1. Grace and mercy are a powerful act of the Almighty God. God alone can grant forgiveness and restoration, salvation from the sorrow of this world.
  2. To repent in his name is done thus: in those who believe in Christ God through the same faith works a change for the better, not for a moment, nor for an hour, but for their whole life.
  3. For all mankind, the answer is terrifically simple and remains the same: God wants to turn us towards the cross and then turn us back to our neighbors.
  4. Mankind’s “thoughts and ways” on the matter of pardon and forgiveness do not even come close to exhausting, let alone fathoming, God’s “thoughts and ways.”
  5. God invites you to confess the skeletons in your closet so that he might bury them in the grave for good.
  6. Repentance means to turn or change your mind. It is not a turn from sin to righteousness. It is a turn from sin to the righteous Son of God who has defeated all sin.
  7. The truth is we’ve always mixed up the roles of penitent and priest.
  8. Being able to tell the difference between truth and lies is at the core of repentance.
  9. Jesus lives to intercede. So we needn’t bring him our feigned righteousness or our faux rehabilitation.
  10. Repentance means being cut down by the law’s declaration of judgment. It’s not an activity we do to prepare for grace, but a point of despair worked by God himself.
  11. There is joy in Lent, but it is the kind of joy that comes in being made whole.
  12. Because of my Advocate, there is no judgment or condemnation by God in my suffering.