5
REPENTANCE 
UNTO
LIFE 

Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life (Acts 11:18).

THE GOSPEL is a summons not only to faith, but also to repentance. There are certain responses that man must make to God, such as faith, repentance, and obedience, without which he cannot become a Christian. These he is responsible for. All of them are of equal importance.

"As for the times of ignorance, God has overlooked them; but now he commands mankind, all men everywhere, to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged." (Acts 1 7:30, N.E.B.).

The design of Christ is to save His people from their sins and reconcile man to God. All the knowledge of God and His plan of redemption is futile unless it leads to an adequate response. Both faith and repentance are closely related in the Christian’s response to God. In the previous chapter we found that faith involves the person with Christ and His claims upon the human heart. More specifically repentance identifies the Christian with the mind of Christ in relation and reaction to sin. There is such a thing as a lifetime of both faith and repentance. Both involve identification with the mind of Christ. Both require the total response to Christ’s purpose and will.

Consider the emphasis that John the Baptist, Jesus, and His disciples placed on man’s need to repent. In preparing the Jewish nation for the coming of Christ, John the Baptist appeared as a preacher in the Judean wilderness. His theme was: ‘‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is upon you" (Matt. 4:17, N.E.B.). "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32). When Pentecost came, like John the Baptist and Christ before them, the disciples went forth with power and called on men to repent. Men were compelled by the Spirit to cry out: What must I do to be saved?

Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31).

Repentance is a beautiful word. The repentance of sinners is the occasion for great rejoicing in heaven.

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance (Luke 15:7).

Christ never toned down the nature of response that man must make. What is involved in repentance is the tension of a great moral and spiritual decision. Two powers are in deadly conflict: Christ and Satan, the world of God and the world of evil. Christ’s preaching and teaching on earth is vibrant with meaning and a crucial decision. God claims the lives of men since He redeemed them. A great transforming possibility must become actual in man. The kingdom of God is at hand. There is no time to waste.

The English word repentance comes from the Latin, not from the Greek. The New Testament word is metanoia. It is a combination of meta, a preposition meaning "after," and nous, meaning mind." Literally, the "after-mind," meaning a change of mind, a mind that has entered upon an entirely new path. The word metanoia is one of the great words and truths of the Bible. It occurs fifty-six times in the New Testament. It describes a revolutionary change of mind that is decisive for the whole personality. Every faculty is enlightened, the intellect convicted, every feeling inspired and brought to contrition, and the will decided for Christ. Change your mind first is the cry that rings through the New Testament from beginning to end. Bring your mind into harmony with God. That is the initial call of the gospel. Make a complete turn from self and sin back to God.

Repentance consists essentially in change of heart and mind and will. The change of heart and mind and will principally respects four things: it is a change of mind respecting God, respecting ourselves, respecting sin, and respecting righteousness—JOHN MURRAY, Redemption, Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Win. B. Eerdmans, 1955), p. 114.

The English word to repent comes from the Latin repoenitere from which we get "penance," doing penance for past sins. Emphasis is placed upon an emotional experience, remorse, grief over past sins, rather than the basic change of mind and purpose. Where the Greek calls for a change in the total attitude and motivation, the English or Latin word stresses abasement of self for sins committed. Thus the Latin word has distorted the original Greek meaning. When Christ called on men to repent, He was not looking simply for the expression of grief and lamentation over past sins, but a basic change of the whole mind. Emotional grief lasts only for a short time.

God has in mind the changing of the mental patterns in order to secure a transformation of the whole life. Without new mental patterns, human behavior and character are not changed. Life is changed only when the dominant attitudes of people are changed. This is the reason why repentance is so important. It goes to the root of life and behavior. The sinful viewpoint of life is forsaken. The true righteous viewpoint of life in Christ is accepted. Repentance includes the idea of sorrow for sin, but this is not its main thrust.

Actually the Greek uses another word to express "regret" or a change of feelings.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance (Metanoia) to salvation not to be repented of (metamelomai—regretted); but the sorrow of the world worketh death (2 Cor. 7:10).

Metanoein means a change of heart either generally or in respect of a specific sin, whereas metamelesthai means to experience remorse. Metanoein implies that one has later arrived at a different view of something, . . .Metamelesthai that one has a different feeling about it.—GERHARD KITTEL, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Win. B. Eerdmans, 1967), Volume IV, p. 626.

