Tuesday after the Third Sunday of Advent, 12/19/00

Mark 1: 14, 15 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," He said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

In the name of the One Who urges us to repent and believe the good news, amen.

Most of us have had the experience of being forced to make up with someone who wasn't sorry for what they did. I remember playground fights as a child where the teacher thought that yelling at us and then forcing us to shake hands and say we were sorry was enough to end the matter. But we both looked in each other's eyes and could see that the other wasn't sorry at all-except perhaps for getting caught. So we went through the motions thinking the other was a complete hypocrite, and in turn not really forgiving.

It is a fact that all sin is ultimately against God Himself. Even when we sin against people, we sin against creatures who were created in the image of God. In order for there to be real forgiveness then, we must truly be sorry for our sins. Hypocritically going through the motions doesn't cut it. We need to see how evil we are. We need to recognize that we have done wrong and sinned against God Himself. We need to be in the condition of being sorry for our sins so that the Gospel can apply to us-so that we can be forgiven. When our Savior urges us to repent, it isn't so that He can feel superior, but so that we can stand in God's incredible grace. Amen.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, in Your great mercy You urged us to repent of our sins. Yet, even when we sincerely repent, our Old Adam stands within us as a hypocrite. Forgive even our unbelief, Lord. Destroy our Old Adam and grant us forgiveness because of the great sacrifice You made for us, amen.

Copyright 2000 Reformation Lutheran Church http://ReformationChurch.org