• Home
  • GracEmail Ministry
    • What is GracEmail?
    • Latest GracEmail
    • frequently asked questions
    • GracEmail Category Index
  • Written Ministry
    • Articles
    • Special Bible Studies
    • Books
    • Online Books
    • Worship Resources
    • Interviews
  • Videos
  • About
    • The Personal Pages
      • Photo Albums
    • My Professional Life
  • Contact

Edward Fudge Ministries

Joyously drawing water from the springs of salvation Isaiah 12:2-3

You are here: Home / GracEmail / our response to God's salvation / ACTION FOR GOD'S SAKE / SHOULD HE DO PENANCE?

SHOULD HE DO PENANCE?

A brother asks, “Is it right, after sinning and asking God for forgiveness, to do penance by denying myself some specific pleasure? Am I thinking that God couldn’t do the work alone, or am I simply being serious about sin?”

* * *

Perhaps you are not taking sin seriously enough. At its heart, sin is the human creature’s conscious decision to reject the Creator’s authority, to act as if we were God ourselves instead of a dying lump of animated clay. The enormity of such rebellion is so staggering that only God himself can provide a remedy for sin and a reconciliation for sinners. Our own good deeds can never pay off our debt. We cannot bring God any sacrifice which will atone for our guilt. We will never be able to scrub our hands or hearts sufficiently to clean our moral impurity (Psalm 49:7-9; Isa. 64:6-7; Rom. 6:23). Yet the gospel tells us that God loves his sinful human creatures, and that in Jesus of Nazareth he came among us, took our guilt on himself, personally accepted and absorbed its deathly consequences and, in some unfathomable way, discarded all animosity and set us right with himself (Col. 1:19-23; Titus 2:11-14; 3:3-7; 1 Pet. 2:24).

As we begin to grasp the reality of this gospel truth, we realize that Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s forgiveness are eternally adequate for our need (Isa. 53: 11-12; Heb. 7:25-27). In that light, we see that neither our contributions nor our deprivations can add anything to God’s provision for sin, and that any such attempt insults the only sacrifice which God does accept (Heb. 10:12-14, 26-29). When we sin, we remember that our sin nailed Jesus to the cross — and that God’s merciful forgiveness raised him from the dead (Rom. 4:25). When we repent of sin and confess it to God, he forgives us for the sake of his perfectly-obedient Son (Heb. 10:10; 1 John 2:1-2, 12).

There is a proper place for works — deeds which demonstrate our repentance while relying wholly on the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Repentance means changing our attitude, and we show that by reformed behavior (Jer. 7:1-11; Matt. 3:8; Acts 26:20). Repentance without changed conduct rings hollow to both God and man. But our deeds of repentance will never make God love us more than he already does in Jesus Christ. They can only be part of our “thank you” to God for his love poured out in the person and work of the Savior.

Filed Under: ACTION FOR GOD'S SAKE, dealing with sin, GracEmail, our response to God's salvation

Search

SEARCH more than 1,200 gracEmails by verse or word below:
Enter a term in the search box and press enter. You can also further restrict the search to a sub-category by using the drop-down menu.


Sign Up to gracEmail

Click HERE, then fill in the blanks and click “Subscribe.”

Or send a completely BLANK email to:
join-edwardfudge@injesus.netatlantic.com

  • Home
  • Site Map
  • Latest GracEmail
  • Written Ministry
  • About
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 Edward Fudge Ministries · KT Websites · Log in