Atmospheric Repentance

Martin Luther’s first of his 95 Theses was:

Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said “repent,” willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.

In 1521 Luther wrote:

This life, therefore, is
not righteousness,

but growth in righteousness,

not health,

but healing,

not being,

but becoming,

not rest,

but exercise.

We are not yet what we shall be,

but we are growing toward it.

The process is not yet finished,

but it is going on.

This is not the end,

but it is the road.

All does not yet gleam in glory,

but all is being purified.

—Martin Luther, “Defense and Explanation of All the Articles,” in Luther’s Works, Volume 32: Career of the Reformer II, ed. George W. Forell & Helmut T. Lehman (Fortress, 1958), p. 24.
David Powlison explains how repentance can be a transforming, unfolding process throughout all of life.
(See also Tim Keller’s meditation on “All of Life Is Repentance.”)

 

Justin Taylor