Written by Katie on April 18, 2022

The Journey to Redemption Leads to a Life of Repentance

Read Matthew 26-27

I got behind on posting our family journey to redemption series. But yesterday, we celebrated Passover as a family. So, I wanted to take a minute and post some conversations that we had about Passover, redemption, Yeshua, and repentance.

My children and I have been reading from the old and new testament each day as the day of our memorial of Passover and the day of our Lord Yeshua’s death approached. We have been using Michael Rood’s book the chronological gospels to learn about what Yeshua and his disciples were doing each day leading up to his death, resurrection, and the day of Pentecost. I highly recommend this book. It will help you understand the order of events in each of the gospel books of the new testament.

Yesterday morning we focused in on the book of Matthew chapters 26-27. We read and discussed the difference between Judas and Peter’s denial of Yeshua as the Messiah. We discussed the difference between Judas repentance and Peter’s. We discussed the obedience of Yeshua to the Father in going through the suffering and dying on the cross for us. We discussed the fact that Yeshua was the perfect, unblemished lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

After our morning Bible reading and discussion, we began preparing for the Passover Seder and the week of unleavened bread. We began cleaning our house, and preparing our food, decorating and setting the table. As I was preparing food, my ten year old was helping me, and began to talk to me about her friend who goes to church on Sunday and celebrates Easter. She was sad that her friend didn’t know that Sunday is not the seventh day of the week. She then told me she was pretty sure that God would not send all the Christians that go to church on Sunday to hell because He loves them.

I said let’s talk about what we read in the Bible this morning.

I asked her, “How do we become a part of God’s eternal family, and live with him forever, and not go to hell?”

She said, “We believe in Yeshua.”

“What does it mean to believe in Yeshua?” I asked.

“We believe He is the son of God and died for our sins.” my ten year old answered.

“That’s right. If we want to be a part of God’s eternal family, we must first understand sin and repentance. What is sin and repentance?” I asked her.

Sin is anything we think, say, or do that breaks God’s law, and repentance is to realize we sin and stop sinning, and do things God’s way.”

“That’s right, we all sin, no matter how good we want to be, we are all sinners and need a Savior. Who is our Savior?” I asked.

“Jesus, Yeshua.” She says confidently.

“That’s right, the only hope we have of not going to hell comes from Yeshua dying on the cross for our sins and conquering death through His resurrection. If we want to be a part of God’s family we have to realize we are a sinner who needs a savior, and that Savior is Yeshua, only. But how do you know if someone believes in Yeshua as their savior.” I ask.

“Because they try and stop sinning and do things God’s way, Repentance.” she answers.

“We can’t see inside someone else’s heart, and we are not the judge of anyone, but we can see by the way people live if they are repentant. A life of repentance is the testimony that we truly believe in Yeshua.”

We continue to prepare our Passover meal, and I get a text from a brother who wants to know if he can come to Passover. I text back, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and is He the one and only God of your life?”

He text back, “yes.” “Sure, you can come, dinner is at 6 o’clock,” I replied.

A sister says to me, “you know he doesn’t live like a Christian?”

I reply, “It is not my place to judge, I asked him if he believes, he said, he does. A life of repentance is now between him and God.”

My sister, who was not around during the first conversation with my daughter, asks, “what is repentance?”

“Repentance is learning what God loves and doing it, and learning what God hates and not doing it.”

“How do I do that?” she says.

“By reading the Bible.”

“But the Bible is so confusing, and whenever I read it I just get tired.”

I tell my sister, I understand, but there are some passages that are simple and clear to understand, I call them the basic outline passages of the Bible. They take the message of the Bible and give us clear teaching of how we should live. Most of them I find are in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but some are found in Yeshua and his disciples (including Paul) teachings in the new testament.

I thought I would share a few of these passages here for those who are wondering about what a life of repentance should look like. The road to redemption is narrow, and few will take it. But even though the journey may be difficult at times, the reward is worth the effort.

Guide post passages for the journey:

Deuteronomy 6, Matthew 22:35-40 Greatest Commandment of All