Repentance

FORWARD

It sounds almost legalistic, and certainly intolerant, to say you can't get to heaven unless you do something. What about all that teaching about the love of God, and the finished work of Christ, and salvation not coming from doing good? What about "let go and let God"? And here's a book to say, in its very title, "Repentance... you can't get to heaven without it".

It's not very fashionable. The whole climate of the western world in the late twentieth century is tinged by the view that my views are as good as your views, and his or her views are not inferior to mine. That's why we have such strong reactions to racism and sexism, and colonisation.

There's nothing unchristian in your, my and their views being of equal worth. The Bible says they are too, and they all need to be measured against God's. Then, they all fall short, and become equal indeed. Three noughts are nought. That's when, on seeing it, we are called to repent.

This little book tells us what's involved. Not sorry, but turning. Not explanations, but a shift. "The essence of repentance," says Dick Tripp on page 11, "is turning to God". To abandon my views in the face of God's views, and to live in the light of such a choice, with a wish to lose all the internal battles it will bring - this is repentance.

And I shouldn't be able to get to heaven without it. Because if I did, I would be an alien in a place of fellowship, and heaven would not then be heaven for me at all, and likely not for anyone else. So, I am called to repent - to take on God's views, and live in the light of them - so he may make me a citizen of his empire, now and in the heaven to come.

But then - Dick Tripp's book goes into the detail. May it throw light on the subject for many.

Ken J Edgecombe MA (Hons), Dip Ed Stud, Dip Tchg. National Director, Scripture Union in New Zealand