Repenting our way into an Unshakeable Bronze Wall

The book of Jeremiah is full of the Lord’s disgust with his disobedient, adulterous people.  However, throughout the text there are also various promises of God’s redemptive work.  I would like to reflect briefly upon one of these promises this morning.  It comes in verses 19-20 of chapter 15 and reads, “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman.  Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.  I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.”

Immediately, as God’s promise unfolds we are provided with a beautiful definition of repentance.  Repentance is a word that is intimately, and necessarily connected with salvation, and a word, along with salvation, that has in many places lost the heart of its Biblical meaning.  Ezekiel 18 holds the clear command from God of, “Repent and Live!”  Repentance is the turning from the world of death to the only way of life.  Repentance is not a matter of saying your sorry, it’s not even necessarily a matter of confession, it is rather an opening of the floodgates of the heart.  It is a complete humbling of one’s self before the greatness of the Lord.  Romans 2 says that God’s kindness is intended to lead us to repentance.  In Acts 3:19 Peter says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord . . .”  As is demonstrated by this command, repentance does not equal the wiping out of sins, nor does it equal immediate refreshment, but it does necessarily lead to them.  God is the slayer of sin and the refresher of souls.  He is always on duty, and once a heart is opened he will see fruit produced there.  Our modern society despises dualities and would like to claim the world as gray, however, the Biblical reality is that this world is darkness and death.  We, though born with a heart beat, are born without life or light.  In John 8, Jesus calls himself the Light of the World.  His light is always burning ready to do clean up on our hearts, but the doors to many hearts are closed tight to him.  It is in this way that repentance is like a man sitting in a dark room with all the blinds closed.  There are huge windows everywhere, but they have been covered to prevent light from getting in.  Repentance begins to come when the man starts to notice a glow through the coverings of the windows.  Call it God’s kindness, call it love, call it grace, but it is the Kingdom of Light beginning to infiltrate the world of darkness.  It is not full-blown light in this man’s life yet, but it is clear that there is something on the outside that is other than the world of darkness he has known. Repentance is the ripping off of the window-coverings.  It is not a peek, it is not the tearing down of half the cover, it is not even the placement of artificial light in front of all the windows.  True repentance that comes with meeting Jesus Christ is something like getting food-poisoning, and yes, I am comparing Jesus to a destructive bacteria.  In a world of darkness that is exactly what he is, he is a disease of light and life.  To those living in the darkness (John 8:48&52) Christ is a demon.  He comes as the destroyer of life, calling to what looks like death when contrasted with a world of black sin.  Like turning the light on a roomful of sleeping people, he can only produce a violent-reaction.  Like a bacteria in a bad batch of food, once allowed inside he purges one of everything.  Many will refuse to swallow his pill though.

However, those who do, must by necessity look much different than they did before.  In the same way, they must see much different than they did before.  Paul says in Acts, 26:20, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.”  This would sound to many to be too much works, and not enough grace.  As the church continues to twist the wisdom of Martin Luther towards its own crippling, Biblical wisdom about our necessary effort in God’s work continues to be buried beneath heaps of feel-good philosophy.  Regardless of popular doctrine though, God wants us to prove our repentance that we might serve Him.  Let us remember our man in the dark room for a moment.  If he has truly let light into his life he need not prove it to himself, he surely knows it.  The stinging of his eyes, and brilliance of his surroundings will testify to that.  He need not prove anything to God either, the Lord surely knows whether or not he has truly let the light in or not.  So then, when would he need to prove it?  It would be in interaction with his neighbor’s that he would need to get to work proving, they have neither the insight into his life that the Lord has, nor the ability to see through his eyes as he has.  Thus, when he goes over to his neighbors and tells them what has happened they will surely be skeptical unless they get some evidence.  The man will share with them the new things he has seen in his room, things he has been in the dark to before.  Imagine that he begins to explain to them about a wall, about the fact that in light it does not look black.  He might give details about what’s on the wall, or what’s in front of it.  One of his neighbors might very well respond with interest, “Good good! Tell us more, you’ve only described one wall, and I’ve searched all around this place with my hands and I know there are four.  What do the other one’s look like?  Please tell us.”  Let us imagine at this point that our man is caught off guard.  He suddenly realizes that he has only seen one wall of his room.  He must not have truly opened the window all the way.  Thus, he might walk over blindly do one of the neighbor’s windows and jerk it open, revealing a new wall he has never seen before.  What fruit his attempt to prove his repentance has brought at this point!  Not only has he shared light with his neighbors, but light has been cast upon darkness in his life that he did not even know existed.  It is for this reason that repentance must be active.  It is not a one-time thing, but rather a continuous unfolding, and journeying to the source of light.  A baby might emerge from the womb into new light, but he does not come out an old man!

Just as Paul uses the language of proving one’s repentance, Jeremiah speaks of repenting that one might serve the Lord.  I believe these two things to be synonymous.  True repentance must provoke in us a desire to prove, to share, to serve, and it is from that desire that the Lord is able to begin to restore us.  A repentant heart is a moldable one, one open to God’s redemptive plan for human soul’s.  Paralleled to repentance in Jeremiah is speaking worthy words instead of worthless one’s.  Not only does a repentant heart know that it has been receiving darkness rather than light, but it also knows that it is darkness that it has been putting off as well.  It is at this point, once a person has started drinking from the source of goodness, and has been enstilled with a desire to increasingly share that goodness, that a disciple is born, and the direction and the promises given to the disciple here in Jeremiah are something to take note of.

