It’s quite a word. Repent. It’s got more dust on it than most things in my attic. When’s the last time you heard a pastor speaking about repentance or the need to repent? It’s probably been a while. Why? Maybe because it’s such an old fashioned word, it’s completely out of style. It brings to mind fire and brimstone. Like a circuit riding preacher telling you to repent or go to hell, then packing up and moving on to the next town. It’s not cool to “repent”. You won’t pack your church with repentance. However, if you want to talk grace, mercy, and love, now you got people’s attention. Jesus is love, Jesus loves the little children, Jesus came to save me. Those are messages we all love to hear. You want to get “saved”? Pray this prayer, and BAM, you are in. Jesus is love, and all you have to do is believe and confess, right? That’s a pretty appealing, and by appealing, I mean easy, path to salvation and heaven. Sounds good, sounds biblical correct, so what’s the problem?

The problem comes when we look at what Christ says in Math 7. Christ tells us to enter by the narrow gate. He says the gate to destruction is wide, and easy, and many will walk through it. But the gate to life is narrow, and the way is hard. The word Christ uses for “hard” is used elsewhere in the new testament to mean pain, pressure, tribulation, and persecution. Somehow we have conveniently managed to gloss over all those verses that clearly tell us that in this world, we will not fit in. It will not be easy. It will be risky. We will not have safety. In fact, the call to Christ is quite simply a call to die. Die to self, die to comfort, die to security. We are to bet everything we have, literally, on Christ. All the great hero’s in the bible, and all the great stories of Christ followers since, have one thing in common. Each one was incredibly foolish in the eyes of the world. Each one took incredible risk, or gave up everything, or sacrificed worldly wealth, simply to follow the commands of Christ. The common thread for all of them is obedience. Who leaves their wife and children to go preach salvation to cannibals in South America? Jim Elliot was obedient to a degree that is unimaginable to most of us. It cost him his life, and he left behind his wife and family. Why? Because Jim understood that when he accepted Christ, he accepted a call to follow. A call to follow that demands our all. And in our wisdom today, we have decided to ignore the full implications of Christ’s call to us. We ignore it because it’s inconvenient. We have decided that it’s not only dangerous, it’s actually crazy.

So where is the well that a life changing level of obedience comes from? What separates those who walk the narrow road and those who stroll the wide one? Let’s go back to our word repent. Repentance is the wellspring. Repentance is the life changing substance. Repentance at it’s core is an elemental transformation in someone’s mind, heart, and life. It is the process of turning away from one thing, and turning and moving towards another. And the result of that turn is clear, evident, and transformational.

Repent. It’s was the foundation of John the Baptist’s message. It was the first word from Christ in his ministry. It’s the foundation for the first sermon in Acts. When the crowd asks Peter “what shall we do?”, he says “repent”. Turn from self and world, and move towards Christ. How successful are you at killing your self-centeredness, your desire for material wealth, for comfort, for success, for praise and recognition? How willing are you to sacrifice something, anything, for the cause of Christ? Remember, sacrifice is not giving some money, or giving some time. Sacrifice is doing without in order that someone else may have. When is the last time you literally went without something in order to give to others? Sacrifice is selling your nice SUV, buying an old clunker, and giving the difference in order that orphans can be fed and clothed.

Without true repentance, our priorities will never change. If we refuse to turn and run to Christ, we will always face the world, and our lives will reflect it. I will never willingly embrace danger, sacrifice, and the loss of comfort without first embracing Christ. Fully and completely. That embrace is a life-changing embrace.

In the old testament, it’s pretty clear to us what repentance should look like for the Jews. Melt down the golden calf (who worships a calf?), destroy the pagan idols, chop down the fertility totem poles, stop the human sacrifice to Baal, and just worship God. Even today, it’s easy for us to look at other religions and point out that cows really aren’t sacred, that a statue of Buddha is not going to do much for you, and that all those statues of gods are simply not real. The problem for us is that we are equally blind to our false gods. Money and wealth. Status and prestige. Education and job title. Nice clothes, a beautiful home, well mannered and amazingly successful children. You get the idea. What if, like the rich young ruler, Christ is calling you to give it all up?

Repentance is the foundation that changes lives. You will never shake the hold this world has on you without true repentance. The broad road is just too easy, too appealing, too accepted. The bible say that “Many” will stand before Christ and say “Lord, Lord” and He will say “depart from me, I never knew you”.