What Mario 3 Didn't Teach
Repent > Reset (part 1)
Mario 3 for the original Nintendo is a masterpiece.
My grandfather taught me the ins and outs of the game. He was a superhero in my eyes as he navigated the levels and uncovered hidden rewards.
Now I get to dazzle my children… I’m sure they’ll surpass me soon. I’m far from a master. When I screw up on an important level or my life count gets too low, I can just hit “RESET” and start a fresh!
How many times have you wished you could hit reset on a day… maybe even on life?
God’s given us a better gift than a reset, He’s given us repentance.
Our world hates hitting repent. This would agree with God about sin, righteousness, and judgement.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
John 3:19–20
Entire movements are taking pride in sin. False teachers all over social media are revising doctrines as fast as they can to avoid the reality of repentance.
The church must stand on the Word of God against the tides of our culture and the allure of false teachers.
What is repentance? Repentance is turning away from sin to Christ.
True repentance is a gift that God gives (cf. Acts 5:31, 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25).
True repentance involves our whole person coming into agreement with God about our sin and our need of Christ. We know sin is wrong. We embrace grief over our sin. We choose to leave our sin behind to obey Christ.
In true repentance we leave our thoughts about sin for God’s, we leave our desires and emotions about sin for God’s, and we abandon choices of sin for obedience to God.
When God gives us repentance, it impacts all of us.
Repentance is a gift that is SO much better than a reset. I’ll explain that more in the future…