The church does need to repent. But repentances that are oriented toward the world rather than God—and reflective not of the whole counsel of God but of the immediate moral priorities of this present age—seem designed to enhance our status in the world rather than truly abase us before a holy God. This is especially true when they are ostentatiously performed on social media. The Puritans considered even our best repentances to be so stained with sin that they needed to be repented of. How much more those designed to curry favor from the world?

The Reformers outlined several marks of the church: the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and, at times, godly discipline or biblical worship. Today, they would need to add another: constant apologizing to the world.

Whether it is saying sorry to the world for the election of Trump, or for racism, or for not being loving to the LGBTQ community, Christians now seem to spend a lot of their time apologizing. One might be forgiven at times for thinking that the world is going to hell in a handbag because of the church and her failings rather than anything the world itself has chosen to do. Of course the church, being full of ordinary people, sadly often reflects the behavior of the surrounding world even as she is called to something higher. That was the case in Corinth in the first century, when Paul was forced to call out the Christians there for factionalism, a worldly view of power, and the tolerance—if not the indulgence—of the same sexual immorality that characterized the world.

There are times when apologies to the world are appropriate. The church claims to reflect the character of God; when she does not, then she has let the world down. She is meant to present a vision of holiness that convicts the world of its rebellion against God and thus helps draw it to repentance toward God. The church cannot lecture the world about what is and is not good and true if she is indulging in what she decries as wicked and ugly. But the church’s biggest problem is not that she has failed the world, but that she has failed God. It is to him that repentance is to be expressed. This is why David, king of Israel, the one charged with representing the godly rule of God to his people, declares that he has sinned against God and God only in Psalm 51. This is after he has taken another man’s wife and then conspired to have him killed. Clearly, David knew that he had sinned against both Bathsheba and Uriah. But knowing the holiness of God and his status before him, it was his sin against God that overwhelmed his emotions. It is to God first that he addresses his sorrow and remorse.

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