A Plea to Repent

The global Covid-19 pandemic has everyone everywhere lamenting the ending of the old normal.  As they struggle with the  uncertainty of how to adjust to the new normal, I am reminded of this Bible verse:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  

(2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV)

When we, believers of Jesus Christ, accept Him into our lives, we are no longer worldly but have become spiritual. We became God’s “new creation” and a part of the body of Christ: His messengers, His hands and feet on this planet earth.

As we ponder the end of the old normal, consider the passage of our old self, which looks inwardly towards self, to the renewal of the “new creation,” which looks outwardly towards Christ.  The following reminders will significantly help us to discard our old worldly selves who used to love the things of the world and work towards creating a new spiritual self that delights in the things of God.

The Ugliness of Sin Against God

Through the pandemic, God is giving the world a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness we will witness when we demean and belittle God and sin against Him.

Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5:12 ESV)

Global devastation and misery exist because of the sins of humanity. God had created a perfect world initially, but because of humanity’s fall into sin, all the world’s beauty has become interwoven with evil, disaster and diseases.  However, there is good news because God has a stunning  redemption  plan for a new creation, a new heaven and earth, where:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelations 21:4 NIV)

This new creation will come to pass at God’s appointed time.  God has plans to prosper us, not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a glorious future. (Jeremiah 29:11-14) Rest assured that this pandemic will eventually end. But for now, the world is still in its sinful state, is subject to death, disaster and misery. This pandemic is our wake-up call to the horror and ugliness of sin against God. The penalty could be far more horrible and dangerous than the coronavirus when we demean God with contempt, distrust, and defiance.

Call to Repentance

All-natural disasters, whether they are floods, famines, tsunamis or diseases like the Covid-19 pandemic, are God’s painful and merciful summons to repent before it is too late.

Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3 ESV)

To repent means to experience a change of heart and mind that treasures God more than life. The world today has exchanged the treasure that God is, for worldly pleasures, paying more attention to material benefits and worldly comforts than the presence of God in our lives. As such, all sinners who do not repent are  bound for destruction. This Covid-19 pandemic is God’s message to the world to repent and be saved while there is still time.

Focus and Rely  Only on Jesus

As Jesus’ new creation, believers must stand in sharp contrast with those around us. Our focus should only be on Jesus Christ, our sovereign God. Our sole purpose in life is to give glory to Him, not finding glory and worldly success for ourselves.

This global pandemic has taken away our freedom of movement, business activities, face-to-face relationships, and the lives of some of our loved ones. Jesus exposes us to such losses so that we will rely upon and turn to Him. When we face an unexpected affliction or adversity, we develop a deeper relationship with Jesus. During such times, we must  have Jesus in our lives, walking alongside us,  standing strong in His might, to fight all afflictions, adversities and calamities.

As we struggle with this pandemic, believers must stop relying on themselves and turn to Jesus Himself. Remember His sovereignty. Nothing touches us that hasn’t come through His sovereign hand, and it must pass through Him before it reaches us.  He is in control. Jesus must be the all-important, pervasive focus and centre of our lives.

Jesus is Coming Again

More than 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of the world and to save humanity from punishment. He also promised that He would come back again to claim planet earth as His Kingdom.  He will come on the day we least expect. (Matthew 24:42-44 NIV) Jesus Christ’s return will begin like every other day. Two men working in the same field or two women at the same mill will be unexpectedly and shockingly separated: one to be judged, one to be saved. His return will bring joy to believers and devastation to the unbelievers.

This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11b NIV)

The Covid-19 pandemic is a thunderclap wake-up call to be ready. To believers, the warning is to stay alert and be steadfast in our faith. To non-believers, the warning is to accept Jesus before it is too late. This sober warning is for everyone to be watchful and ready for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  He is undoubtedly coming again to judge, reward, and “make all things new”. (Revelations 21:5 ESV)

The Role of God’s People

Faced with the pandemic, we naturally experience fear and worry, and our first response may be to turn inwards in panic and self-interest. But  Christians have Emmanuel, God with us, who understands our suffering, accompanies us through it and asks us to bring our fears and worries to Him. Through coming to God, we find the strength to console the frightened, the panic-stricken and the fearful around us; the strength to put aside our fears and self-pity to care for others and ourselves.

When we extend kindness to the broken, we reach out with the hands of Jesus Himself.  We follow in Jesus’ footsteps by doing the kingdom’s work both by our deeds and by our prayers. As His light of the world, let us rely on Jesus and lean towards need, not comfort, towards love, not safety. That’s what our Jesus is like, and our role is to follow Him and be like Him.

A Plea and a Prayer

As we prepare to face the “new normal”, let us face it with our new self where we are no longer dominated by our sinful nature but are controlled instead by the Spirit of God.  We see the world in new ways: there is a beauty to it that we have never seen before; there are new feelings toward all people – a new kind of love for family and friends, new compassion for others that we have never felt before, and a new love for all humanity.

Let us follow Jesus in showing God’s love, bringing healing to a broken world and responding to people’s economic, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs, both locally and globally. Let us all make a deliberate effort to remember to focus on putting God first during this global pandemic. Let us renew and restore ourselves to be a brand new creation, purging out what displeases God and always placing Him at the centre of our lives. May this prayer and blessing inspire us to reflect and repent, moving forward:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial  relationships,

so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,

so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world

so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen.

(A Franciscan Benediction Adapted from “A Non-Traditional Blessing” by Sister Ruth Fox, OSB)

Reference – Coronavirus and Christ by John Piper

About the Writer

Doreen Lau has a heart for evangelism and a deep belief in the power of words and stories to heal and encourage. Though she embarked for London as a young woman to train as a nurse, the Lord had different plans for her. Coming from a background in which she has had to be resilient, Doreen’s life has been shaped and directed by the Lord to be one of ministry, using her life experience to provide encouragement and to build up the vulnerable in our society.