Receiving Through Repentance

Romans 5:9-11 "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."  

 Believers are justified and reconciled to God by the atonement of Christ. The price has been paid for all, but will all accept it?  Our reconciliation isn't an automatic deposit but an intentional withdraw because our free will gives us a choice.  It is there for the taking and the ball is now in our court to respond. 

 The way we receive Jesus starts with repentance, which is a heartfelt turnaround.  It is "a summons we see throughout the bible to turn away from sin and make a personal, absolute unconditional surrender to God" and to change the direction we were headed in.

 If you were driving to Boston from NY but decided to go to California, you would have to make a complete turnaround and change your direction. This is what repentance is; we were all going in one direction into darkness and eternal separation from God but "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). 

 God gave His Son, but have we embraced Him and aligned ourselves to go His direction?  He constructed a turn-around and an off-ramp so we could enter His onramp to merge into His destination for us. Have you exited and turned around or are you still driving lost and further in the wrong direction into darkness?   

 The word repent isn't spoken in an angry, hateful tone but rather is an urgent plea in a spirit of love and compassion for you to change directions because of the danger that lies ahead. We have a choice in what direction we will go, and only one way will lead us to our destination.