Repentance follows faith as a natural sequence; for when the human
mind has sufficient faith in God, based upon the perfection of His
attributes, to desire His guidance and a final return to His presence,
the thought is foremost that no unclean thing can enter his presence.
Repentance from all sin, not merely an expression of sorrow but a
discontinuance of sinful practices, amounting to a reformation of life,
therefore suggests itself as a matter of course. This philosophical
view of the subject is in perfect accord with Holy Writ. Hence it was,
upon the day of Pentecost, when the sin-convicted multitude cried out:
"Men and brethren, What shall we do?" that Peter commanded them to
repent as the first step following the manifestation of their faith in
Christ and His atonement. (Acts ii:37.)
That repentance is an indispensable condition of salvation has been
taught in all ages of the world by men of God, the only exception
being that which applies to all other requirements of the Gospel. That
exception is in the case of persons incapable of knowing good from
evil, such as children who cannot believe, or disbelieve, and are
exempt from the law until they arrive at the years of accountability.
Hence the saying of the Savior: "Suffer little children, and forbid
them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
(Matt. xix:14.)
Ezekiel said to ancient Israel, in his 18th chapter and 30th verse,
"Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity
shall not be your ruin." Israel did not repent as a nation, and their
sad history proves that iniquity caused their ruin. The olive branch of
peace was offered them without money and without price. They rejected
the means of escape, and in consequence they have verified the words of
Moses, their great lawgiver: "And I will scatter you among the heathen
and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate
and your cities waste." (Lev. xxvi:33.)
It was supposed by those in Palestine that the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices, were greater sinners than
others because such agonies had come upon them. "And Jesus answering
said unto them, 'Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans, because they suffererd such things? I tell you nay,
but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'" The foregoing
contains the divine lesson that suffering is not a substitute for
repentance: that while He did not justify the agonies brought upon
them by persecution, He did not intimate that the suffering would be
acceptable instead of repentance, or that these sufferings were any
evidence of the sins of the sufferers as to the height or depth of
their transgressions. The weight of responsibility is measured either
by the light men possess or the light which opportunities afford them
to possess. As Paul said to the Athenians (Acts xvii:30.), "And the
times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent"; and again the Savior enunciated this doctrine:
"And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
(St. John iii:19.)
No matter how strict the individual may be in living a life of moral
rectitude, it is very plainly taught in the Scriptures that rejecting
further light from God constitutes a sin. We cite the case of the
young man told of in Matthew, chapter 19, who came to the Savior
for instructions, but who, when he was commanded by the Redeemer to
sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow Him, went away
sorrowful, rejecting the injunction of the Savior, and yet he had kept
the commandments from his youth up, and probably was as righteous as
any modern Christians, who, if commanded by the Savior to give their
possessions to the poor, would go away sorrowful. There were "devout"
people assembled on the day of Pentecost, and yet Peter made no
exception when he commanded the multitude to repent. If they had done
the best they could previously with the light they had, greater light
had come to them and they must receive it or be condemned.
This truth applies to every gospel dispensation, not excepting the
"dispensation of the fullness of times," the greatest of all. God
promised to send a holy angel and make a restitution of all things as
predicted by the ancient prophets, preceding the second advent of the
Messiah. The light has come. A new dispensation has been ushered in.
The Everlasting Gospel has been restored with its ancient gifts and
blessings, and "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent," whether
they be so-called Christians or infidels. Repentance is a principle
and not merely an expression of penitent grief. It involves, as
before stated, a reformation of life. In II Cor, vii:9, 10, Paul says:
"Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to
repentance. * * * For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not
to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death." The
sorrow of the world may be illustrated by the conduct of the inebriate,
who, when intoxicated, commits acts of violence which mantle his brow
with shame and fill him with remorse in his sober moments. He expresses
sorrow, perhaps weeps in his agony, but again gives away to the tempter
and repeats his acts of dishonor instead of "fleeing temptation."
