Your best life…thru Repentance
Oct 16th, 2009 by ljkim
“All of life is repentance…” according to Martin Luther. The Bible’s radical idea is: the way you’ll get the best possible life and best possible “you” is not through things like positive thinking, or wealth, or even health… But in a Gospel economy in which anything can be healed or forgiven – the way to the best possible life is always, in some way, through some kind of REPENTANCE.
So here’s the part that’s easy to prove – but no one likes: you can actually have a GREAT life while still being (physically) sick or (financially) poor or facing some kind of loss. The flip side is also true: you could have a totally meaningless life while rich and healthy and successful (and it happens…a lot). So those things, while nice (and God has nothing against health and wealth and success), are not what make you great or not-great – or give you a great life. What makes for a great life has to do with who you are underneath those things.
You are probably smart enough to admit that “you are not perfect” – and yet when it comes to what you need in order to have a better life, you probably look to external things (more money, more power, more beauty, more friends). In other words, you see the sinfulness and brokenness of everything there is around you – but you don’t see the sinfulness of sin in you. But the way you get more of God (along with all the good things that come with God, joy, peace, prosperity, wisdom) is through repentance. Seeing the sinfulness of sin. Highlighting what’s broken in you and taking it to God to be forgiven and healed. There is no other way to get whole… A new car or new job or lots of sex isn’t going to make your life better if what you really need is a kidney transplant!
Likewise, a kidney transplant won’t do you any good if you what you really need is a forgiven and transformed “soul” (the essence of who you are…)
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