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Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish (Luke 13:3)
Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish (Luke 13:3)
Many of us have taken a wrong turn and headed in the wrong direction. The moment you discover it, the prudent course of action is to change your direction. This is as true in our course of life as when driving. Hence the concept of repent or repentance occurs over 100 times in the NT. It was advocated by John the Baptist (Mark 1:4), Peter (Acts 2:38); Paul (Acts 17:30), and of course Jesus.
Mark introduces Jesus by saying that He came preaching "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Here in Luke we see the utmost importance Jesus gave to such when he prefaced it with 'UNLESS' you repent. There will be many people who continue on the wrong course of life. There is simply no hope apart from a change of direction. Jesus then commissioned the Apostles to preach repentance unto all nations (Luke 24:47).
Jesus illustrated the meaning of 'repent' when he mentioned the people in Jonah's day (Matt. 12:41). When Jonah came preaching that God would destroy their city unless they repented, they did so. WHAT did they do? Turning to the book of Jonah we read: "the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them". Their king decreed that both man and beast should "be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands." We then read that When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." (cp. Jonah 3:5, 8-10).
As a NT example of such repentance we can observe the Christians in Thessalonica. The people of Macedonia and Achaia "report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1Thess. 1:9-10).
God desires our repentance (2Peter 3:9). God commands our repentance (Acts 17:30). Jesus demands our repentance (Mark 1:15; Luke 13:3). Paul instructs us that 'godly sorrow works repentance' (2Cor. 7:10). Most people love the darkness and will simply not change their life style. Only when they are humbled before God and their hearts are filled with remorse over their sin will they turn from their ways.
Such repentance obviously is part of the whole conversion process that brings us into a right relationship with God, but it continues throughout our lives. Every time we discover that we have deviated from the way of truth we are to turn and correct our way. Desiring to be forgiven, we have no real choice in doing this for "unless you repent, you will likewise perish."
Hugh DeLong
