Page 247 … Repenting repentance
Then, as if on cue, you note that, “Jesus Christ’s first command was to ‘repent’ (to turn away from those things which are against God’s Law) and then to trust in him alone to save us from our sins.” … You know Lucy, I actually agree with you fully on this point, and thereby wonder a bit why you refuse to apply its teachings to your own life – especially your own outmoded and Jesus-trumped beliefs about homosexuality …
As I have mentioned to you many times in the past, the Greek word in the ancient manuscripts commonly translated into English as “repent” is metanoeo – a word that had very little to do with self-judgment and nothing at all to do with confessing one’s sins. Rather, it meant to “completely alter one’s way of living” (see Strong’s #3340) – in essence to turn away from arrogant, judgmental self-centeredness and towards humble, caring selflessness; to turn away from a life of worry & fear and towards a life of service & Love; or – in your own case – to turn away from worshiping the teachings of Paul and towards a life of humbly & selflessly & lovingly living The Way of Christ.
Lucy: Man without God goes his own way, sets his own standards and makes his own choices – “We all like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned each to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6) for “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:1), and yet “the Lord has laid upon him [the Lamb of God] the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6b) to atone for our sin and make reconciliation – to restore us to life! And yet to go his way, we must turn back from going our own.
Scaughdt: How cool that you mention Isaiah II (the author who wrote chapters 40-55 of that tome), as that was one of Jesus’ favorite Old Testament works! Of course, Isaiah 53:6 – like any other quote from any other Old Testament scroll – can only be fully understood when applied to how Jesus would have viewed it, in this case in light of both Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:3-7, where Jesus describes a shepherd leaving his flock of ninety-nine sheep in order to find the one which is lost … Many conservative Christians tend to misconstrue this story to say that is is their responsibility to go and “reel in” those that they judge to be “lost” (a bit like you with homosexuals in the case at hand), and yet it is well worth remembering that it is the SHEPHERD who does to seeking and the finding in this story – not the other sheep, and it is just as well worth remembering that this story is the first in a trilogy of tales (all about the redemption of perfect LOVE & pure Forgiveness) that Jesus shares after the Pharisees had accused him of welcoming & befriending “sinners”!!!
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