https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/14/the-gift-of-repentance
When we accept Christ, what’s usually emphasised is the eternal life that salvation brings. That salvation is God’s gift to mankind as God loved the world so much (Joh. 3:16) that with the death and resurrection of Christ, we are redeemed from sin and the sting of sin which is death. So although we die, we live for Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 11:2).
But salvation although it’s free (it is not by our own effort or good works), it is not without a cost. It cost Jesus His life. It will also cost us our lives as much as we are saved by grace. Fundamentally, salvation comes with the repentance of the heart. We need to repent from our sins. There must be a transformation of our minds to not conform to the pattern of the world. Our old self must be crucified daily as it tries to assert dominance over our new self in Christ. Our lives must then be a living sacrifice for God since Christ has redeemed us with His blood. There is a cost to following Jesus as we need to carry our own cross daily even as we may ask Jesus to carry our yoke for us and put on His yoke which is light and easy (Matthew 11:28). Using legal terminology, although there are no conditions precedent to accepting Jesus – Jesus accepts us as we are – there is a condition subsequent and that is the repentance of our hearts and it will permeate us thecrest of our lives.
In the ancient days, God will punish His people if they sin and rebel against Him and yet when they repent, He will relent and forgive them as He is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger. He is still the same and what more since the blood of the Lamb has erased our sins.
We cannot be saved if our hearts have not repented. That is why Paul advised in Philippians 2:12 that we each need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. James even went further and asked – what does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works. Can faith save him?
As much as some say that Christian life is not a bed of roses, it is also not paved with gold. But we are assured of a better life in God on earth as in heaven – because if we were to ask our Father in heaven for bread, will He give us a stone or if we were to ask for a fish, will He give us a snake? (See Luke 11:11).
In God we will live our optimum life. We will fulfil our potential in Him and become the person He had planned us to be since the foundations of the earth. We will become the best we could be if we are with God by being able to realise our fullest potential in Him. He will restore what the locusts had eaten and complete His work in us till the day of the Lord.
Ronnie's Thoughts 