus’s ever-increasing life within those who follow Him.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

“But we all”; all who are beholding His glory are changed continually from one glory unto another. There is an ever-unfolding aspect of change produced by the Light and the Life of Him within as we behold His Glory.

“But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Proverbs 4:13

Those who walk the path of the justified find His ways clearer and brighter each day. May our hearts catch the language of the Spirit of God: from “glory to glory” and “more and more” unto the perfect day. This is the language of the redeemed, the song of the faithful pilgrims whose eyes are fixed upon Him.

Let there be within us a response to the “upward” call of God. May we be captivated by the wonder of a Love so pure, so steadfast, and so filled with that invigorating power to prepare us for Himself eternally!

“My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Song of Songs 2:10

Related Post: The Strait Gate and the Narrow Way

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“Because a man has altered his life it does not necessarily mean that he has repented. A man may have lived a bad life and suddenly stopped being bad, not because he has repented, but because he is like an exhausted volcano. The fact that he has become good is no sign of his having become a Christian. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. The apostle Paul never forgot what he had been; when he speaks of “forgetting those things which are behind,” he is referring to what he has attained to; the Holy Spirit never allowed him to forget what he had been (see 1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:13-15). Repentance means that I estimate exactly what I am in God’s sight and I am sorry for it, and on the basis of the Redemption I become the opposite. The only repentant man is the holy man, i.e., the one who becomes the opposite of what he was because something has entered into him. Any man who knows himself knows that he cannot be holy, therefore if he does become holy, it is because God has “shipped” something in him; he is now “presenced with Divinity,” and can begin to bring forth “fruits meet for repentance.”
– A.W. Tozer

Brian Troxel