“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2 says this of Jesus Christ: “He made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death”. While his death was a clear sacrifice, the fact is that Jesus’ entire life was marked by sacrifice—giving up his rights as a King for the sake of others.

From the moment he was born, his feet were always walking toward the ultimate sacrifice of that brutal Roman cross. Have you ever wondered why sacrifice is so central to God’s plan of redemption and reconciliation? Why couldn’t God just forgive people of their sins without sacrifice?

If you think about what it means to bring about reconciliation in a human relationship, you can see how sacrifice is always part of the process.it forces a personal cost. If you get angry at someone over some issue, to reconcile means work. It will cost you something to forgive because you have to absorb the pain of the offense. You will have to sacrifice your right to be angry and move toward forgiveness. Actually, both parties have to pay a price. The bottom line is that without sacrifice there is no reconciliation. There is only hardness of heart and death of relationship.

In a very similar way, we must sacrifice in order to move toward God with confession and repentance. We must come to the end of ourselves, killing any sense of pride and self-righteousness. But we are not the ones who move first. It is not our sacrifice that saves us. God’s plan of redemption is primarily about his sacrifice, not ours.
I read once that redemption is a term of value, so there must be a cost involved. To redeem means to buy back, to regain possession of something in exchange for payment. Because we are created in the image of God and he loves us, he considered us worth the cost of redemption. However, the full cost of redeeming a human being is staggering. What does it cost to buy a person back from the realm of sin and death, from the reign of Satan? The cost is commensurate with the destruction that sin, death, and Satan have brought to humanity. The cost is beyond our ability to pay. No amount of sacrifice on our part would enable us to cover the cost. Thankfully, the full cost fell on Jesus. All of the curses of the Fall, most notably our sin and the resulting death, were placed on Christ. His sacrifice makes our reconciliation with God possible. Thanks be to God!

If you are still hanging on to the sins in your life, my friend, it’s time to allow God into your life. Nothing in this world is worth the eternal salvation Jesus Christ offers us!

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal
life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” — Mark 10:17-31

We are now over halfway through Lent. Throughout the journey so far, a lot has been said about sin and repentance. It’s not a fun, lightweight topic. No one likes to think about sin unless it’s someone else’s. But we’ve been called to repent as a way to take ownership of our sinfulness. It’s not a suggestion. Rather, it’s a directive from God.

Martin Luther said the Christian life is a walk of repentance and faith. But why? Why is it so important?

Repentance is a response to God’s grace. It leads to joy and restoration. Not frustration from trying harder, and not despair from beating yourself up. Those are forms of penance. Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-4). Repentance is motivated by love for God and a desire for fellowship with him.

King David said, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:1-3). David was not a man without sin. He, like each of us, succumbed to the world. Only when he came clean with God did he experience the grace of God: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (32:5).

Repentance is taking responsibility for our sin. The problem is not just the sin, but that each of us is sinful. It would not be enough to clean the outside of the cup, which is why we must seek a deeper cleansing: “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being … Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow … Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm51:6-7, 10).

Repentance is turning to God in faith. In everyday language, repentance means to “change your mind,” to reconsider how you are living your life in light of your new identity in Christ. Left to our own accord, we are prone to pursue life on our terms, and to locate our sense of worth and joy in places apart from God. So the call to repentance is a standing invitation to give up our idolatrous pursuits, and turn to the one true God who restores us to the life for which we were made. We cannot save ourselves.
Repentance is initial and ongoing. That’s why you must be in humility and seek God’s grace.

If you are in a place where the old you is ready to be cleansed, it’s time to repent of your sins, and say yes to God.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place. And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My name may be there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times.” — 2 Chronicles 7:12-16

As we continue on this journey to the cross, repentance is becoming more and more important in your relationship with God. At least it should be. Why? Repentance begins with seeking God, embracing the way things really are by confessing them, and then turning from the sins which invade our lives.

The word “sin” has been defined and applied in so many ways that I think most people have adopted a rather trite view of sin that is focused on specific actions that break God’s rules. The biblical concept of sin is not less than that, but it is much more. 19th century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from God.” In other words, sin separates you from God. There’s no way around it. You cannot be in union with God and in your sin.

