MORNNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2026
8:36 AM
My Worship
Time Focus: PT-3 “The Theological Setting”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Luke 3:3b
Message
of the verse: “preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins;”
“Repentance is not merely an intellectual change of the
mind about who Christ is, or superficial remorse over the consequences of
sin. It is a radical turning from sin to
God; a repudiation of the old life and a turning to God for salvation from the
penalty and dominion of sin. In 1
Thessalonians 1:9, Paul wrote that the Thessalonians ‘turned to God from idols
to serve a living and true God.’ Those
who come to him broken in spirit, humble, and mourning over their sins will
experienced God’s forgiveness.”
I
think that the paragraph above was worthy of having it highlighted
because of the great truth that is found in it.
Repentance is not just for when a person come to salvation through Jesus
Christ, but when a person who is a believer sins and thus is in need of cleansing from their sin
even though God has already forgiven them from that sin they still need to
agree with God that they have sinned.
“Saving repentance never exists
except in partnership with faith. It is
impossible to have true faith in Jesus Christ apart from t rue repentance from
sin or tur repentance from sin apart from true faith. They are two sides of the same work of the
Holy Spirit to convict sinners of their sin and draw them to Christ.
“It must be clearly understood
that repentance is not a human work that
earns salvation. Repentance is not a
pre-salvation effort by sinners to set their lives right that God rewards by
saving them. In repentance sinners
recognize their dire condition, acknowledge that they are unable to save
themselves, and turn to Jesus Christ as the only One who can save them. Left to themselves, the unregenerate will
never come to that conclusion, since they love darkness rather than light (John
3:19), and are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).”
(John 3:19)
“19 And this is the judgment: the light has come
into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because
their works were evil.”
(Eph. 2:1)
“1 ¶ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins”
MacArthur goes on: “The conviction
that produces repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit, who ‘convict[s] the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment’ (John 16:8). In Acts 5:31, Peter declared that, ‘God
exalted [Jesus] to His right and as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance
to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.’ Acts
3:26; 11:18; and 2 Timothy 2:25 also affirm that God grants repentance
to sinners.
“In 2 Corinthians 7:9-11, the
apostle Paul captures the essence of repentance:
“I not
rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to
the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of
God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will
of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the
sorrow of the world produces death. For
behold what earnestness this very thing, theis godly sorrow, had produced in
you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing,
what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In
everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.”
MacArthur
goes on: “He began by distinguishing
remorse over sin’s consequences from the sorrow that produces repentance,
noting that the Corinthians ‘were made sorrowful to the point of repentance.’ Their sorrow was ‘according to the will of
God’; that is, they viewed their sin the same way God does. That in turn ‘produce[d]
a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.’ As opposed to the ‘sorrow
of the world [that] produces death.’
Remorse over sin’s consequences, which is little more than wounded pride
stemming from being caught in a sin, cannot produce the genuine repentance thar
results in forgiveness.
“Paul closed his description of true
repentance by defining it in a series of words or phrases. The first mark of repentance is ‘earnestness,’
an eager pursuit of righteousness that ends a person’s indifference to sin and
complacency about his or her lost condition.
‘Vindication’ describes the desire to clear one’s name of the stigma
attached to sin. ‘Indignation’ is
righteous anger at the dishonor sin brings to God’s holy name. It goes hand in hand with ‘fear’ of God’s
just judgment on sin and a ‘longing’ to have one’s relationship with Him
restored. Repentance also produces ‘zeal,’
a passionate desire for righteousness that causes sinners to long to see
justice done and the wrong of their sins avenged and atoned for. The Corinthians’ desire ‘to be innocent in
the manner’ shows that the one who is truly repentant aggressively pursues holiness.”
It is my belief that this is enough for
this morning’s SD as there is a lot to “digest” here and so I think that I will
just go ahead and leave the rest of this section to this evening’s SD.
Spiritual
Meaning for My life today: To be thankful that the Lord Jesus
Christ called me to salvation a little over 52 years ago as He certainly
changed my path and caused me to repent of the sinful life that I was living
and caused me to begin to grow in His grace by giving me a desire to study His
Word and then to share what I have learned with others.
My
Steps of Faith For Today: To trust the Lord to show Sandy the path for
healing that He desires for her to take, as she is not really doing will on the
procedures that she is taking at this time.
4/21/2026
9:11 AM
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