"Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:13-17
As I see (the enormity of) my sin and the welcoming heart of Jesus in forgiving, empowering and embracing; it leads to a desire to communicate this good news, live a life of praise and commit to an ongoing happiness in personal repentance.
"I call piety that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until men recognize they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his Fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him-they will never yield willing service." John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion, I-2-1
"We are called to mature into deeper levels of personal holiness as we walk with the Lord, truer consecration, new vistas of obedience. But when we don’t -when we choose to sin-, though we forsake our true identity, our Savior does not forsake us. These are the very moments when his heart erupts on our behalf in renewed advocacy in Heaven with a resounding defense that silences all accusations, astonishes the angels, and celebrates the Father’s embrace of us in spite of all our messiness...what if we never needed to advocate for ourselves because another has undertaken to do so. What if that advocate knew exhaustively just how fallen we are, and yet at the same time, is able to make a better defense for us than we could ever do. No blame shifting, the way our self-advocacies tend to operate, but perfectly just, pointing to his all-sufficient sacrifice and sufferings on the cross in our place?" Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly, pp 92, 93
1. Gratitude (thunderous) which leads to the communication of Good News (v.13)
2. Forgiveness which leads to celebration (v.14-15)
The blessedness of treasuring Jesus and forgetting self.
3. A repentance that leads to happiness (v.16-17)
"All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." Isaiah 66:2
Legalistic remorse says, “I broke God’s laws” or “I got caught” or “I am embarrassed because my contemporaries know about this.…but, real repentance says, I broke the Father’s heart. I have sinned against embracive love.”
QUESTIONS:
1. Define “piety” per John Calvin.
2. The world says, “Shape up to deserve what you get” but the gospel says _______ _______ to receive his mercy.
3. What leads to the communication of the good news of sins forgiven?
4. When you treasure Jesus, you become _______ Jesus.
5. What emotion does John 6:37 awake in your spirit? “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
6. Define the difference between Legalistic Remorse and Real Repentance.
7. David tasted _______ but, we swim in it.
ANSWER KEY: humble yourself, like, forgiveness