Metanoia

I am rereading CS Lewis's Mere Christianity.  I am still only a short way into the book and today reread the part where Lewis gives a description that really hit home for me.

If you truly repent you aren't just saying you are sorry.  You are changing your life.  You are turning your back on the way you used to be and going in a different direction.  However, due to our fallen state we have no power to live up to the standard God has established.  Therefore, we must turn to God for help to do it. This reveals another problem.  It is not in God's nature to be wrong.  He cannot change His way of doing things.  God, by His very being, is perfect and can only live in perfection. Therefore, He cannot help us out of our fallen state.

When we learn to write, often grown ups will use their hands to guide ours as we write letters and numbers.  However, it is not us that write them though we are holding the pen or pencil or crayon.  It is the grown up.  We trust the grown up to do so because they have written things before.  We have not.  Since God has never sinned, he cannot repent and He cannot show us how to repent.  However, God sent His son to live life as a man.  He can show us the way.  Some may argue that Jesus cannot show us the way because He never sinned.  True, but He was tempted in every way but remained in His love for His Father.

Imagine you are drowning in a river and ask for help.  What if someone comes to your aid and has one foot in the water and one on dry land.  Will you complain that it isn't fair that he has an advantage for having a foot on the land?  It is the fact that he has the foot on land that he is able to save you.  If he were in the water with you, he is also in danger.  By being God and man, Jesus is the One who bridges the gap.  He enables us to change in the way that is necessary.

I realize these thoughts are somewhat jumbled.  I pray you hear between the lines.