December 4, 2022 | by Pastor Peter

While the bible contains lots of rules, at its heart, it’s not a rulebook. It’s about a relationship between God and his people, who happen to have a serious sin problem. If you were to read the Bible apart from this relationship, you might think that God is harsh, that he is perfectly willing to abandon his people when they intentionally sin. But the larger story of scripture is about how God has mercy for his wayward people.

The law prescribes the death penalty for many offences and excommunication for many more. But those whose sin seems to exclude them from Israel’s life of faith are invited back by the prophets who call for repentance. This message enters the New Testament when John the Baptist calls people to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There are 3 ways people respond. Some never come to the Jordan, believing they don’t need forgiveness, or not daring to think that they could be forgiven. Many religious outsiders repent and are baptized. Many religious leaders come, but to keep an eye on John, whose promise of forgiveness apart from the temple-based sacrificial system is a scandal to them.

The irony is that the religious outsiders hear God’s call to repentance and they receive God’s grace. They are outsiders welcomed in. On the other hand, the Pharisees and Sadducees, religious insiders, are too proud to see their need for repentance, and so they end up on the outside. This story is good news to outsiders that God always makes a way back. It’s also a warning to insiders that being an insider, can allow us to become proud and so end up on the outside.

So wherever you find yourself–inside or outside–know that God desires to make space for you, but that space requires humility and repentance.