The Church: First Thirty Years, chap. 9, continued... The second divine principle necessary for the growth of the church is to seize every occasion for the purpose of being a witness of what Christ has done in the life of the Christian. I’ve often heard professing Christians say, “but I don’t have dynamic story to tell about my conversion.” Or to put it another way they are saying, “I don’t have much of a witness.” On the contrary, every Christian can be a witness without a super duper testimony. Christians today do not need to witness a supernatural external miraculous event to be a witness of God’s grace. The most dynamic Christian witness is to say with integrity, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). It is refreshing to believe that God will give a sinner a new heart. It is refreshing when the power of the Holy Spirit causes the new heart to recognize sin. It is refreshing to repent of sin and be converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice that Peter says “that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19). The picture is that of a chalkboard that can be wiped clean. Apparently Peter’s plural use of the word sin means that Christians are not only forgiven of the guilt they inherited, but particular sins committed by the saved sinner. There is a relative analogy in the healing of the disabled man to the pardon by God that wipes sin away. If God wipes away sin, why do so many professing Christians rewrite them on the slate. When God blots out your sin, your response should be faith, repentance, and reconciliation. You can be a witness of God’s forgiveness, if God has forgiven you. True forgiveness wipes away the guilt. If there is no guilt, there must be reconciliation. When Christians demonstrate true forgiveness and reconciliation, they have given a very good reason for unbelievers to believe and repent.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 14:18:24 +0000
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