Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness,
tolerance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness leads you towards
repentance? (Romans 2:4)
Sixteen centuries ago the
great church leader Augustine was commenting on the story of the penitent
thief, who died beside Jesus Christ: he warned, “There is one case of death-bed
repentance recorded, in order that no one should despair, but only one in order
that no one should presume.”
The situation addressed
at this point in the letter to the Romans concerned those who were counting on
God’s apparent forbearance as an excuse to live their own self-pleasing lives. But whether it was the 400-year delay before judgment came upon the perversity
of the Amorites (Genesis 15:16) or the 100 years of grace that was given the
wicked city of Nineveh before its final overthrow (Jonah 2:10; Nahum 1:14), the
pattern of the Bible is that for both communities and individuals, space is
constantly given to repent.
And true repentance has
not all that much to do with ‘feeling sorry.’ The basic question is not, ‘Are
you feeling sorry?’ but rather ‘Do you intend to stop doing it?’ And the bottom-line issue is, ‘Who is
going to be your God?’
It is more than a single,
one-off decision – though true and personal belief certainly begins with a
conscious ‘About-Turn’ – away from the unworthy past, and towards a
relationship of obedient trust.
But repentance is a daily
way of life as well. When this happens on a big scale, we could have a
world-wide revival that can still save the world ... Let it begin with you … and
me!
--ooOoo--
