Fruit of Repentance
“And seeing many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “Brood of adders! Who has
warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Bear therefore, fruits worthy of
repentance,”
-MattithYAHU/Matthew3:7-8
Just a
few days ago as I thought on the scripture above I realized that I had never
put a lot of effort into understanding what the “fruits of repentance” might be. I supposed that turning away from
one’s sins must be at least part of that fruit but there seemed to be more
waiting for those with willing hearts to allow our FATHER in Shamayim/Heaven to
uncover it for them. So first, what
does it mean to repent?
Strong’s
G3340 and G3341 μετάνοια, metanoia, repentance, or μετανοέω, metanoeō, repent: a change of mind, as it appears to one who repents, of a purpose he has
formed or of something he has done.
Merriam-Webster:Repent: to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the
amendment of one's life.
It
didn’t seem hard but I knew there was more that I was lacking, so I walked down
the path of repentance one step at a time and examined what each one looked
like. What I found was that even though the act of repenting was the turning away from lawlessness, its fruit was much more nourishing
than I could have ever dreamed.
- 1. First, in order to repent one has to understand the situation we all find ourselves in. At one point or another we have all become lawless, and that lawlessness will always end in death even as it is written, "every man shall be put to death for his own sins.” (Deut 24:16) We have become immersed in the overwhelming waters of our own lawless deeds and are being strangled by the flood of our own doings. Death has taken hold of all, and its waters are the grave.
- 2. Second, because there is a Righteous Judge that will do Right-Rulings towards all, we must confess and acknowledge that we have been lawless and begin to turn from the path we have walked.
- 3. Third, we should naturally conclude that because we have been positioned under a ban of death by our own works, we are now living on someone else’s time. My life and your life are over once this step is taken. Drowning in the waters of our trespass is indeed a Right-Ruling and should be our end but as we begin to understand the end of our doings, we finally are able to make a request for the compassion of the judge.
- 4. Forth, all pride of one’s own life should now be done away and in complete and total humility, we should begin to walk after the will of Him who saved us and raised us up from the watery death of our own Lawlessness.
“… And the Children of Yashar’Al groaned because of the slavery, and
they cried out. And their cry came up to Alahym because of the slavery. And
Alahym heard their groaning, and Alahym remembered His covenant with Abraham,
with Yitshaq, and with Ya’aqob.”
-Shemoth/Exodus
2:23-24
The scripture above shows the
position of slavery we find ourselves in, bound to this cruel taskmaster we
find no relief or way to escape in our strength. It is only the
Righteousness of our FATHER in remembering His Covenant that Salvation begins
to be revealed.
A full understanding of the
Immersion of Yahanan (Baptism of John) will allow us to enter into a place of
repentance of sins, and then bring forth the fruits of repentance. Humility and self–denial should
be the most abundant if we have truly found the place of atonement. Once we have brought forth the fruit of
repentance we are ready walk on into the Passover of YHUH.
Passover and
Unleavened Bread
"Alahym will provide His own Lamb..."
Standing with our heads downcast; emptied from our own lawless deeds we still face another inescapable impasse; once lawlessness has come, death eventually still takes hold on all even without a Judge. It is a disease, a corruption that is incurable and terminal. There is no complaint that we can think to raise, no appeal to be processed, we have lived in lawlessness and right is right after all. So we wait apprehensively for death to pass through the land of take us as it did the first-born in the land of Mitsraym (Egypt) all that long time ago.
Standing with our heads downcast; emptied from our own lawless deeds we still face another inescapable impasse; once lawlessness has come, death eventually still takes hold on all even without a Judge. It is a disease, a corruption that is incurable and terminal. There is no complaint that we can think to raise, no appeal to be processed, we have lived in lawlessness and right is right after all. So we wait apprehensively for death to pass through the land of take us as it did the first-born in the land of Mitsraym (Egypt) all that long time ago.
Then we see a wonder, a spotless Lamb, and hear the voice of our
FATHER, the Righteous Judge that we had forgotten during our days of
transgression, “Take the Lamb,” He says.
“His death will be your death, and
His blood on the doorpost of your house will allow destruction to Passover you
and will not enter in. Eat His flesh and remember His sacrifice; your deeds are
why He had to die. Go quickly while you can, and make sure nothing remains in your house of the lawlessness (leaven) you
used to cling too. I make you My First-Born... My beloved.”
Discernment
begins to be revealed as we perceive that even in this place of bondage we have
eaten of the temping bread of this world. Fluffy, light, and tasting of honey,
it has poisoned us without us ever being aware. We have lived exactly as the nation we are in bondage too, and have
not remembered our FATHER at all. We have consumed the bread of ease
even in the midst of our bondage. We are
disgusted by our own weakness, eating the defiled bread of luxury to gain just
for a moment of profane pleasure to try and muffle our pain.
We obey, eating the Passover in
humility, as all around us in the darkness we can hear the cries of the
Egyptians and those who believed not on this Passover. We hear each shriek as our own, and understand that death has now
separated us from the life we once lived among them. Trembling, we eat
with more urgency, knowing that there is but a hair’s-breath between us and
death.
“Please,” we think, as our hearts look towards our FATHER. “Don’t
let me bring shame to all you have done.”
It is my hope
that each of us come to a fuller understanding of what our FATHER in Shamaym
has done for us. All need to realize what
love He must have for us to undergo this unfathomable task to restore us to Himself. It is
impossible that we should live for ourselves any longer once acceptance of this
gift becomes a reality.
Repentance:
turning away from lawlessness and bringing forth the proper fruit
Passover: deliverance
from our own death and acceptance of the house of the First-Born
Unleavened Bread:
putting away the things of men and this world and eating the bread of Humility
before YHUH
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