Repentance leads to life

Maybe 2012 was a great year for you as a Christian. Maybe you’ve fought the good fight, and run the good race. But maybe there’s something in your life that you haven’t repented of. An act the rejects Jesus and puts yourself first.

Can I encourage you to repent and believe the good news. The perfection of Jesus Christ has made a way for you to be right with God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this about sin and forgiveness…

There is only one thing between us and God, and that is our sin. It is not our intellect that separates us from God. The barrier is sin, this barrier that has come in. That is the problem: God is there, and we are here. “Why do I not know him?” asks someone. Because of this barrier. The only way to have it removed is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He came in order to be my sin offering. Your sin has been laid upon him, it has been dealt with, it is cleared. Believe it, thank God for it, and you will know him as your Father.

There is someone in a very similar situation to Peter — and that’s someone called Judas. The more I think about it, the more I realise how similar Judas and Peter were.

Jesus foreknew that Judas would betray him. Just the same as Peter, Judas failed. They both mucked up. They both sinned against Jesus.

To finish, it is vital to know that…

• Peter took his sin to Jesus to be forgiven.
• Whereas Judas took sin to the grave.

I want to encourage you to be a Peter, and not a Judas.

Instead of Judas coming back to Jesus, he commits suicide. Like Peter, he bears to guilt of the sin — but rather than take sin to Jesus, he takes it to the grave.

Repentance leads to life.