August 31

Day 170: Repentance is the Application

Strangely, I'm going all theological here on a Monday morning...

John 3:5 has always been contested. Not so much over what Jesus said to Nicodemus, but what He meant by what He said.

In response to Nicodemus's question, "How can someone be 'born again?'" Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."

The problem revolves around the word "Water." Through the centuries different views have emerged, thus differing theologies of baptism.

While there remain different views on the mode of baptism (sprinkling or dunking), and who should be baptized (infants or those old enough to believe), the real question debated is, "What does getting wet actually accomplish?"

We all acknowledge that we are commanded to be baptized. Many of us would adhere to the idea that baptism is symbolic; a visual expression of an invisible reality.

But what did Jesus mean when He said what He said?

Perhaps looking back to the Old Testament, Scriptures Jesus likely had memorized, is helpful.

Ezekiel 36:25-26 says this: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

I am not going to debate the "sprinkle" part. But what I will say is this: In that time period, water was associated with purification.

For John the Baptist, who knew a thing or two about baptism, the baptism he offered was one of repentance; to prepare the one baptized for the coming of the Lord.

That's why the Pharisees and priests and religious leaders were unwilling to be baptized. They saw no need to be. They refused to see their own sin. They refused to lower themselves, especially in public, and confess any sin.

So Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to Jesus in the middle of the night. He is intrigued by Jesus. And, he wants to know salvation, even though his daytime contemporaries thought they'd already achieved just that through their own works of piety.

My point? The Church, the true Church, is a regenerated membership. The true Church is made up of those who have confessed and repented of their sin. The Spirit has then replaced their stone hard, sin-harboring hearts with new pliable hearts to know and be in communion with the Savior.

To confess sin is to be relieved of sin, to no longer be under the death sentence that sin brings. to now have irrevocable citizenship in a new Kingdom.

Baptism is thus an opportunity to make public one's transformation; how their repentance is a complete turn around; how going forward they will now be dominated by Jesus instead of by sin. How theirs is a new citizenship.

A local church is certainly called to confess the doctrines of God's Word. But a confessional church is also one marked by initial and ongoing confession of sin.

Repentance is the beginning of our citizenship. Repentance is the application, and being purified is the acceptance of that application.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau