As long as we have life, we breath, and live there is hope. We can still repent and make correction. The worst possible situation is where there is no hope and corrections are not possible.
Revelation 20:12 says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”
We are still held accountable, but God is a gracious and merciful Father, and even though it is impossible to fix everything, He is giving us a chance to make some of the wrongs right. We are writing our story in the book of life, and we can make edits on how it ends.
Repentance is the Most Important Issue of our Lifetime
Jesus has fully taken care of what is needed for us to gain access to eternal life, but we still have responsibility, and we may need to clean up some of our own messes before we get there. We must do our part to prepare ourselves; choose the correct path, continually make adjustments in our life, and pray and ask God how we can help fix the damage that we have done.
Preparing for the Kingdom is our responsibility, this is not another person’s responsibility. We should feel blessed to know that God has given us a righteous King, who has laid down His life, gone before us as an example, is worthy enough, and has gained merit for us to repent and ask God for a second chance. We will be held accountable for how much we do or do not take advantage of the opportunity to repent.
Ezekiel 33:15-16 says “…if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him…”
This means that all the sins that a wicked person had committed will not be remembered once the sinner repents and they are no longer practicing those sins. The Rabbis even say that all their sins that had been committed will not be remembered for they have practiced justice and righteousness. In other words, the power of perfectly sincere repentance is so great that even the wicked deeds of the past are considered to be transformed into justice and righteousness. One who repents out of a pure love for God, such a repentance has the power to transform wicked deeds into good ones.
In this world we can recognize that the final verdict is optimistic, and there is still hope.
A way to achieve a higher level of repentance is that you need to be wholehearted. Humble yourself, accept the damage you did, work on self-improvements, and seek the Lord on how to make the wrongs right. As an example, if you stole money from someone in the past, then you should ask God to open a door to ask for forgiveness and be willing to work something out to pay them back. Pray for God’s mercy! You can ask God to forgive you, but Jesus said to first make things right with your brother and then go to the alter (Matthew 5:24). If you are having an issue with this, pray and ask God to help you on how to take care of your responsibilities.
We Still Have to Clean Up the Mess
If my daughter spilled a glass of milk on the floor and made a mess, I would just tell her to get the cleaning supplies and clean up the mess. God wants us to do the same thing, clean up our mess.
Leviticus 26:40-says, “But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”
Jesus breaks it down very clearly for us by giving us a warning when he said in Matthew 5:25, “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.” This is speaking about a day of judgment when we will give an account. Jesus is explaining that we need to repent before that day and make things right.
Don’t Condemn Yourself
Jesus gave us an awesome example that we can always keep in mind when He told the parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18:21-35. We have the opportunity to show grace and mercy to others, be forgiving, loving, and compassionate to others so we can be shown the same from the King when we stand before Him. We should always judge favorably, so we will be judged favorably.
Paul said in Romans 2, “you have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
For the next 30 days, work on not judging someone or a situation negatively. Pay attention to how judgmental you are. When you see someone doing something that you start to question, first think, “How would I respond in the same situation”? If what seems like a bad situation is happening in your life think, “I know God is doing something good for me right now. Father, please show me what it is”. Remember, if you are judging someone in a bad way, you are only judging yourself.
The amount of mercy we show others, will be shown to us.
Repentance has to be from the heart, and it has to be real. Repentance brings hope! Repentance brings the blessings of the Lord, and it brings success in our lives. Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.”
God said choose life. By choosing life, we are writing our story in the book of life.
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