Repentance is letting the Shepherd carry you homePastor-Teacher Repentance is letting the Shepherd carry you homeRepentance - metanoia - in the New Testament means a change of mind for the better. God’s plan throughout all the ages is that He might be glorified by the grace that He dispenses to undeserving creatures. the lost sheep, LUK 15:4-7, In the Bible, a parable is a comparison between a familiar fact and a spiritual truth. The central truth of the parable is the joy God has over the change in status of a believer from lost to found, from “dead” to “alive”. Or in a word, “restoration” or what our Lord calls in verse 7 “repentance”. The first type of repentance is a synonym for faith in connection with salvation. A change in mental attitude about the person and work of Christ equals repentance in connection with salvation. The second type of repentance is rebound, changing our thinking to agree with God’s verdict concerning our sins. We embrace the experiential forgiveness God freely provides. The third type of repentance in the Church age believer’s life is the turning away from human viewpoint (lies, evil) and turning toward divine viewpoint (grace and truth), resulting in living a new life of fellowship with the Trinity. The 3 parables are a unit, and in the 3rd parable we have lost sons. They are sons at the beginning and they are sons at the end. They represent believers. These three parables in Luke 15 have to do with restoration, Is this rebound repentance, or maturity repentance? This is not dealing with short term carnality, but rather what is technically called reversionism: a lifestyle of separation and independence from God and the plan of God. Repentance is the acceptance of being found....or in the case of rebound, the acceptance of being found out! Jesus in this parable has radically redefined repentance as allowing the shepherd to rescue us in our lost condition and bring us home. 1. Failed leadership. The parable contains criticism of leaders who lose their sheep and do nothing but complain about the One who goes after them to rescue them. 2. Freely offered grace. The sheep offers no service to the shepherd and in no way earns or deserves his rescue. It comes as a free gift. The shepherd asks nothing of the sheep after He rescues it. 3. The atonement. The shepherd pays a fearsome price both to find the sheep and to restore it to the home. The heart of the atonement is thus found in this parable. 4. Sin and the fall. Mankind is depicted as lost and unable to find its way home. 5. Joy. The joy of the shepherd and his friends and neighbors at the success of the saving event is featured prominently. The return home with the calling out of his friends and neighbors is placed at the climactic (center) point of this parable. 6. Repentance. Repentance is defined as the joy of being found. The sheep is lost and helpless. Repentance becomes the act of the shepherd in carrying the sheep back to his home in the village and the sheep’s acceptance of that act. 7. Christology. Jesus is the good shepherd who restores the sinner to God. The joy in the home of the shepherd is equated in the parable to joy in heaven. This shepherd must personally make the costly demonstration of love, righteousness and justice in order to restore the helpless sheep. |