Previous chapter: Chapter 8: In Jesus Christ the Bible Came Together
If Jesus is Lord and the Bible is the word of God, where and how are we to begin our submission to His lordship? Before we get to the specific duty of a man, let’s see what duty applies to all human beings.
Repentance
We are all called to repent. To repent is to change your mind or purpose. It’s one of those words we don’t hear much anymore. (This is a consequence of secularism and the “forgotten gospel,” covered in the second and third chapters.) Both John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching that everyone needs to repent – that is, we all need to change. And what we need to change is our mind and our purpose – that is, our thinking and our goals in life. But from what…and to what?
From Sin
We need to change from sin. We’re all sinners. That’s our starting point in life. We’re born innately selfish and have to be trained out of it. Selfishness begets sin. Sin means “missing the mark.” It’s doing something we’re not supposed to do…or not doing something we are supposed to do.
Modern Americans haven’t abandoned the concept of sin – just this three-letter biblical word for it. Secularism wants to define good and evil by its own standards – not the standards of the biblical God. “Sin” in a secular context is doing what’s politically incorrect, or not doing what’s politically correct. And a “sinner” in a secular context is a “racist,” “homophobe,” “fascist,” “extremist,” etc. Secularism defines what is evil and metes out the punishments. Having ostracized God, secularism rushes to fill the vacuum.
Getting back to God, sin actually does bring negative consequences. That’s the very reason God wants us to repent from it. But from sin to what?
To Righteousness
I know it sounds simplistic, but the opposite of sin is righteousness. In fact, it’s the word “righteousness” that gives the word “sin” its meaning. Righteousness is “the mark” that sin is “missing.” Like the words “repent” and “sin,” “righteousness” has been replaced in our secular age; we usually see “morality” or “virtue” instead. That is, when someone today is considered “moral” or “virtuous” the most appropriate biblical word for that would be “righteous.” But that raises the question of “righteous according to whose standard?”
Becoming like Jesus
For a human being, to become righteous is to become like Jesus…because the Bible says that Jesus is the only righteous man who ever lived. We may think that this is too lofty a goal for us, but Jesus actually commands it! Whether Jesus calls us to repent or calls us to imitate Him, He’s calling for the same thing. He became a human being to give us an example to follow. Therefore, whenever we “miss the mark,” we are missing the opportunity to be like Him. And, therefore, we are to repent from being unlike Jesus to being like Him – to love as he loved, to be selfless as He was selfless.
Spirit, Soul, Body
God made human beings by putting spirit into flesh – the result being a living soul. The soul is the place inside us where our thoughts and feelings come together – where life is experienced. It’s the place we experience happiness or sadness, hope or discouragement, health or sickness, excitement or the blahs. Jesus came to save our souls – because it’s our souls that sin captures and destroys.
Conscience
A key element of the soul is conscience. Conscience is, of course, our inner sense of discerning good from evil, right from wrong. Conscience, while necessary to live a righteous life is not sufficient by itself. Surely you’ve noticed that there are people who can harm you without their conscience bothering them at all. The remedy for the inadequacies of conscience is the word of God.
By the word of God, my conscience and your conscience become informed of God’s conscience – allowing you and I to have our consciences brought to a place of greater accuracy about what is right and wrong. An individual conscience must be regularly calibrated just as scales, in order to give the correct weight, must be regularly calibrated. Conscience is calibrated by the word of God. Repentance from sin to righteousness is a trial-and-error process. The soul and its conscience must be mended daily from sin’s effects which distort its judgments.
Daily
God has designed life to be lived one day at a time. This requires discipline, which includes building righteous routines into our daily lives. If variety is the spice of life, then routines are its meat and potatoes.
Every person – not just men – needs to repent from sin to righteousness and hear the word of God every day. A routine of Bible reading needs to be built into a person’s life as soon as there’s an ability to read. In colonial America, the majority of people who could read learned to do so with the Bible. It’s daily bread for those who seek righteousness.
A Lifestyle
Repentance from sinfulness to being like Jesus is not a once-and-done process. Rather, it is a lifestyle – a way of living, a lifelong posture. No one is going to become like Jesus in a day. It’s going to take a lot of days…strung together. The duty of every human being is to live for – and like – Jesus. This can only be achieved by regularly feeding on the word of God – reading and practicing it daily. What does a positive trend line of righteousness look like? That’s the next chapter.
Next chapter: Chapter 10: Righteousness Is Faith That Loves
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The Duty of a Man 