Last Sunday our church had a “101” seminar. We were talking about some of the basics of our body life. None of them are novel, even if we use some atypical words to describe some of it.
We won’t be spending a lot of time talking about our assembly of worship, not because it isn’t foundational, but because we always review and remember it at the beginning of every year.
But make no mistake, worshiping the Triune God—through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins according to Scripture, was buried, and who rose again on the third day, by the Spirit who dwells in us as the guarantee of our eternal inheritance—that’s where the shape of our life together comes together. That shape includes repentance.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). As believers we need regular cleansing (John 13:10), and if we say we’ve not sinned we make God a liar (1 John 1:8-10). It is sin, unacknowledged let alone defended, that destroys fellowship and causes hurt/harm to a believer and to the whole church body.
Many of you are here because someone else refused to confess his sins, and often that was a leader or pastor in another church. Jesus is the only Man who never sinned, so we don’t expect perfection from one another the same way. But we do expect honesty, humility, and a desire to seek reconciliation. Sometimes we can let love cover sins, and sometimes people get offended when they shouldn’t. But there are times when we need to make it right by repentance.
We cannot expect God to bless us if we carry sin and death in our hearts, and there is too much race to run to carry sin around (Hebrews 12:1).