Luke 24:44-48

Luke 24:44-48 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Revelation 3:15-18 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

What will be preached? Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name. We hear a lot about forgiveness and the grace of God. I think all of us are eager to hear about God's mercy and pardon from sin, but sometimes we are not too fond of repentance. Repentance means we tell God we are wrong in the way we are living. Repentance means we need to correct our course. Repentance means that we know we are not like God and our lives are lined up on the wrong vector, one that will leads straight to Hell. Repentance means we need God and his direction in our lives. Repentance literally means turning around and heading a new direction. If we do not repent, we are merely accepting God and his mercy without admitting our attitudes and lives must be altered. Without repentance, the prostitute will continue selling her body; the liar will continue to tell untruths, and the gossip will keep on spreading rumors. Whatever our fleshly weaknesses, without true heartfelt sorrow and turning toward God, they will not simply go away because we call ourselves Christians.

The "good news" remains the same: Christ came to save sinners; therefore, repent of your sins and accept God's grace. Until we repent, we cannot take the subsequent step of accepting God's saving grace. We cannot hopscotch over repentance to salvation and right standing with God. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God. The beginning of knowing how to live for God is to understand our need of him. If your life is pretty much as you want it to be, and you think your sins and self-centeredness are acceptable to God, you probably will not see the need for the mercy and grace of God. Without true commitment, God is superfluous to your existence, not really needed. But if you realize your life as you have constructed it is not pleasing to the Lord, you will desire and seek change from the bottom of your heart through faith in Christ and his sacrifice at the cross. You will want God to transform you from the inside out. Of course, that is the work of the cross: that is what God does when we truly repent and completely commit to him.

God does not welcome half-hearted of lukewarm children. We cannot dabble in believing. We cannot live our own lives as we desire and add God in one corner of our basket, expecting him to fit into our plans and our wishes. He wants us to live HIS LIFE, not ours, to take up the cross and to follow him. The Bible says, if we are lukewarm and without fire for God, He will spew us out of his mouth. Salvation comes to those who yield totally to God. You cannot stand half in and half out of the cleansing waters of salvation: you must choose complete immersion in his name, adoption into his family. Those who are IN CHRIST are new creations, not longer in love with this world. Christ said, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. (Matthew 6:24)

Salvation comes with seeking God and complete repentance, a turning to the new life, a rejection of the old life. Salvation does not come to the double-minded man; according to scripture, he is unstable and will not inherit eternal life. Salvation comes from wholehearted commitment: to those who rise in the morning with songs of hope on their lips and who retire at night lifting the same praises to God. The Bible clearly indicates no other life is acceptable to God; no other way leads to peace on Earth and life in heaven. The gospel is repentance and forgiveness of sins. When we repent and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are "born again" as God's new creation, living in his love under his mantle of protection. This is THE WAY of new life, eternal life with God our Father. Any other way to God is fraudulent, leading to death. We are IN CHRIST because we rejected our own way of living and accepted HIS WAY OF TRUTH.