John the Baptizer came first with the command to repent. His message was slightly different in the way it sounded. He said to baptize in preparation for the coming of Christ. "Prepare the way of the Lord," he said. In my understanding of this, we don't have to be perfect for Christ to work in us, but the sin that we cling on to hinders fellowship with Him. John's simple message was to get away from the rule ridden lifestyle of religion and selfish ambition and take a look at Jesus, who comes to offer forgiveness and salvation and freedom.
Then Jesus shows up, fresh from His stint in the wilderness fasting and praying and, obviously, being tempted. His very first message is similar to John's but with a different qualification. He says to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If repentance is for preparing the way for Christ, why would the Christ come with the same message?
Jesus' purpose is glorifying His Father by creating and establishing His kingdom made up of broken people in intimate relationship with God. Jesus is saying that we need to repent, not to be perfect, but to be a part of the kingdom.
What happens too often, whether we speak of John's reason for repentance or Jesus' reason, is that we treat repentance as a behavioral thing. If we sin less, we become closer to God. This is a lie. Attempting to change our moral behavior causes stress on our emotions and our spirits that translates into physical stress. It creates legalism that causes the stress to spread like a sickness to others. In time, competition between the so-called saints occurs and you see the divisions in families, friendships, nations, and churches that is prevalent today. We can't change our behavior completely on our own. IF we seem to have done this, we could look inside and see a terrible condition in our hearts and spirits. Jesus called it cleaning only the outside of the cup.
Repentance is never a behavioral thing. Repentance is a heart attitude. It is a turning away from a way of life in our hearts to focus our hearts then on Christ, on God and that relationship. Then behavior changes. Repenting for John's reason helps us turn our hearts to see Christ's offer of grace and forgiveness, not His judgment. When we repent in Christ's way, we are able to see those around us in the kingdom, and to join with them.
You see, we fail in our behavior. This is a given. We sin. We turn from that sin in our hearts, but sometimes the flesh wins. This is what grace is for: from God and from each other. We cannot look at the poor choices of someone and judge them. It could be that their heart and attitude is one of repentance. We cannot know completely, though an unrepentant heart will reveal itself.
Grace is for sinners. If every time we fail behaviorally, we find condemnation from those around us, we will soon give up, even if we have a repentant attitude. This is why grace is enough. It allows us to hold onto Christ even when we fail. It helps us to hold one another up when we fail.
So repent. Turn your heart and your attitude to God. Let Him be the change in your behavior.
