Church of Christ Studies

Repentance

I have for study at this hour the subject of repentance. To show its importance and the emphasis given by Holy Writ, I present a number of passages of scripture bearing upon this subject. In Matt. 3 we have a record of how John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." After Jesus heard that John was cast into prison, he went into Galilee and began to preach and to say: "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In Matt. 10 and Luke 10 the twelve and seventy were instructed to emphasize the same thing. When the Savior gave the world-wide commission in Luke 24: 46, 47, he said: "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Then in Acts 2: 38 Peter said unto those that were cut to the heart and had cried out, saying, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." In Acts 3: 19, at the close of a sermon on Solomon's porch of the temple, Peter said: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." When Paul stood on Mars' Hill (Acts 17: 30), he said to those Athenians: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." Then in 2 Pet. 3: 9: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

 

Now, with these simple statements before you, I certainly need not stop longer to impress upon you the absolute necessity and the superlative importance of repentance as it has to do with the gospel plan of salvation. I close this part by quoting from our Savior (Luke 13: 3: ) "I tell you Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

 

One of the hardest things for men and women to do is to repent of their sins. It is comparatively easy in this country for a man to believe the gospel. In fact, it requires more effort to set aside the testimony that produces faith than it does to accept the word of the Lord and believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It is also comparatively easy to get men to be baptized when they have believed the gospel and repented of their sins. Repentance is a direct challenge to man's will power; and so few of us are willing to bow in subjection, to acknowledge our wrongs, and to resolve by the grace of God to turn away from the same.

 

When I decide that I have sinned against God and against heaven and reach the conclusion that I expect to turn away from such deeds and to live as I ought to live, all things else are easy to do. I am not at all discouraged when men fail to repent of their sins, for I remember that in the days of our Lord, woe was pronounced upon the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and even Capernaum, the city in which he lived, because they would not repent of their sins. If a man die without having so done, there is no promise for him in all of God's book, for the time has never been since man's first creation that God did not call upon him to repent of his sins. But may I ask just here: "What does repentance mean ?" First, it is a duty imposed upon all mankind. It is a plain command of God. It is universal in its application, and no man can refuse it and escape the responsibility that must come upon him. Repentance is not simply sorrow, even though it be of a godly sort. I would not say that the element of sorrow has no connection with repentance, but a man may be sorry for a thing and yet not necessarily repent thereof. When the Pentecostians heard the gospel, when they believed that they had crucified the Son of God, they were filled with sorrow and anxiety as conviction was brought home to them, and they cried out in agony: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Notwithstanding the fact that they were filled with sorrow and regret, Peter said: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

 

On the other hand, repentance is not simply and solely a reformation of life, for a man might thus determine to do without any regard for Jehovah or with no purpose whatever to do God's will. Let me call your attention to Matt. 21: 28, 29, where it is said a certain man had two sons, and he said unto one: "Go work to-day in my vineyard." He answered and said, "I will not ;" but afterwards he repented and went. Now, if you can learn just what that boy did, Jesus said that is repentance. I have an idea that when the boy first refused and reflected over the matter and realized that he had disobeyed his father, he became conscious of the fact that he was in the wrong; that he had sinned against his father, who was responsible for his existence; and when he came to himself, he acknowledged that wrong and faced about in the opposite direction. He moved; he acted; he responded unto duty's demand and sought to do his father's will. Christ styled such an act repentance.

 

When the prodigal son received his part of the father's estate, he went out and wasted his substance in riotous living. By and by he had spent all, and found himself at last feeding the swine and eating the very husks with which they were fed. He is no longer dressed as in days gone by. But now, perhaps, clad in dirty, filthy clothes, he gave some heed to sober and sane reflections. The Bible says he "came to himself." Then he said: "Back in my father's house there is plenty and to spare." And when cool, calm, and deliberate judgment had triumphed, he said: "I will arise and go to my father." Friends, that is repentance. That is what repentance means. It is the change of will, of deeds, and of life.

 

I want you to notice another line of thought that we may see just what repentance is. In Matt. 12: 41 the Savior said: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas." Why condemn this generation? Because they repented. Who repented? The Ninevites. When ? At the preaching of Jonah. Whatever, therefore, those Ninevites did back there, Christ says that is repentance. I simply turn to Jonah 3:10, and find this statement: "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Those Ninevites repented. They turned from their evil way and faced about toward a course absolutely contrary. From these scriptures I want to frame a definition of repentance, which is this: Repentance is a change of a man's will power. It is brought about by godly sorrow and results in a reformation of life.

 

Repentance carries with it evidences which the world cannot question. I give some examples of those who have really repented of their sins. The Thessalonians showed their sincerity in that they turned "from idols to serve the living and true God." Hence, they repented. Those of whom we read in Acts 19: 19 evidenced their repentance by bringing their books, valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver, and burning them before all men. The Philippian jailer indicated his repentance by washing the stripes of the apostles, accepting their teaching, and setting meat before them. The Corinthians, unto whom Paul wrote words of criticism, showed their repentance in that they turned from their corrupt practices—their low, vile manner of life in which they had hitherto been engaged.

 

Men are moved by motives. The fear of punishment, on the one hand, and the hope of reward, on the other, are the strongest incentives to our action in the more serious concerns of life. Paul said in 2 Cor. 7: 10 that "godly sorrow worketh repentance." It is that which lies behind. It is the element that urges and insists and demands of us to move forward in obedience to Heaven's call. In 2 Cor. 5: 10 Paul said: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." A wonderful statement of Jehovah, urging men to yield to Heaven's requirement! All of the threats of the Bible the evidences of God's wrath, God's vengeance, and God's indignation heaped upon humanity— are intended to move us to repent of our sins.