This kind of sorrow does not work repentance to salvation. We find
religious people sorrowing and sometimes confessing their sins, only to
repeat sin. This is the sorrow of the world and needs to be repented
of because it savors so much of hypocrisy, and consequently "worketh
death." On the contrary, true repentance consists, not in the outward
expression of grief, but in forsaking sin. "Let the wicked forsake his
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon." (Isa. lv:7.) Repentance is required not only of the
evil deed, but of the unrighteous thought. Every wicked deed is first
conceived in the mind, hence the need of casting away the evil thought
before it germinates into actual crime, which leads to prison, the
gallows and to spiritual death. Of the ruin caused by the talented, but
corrupt Aaron Burr it was truly said: "His brain conceived it, his hand
brought it into action."
Let us now examine a passage of Scripture which is frequently quoted to
substantiate the erroneous doctrine that God is pleased to save men in
their sins, or that death-bed repentance is all-sufficient. The passage
is found in Luke xxiii:42, 43, and reads thus: "And he (the penitent
malefactor) said unto Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when Thou comest into
Thy kingdom.' And Jesus said unto him, 'Verily I say unto thee, today
shalt thou be with me in Paradise.'" From this statement thousands
in the Christian world have taken it for granted that the thief on
the cross received full and complete salvation. With this unwarranted
perversion of a sacred passage, the minister has taught the murderer
in the felon's cell to confess Christ and all would be well with
him; and as the hangman drew the bolt and let the culprit swing into
eternity, the minister has stood close by and said, "The Lord Jesus
receive thy soul." On the other hand, the poor victim of the assassin
has been cut off without time to confess Christ, and the same doctrine
which wafts the murderer to the courts of glory consigns the victim
to the flames of hell. Is it possible that Christ ever taught such a
heinous doctrine? A doctrine so inconsistent, so revolting to reason,
so repugnant to justice! We answer emphatically "No," nor did He utter
a syllable from which such an inference can be drawn or establish the
idea that the malefactor went to heaven. The question is, then, where
did he go? If not to heaven, then the paradise named and heaven are two
different places. Let the Scriptures answer for themselves. Three days
after the crucifixion the Savior came forth a resurrected being, and as
Mary met Him at the tomb, He said to her, "Touch me not, for I am not
yet ascended to my Father." Thus we have from His own lips, in which
there was never guile, that He had not ascended to the Father; and if
He had not, neither had the thief. If no further light than this could
be found in the sacred volume, this would be sufficient to show that
the malefactor did not go to heaven, for where Jesus went the thief
went, for that was the promise. Where, then, did the Lord go? Turn to
I Peter iii 18-21, and the question is answered: "For Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us
to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit:
By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which
sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited
in the days of Noah."
This makes it plain that the paradise referred to was the prison house,
to which place Jesus went and opened up a dispensation of the Gospel
to the dead. The next chapter, 6th verse, says: "For for this cause
was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might
be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in
the spirit." The thief therefore went to a place of confinement to
remain until the justice of God should be satisfied and mercy step in
and claim her own. The difference between the penitent malefactor, who
appears to have repented before death, and the antediluvians was that
the former immediately went to a place where Christ would present to
him the plan of life, that day, while the latter had waited hundreds
of years for that privilege. This shows that repentance brings its
blessings even upon the deathbed; but to say that, after a life of sin,
the malefactor went straight to the abode of the Father and remained
there in glory, is in conflict with the teachings of Christ and Peter.
The statements of Peter relative to the mission of Christ to the
spirits in prison throws light upon the saying of the Savior in St.
John v:25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live."
Thus we see the privileges of the penitent malefactor. He went to the
prison house and heard the Gospel, but how long he remained there
before receiving all the saving benefits of the Gospel, we are not
told. One thing is certain-he did not come back with the Messiah, nor
have we ever heard of him sitting down with Christ on the right hand of
the Father. The Scripture being true which says, "The murderer hath not
eternal life abiding in him," it is safe to say that the prayers of all
the ministers on earth cannot carry the souls of the assassin to the
presence and glory of God. As there are different degrees of glory, so
are there various grades of crimes to which are attached the different
degrees of punishment, all of which clearly maintain the justice and
mercy of God.
In Galatians v:19-21, we read as follows: "Now the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God."
In conclusion, as a true definition of repentance, let us quote the
words of Paul to the Ephesians, iv: 25, 30: "Wherefore putting away
lying speak every man truth with his neighbor. * * * Be ye angry and
sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place
to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more. * * * Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth. * * *" This is the only
repentance taught in Holy Writ, and simply means to forsake all sin and
accomplish a reformation of life.