THE REFUGE
DEVOTIONAL
“ I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Luke 13:5 NASBS
What a sweet savor of life it is when the soul becomes abhorrent to sin because of the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart; This is sheer evidence the Holy Spirit has awakened you to the righteousness of God’s law. He has opened the eyes of your heart to see your poverty and created in you an intrinsic desire to repent and turn to Jesus, Who is The Savior of the world. Paul said concerning his own life, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
The effectual work of the Holy Spirit uses the expression of God’s character, which is found in His perfect law, to bring sinners to Christ Jesus so that they might be justified by faith; This is what births true repentance, not repentance based merely upon a moral perception of religion, “Do this and don’t do that,” but that which brings you face to face with the living God, Who sent His son to die on the cross for the sins of the world. This type of repentance is an inward movement of God upon a man’s soul by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior; This is a completely changed nature and the way the mind now perceives and understands the treachery of sin and the holiness of God.
Octavius Winslow speaking on repentance, said back in the 1800s, “He is one who truly knows the evil of sin, for he has felt it. He apprehends, in some degree, the holiness of God’s character and the spirituality of His law, for he has seen it. His views of himself have undergone a radical change. He no longer judges himself as others judge him. They exalt him; he abases himself. They approve; he condemns. And in that very thing for which they most extol him, he is humbling himself in secret. While others are applauding actions, he is searching into motives; while they are extolling virtues, he is sifting principles; while weaving the garland for his brow, he, shut-in alone with God, is covering himself with sackcloth and with ashes. Oh, precious fruit of a living branch of the true vine!” It is true that unless you repent and are found in Christ, you will perish at the end of the age. The bar of God’s justice system has found everyone guilty, but His Son Jesus Christ, who kept the whole law perfectly, can save. Come as you are while there is still breath in your lungs. May God bring you to Christ today.