The Road To Restoration

The Gospel literally begins with the word “repent.” That’s because salvation starts with a repentant heart. In an age when believers, for fear of being offensive, are afraid to call out moral wrong, warn of divine judgment, and invite people to repent, let’s not forget that no one—not a single human being—is ever made right with God without first expressing sorrow for their sin, admitting their guilt, and making the decision to change their ways to follow God’s way—which is what repentance is. Nothing could be truer: spiritual restoration starts with sincere repentance.tion starts with sincere repentance.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 44:14-16

Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” Judah replied, “What can we say to my lord? What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”

Without knowing the full context of this story (Genesis 37-45), you might think that Joseph is exacting a pound of flesh from his brothers. They had horribly mistreated him two decades before. Wanting to murder him, they ultimately had thrown him into a pit, then sold him into slavery, which landed Joseph in Egypt where he was again sold to another master. His brothers were not just angry with him, not just jealous of their father’s preference for him—they actually profited off of their cruelty to him. They went as low as human beings can go.

As the story goes, Joseph’s mistreatment continued in Egypt for twenty years, until finally, as God providentially directed the affairs of Joseph’s life, the Lord raised him to the second highest position in the land. At the same time, again God providentially used a region-wide famine to direct these same brothers back to Joseph to plead, first for food, then for their very lives. All of this, by the way, was the exact fulfillment (Genesis 44:14) of the dreams Joseph had told his brothers years before (Genesis 37:10) that had unleashed their murderous hatred and insane outrage against him.

In this story, Joseph, his identity not recognized to his brothers, allows them to plead their case before him. He listens as they unfold their story, pleading their integrity, protesting their innocence, yet admitting their guilt. (Genesis 44:16) His brother, Judah, even offers to substitute his life as a payment for the punishment Joseph will inflict on their youngest sibling, Benjamin. (Genesis 44:33-34)

As Joseph allows this to slowly play out, one gets the sense that he has rehearsed this very moment over and over in his mind for years. Perhaps he had; he’d had a long time in a lonely prison cell to think of the evil his brothers had done to him, and what he would do if he ever had the upper hand on them. But being the man of integrity and godly character that we observe in the chapters surrounding this story, Joseph was not at all slowly, painfully extracting an admission of guilt from them, as if somehow that would make up for all the years that had been lost from the family. No, this was not about revenge, it was about repentance. Joseph was allowing them to come to grips with their evil, and to verify if their sorrow was simply because they had gotten caught or if they were truly sorry for their sin against him. Obviously, they recognized their guilt, not just before Joseph, but before Almighty God: “God has uncovered your servants’ guilt.” (Genesis 44:16)

Ultimately necessary to restoration of the broken relationship between Joseph and the brothers was their repentance. Repentance would lead to the offer of restitution, which was appropriate, but as we see, graciously not demanded by Joseph (Genesis 50:15-21) and the reconciliation that Joseph offered back to them. Of course, the story has many levels of application: It provides the history of how the people of God move through the course of time. It demonstrates the dynamics of family restoration. Most importantly, it reminds us of the sovereignty of God in moving the course of events to fulfill his purposes in the world—and in our lives. But this also provides for us a picture of repentance and our restoration to God.

And the salient point as it relates to spiritual restoration is that it all starts with repentance. In point of fact, the New Testament Gospel literally beings with the word “repent.” When John the Baptist announced the coming of the Messiah, he proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2) When Jesus launched his public ministry, he preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17) Salvation begins with repentance—no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.

It all starts with repentance. In a age when believers are afraid to call people to repent for fear of being offensive, or not liked, or actually telling the world that they are morally wrong and in danger of divine judgment, we must remember that no one—not a single human being—get’s to “pass go or collect $200” without first expressing sorrow for sin, admitting guilt before a holy God, and offering to change both way of thinking and behaving to walk in obedience to his way. And that is what biblical repentance means.

It all starts with repentance. Let’s never forget that. If we do, we, and those we are trying to reach, are dead in the water.

Furthermore, let’s never forget what a gift God has given us in making the provision for authentic repentance. For by it, the guilty are pardoned and the undeserving are showered in his grace. Thank God for repentance!