“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” – Romans 2:4
O MAN, WHO ART THOU that repliest against God? What right does mortal man have to contend against the Almighty who formed him? Sullen, insolent audacity can but describe the hearts of those who despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, without which their wicked souls would be immediately cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God, that salvation through faith in the blood of Christ Jesus is but a fiction, that the great love wherewith Jehovah loved us is mere mythology. But this they willingly are ignorant of – that should they at last come to the knowledge of the truth, it will not be by their exalted “genius” and self-proclaimed “brilliance”, but by the goodness of God, which is the only thing that can lead men to repentance.
In this modern age of ours, which fancies itself an epoch of enlightenment, where superficial “knowledge” reigns, where “progress” has succeeded in banishing biblical Christianity, and the truths therein, to the fringes of respectable society, it is fashionable to rebuke the preaching of the cross. Is there any surprise in this? Two millennia ago, the apostle Paul observed that the gospel was foolishness to them that perish (1 Corinthians 1:18), and that remains true today. In all ages, mankind has scorned the free gift of eternal life, either because he thinks the holy scriptures to be but cunningly devised fables, or because he imagines himself righteous enough to earn salvation through his own merits. Such is why our Lord remarked that “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).
To be sure, no man deserves the mercy of the Most High. Even the best and brightest among us is laden with sins too awful for the Almighty, who is holy and true, to accept. Even the best and brightest among us has affronted the law of the Lord so thoroughly that he has no means of ever redeeming himself from the curse of sin and death. Yet Christ died for our sins nonetheless, and offers everlasting life to whosoever will receive him as Savior. The mortal, feeble human mind will never be able to comprehend the vast love and mercy of this offer, but that is no issue because nowhere are we commanded to understand how guiltless blood for guilty man could be shed; we are commanded only to believe it.
Which brings me directly to the final word in my text: repentance. What is repentance? Many a preacher would have you to believe it is the act of feeling sorry for one’s sins to the point a man vows to lead a new life and turn away from his wicked ways. This false definition prevails among much of so-called “Christianity”, for false prophets often attach the demand that, before they can be saved, sinners must first commit to giving up their sins, a feat both impossible and unnecessary. To bolster their specious “argument”, they will cite scriptures as Mark 1:15, wherein Christ commands the Galileans to “repent ye, and believe the gospel”, and Acts 3:19, in which Peter declared “repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”
But this is not the biblical definition of repentance. “Repentance” according to the King James Bible – not the modern “Bible” perversions, mind you, which falsely alter Mark 1:15 to say “change your hearts and lives” rather than “repent ye” – does not mean to alter your lifestyle so that you may make yourself more worthy of the grace of God, for no man ever has been, or ever will be, worthy of the Almighty’s goodness and mercy. It does not mean to feel immense sorrow for your sins, to the point you see no recourse but to break with your past life and commit to henceforth following Jesus as your “Lord.” It does not mean to afflict yourself with fasting and self-flagellation until you have sufficiently suffered to find favor with the Most High, for no amount of suffering can dissolve the enmity which sin has wedged between God and man.
These false definitions are the difference in many men’s eternal destinies. To believe that man must play a part in his salvation is to misrepresent eternal life as a debt which God owes man, rather than a free gift he offers out of boundless love. It is to portray salvation as something that must be earned, rather than as something that must only be received. As I have so often remarked in these pages, salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty.
Repentance derives from the Greek term metanoia, which means a “change of mind” – that is, a change of mind from unbelief to belief. A change of mind from whatever one previously believed about eternity, the gospel, the sin nature of man and his utter inability to redeem himself in any way, to believing on Christ as his only hope for heaven. Repentance never has been, and never will be, a change of behavior, regardless of how many dictionaries, priest, preachers, and fellow gospel perverts insist otherwise.
How then does one repent? By acknowledging that he is a sinner who has violated God’s holy law, and therefore deserves to be punished in the lake of fire without having any means of delivering himself from this horrid fate. Then, by believing that Jesus Christ, the sinless, only begotten Son of God, died on the cross to pay for his sins, was buried, and was bodily resurrected three days later unto the justification of all who believe on him. The man who believes these things – and thereby receives Christ as his Savior – has repented.
Such is repentance, dear reader. I pray God that you repent only in the biblical way, for if you attempt to earn salvation through your own works, upon leaving this world you will be cast into everlasting fire.