Instead of the word disciple Jeremiah uses spokesman.  Just as he himself is a mouthpiece for God, so God has promised that anyone else who repents will be used in a similar way.  Many of us have heard this promise before, and have accepted that God will use us in some way or another.  However the next command God gives to his spokesmen is something that has been all together lost in the modern church.  Verse 19 reads, “Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”  Jesus Christ is, as surprising as it may be to many, the perfect representation of this truth of ministry.  Scripture says clearly that Jesus had compassion on his people and was open to interacting with “sinners.”  However, the reality is that Jesus never once bent himself down to anyone.  He never fudged on his positioning.  He never altered the call he was issuing.  He might take compassion on a sinner, but that compassion led him to unfalteringly call them out of their sin, and to the Father.  Our Lord had no care for popularity, he was not concerned about being liked, or being sure not to hurt feelings.  He simply stood like an unshakeable, and dazzlingly powerful wall.  He promised life, but only if the dead would repent and come to him, he could not and would not give what he had to give at half-price, nor would he give out any lesser product.  We see in John 6, the day after the feeding of the five-thousand, Jesus once again finds himself hounded by thousands of people.  Jesus has no joy in seeing them this day though, he sees their hearts, and knows that they have come for free food.  He had compassion in feeding them the day before, but that was only as a testimony to what his compassion truly wanted to give them, and so he proceeds to them what that is.  He tells them about the Bread of Heaven, the Bread that is Himself, and the Bread that sustains forever.  He tells them they must eat of Him, and person by person, some believing him to be some kind of cannibal, others just bummed they didn’t get any free bread, the crowd of thousands dwindles away until only a handful of disciples are left.  Jesus never once pleads with them to come back, he never offers them what they want so as to create a better opportunity to share with them what they really need.  Instead, he refuses to bend, and that day his church amounted to just a handful of people.  This pastor had preached his pews empty with truth.  In a world of darkness, light often stings the eyes, and as bearers of light we must not be afraid of stinging eyes.  The number of churches with coffee shops, bookstores and tactics to fit Bible study, worship and ministry into people’s busy schedules is appalling!  The image of his faithful servant that God holds up is that of, “a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze;” he makes it known that, “they [people] will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.”  We must stop conforming Christ to fit people’s needs.  The truth of scripture, and the testimony of the Spirit is that Christ is their need, and he is their only need.  Any bending from that truth is like bringing flashlights to a world sitting in darkness, when you’ve got the sun in your back pocket.  The flashlights are surely more manageable, and they are not nearly as shocking as the sun, but they are not the real thing.  Love and compassion does not bend when it comes to truth.  Love and compassion does not come with flashlights, or even with sunglasses to help shield the light of the sun.  Love comes rather like a “star in the universe”, like a dazzling and painful bright spot in a landscape of black. (Philippians 2:15)  It is cowardice, not compassion that brings flashlights or sunglasses.  The one who bends will speaking God’s word does not have the best interests of others in mind, but rather themselves.  It is only our comfort we seek by accommodating to the world, and only our lack of faith in our loving and sustaining God that we betray.  By being willing to bend we first of all show that we do not believe the Lord when he says that he is with us and that he will make us an unshakeable wall, and secondly we betray a lack of faith in the Holy Spirit’s ability to capture hearts.  We bend for two reasons: to protect ourselves, or because we think it is the best way to reach someone.  Despite our intentions though, both realities amount to the same disobedience.  We must not be afraid of empty churches, we must be afraid of evangelizing people to hell with a message that offers flashlights rather than sunshine.

My prayer for myself as I write this, and I do write it mainly for myself, is that the Lord would harden me with His strength, and test me in his refining fire.  I want to be as hard as bronze, and I want to stand as a testimony worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  A massive bronze wall would not come with a cheap price-tag.  In fact, I do not believe one has ever been built for that very reason.  However, no price so high has ever been paid for anything, as was the price my Lord paid for me on Calvary.  He has paid a high enough price to get a bronze wall, and I sure am not going to offer myself to him as a wall of Styrofoam instead.  He has called me to the flock as a shepherd with a staff.  I have never heard of a shepherd who cared about the complaints of his sheep as he led them out of their grazing due to the fierce storm that was headed their way.  And yet, how often I fail to boldly lead so as to save face in front of the sheep who know not what is about to hit them.  Lord, test me with fire, my flesh cries for an easier way, but I know that bronze only comes with the flame.  Refine me and make me ever sound in the torrent of a raging world. 

It is this prayer that I issue for myself, but my prayer does not stop there.  My prayer is for all those who might read this, all the church, and all who are wavering and bending with the name of Jesus attached to their forehead.  May we all refuse to represent our Lord in a manner so counter to his desire.  With the modified words of an old hymn I sing, “Let the church be bold in your truth, and let it begin with me!”