 

On the other hand, Paul declared in Rom. 2: 4 that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." God's goodness is seen even in the temporal world about us. What poor soul is there among us so ungrateful and so unthoughtful that he cannot feast upon the good things of this material world? Where is the man that can be surrounded by all the splendors and the glories that characterize our passing along the pathway of time and not recognize that the Power from whence all these blessings flow has lavishly bestowed upon us the good things of this world in order that we may be persuaded to do his will? God sends the sunshine and the showers, the springtime and the harvest with its ripened, golden grain. He bids us to behold his goodness on every hand, but the greatest exhibition was his matchless love in the gift of his only begotten Son. That Son lived one-third of a century among men. He lived and moved among his fellows that he might lift them to higher heights and to holier realms. His life was purely one of service and sacrifice. But, due to no crime of his own, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and was crucified outside the city's gate, where he died a felon's death for a lost and ruined and recreant race. It does seem that every man who knows this story would be moved to accept the gospel, to repent of his sins, and to obey from the heart that form of doctrine delivered.

 

But let me suggest to you that the motives God has intended to move men have seemingly failed, and with these a large host are not content. In their demands they insist that God perform some startling or unheard-of miracle in order to cause men to repent. If it were true that repentance is an act on the part of God toward men, then it would follow, on the ground that Jehovah is no respecter of persons, that he must use that same miraculous power upon every man; and, hence, universal salvation would result. Otherwise God would be partial, unjust and unfair. If the Lord works a miracle and causes this man over here to repent, then, I repeat, he is under obligation to work a similar miracle in order to reach every man upon the face of the earth.

 

This miraculous conception is no new thing, for I have read in Holy Writ of a man's insisting that God do this very thing. Do you recall the story of the rich man and Lazarus—how both of them died, and the former was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment ? Then he saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's bosom, and cried out unto Father Abraham, saying: "Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." When he was assured that this could not be done, he then said: "Father Abraham, send Lazarus back into yonder world, where I have five brothers, and let him testify unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment." But Abraham replied: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." But the rich man said: "Nay, Father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." He knew they had the law and the prophets, but for these he had never had respect; and he imagined that if God would perform a miracle, surely his brothers would repent. As I have read that scripture, I have tried to picture just what would have happened had God yielded to his request. Suppose Lazarus had come back to this earth in body and had gone to the rich man's brethren and said unto them: "Gentlemen, I have come to tell you that I once lived upon the earth; that I was a very poor man, a beggar, and afflicted; that I used to go to your brother's home and beg the crumbs that fell from his table; and finally your brother and I both died and passed into the Hadean world. He and Father Abraham have carried on a conversation, and at his request I have been sent back to tell you that your brother is in hell, tormented wonderfully. I have returned to warn you, lest you follow in his steps and experience a similar fate." I verily believe that had Lazarus come back to earth and spoken as I have indicated, he would have been rejected and his very message spurned. The brothers would doubtless have condemned him and pictured him as "a man clad in tattered garments' fit company for the dogs, and yet with presumption enough to tell us that our brother is in hell. We believe no such thing, for our brother was a very respectable and influential man. He lived in a palace. He fared sumptuously every day. He wore fine clothes, and all the world paid him honor and respect. Surely a man of his prominence, of his influence, and of his wealth, could not be in hell." Lazarus would have been treading on dangerous ground to have made such a report as the rich man suggested. It is dangerous ever for a preacher to announce that some prominent man has gone to hell. Of course, if he does not amount to anything here on earth, if he has never been elected constable, road overseer, or a member of the Tennessee Legislature, it is all right; but when you begin to talk about some prominent man, some high-toned gentleman, who moves about in the finest circles of society, who dresses in the latest fashion, dwells in a palace, and fares sumptuously every day, you are treading on very dangerous ground indeed.

 

I am certain that Abraham told the truth about it when he said: "If such men will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." This is none other than a clear-cut statement on the part of Jehovah that there is no such thing as direct or miraculous power in the conversion of human beings. God's law had been announced, and the man who will not hear that has no hope of salvation. But you and I this day not only have Moses and the prophets, but Christ and the apostles; and if a man will not repent from having heard the same, he would not do so though one should rise from the dead.

 

Sometimes the question is raised as to how long a man ought to repent. How long does it take him to fulfill this requirement? I think I can answer that correctly by stating that it takes just long enough for him to get the consent of his mind, of his will power, that he is tired of sin and of his former ways, and that now he firmly resolves and coolly decides to turn from his evil way and face about toward the "city which bath foundations." Whatever time is required, therefore, to make this decision, is the answer to that query. The longest time of which we have any record was the case of Saul of Tarsus, due to the fact that three days and three nights passed before Ananias reached the character to be converted. We read in the Bible of where three thousand repented in one day; again, of the Philippian jailer, who heard the gospel, repented of his sins, and was baptized the same hour of the night. It is possible for all those in this splendid audience who believe the gospel with all the heart to repent of their sins this very hour and to further their obedience to the gospel of Christ. Remember that the Savior said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ;" and that you may escape that condemnation, I insist that you accept the gospel call and be saved while time and opportunity are yours.

​