The Trampoline of Repentance and Faith

Darrin Patrick has written an excellent book, "Church Planter".  I highly recommend it for every believer, not just church planters or pastors.  Read it, apply it to your own life and pray for your pastor!  Rather than a full review, I would like walk us through this diagram.  (I didn't see any copyright information, so I'll assume I'm safe.)

 

Repentance and faith are pictured as the rise and fall of the Christian life.  In repentance I see my sin for what it really is.  I don't excuse my sin or blame someone else, I own it.  I turn from my sin, despising it and wanting nothing to do with it.  The foundation of repentance is that I am a bigger sinner than I thought.  Sin goes deeper in my heart than I realized.

But the bounceback is faith in Christ.  I realize that He is a great Savior in spite of my great sin.  He is in me and I am in Him.  When God looks at me He sees me as a new Creation in Christ.  The gospel reminds me that Jesus lived and died for me.  I am completely accepted by faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the cycle of repentance and faith in my life.  It is the downward fall of a contrite heart and the joyful rising of a hopeful heart.

Notice also the terms "Surface Idol" and "Source Idol".  Patrick's approach to idolatry in our hearts is one of the strengths of this book.  He is constantly looking at motives.  It can be quite annoying, in a very necessary sort of way!  The surface idol is the sin as we see it, and as others see it, with the eyes.  You might call it sin manifested.  The source idol is the root sin, the underlying desire and motive from which our sin springs.  Our biggest problem isn't that we have issues with bad works, but that we have issues with bad worship.  It takes a lot of prayer and work to get to the source idols in our lives, but the deeper we 'bounce' in repentance the higher we fly in faith!