Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Have you ever seen a picture of a street-corner screamer yelling at passers-by to REPENT!? They are usually holding a sign up about the dangers of hellfire.
It is not a very compelling image.
I’m not sure what they hope to accomplish. I’m against brow-beating people with undefined words from a book they probably don’t even respect.
You might even have been a target of one of those preachers. What did you think he meant when he was screaming at you to REPENT!?
This kind of “ministry” needs to stop. It does nothing but turn people away from God, His love, and His message of peace, hope, and joy.
However, if you still want to yell at people to REPENT!, at least get the definition right in your head. Tell your audience what it means to REPENT!, and say it in a loving manner, the way it was intended to be used.
The common idea of REPENT! is to “feel bad for your wicked ways,” or, better, “turn from your wicked ways.”
Neither idea is quite right. There’s an important nuance when it comes to REPENT!, that might incorporate feelings of guilt or shame and a turning away from wicked behavior, but those aspects are not the real meaning of REPENT!
The goodness of God leads to repentance. Romans 2:4
Notice that it is God’s goodness that entices a person to repent. It is not threats of punishment or condemnations of wicked deeds.
A person cannot truly repent unless they understand God’s goodness.
Why would this be?
Screaming REPENT! at someone induces fear, not love. It might cause feelings of shame or guilt.
Shame and guilt never lead anyone to repentance. It might have lead people to beg for mercy, but it has never caused anyone to turn their face toward God, to seek a relationship with Him.
God wants people to love Him from a reasonable consideration of the facts, not from threats or yelling or thunder. The only way to get permanent, unfailing, unmovable love is through love.
If you do not understand God’s goodness, you cannot repent! Repentance is based on knowing God, understanding His character of love, not on hearing threats of violence or death because of your own selfishness.
(You may be getting a clue as to what repentance really means.)
If I’m told of God’s goodness and love, and I am able to watch Jesus as He interacts with sinners who are just like me, always showing them love, then, as the Bible says, His goodness at least tempts me to turn my face toward Him in hope–the act of repentance!
Then, when we see the true nature of our Creator God, that He loves us with a love that cannot be squelched or diminished in any way, regardless of who we are or what we have done, we fall in love.
We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19, NIV)
Do you see the idea?
Yelling REPENT! on a street corner does not lead to repentance.
You might try yelling GOD IS LOVE. Or even GOD IS GOOD! That is sure to generate some good conversation, even if someone remarks, “God is NOT good!” Now we have a dialog worth pursuing.
So, what does REPENT really mean?
It means, simply, to turn your face toward God.
The Contemporary English Version translates Romans 2:4 like this:
Don’t you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him?
Do you see how repentance works? Do you see where repentance is in the process of God healing us?
Repentance does not come first. It simply cannot!
The first step is a revelation of the God of love of the Bible.
When people perceive the love–the goodness–of God, whether through Bible reading or from someone preaching the good news, it is attractive and appealing; they turn toward this God to get to know more about Him. They begin to seek the truth about God. They want to get to know this God of love.
And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth (John 17:3, NLT).
We must behold God, completely and truthfully, in order to be changed. We cannot change ourselves. We are leopards with spots (Jeremiah 13:23)! Only God can make the changes necessary in us to fully heal us of our fatal condition and make us more like Jesus.
He promises to finish the work He started in us (Philippians 1:6).
All we can do is walk in the light we are given, while we let God do His work (Philippians 2:13).
I want to always accurately portray our God’s loving character and how He deals with sinful human beings. The true picture of Jesus as God of love is so compelling that we do not need to resort to threats, coercion, or condemnation.
We don’t need to shout REPENT! on the street corners. We just need to tell people the good news about the God of love of the Bible, and repentance happens.