REPENTANCE
‘Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
I. Not the Baptist’s words only.—It adds to the force of these words to remember that they were not John the Baptist’s only, but also, as we read in the next chapter, Jesus Christ’s. And it seems as if Christ loved them, and adopted them, because they had been His friend’s words; for ‘when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison,’ from that time ‘He began to preach, and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
II. The incentive to repentance.—There is a feature in this teaching which deserves the closest observation. Repentance is generally made the child of fear; and persons are urged to repent on this ground,—that if they do not, some great evil will fall upon them. But here is the opposite. The motive by which both John and Christ pressed people to repent is, that something very good and very happy is coming. But it is this,—When Christ sets up His throne in any one man’s heart, and becomes the one leading, ruling idea of that man’s mind,—that is ‘the kingdom of heaven’ in the soul. There are other meanings, but whether you take the expression in this way or another, it equally signifies something very good and very happy—so good and so happy, that there is nothing in comparison with it worth the name. In very fact, it is the only happiness; for this alone is peace, and rest, and love that satisfies, and an abiding joy. And this is His great argument for repentance,—Everything is going to be so pleasant!—there is such a bright, glad time coming!—therefore make haste, get rid of your sins, turn and be converted!
III. Repentance defined.—Let me say a word as to what God means when He says ‘Repent.’
(a) What it is not.—Repentance is not remorse, though a sanctified remorse may become repentance. It is not sorrow for sin, though sorrow is one of its elements; it is not conviction, though it cannot be without it; it is not change of habits, though it leads to it.
(b) What it is.—It is change of mind—that is a literal translation of the word. It is a change of mind. It differs from conversion only in this—conversion is a change of action, repentance is a change of feeling. Therefore it is greater than conversion, in the same degree as a change in the spring is greater than a change in the stream. I may paraphrase it—‘Humble yourself, give up your old ways, and give your heart to God.’ That is repentance.
(c) An universal necessity.—It is not a thing which has to take place once only in a man’s life. We all need to ‘repent and to be converted’ again and again. St. Peter needed it three years after he had been a disciple. And you need it. Whose conscience does not bear witness to it? Who has not, whatever may have been his grace—who has not fallen very low?
The Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Had I to do with the most abandoned man or the most profligate woman on the face of the earth, I would say, “God loves you dearly—the Spirit of God, which is striving with you, shows that God loves you; there is a free pardon waiting for you—do not be afraid, do not be afraid to take it; you are to be a happy, an honoured, a useful Christian—more happy, more honoured, more useful because of your very sins; there are good things coming—a life of peace and holiness and service, and an eternity with God; even now I see the dawn breaking for you upon the horizon. God wants you, God will have you, God will bless you.” “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ’
(2) ‘Savonarola, the Prophet of Florence, has been compared to John the Baptist. The Florentines were totally unused to the fervent natural eloquence of a preacher who rejected all traditions of oratory, and, careless of fine style or graceful diction, poured forth what was in him in floods of fiery words, carried away by his own earnestness and warmth of feeling. To see a man thus inspired by his subject, possessed by what he has to say, too much in earnest to choose his phrases or think of anything—taste, literature, style, or reputation—except that truth which he is bound to tell his auditors, and which to them and to him is a matter of life and death—this is at all times a wonderful and impressive spectacle. His whole soul was intensely practical, concentrated upon the real evils around him, riveted upon Florence in particular, upon the sins, strifes, frauds, and violences which made the city weak, and put her down from her high estate. Burlamacchi describes the scene: “The people got up in the middle of the night to get places for the sermon, and came to the door of the cathedral, waiting outside till it should be opened, making no account of any inconvenience, neither of the cold, nor of wind, nor of standing in winter with their feet on the marble; and among them were young and old, women and children of every sort, who came with such jubilee and rejoicing, going to the sermon as to a wedding. Thus” [after entering the Cathedral] “they waited three or four hours till the Padre entered the pulpit. And the attention of so great a mass of people, all with eyes and ears intent upon the preacher, was wonderful; they listened so that when the sermon reached its end it seemed to them that it had scarcely begun.” ’