Article
God Commands Repentance
Gary Henry
In his Athenian discourse, Paul said, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Ac. 17:30). Few things are more needed in our culture than a deeper awareness of man’s need to repent before God.
Modern man tends toward a this-worldly viewpoint, with little recognition of the supernatural reality of God in the practical aff airs of his life. The concept of a personal God is largely irrelevant to the average person’s day-to-day concerns. Even less does he admit, for any practical purpose, his accountability to the real, objective will of his Creator. The notion of sin strikes him as rather quaint, and the idea of repentance as almost antiquarian. Modern man no more believes he has actual sins of which he needs to repent than he believes blood-letting is an effective medical procedure.
Ironically, modern culture rejects the reality of sin and the need for repentance because it views itself as “enlightened.” In truth, however, the society that has no real sense of these things shows itself to be relatively less enlightened than others. When Paul the apostle had his opportunity to present the gospel of Christ in Athens, the seat of ancient learning and the city whose name was synonymous with philosophical sophistication, he said that the Athenians had practiced their idolatry during “times of ignorance,” not enlightenment. English homilist W. Clarkson rightly comments on this: “No art, no philosophy, no science, no literature, no intellectual attainments or achievements of any kind whatever will compensate for ignorance of God; the soul that knows not him is an ignorant man; the time that knows not him is an ignorant age.” As Solomon argued, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10).
Concerning God and man’s proper response to Him, our age may be as ignorant as those of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet the text we are considering asserts that God is dealing differently with such ignorance than He did prior to the gospel of Christ. God “now commands all men everywhere to repent.” The declaration is universal, no man is exempt from the requirement, and the requirement is a prerequisite to reconciliation with God. There is simply no salvation from sin without genuine repentance.
The gospel is indeed the glad tidings of God’s gracious salvation, but it is more than an announcement of good news. It is only good news to those who will obediently respond to the announcement. And repentance is an important part of the required response. To those on Pentecost who asked what they must do to receive forgiveness of their sins, Peter replied, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts. 2:38). Later, Paul wrote that Christ will return on the day of judgment “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8).
The commandment to repent implies not only that man must change his ways, but that he can do so. Most of us waste precious time analyzing, rationalizing, and psychologizing our behavior. As psychiatrist Jacob Conn writes, “Too many of us with shortcomings are interested in asking How did it start? Too few ask themselves Why do I keep it up?” No matter where our various misbehaviors have come from, God knows that we have it within ourselves to change. And He commands repentance accordingly.
For modern man, the central thing about repentance that needs to be acknowledged is this: we ought to turn away from our misdeeds for the essential reason that they are sins against God. It may be that we violate social norms or behave in ways that are psychologically unhealthy, but by far the worst thing about our wrongs is their affront to our Heavenly Father. After his sin with Bathsheba, David had the integrity to pray to God, “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight” (Psa. 51:3,4). Self-improvement is good, as far as it goes. But without the honest confession that we have sinned against God, self-improvement is not the same as repentance. And it is repentance that God commands.