MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2026
9:57 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“True
Repenters Reveal Spiritual Transformation”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
3:8a-14
Message of the verses: “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with
repentance…Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then
what shall we do?” And he would answer
and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none;
and he who has food is to do likewise.” And some tax collectors also came to be
baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than
what you have been ordered to.” Some
soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from
anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
I suppose that everyone who has been reading my
Spiritual Diaries lately on the gospel of Luke have noticed that the theme is “repentance.” It does not stop here as one can see in the
title of this SD, and true repentance is something that every person who claims
to be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ needs to understand fully. Genuine repentance will inevitably manifest
itself in changed attitudes and behavior; therefore John challenged
those coming to be baptized to bear fruits in keeping with their
professed repentance. This
certainly was not just true with those who John was talking to, but for everyone
who claims to follow Jesus. Now the apostle
Paul also challenged people to prove the reality of their repentance as He
described his ministry as one of “declaring both to those of Damascus first,
and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to
the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds
appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:20).
Because the evidence of the repentance that leads to salvation is a
changed life, God “will render to each person according to his deeds” (Rom.
2:6). MacArthur adds “That does not mean,
of course, that people can earn salvation by good works, but rather that good
works are the inevitable result of repentance.
The repentance that God grants (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25) does not take
place in a vacuum, but in the context of the transformation brought about by
conversion and regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17).”
Let us take a moment to look at these verses.
(Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25)
“18 When they heard these things they fell silent.
And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted
repentance that leads to life.’”
“25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God
may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,”
(2 Cor. 5:17)
“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
“As a
result, the redeemed ‘are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them’ (Eph.
2:10).
“None of this was new to the Jewish
people. In Isaiah 1:4-5 the prophet
lamented concerning Israel,
“Alas,
sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evil-doers, sons
who act corruptly! They have abandoned
the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from
Him. Where will you be stricken again,
as you continue in your rebellion? The
whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint.”
“In verses
16 and 17, God commanded the people, ‘Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil, learn to do god; seek justice, reprove the ruthless,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow’
If the presence of those deeds confirmed the genuineness of their
repentance, God promised that ‘though [their] sins are as scarlet, they will be
as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool’ (v.
18). In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God declared,
‘[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek
My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will
forgive their sin and will heal their land’ (cf. Ezek. 33:19; Jonah 3:10).”
(cf. Ezek. 33:19; Jonah 3:10)
“19 And when the wicked turns from his wickedness
and does what is just and right, he shall live by this.”
“10 When God saw what they did, how they turned
from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do
to them, and he did not do it.”
“John followed his exhortation to
repent with a warning of the severe consequences of failing to do so.
Indeed, he declared, the axe is already laid at the root of
the tree; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire. (Jesus used the same
graphic imagery to depict judgment in Matthew 7:19).”
(Matthew 7:19)
“19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“God’s
judgment was imminent, John warned; His axe was already laid at the
root of the trees. And every tree
that does not bear good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the
fire. Those trees symbolize people
whose repentance is demonstrably false, since they do not bear good fruit—the
attitudes and actions that manifest righteousness, love for God, and obedience
to His word. They will be thrown into
the fire; ‘the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his
angels’ (Matt. 25:41; cf. 18:1; Jude 6-7).”
(Matt. 25:41; cf. 18:1; Jude 6-7)
“41 "Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.”
“8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to
sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled
or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.”
“6 And the angels who did not stay within their
own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in
eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the
surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued
unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal
fire.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: Repentance is not just for those who become
true believers in Jesus Christ, it is for all believers, for we all sin and we
need to confess our sins before the Lord in order to continue to walk with Him
in the way He desires us to.
My Steps
of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will be with
our family in a very special way as we all continue to pray for my wife’s
recovery from her cancer.
4/25/2026
10:42 AM
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