The Repentance Cycle

There is an interesting verse in the book of Genesis. It is a statement that God says to Cain, after he doesn't receive favor for the offering of his labor...his work.

Genesis 4:7

7. If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

"If you do what is right"...

Considering the whole of scripture, the only path to acceptance, or righteousness, or salvation, is faith in God through Jesus Christ.

Why this is so, is both simple and complicated. But the Word of God is clear on this matter. Salvation is faith given by the Father to believe in the Son...and there is no other path.

John 6:44

44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Ephesians 2:8-9

8. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--

9. not by works, so that no one can boast.

Romans 10:9-10

9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

John 14:6

6. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:12

12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Seeing that this is true, then what is the "do what is right" that God speaks of when He addresses Cain?

Well, if all of Scripture agrees that faith in Jesus is the only path to acceptance, then "faith in Jesus" is the only action that is "right".

Ah, but if one doesn't have faith in Jesus, then sin is crouching and they must "master it."

"How do you master sin?"

As anyone who has had to go through a Twelve Step program or something similar knows, the path to successfully beating an addictive sin, is to trust in a higher power. Jesus, being the highest power, does offer the best option for success.

Sin points to the need for God. The death and resurrection of Jesus offers the filler needed to breach the gap between our own "goodness" and the perfection of God. Without that "filler", we could not possibly be accepted.

This is the message called the Good News or the Gospel.

We are not perfect. We are not God and we will never be. God did in fact make us this way on purpose.

Yes, as I said, simple but complicated.

The simple view of it...we are not perfect, but through trusting God because of Jesus Christ, we are accepted and will receive eternal life. If we doubt Him, we will commit sin. But we can master it through repentance.

Repentance, simply means to turn around and go the other way. The way is trusting God through the work of Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:9

9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

So, you see, we will fail because we are not God, but we can still be accepted when we believe in salvation from God.

Every time.

Romans 8:38-39

38. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39. neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This includes our own stupidity.

Trust in God's grace.

Now, isn't that good news?