In studying the Bible on this topic, it is desirable to read a version that renders the use of these two words with discrimination in order to avoid confusing their meanings.

In this passage Paul argues that the sorrow of the world is regret, a temporary emotional reaction with no basic change of mind. But genuine repentance is a change of attitude that man never regrets having made. The change is permanent. Judas repented in the sense of regret, but with no real change of mind. With "metamelomai" nothing is really faced in life. "Metanoia" refers to that change that makes a man a Christian. "Metamelomai" leaves a man emotionally in anguish for a short time. True repentance always has in mind a turning from sin to God, which involves the whole self. It is with this in mind that Paul writes in Romans:

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:5-7).

Because many revivals have emphasized emotional reactions and "hitting the sawdust trail," Christianity has suffered at the hands of men. There is a temporary emotional reaction usually because of the sad results of some wrongdoing. The penitential revivals of some religions have taught people to do penance with the hope of paying for their sins by manifesting an exaggerated grief. People should not be frightened into feeling sorry for their sins. Any appeal to fear in order to secure man’s response is not a healthy thing to do.

Both Greek words involve the element of sin, but with a different reaction. Repentance meaning regret is a temporary thing. "Metanoia," repentance or change of mind, is a turning from a life of self and sin, with a full understanding of what it means to bring one’s whole life into line with God.

A man may be very sorry about his sin, but that brings no salvation. It may result only in death. Paul ascribes no particular merit to grieving over sin. A man may be very regretful in the way we call remorse. This involves depth of grief, but no decisive break with sin, no determined putting away of sin. . . . The repentant sinner is not only sorry about his sin, but by the grace of God he does something about it. He makes a clear break with it. . . . Repentance is forward looking as well as backward looking. It points to a life lived in the power of God whereby sin will be forsaken and overcome as well as grieved over—LEON MORRIS, The Cross in the New Testament, p. 261.

In calling upon men to repent the New Testament never has in mind a shallow emotional outburst but the highest creative activity of the mind and personality. There is great peril in making so light and superficial a response that it represents nothing more than a passing feeling, an emotional release following grief.

Pharaoh, when confronted with the tragedy and the pressure of the plagues, confessed to Moses: "I have sinned" (Ex. 10:16). His response was due to fear. There was no change of mind that brought him into harmony with God and with His will. Human character cannot be changed by some temporary emotional concern. Sorrow for past sins is only a small part of the total experience of repentance. Judas repented in the sense of regret. He experienced such agony that it led him to suicide. His regret did not suffice to lead him to change his whole life and accept the mind of Christ.

Unfortunately, revivalists have often called for emotional reactions rather than a turning of the whole life away from sin and back to God. Morbid self-scorn and depreciation can be an unwholesome mood. Repentance is not self-impeachment and recrimination that weaken the mind. There is no advantage in beating one’s breast, in attempting to punish oneself by an exaggerated self-humiliation. Repentance unto life does not aim at the dominance of dark moods, but genuine forgiveness. Long hours of self-reproach and the bearing of guilt are signs of a defective trust in the love of God. When sin becomes more distressful than men can bear, they should remember the promise of God:

O my God, my soul is cast down within me.... Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? . . . Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Ps. 42:6-1 1).

We do need a fuller and a keener consciousness of the sinfulness of sin, but we are not to let this overwhelm us. Christianity is not a religion of melancholy. With God’s forgiveness come peace and strength for new life. Repentance unto life purges one of guilt and sin. It does not increase it.

God requires repentance, not to provide impunity for sin or to escape the penalty, but to turn men from sin to righteousness. Often men rejoice in the fact that God in Christ has done it all. However, any idea that man’s part is some easy routine is contrary to the kind of response that God expects man to make. The Bible calls on men to trust Christ as Saviour and enthrone Him as Lord. This involves a sincere and firm resolve to renounce all sin, to regard no iniquity in the heart, and to follow Christ come what may.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it (Matt. 16:24, 25).

Repentance is the most costly business in the world. It cost God everything to forgive men. It costs men everything to be reconciled to God.

True repentance is such an uncomfortable experience that sinners naturally shun it. They will adopt all kinds of subterfuges to hide from themselves and from others their need of it, and they will engage in all manner of activities in substitution for it. It requires a special gift from God before they realize the necessity for it. This is all the more so in that there are sins of which a man must repent which do not appear to the natural man to be sins at all. Thus in his pride he does not recognize pride as pride, but acts in a spirit of self righteousness. It takes a complete revolution in the soul, a divine work of recreation before a man can see that repentance is needed for a whole way of life.—MORRIS, op. cit., p. 262.

