Repentance and Rest

READ: ISAIAH 30:1-22; EPHESIANS 2:8-9; 1 JOHN 1:1–2:2

When you find an area in your life that needs change, is your default reaction to try harder and do better? I’ve often been one to make resolutions—and then suffer from guilt or disappointment when I fall short. As Christians, we even have a tendency to look at the gospel this way. How have we taken something so simple and turned it into a to-do list? Into “Jesus plus this?” Into “I don’t see how God can really forgive me and love me when I keep doing blank?”

In Isaiah 30, God’s children were rushing around “without consulting” God (verse 2). They were making plans to ask for Egypt’s protection in a time of crisis—instead of turning to God and crying out to Him for help. In verse 15, the Lord reminded them: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”

The children of Israel were doing what we so often do: trying to worship God by following rules and saying the right things, instead of turning away from sin and back toward Him in true repentance—and finding rest in His love (Isaiah 29:13).

Generations later, Jesus confronted this same faulty thinking in Matthew 15:1-20. The Pharisees were upset, saying to Jesus, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” (verse 2). Jesus showed them their hypocrisy by reminding them of what Isaiah said: merely following rules is not a mark of true repentance (Matthew 15:7-9). True repentance is turning to Jesus, the only one who wipes out our sin by His blood, the only one who gives us true rest (Matthew 11:28; Acts 3:19). • Savannah Coleman

• Why do you think we sometimes view the Bible as, “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that” (Isaiah 28:12-13)?

• Throughout our lives, we’re all tempted to trust in our good works instead of in the blood of Jesus. When you start to wander into this, who are trusted Christians in your life who can remind you of the gospel—that Jesus’s work on the cross has already finished everything needed to save and redeem you?

• How does it make you feel to know salvation is free from rules and regulations? What might it look like for you to live into this freedom today, simply turning to and trusting in Jesus moment-by moment?

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 (NIV)