This is part of a four part series on freedom from condemnation. The four parts ended up being Freedom from Condemnation, Repentance, Parenting, and Drivenness.
After writing last week about our freedom from condemnation, I began to think about all the ways that this freedom actually plays itself out in real life. The idea that I've really been wrestling with is this view that what we is ultimately destroyed by the cross is our condemnation, but not the law, even though the law is a shadow. So as the author of Hebrews states, the sacrifices are done away with because Jesus in his perfection is the final sacrifice; there is no necessity for further sacrifices, not because the law is destroyed, and not because we will perfectly fulfill the law, but rather, because Jesus has perfectly paid the just due for all those who would be imperfect and break the law. Again, the condemnation is gone. We are freed. We are viewed as perfect in the eyes of God, because he sees us through Jesus.
The interaction of this freedom with the rest of life came out in at least three ways that I started considering. One was the idea of "drivenness". Some folk are just driven people; often, that drive is fueled by internal or external expectations, and while that might be a good thing, the challenge is to maintain the drive while losing the fear of condemnation. Another area was that of "parenting". Obviously we teach our children to "obey"; that's our parental duty. Additionally, we punish our children when they don't obey. How do we square that with the idea that we are no longer condemned? And finally, a third area was that of repentance. What does repentance look like in the Christian life? It is this third one, repentance, that I decided to cover first.
Freedom from Condemnation & Repentance
I was sitting at a luncheon with some friends when one member of the group said that they felt the need to repent of something that had happened the night before. Honestly, most of us probably didn't even know it happened, and the way that it was addressed made it even more awkward than if he had never addressed it in the first place. I wasn't sure whether it was awkward because I wasn't used to people repenting, or because I just didn't think that's what repentance meant. In other words, was repentance something that was done verbally, almost in an AA-like manner, where you have to confess to the people you feel you may have offended? Or was repentance something that was less about the verbal confession and more about the change of heart? To state it differently, was repentance about identifying what happened yesterday, or about what you were going to do tomorrow?
Answering those questions in depth would take a different post. The short answer is that it's a little bit of both. On the one hand, it's clear that confession is part of repentance. (1 John 1). On the other hand, it's also fairly obvious that confession without some sort of change in behavior or outlook would be fairly empty. I might say that confession indicates recognition of the need; the change in behavior or outlook is the evidence.
In any event, this week I've been thinking about repentance in relation to our freedom from condemnation. How is it that repentance is still required of Christians, and should mark our lifestyle, while condemnation is not? The question can only be answered if we understand that the law is still valid and good, even if it is only a shadow of the true reality which will ultimately be the kingdom of God, where there is no need for a law because we would all live perfectly according to God's ideals.
The fact is that repentance is only possible when we understand that while the law still exists, condemnation does not. Ultimately this is the reason that anything we do as Christians matters. God's ideals are not destroyed because Jesus was perfect; quite the contrary. Instead, we are finally able to live in freedom, without the guilt and shame of our own imperfection, because Jesus has a) already identified the problem and provided the solution and b) already dealt with any lingering doubts that we might have by giving us his perfection for free.
What that means practically is that we can live under the goodness of the law of the Spirit that is constantly transforming us and aligning us with God's ideals, and we can live under the freedom from condemnation which means that we can freely admit when we fall short. If there was no law, there would be no need for repentance, because it would be impossible to be a rule-breaker when there are no rules. There would be nothing to turn from. Since there is a law, and God's ideals actually exist, there is not only something to turn from (inability to meet the ideal whether willingly or unwillingly) but there is also something to turn towards. Furthermore, since the condemnation has been removed when we do fall short, we can repent without implicating ourselves in our own crime. We can actually admit, without guilt, and without shame, that we have fallen short; we don't do it out of fear or out of embarrassment but out of freedom, with the full knowledge that the very foundation and need for the good news of Jesus is the reality that we can't save ourselves, and that we are always constantly destined to fall short.
We are free, then, to unload the burden of our failures through repentance, without the fear that if we do so, "whatever we say can be used against us in a court of law." It can't, and won't, be used against us. Repentance is the true mark of freedom, because when we repent we are again reminding ourselves and those around us that we can't save ourselves, but that Jesus has saved us by his cross. In a sense we are staring down the face of punishment and turning aside, relieved. The punishment can't touch us anymore. We're free.
If we are in a context that makes us feel like repenting will mean guilt, shame, embarrassment, or defeat, then we are not in a gospel context. Repentance is freedom, because only a person who is free from condemnation can truly repent. If condemnation still exists, then repentance is done out of fear. But if it doesn't exist, then repentance is done out of freedom, and if it's done out of freedom, it leads to life.
That's the joy of the Gospel.