You may have heard of a guy named Martin Luther and the little stir that he caused back in 1517 when he published his 95 Theses (with hammer & nails) on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenburg, in Germany. 

The Castle Church housed more than 17,000 so–called “relics.” Among these relics in which Wittenburg boasted, they claimed to have four strands of the Virgin Mary’s hair, a piece of straw from the baby Jesus’ manger, a nail from the cross, and a piece of bread from the Last Supper.

People would come to venerate these relics, in great hope that in so doing they would earn eternal favor with God.  In fact, the pope had decreed that those who did so on All Saints Day (November 1) could reduce their time in purgatory by over one million years — as long as they also made a little donation while they were there.

Well there was a monk named Martin Luther who had been studying his Bible, and he had come to the conclusion that all of this sort of business was vain nonsense, darkness, and superstition.  “Christ alone can forgive sins,” he declared.  “The pope has no power to forgive or to free souls from purgatory.  If he had such power, why does he not release everyone from purgatory at once?  Why does he not do it free of charge?”

So, on October 31 (the eve of All Saints Day) he went public with his critiques by nailing 95 Theses to the Castle Church door.

A thesis is a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections.

Thesis Number One read this way:  “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4.17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Luther was blowing the trumpet and he was blowing it loudly.  The way into the Kingdom of Heaven was through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (see, for example, Acts 20.21).

Repentance.  Let’s think about this.

Repentance is a saving grace whereby a sinner comes to a true sense of how great his sins are and how he might be delivered from them by the mercy of God in Christ.  So, with grief and hatred of his sin, he turns away from such things and turns unto God, with the full purpose, endeavor, and hope of obedience.  This is the life to which Jesus calls his people.  A lifetime of turning away from sin in this manner.

Have you ever played the game Whack–A–Mole?  It’s a pretty violent game.  The little moles keep popping up everywhere, and your job is to smash their heads back down into their holes.  That’s often how I’ve thought of repentance.  My sin is everywhere, popping its head up again and again and again.  The more I grow in Christ, the more clearly I can see just how much of a sinner I am.  Sin desires to manifest itself in every area of my life.  It’s like a mole infestation.

And the Lord Christ has graciously called me to a lifetime of repentance.  A lifetime of putting that sin to death and turning once more unto God for fresh mercies.  Repentance is nothing less than a wonderful gift from a loving God — a gift that leads us out of darkness and into light.  That’s what the Christian life is.  It’s an ongoing and deepening process of repenting and believing. 

And like Whack–A–Mole, true repenting can sometimes be a violent action.  There’s no easy way to get rid of a mole infestation.  Repentance is not for the weak of heart.  Only those whose hearts have been made strong by Christ can truly repent. 

“Repentance unravels sin, and makes sin not to be.”
—Thomas Watson