Every person of sincere understanding knows what a serious act of the mind is. It needs little or no definition. The man who is determined to repent of his sins does not rest satisfied with the knowledge that Christ has completed man’s redemption at the cross. He must take a stand with Christ and put his whole life under God’s direction and control. He has that fixed purpose to be devoted wholly to God. The way of Christ is the main business of his life. He is that serious. This is how it was with all the great men of faith in the Bible.

The modern conscience is easy on sin. Any idea that one can casually drift into the kingdom of God is not true. This very attitude misunderstands the cost of divine forgiveness. The cross affirms that God cannot take sin lightly. It reveals there can be no escape from divine judgment on sin. Someone must bear that judgment. The infinite love of God in Christ did just that. This alone makes forgiveness possible. Man’s right attitude and response toward sin and righteousness is the recognition that only the atonement of Jesus Christ can provide the answer.

Many religious revivals seem to have developed the concept that God is love to the fashionable point where no radical change in man is necessary. Nothing is so delusive as the shifting of personal responsibility from a genuine repentance to an easy use of the name "Jesus." Such self-deception only accentuates the real nature of the sinful self. Repentance is a continual thing in the life that requires the Christian to apply the whole truth to practical everyday living.

Basic changes in perspective never occur easily, because such a change involves the whole self. It is never merely an intellectual matter, but a shift in one’s basic moorings. At times it involves a terrific struggle and soul-searching, the crucifixion of self. The Christian faith is a way of looking at the whole of life and experience in the light of Jesus Christ.

The fact that man understands the meaning of repentance does not mean that he can repent. Repentance requires that men seek personal integration on a level of life away from self and sin and toward God. That is why repentance as emotional grief is unavoidably superficial. Only when the whole self moves into agreement with the mind of Christ does man repent and change his perspective and sense of values.

Repentance means a decided preference for God’s way of thought and life. It means a decided break with everything that God calls sin and transgression. The repentant believer places himself on the side of God without reservation. That cannot be realized with a divided mind and heart. Therefore repentance under the Holy Spirit is man’s personal responsibility to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

Genuine repentance is the result of the action and influence upon the mind by the Holy Spirit and by the Word of God. The natural man has no power to make the change unless God brings it about. The capacity for freedom from guilt and the power of sin does not reside naturally within the individual.

Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance (Rom. 2:3).

The Holy Spirit places a powerful impetus upon man to repent. He stirs the conscience to cry out: What must I do to be saved? No man can understand the nature of his sinfulness unless the Spirit brings conviction. It is of little use to call upon people to repent, so long as they lack the insight as to the nature of themselves as sinners before God. Man cannot shift his mind and heart into harmony with God by his own strivings. He cannot breast-beat himself into submission.

So long as men are satisfied with their own good works, their abilities, and their moral achievements, no repentance can come. No man can confess to God what he is either unable or refuses to acknowledge—the sinfulness of his heart. Hence man’s need for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. When men do not see that self is an idol, how can they repent of it? If man refuses to acknowledge that self, not God, is the center of his life, how can he repent?

When self and sin are viewed in the light of the supreme sacrifice made by the Godhead, then the goodness of God leads men to repentance. The means and the price of forgiveness is so costly and the problem of getting men to return wholly to God is so eternally crucial that forgiveness is never granted apart from the sacrifice of the Son of God. There is no halfway house in repentance.

When fundamental convictions and basic motivations are changed, it is much like changing one’s job or moving to another country. To understand and feel the force of God’s appeal to repent goes much further than sorrow for past sin.

After Peter denied his Lord he went out and wept bitterly. Peter’s sorrow was genuine. It produced the right change in his whole mind and personality. His repentance was permanent, as shown by his subsequent conduct and change of life.

Both the law and the gospel seek to awaken an to his need to turn back to God. Men, for the most part, have departed from the law of God and consider the Ten Commandments a code man that needs adjustment from age to age. They forget that violation of the law puts man under divine judgment. Neither will men repent unless they see the danger of perishing and take seriously the judgment of God on sin. For if man not in danger of perishing, if there is little chance that he will suffer eternal separation from God and from life, why should he repent? Why get serious about Christ’s bearing man’s sins, and is call to repent, if man is not in danger of being eternally lost?

