The Repentance That Leads to Life

Acts 11:18 – “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

What is the ‘path’ that leads to life – a new, born-again life? It is the path that has been beaten down by the knees of the prayerful elect, and wetted by their tears of repentance. Moisture and compacting has turned this holy ‘path’ into a hard one to travel – too hard for many. This path also has many blood stains from scraped and calloused knees, and its pilgrims are known for their torn raiment. This hard, narrow, bloodied path that leads to life is called the path of “Repentance”, and it is the singular way to the ‘narrow gate’ that sits at the end of its long stretch, and ushers a pilgrim home to glory. This path of Repentance can be painful, as one grieves over their insults to God. This path is fenced by ‘humility’ on one side and ‘brokenness’ on the other side, and there is a ditch on both sides of the path; one called ‘pride’ and the other called ‘religion’.

But along this path, all the way to the end, to the narrow gate are two kinds of shade trees for the weary pilgrims to sit under and rest; one kind of tree is called ‘promise’ and the other is called ‘hope’. And when a pilgrim is not on their knees in prayer and confession, they are walking, kicking up the dust of ‘faith’ and ‘trust’.

In their weakness they are helped along the journey of the path by the unseen One and by other pilgrims. Over the fences the world beckons them to “Come and partake of the luscious things that the world has to offer. Come and be filled, come and find pleasure, come and be safe, come and enjoy.”

Some of the pilgrims stumble along the path into one of the ditches, or sit idly against a fence, or stay too long under a tree, or even worse, they climb one of the fences and partake of the poisonous fruit that the world has to offer. And when they have thus been convicted by the unseen One, they rush back over the fence, or rise from their idleness, or crawl out of the ditch and bloody their knees once again on the hard path of Repentance, finding that eventually the shade of the trees ‘promise’ and ‘hope’ will move along the path, as the sun sets, and will cover them if they just stay on their knees long enough in prayer.

And by morning they find themselves covered in the dew of ‘forgiveness’ and are able to stand up, once more, and continue their walk towards the narrow gate that leads to glory. On they go; helping other pilgrims along the way – warning some who stare over the fences at the world that beckons them. There, on that tear-stained path they encourage one another, seeking the strength of Him who bids them, “Forward, forward…never give up! Come, keep your eyes on Me, don’t listen to the sounds of the world, don’t look at its seductive offerings, don’t smell the enticing aromas…come, listen to My voice and keep on walking after Me, in the shade of My glory…follow Me.”

Father, thank You for granting us “the repentance that leads to life.” Thank You for setting us on the path to the narrow gate, and for the company of others and, especially, for guiding us along this path…this glorious, gracious, merciful path of repentance. Amen.