XVI — REPENTANCE
XVI — WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE IN RECEIVING AND PARTICIPATING IN THE MISSIO DEI?
As a treasured people sent to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6) to the world, the children of Israel were in constant need of laying their sins on the scapegoat and repenting (Lev. 16:10), to carry out God’s mission in the wilderness and in the promised land
As a shepherd, called to be king representing God, David confessed his sinfulness, repented, and was forgiven, carried out God’s covenant and mission, taught and declared God’s ways and righteousness (Psalm 51) to the world
As a prophet sent to unbelieving and wicked Nineveh, Jonah confessed his sin of fleeing; he repented, and being forgiven, carried out God’s mission
As disciples who were locked behind doors for fear on Resurrection evening and again a week later, God’s chosen men carried out Christ’s great sending with sins forgiven, with Christ’s peace, and as Spirit-energized missionaries to the world
Repentance, which is a change of thinking and behavior, and forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) is essential for Christ-followers to participate in the Missio Dei. Treasured people of God must confess their sins – sins of fleeing, sins of disobedience to God’s sending, failures to submit to His authority, sins of apathy, sins of arrogance. Above all, though, believers must receive forgiveness. Are repentance and forgiveness significant in the great sending of God? Yes!
Regarding the Missio Dei specifically, our sins of selfishness, fear, and apathy are crying for repentance and forgiveness. The institutional church often fails to participate in the great sending of God because it is blinded by a deceptive devotion – devotion to and passion for maintaining church buildings and scheduling activities. It comes down to the old self of self-interest, self-being and self-doing. The Church cannot participate in God’s sending mission if it is wholly focused on itself.
In arrogance, Christians today also can find fault with and dismiss other Christians who are responding to Christ’s sending and who are being used as instruments of God’s mission but are not considered to have pure theology or pure “Lutheran” traditions and liturgy. Christians today can be hindered, detracted from, or outright disobedient to God’s sending by such arrogance.
Distraction by multi-faceted doctrinal pressure points often tragically consumes God’s treasured and sent people. Let it be clear that doctrine can deliberately or by default become central instead of the Gospel, the Christ-centered Missio Dei. In His love, forgiveness, and peace, which transcends all understanding, together with and for the Missio Dei, God necessarily and indeed accompanies the sending with teaching – teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
In Isaiah 1, God condemned the hypocrisy of focus on worship performances and formalities of the people. Because their focus was in the wrong place, they disobeyed and violated His will. Yet graciously, in verse 18, we read: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
If there is to be any receiving of and participation in the Missio Dei, under the power of God’s Word and grace and by the mercies of God, individual Christians and congregations must lay their sins on Christ, the scapegoat, and heed Christ’s call: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In Christ, the sent are forgiven, cleansed, and given transformed (changed) hearts, for the sake of the mighty sending of God.
(For further study see the Ten Commandments and the Office of the Keys and Confession, Christian Questions with Their Answers, Luther’s Small Catechism.)
77. Leviticus 16:9-10 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
78. Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
79. Luke 9:49-50 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”
80. Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
81. 1 John 1:8-10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
82. Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
83. Joel 2:12-13 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
84. Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
85. Matthew 3:8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
