Synod 2024: A Message of Repentance

(thoughts from a 14 yr old) Written by Kathlyn Copley

“It was a message of repentance, yet the people of Nineveh believed his message. And the Bible says the greatest revival took place in Nineveh. A city of probably 600,000 people, and the whole city –king on down– repented. God had mercy on not only the king but all the people, and all the people were saved. That could happen here!” -Billy Graham 

At my Christian school there are a lot of different denominations, and we get into pretty interesting conversions about differences in our beliefs. Discussions on how baptism should be performed, how Revelation and the Millennium should be understood, even questions like, “Do dogs go to heaven?” get debated. But in the end, we always settle our differences by saying, “Well, it’s not a salvation issue.” 

But then there’s the other discussion–the one on the CRC’s mind as Synod 2024 approaches, “What does the church do with those who say same-sex marriage is okay?” Some people just want to shrug this question off by saying it isn’t a salvation issue. 

But honestly, isn’t it a salvation issue? Isn’t sin a salvation issue?

I’ve been thinking about this since middle school, “Why are Christians, why are churches, why is the CRC, struggling so much with this matter of LGBTQ+ practices?” It’s so difficult because it's hard to make all these decisions that affect people we know and love. But still, going down to the root of things, maybe the struggle comes from the fact that we’ve lost sight of the gospel. That gospel that is so radical and so amazing it changed the hearts of the whole city of Nineveh, and yet that same gospel is… so… HARD. It’s hard because it says we aren’t okay. It’s hard because it says we have to put all our faith in Someone besides ourselves. In fact we can’t trust ourselves at all.

 The Bible shows we can’t trust our hearts because our heart-and all our earthly desires - are sinful and put us against an eternal, good God.  (Isaiah  59:2, Rom 8:7) Therefore we must repent, to turn away from our hearts and our sin. Yet that’s the one thing hardest for us humans to do. 

As humans we want to put faith in ourselves. Put ourselves first. We’re fine with the idea of God but only if we make it, if we name it, and it makes us feel good about ourselves. 

Even when we become new in Christ, we are still tempted to trust ourselves and our faith, over the reason for it–Jesus. Once we do that, we stop seeing the gospel as it is and start seeing the gospel as we want it to be. We trust our own version of the Bible instead of what is actually there. Truly anything can seem right when one uses the Bible out of context. 

What does the Bible actually say? What is the Gospel all about? It is a message of repentance… and it’s all about Jesus. We know that. Jesus came to earth to die for our sins. Yes, a Sunday School answer. But even though we know it, we don’t do it. Do what? Repent. 

God can’t forgive the hard-hearted sin of unrepentance. The only way we won’t enter heaven is if we don’t put down our pride and repent. Yet that’s the very thing we tell those who support same-sex marriage not to do. We say we are loving. We say it's not a salvation issue. We say everyone can have a different view (that it’s just like different views with baptism or the millennium) and it won’t make any lasting impact. But aren’t we just trusting ourselves, twisting the Bible to make it fit with cultural standards?

How does that help anyone? Sin is worse than we think. Saying that real sin, sin that deserves eternal death, is actually not sin is taking away someone's chance of having that sin forgiven! That is not loving. What is loving is teaching repentance from humility. 

We have to humble ourselves. We have to become poor.

Isaiah 61 says,

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God...to bestow on them…a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

 Look at God's heart! How loving He is to bring us out of the place of brokenness and captivity and into light. Out of despair and into the hope of (ultimately) the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we can’t think we are fine “as is.” 

For us as the CRC to preach repentance like this, every one of us, all the churches and fellowships, need to trust in Jesus, not their own faith or goodness. Jesus says in Matt. 7:22, 

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” 

Those people thought they were doing God's good work; they went to Jesus on the last day saying, “But look what we did, look what WE did.” This is not how repentant sinners approach their Savior. We need to stand in faith on the last day and say, “Look at what HE did!” He died for us, sinners. He gave new life. He showed us what love is. He told us to repent.

Let’s trust Jesus and not ourselves. Let's get to the end of the line to see God's glorious face and hear “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not “Get away from me, I never knew you.” This is the hope for Christians and hope for the CRC denomination. 

As we go into the next Synod, we should enter with eternity in mind and the gospel in our hearts, with a spirit of humility and a message of repentance.

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Kathlyn Copley is a member of Trinity CRC, in Ames, IA and is in high school. She loves drumming, longboarding, hiking, her family, and her faith.