- Matthew 12:35~37 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.
Whoever it may be, a person must repent to escape the domain of death. If they only try to receive grace when they have sins in their hearts, they are like fertilizing a piece of land without pulling out the weeds. So their efforts simply make the weeds grow even more. In their hearts, both good and evil flourish. If a person truly repents of their sins, the sins will disappear from their hearts and also their record of sin will be wiped clean in heaven’s book. If you feel uneasy in your conscience, it is telling you that you have sins.
When human beings commit sin, they suffer from the agony of the mind and the pains of life. Satan and devils torment them and give them sickness. The evil spirits interrupt their lives and subject them to suffering in various ways. Furthermore, sinful people face the condemnation of God on the days of God’s judgment. [But] if they repent, the matter could end at the time of repentance; or, in other cases, they have to pay exactly for what they have done. After having sinned before the Lord, if you truly repent and thus resolve all the losses you inflicted on His history and the pains of His broken heart, the Lord’s heart becomes soothed. Also, if you promise that you will be something for the Lord and set a condition with action, the Lord often forgives, too.
Those who repent will walk out of the domain of death and their hearts will turn into a heaven. Having sinned, you cannot continue to live because of the agonies [you face]. Anxiety, terror of sin, and the pains of hell keep coming over you. The Lord said, “Repent, and Satan will depart from you; agony will disappear from your heart, the pains of your body will be dissolved; and you won’t be condemned on the appointed day of judgment.” If you don’t properly observe God’s law; Satan, devils, and demons immediately know that. They torment you, inflict losses on you, and harm you in tens of thousands of ways.
Sin is not only breaking the laws God constituted but also failing to do what you are supposed to do. [The Bible] defines that sin is not doing the good that you know. There are numerous kinds of sins. Even the sins of an individual are too many to count. If we repent, we become righteous people. You can repent only if you admit your sins. If you confess to the Lord, “I am a sinner,” He is delighted and forgives you.
The Lord said, “Sin is like a rotten creation.” Fish, meat, food, fruit, wood, iron, clothes, land, and water; all of these things decay and rot. Change in quality is decay. A person, whose quality changes, has rotting faith. Where there is decay, flies swarm. Where one’s faith is rotten, Satan and demons swarm. When you sin, your mind starts rotting, and your action also is rotten because of sin. The Bible records, “The mind of human beings and the action of human beings are more rotten and corrupt than creation.” I have explained about ‘sin’ comparing it with decay. Sin causes man’s spirit and body to go bad. Repentance cuts out the rotten parts and brings the decay to an end.
Repentance isn’t something you can finish in one day. You need to do it as if sharpening a rusty knife. Just as you need to scour and polish with glazing substance dozens of times, you need to keep repenting of your sins. You certainly generate trash from living your lives each day. You certainly need to wash yourself. Likewise, there are sins from living daily lives each day. The sins of failing to do what you had to in the past, the sin of ignorance, the sin of not taking action according to the Lord’s will, etc. There are hundreds and thousands of different kinds of sins. You must take responsibility for your own sins. Only then, will you not be destroyed together with those who will be destroyed. Therefore, every chance you get, repent of your own sins, repent of your family’s sins, repent of your brothers’ sins, repent of the sins of your nation, and repent of the sins of the world. The Lord said, “Those who repent of their own sins, the sins of their family, their nation, and the world bear the cross and save the sinners together with Me.” The Lord is happy with those people.
We must repent in order for God to give ‘the Holy Spirit’ as a gift and for the Lord to be with us. Think of each of the sins that you have committed; stop on your way; and first repent. The Bible attests God sees human beings’ sins and judges them each day. He does so because the will of God and the Lord cannot be fulfilled when there is sin. How deplorable it will be if someone who absolutely believed that they would go to heaven ends up in the other world? You are in serious trouble if you vaguely think, ‘[I] will go to heaven,’ or ‘My repentance might be done.’ Make it completely and totally sure.
As the Scriptures proclaim, human beings cannot have salvation unless they have resolved their sins. We must take care of our sins in order to receive salvation. A religion without repentance is a dead religion, a dead faith. If you have unpaid debt, you remain low as if you are lifeless. You become lively after paying it off.
Repentance is ‘clearing.’ Repentance is ‘resurrection,’ and ‘being alive.’ God made it a law that the one who sins but doesn’t repent definitely goes to hell. Repentance is ‘salvation.’ Nothing is as good as repentance. I bless you in the name of the Lord that you may memorize the line the Lord spoke, “Repentance is salvation,” and live your lives, putting it into action.