Metanoia

Do you find it difficult, if not impossible, to do the right thing? Are you continuing to battle weaknesses that should have been defeated long ago? Have you ever felt guilty or sorry that your shortcomings have been discovered and now you must deal with the result of your actions? Are you searching for the key ingredient in fixing your guilt or shame or shortfall? Then you may be suffering from CSS. CSS, more commonly referred to as Chronic Sin Syndrome, manifests itself in these as well as many other ways; but you no longer have to worry about those overwhelming moments. Now, for a limited time, we can offer you not only relief from all the symptoms of CSS but a cure which has been proven successful in treating every type of CSS known to man with a 100% success rate. Isn’t that great news? What is it? Metanoia! Yes, you heard it here first. The absolute cure to your CSS problems is metanoia. Immediate application of this modern-day marvel in those difficult times will transform your life, change your perspective, enrich your days, increase your stamina and bring you great peace, joy, patience and understanding. Don’t just stand there! Call this toll-free number and start experiencing life as it was meant to be!

I wonder how many people would respond to a call like the one above or long to have a cure for the sin that overtakes us. God has always provided a way for man to be restored by faith; it starts with metanoia – repentance. This is the turning away from sin because we agree with God and His law that our sin is not only repugnant to Him, it is repugnant to us, and we agree with God that the standard of measure for us is His Word, not our opinion. The term literally means to turn around or have a total shift in orientation. I wonder how many people today suffer like King David did before he was confronted with his sin and repented. David recorded the results of his silence in Psalm 32:3-4: “When I kept silent [about my sin], my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away [as] with the fever heat of summer.” But once he repented, confessed and asked for forgiveness, the burden of his sin was lifted. “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, in the opening chapter of the book relates how in spite of his father’s protest and the tears and petitions of his godly mother, he ran away from his home at York and went to sea. On his first voyage, he was wrecked off Yarmouth Roads and barely escaped with his life. He now saw the folly and the evil of the course he had taken, but was afraid and ashamed to go back to his home, lest some of his old companions should make sport of him. So, writes Defoe, “Men are ashamed to repent; not ashamed to do that of which they ought to be ashamed, but ashamed to do that which is their only hope and rescue.”

Macartney’s Illustrations

Jesus, John the Baptist, and a host of God’s representatives in the Bible have called God’s people to repent. It is our only hope and rescue. It is the only place where we can glorify God and find the forgiveness we so desperately need.