We were made for God, to center our entire life on him and find our sense of worth and purpose in him. Anything other than that is sin. And truthfully, how often do we place our desires above God’s plan for us? We end up losing our identity as a child of God, hanging our hat on our self-centered identity formed in our own image. Everyone is building his or her identity on something. It’s human nature.

St. Augustine said, “We were made for God, and that our hearts are restless until they find rest in him.”

This is how Israel got to where they were. They made other things ultimate and gave themselves to false gods. Israel was always running to other gods and then coming back to the Lord. This is the nature of our sin. We give ourselves out to false gods and then come running back to the one true God when our life is in ruins.

The gospel sets us free from this kind of false faith. God approves of us in Christ, without condition. We are accepted and adopted into his family. We don’t need anything more than what we have been given in Christ. We cannot accomplish anything more than what he has already done on our behalf. Nothing can separate us from the love of God when we repent and say yes to Jesus Christ.

We not only need to admit that we have sinned, but also that we have sinned because we were tempted by our own desires, and willfully gave ourselves to them. This kind of ownership is necessary for true repentance, and stands in contrast to many of the ways we typically try to deal with our sin. Yes, Jesus Christ put on every single sin we have or will commit. But we do have a responsibility to own it, repent for it, and humbly ask for forgiveness. But we try to justify our sin. When you become aware of sin, do you feel the need to nuance everything, explain how complicated things are, or make excuses? Taking responsibility for sin means we say, “I lusted because my desires are perverted” … “I lied because I am afraid of what people think about me” … “I ate that because I do not have self-control around food.”

We try to downplay our sin, hoping or assuming that God overlooks our sin. Or even worse, we seek to just change the word of God to fit our sinful narrative. We don’t think sin really affects our ability to relate to God, or hinders the flow of his blessing. We think we are the exception. Taking responsibility for sin means we say, “My sin is destructive and grieves God. I will not be right with him until I deal with this.”

We pretend things are better than they really are, cleaning the outside of the cup while we are filthy on the inside. Taking responsibility means we say, “It doesn’t matter how good people think I am. God sees right through me, and is not impressed or tricked by my lip service. God hates hypocrisy!”

Our problems are bigger than our circumstances: we are broken on the inside. And repentance is deeper than what we do: we need to repent of who we are. Remember, repentance is good news. It is hope that God will restore us. Conviction of sin is a difficult pill to swallow, but it is good medicine to the soul.

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. — Mark 10:46-52

Pride is the great enemy of humility. And yet pride is encouraged, nurtured, and even celebrated in our culture today. Bob Thune observes: “The brashest expressions of pride are easy to spot: the athlete who boasts about her talent, the arrogant entrepreneur who flaunts his achievements, or the well-connected neighbor who name-drops in every conversation. Most of us are smart enough to avoid appearing prideful in these obvious ways. But that’s just the problem. We can avoid looking prideful without actually killing our pride.”

What is pride? It’s not something to put on a flag or dedicate a month to. The Bible gives us the information we need. Pride often manifests itself as arrogance: the Apostle John refers to this as “the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Pride can also manifest itself as self-centeredness, looking out for your own personal interests (Philippians 2:4). In other words: the essence of pride is self. Regardless if it’s arrogance and boasting or as self-protection and fear of people, it’s pride.

In our life as a Christian we are asked to put on humility while putting our pride to death. How? Simple. Look to Jesus.

Jesus is our model, because though he had every reason to be prideful (he was perfect), he chose instead the path of humility. Scripture commands us to follow his example: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7).

Here’s the thing. Jesus doesn’t want us to mimicking him. If we do that, we miss the gospel. The heart of the good news is that we can be more like Jesus only if, and because, we are united with him. We are united with Christ by grace through faith in his life, death, and resurrection. Because we have rebelled against God, we deserve to be crushed by his divine wrath. Jesus “humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8)—taking our shame and guilt upon himself, and enduring the wrath of God against our sin, so that those who humbly come to him can be forgiven and reconciled to God. This is the Good News of Easter! This is why we have to be in the wilderness. We can’t put down the pride without wrestling with satan first.

Are you ready to be free from your pride? Do you truly want to know Jesus Christ? It’s time to stop running and start repenting. It’s freeing, my dear friends. So the next time you think pride is worth celebrating, ask God what He thinks? I’m pretty sure He wouldn’t hold a parade.