Joy based repentance.
I recently read about this concept of the difference between fear-based repentance and joy-based repentance.
Rejoicing and repentance go together. Repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair; rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change.
Indeed, it is when we rejoice over Jesus' sacrificial love for us most fully - that, paradoxically, we are most drawn to true repentance.
When we repent out of fear of consequences, we are not really sorry for the sin, but for ourselves. Fear-based repentance ("I'd better change, or God will get me") is really a form self-preservation. We don't learn to hate the sin for itself, and it doesn't lose its attractive power.
But when we rejoice over God's sacrificial suffering love for us – seeing what it cost him to save us from sin – we learn to hate the sin for what it is. We see what the sin cost God. What most assures of us of God's unconditional love; (Jesus' costly death); is that which most convicts us of the evilness of sin.
Philippians 4:4 "rejoice in the Lord always". "Rejoicing in the Bible is much deeper than simply being happy about something.
To rejoice is to treasure a thing, to assess its value to you, to reflect on its beauty and importance until your heart rests in it and tastes the sweetness of it. "Rejoicing" is a way of praising God until the heart is sweetened and rested, and until it relaxes its grip on anything else it thinks it needs.
Romans 2:4 "His kindness leads us to repentance".. in essence, His kindness trumps sin in terms of what our hearts value and love. That's incredible. In other words, the more attractive we find God, the less our hearts desire ungodliness. Finding Him as our Treasure, our Lord and Friend, changes our hearts (repentance), turning our affections from selfishness and onto Him.
Blessings and peace
Kath
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