How much urgency is there in rescuing a man from a mountain if he can easily climb down by himself? The law and the gospel should both be proclaimed together. For no sooner is the law of God proclaimed than the sinfulness of sin becomes apparent, and "the wages of sin is death." God addresses man in both the law and the gospel. men are to repent they must hear what the law God says. Both law and gospel constitute the word of God to man. They must be taken seriously. To lose the deep sense of the sinfulness of sin is to lose the need for repentance and the need for transformation of life.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

The text speaks both of everlasting life and perishing. Both are eternal possibilities. The word "perish" must be taken as seriously as the words "eternal life." Repentance is that decisive.

If repentance is concerned with sins already committed, then the chief time reference is to the past. But if repentance includes man’s identification with God’s attitude towards sin, the primary time reference is to the present and the future. The believer now appraises his life and motives before he has actually committed the sin itself. His adoption of the mind of Christ leads him to confront present situations and temptations that are freighted with sinful possibilities.

Repentance aims to deal with the "now" situation. The believer comes to see his sinful tendencies as they are in the present, with a view to their possible future manifestation and power. Because he has adjusted his thinking to the spiritual realities and truths of God, he judges the very seeds of sin before they have produced the harvest.

Sin is not simply an act but also an attitude. Sin is lust; repentance is the judgment on lust in terms of its end product, adultery. Sin is hatred; repentance is the reaction of the mind to hatred as though it were murder. Sin is deceit; repentance is the rejection of crooked thinking as though it were dishonesty and embezzlement.

Thus repentance requires that state of mind which can see that the seed of murder is already involved in the envy and the hostility, and adultery is already in the experience of lust. Man’s response to God must begin here. Repentance does not wait until men have actually committed the overt acts of murder and adultery.

The time for Cain to repent was when hate arose in his heart against his brother, not after he had killed him. The time for Esau to repent was when he gave priority to carnal things, not after he had sold his birthright and met all the evil consequences of that transaction. The time for Pharaoh to repent was when he resisted the Lord, not when his first-born son was slain. The time for Judas to repent was when he began to doubt Jesus and give way to his proud and avaricious desires, not when the Jewish leaders refused to accept the return of the thirty pieces of silver.

God intends that repentance will lead a man to regard his wrong attitudes and react to such attitudes as he would react to the evil deeds themselves. This is the only solution to many s inner problems. Repentance requires the integration of the mind of man with the mind of Christ.

The Christian does not live retrospectively in the past, sorrowing over sins committed and lost opportunities. He lives now, in the present. Repentance conditions his mind with the insight and judgment that discerns between right and wrong before such thoughts are manifested in deeds. Christ’s call to repent is the call to think like Christ on moral and spiritual issues, always with the sincere desire to live in harmony with God.

Thus this change of attitude will lead the believer into a more genuine type of Christian experience. It is never wise to wait to repent until evil thoughts have brought forth a harvest of evil deeds. Repentance gives to the Christian a sensitivity to sin, with a determination to live according to the mind of Christ.

You say, "How rich I am! And how well I have done! I have everything I want in the world." In fact, though you do not know it, you are the most pitiful wretch, poor, blind, and naked.... All whom I love I reprove and discipline. Be on your mettle therefore and repent. (Rev. 3:17-19, N.E.B.).

The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation to the seven churches and to those facing similar life situations that have existed in every church since that day. He states their excellencies and defects, their victories and failures. John is not denying the existence of true believers in these churches.

Laodicea was a luxurious city, the wealthiest of the seven. It had everything that a city could wish for: libraries, baths, sports arenas, temples, art centers, a rich commerce, progressive industry, a medical school among the best of that day. From a material, educational, and cultural point of view, it had need of nothing. The city offered to its citizens everything that the heart could desire. It had every justification for self-esteem and self-exaltation.

As is often the case the Laodicean church had absorbed the city’s spirit of self-sufficiency. Self-esteem and self-exaltation are difficult to condemn and hard to reject, especially when one can give good reasons for feeling this way. After all, one does not wish to suppress self-realization and personal fulfillment. Psychologically and socially much can be said in favor of a self-sustained way of life.

