“You shall say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Do people fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not repent?”
Jeremiah 8:4 (NASB)
Our Heavenly Father is calling to us, “Get up!”
If we fall down we get up. We don’t just lay around on the ground. That would be silly—nobody does it!
God calls me out on this.
For some reason I don’t like to repent but not doing so would be as nonsensical as staying on the ground after falling. The reality is that once I fall, the less time I spend on the ground the better!
Our Heavenly Father knows we are but dust, He gave us Christ so that we could live, and live in testimony of His grace and Christ’s righteous redeeming sacrifice. We testify to this great grace—by getting back up!
A righteous man falls seven times (maybe 70×7) but gets back up. (Proverbs 24:16)
Our Father loves us, He gave us His son Christ Jesus as our righteousness. By His grace He is transforming us to be like him but we have to keep getting back up! Our work now is to stay in testimony of Christ‘s righteousness—not ours—and our Father’s grace.
Yes, I fall down. Christ didn’t.
Am I to repent and share this truth with my fellows . . . or stay on the ground denying I fell?
Which makes more sense?
[Please share a comment! Ed.]
The analogy is so good…like a toddler on his bike time and again they get up brush themselves off and get moving again. Forgiveness can be that easy to allow us to get going again on the path of righteousness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 ESV
Great thought and an unusual way of looking at the need to repent. Simple but oh so true.
Great, simple thought for the day, Phil. Thanks!