The Laodicean today is about the same as it has always been. The world is in love with itself. The aim of life is comfortable living and personal achievement in every field of endeavor. There is nothing immoral about that. But so much of this kind of living is attached to nothing.

Modern man is being changed in interests, desires, values derived from secular progress. The full benefit of all the advancement of modern science is available for man’s blessing and satisfaction. It tends to make the Christian more secular-minded than spiritual when the abundant life is thought of in terms of earthly values. In the enjoyment of all the benefits of modern civilization, men easily become indifferent in their religion. Man is faced with a mentality and a way of life that have grown superficial and trivial.

"As things were in Noah’s days, so will they be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate and drank and married, until the day that Noah went into the ark and the flood came and made an end of them all. As things were in Lot’s days, also: they ate and drank; they bought and sold; they planted and built; but the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and made an end of them all—it will be like that on the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:26-30, N.E.B.).

For the Laodicean church, all this presents a challenge. The Christian must get his meaning for life from God, not from things; from spiritual realities, not from the secular. The Scripture states that the church of Laodicea had imbibed the world’s spirit. The church felt no need, since it was rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. Outwardly the church had prospered.

The spirit of self-sufficiency and self-esteem are so prone to lend themselves to false conclusions. There lurks the peril of forgetting that men need to live daily in total dependence on God and continually affirm their need for Jesus Christ. A self-sufficient, self-satisfied Christian is hard to approach, especially with respect to anything that lessens self-esteem. Such men feel little or no responsibility to anyone but themselves. Those who by education, culture, and the abundance of food, achieve within themselves a laudable way of life are in the greatest danger of centering life in self rather than in God. Men draw from all these achievements their own inspiration. Every serious attempt to call men to repentance finds its most serious stumbling block in man s pride and self-exaltation. The self-centered life is the most perilous way a man can take.

Today we face a crisis both in the world and in the church by virtue of man’s dependence upon himself. This age is the culmination of man’s own career, the maturity of his awful sin: to try to be like God without God. The world is in mortal danger. Men need to be saved from their own self-dependence and self-seeking.

It is hard to refuse the charm of the secular life, the recognition that comes to the wealthy, the educated, and the powerful, the deference given to men of distinction. No man falls at the foot of the cross so long as he is rich, increased in goods, and in need of nothing. One of the singular things about self-sufficiency and self-exaltation is that nobody wins. It comes down to this: Men find it hard to realize that the great things of the Holy Spirit can offer anything better than what they already have. Faith in God is inadvertently replaced by faith in man, his power, his accomplishments.

Why is ours a materialistic, secular age? It is easy to put the blame on science, on education, on culture. But none of these satisfies the question. Nearer to the truth is that men have become lovers of their own selves more than lovers of God. Here is the heart of the matter.

The same temptation to self-sufficiency and exaltation exists in religion as it does anywhere else. The craving for religious superiority is the same expression of human pride. Laodicea claims to be rich enough to need nothing. No position is harder to deal with. One cannot reason with this position because people do not see it for what it is in the sight of God.

For any religious body to assume the designation of being the church of Laodicea is no compliment. "Rich, increased in goods, and have need of nothing." Herein is the radical character of man’s sin: "Ye shall be as gods." The more men have, the more brilliant they are, the higher they go in their profession, the more importance men attach to themselves. To the degree that man exalts himself and considers himself self-sufficient, to that degree he feels no need of God.

Laodicea’s problem is self-sufficiency. It is difficult to let Christ reign when this attitude prevails. Sins of this type are more dangerous and more subtle than the sins of the flesh. In education men tend towards being credit hunters and degree worshipers. The pursuit of excellence in the academic world is not to be despised; however, there is always the temptation to seek for a doctorate simply for its own sake—to fix attention on the search for recognition rather than on solid achievement.

True Christian greatness, either in the academic world or in the church, will be recognized for what it is, whether or not certain alphabetical fragments trail after a man’s name. Education and culture may provide a man with a certain surface polish that enables him to pass muster in society. But genuine unselfishness, love for others, complete dedication to the kingdom of God and His righteousness can never grow in a selfish heart. These are the fruits born of the Holy Spirit.

The church has caught the commercial spirit, the idea that success is related to the amount of money raised. Inadvertently emphasis is placed on catering to the importance of men and worshiping self. There is need of spiritual insight here. In our age we like everything reduced to exact figures. It is the age of quantitative analysis, of charts and graphs. Such figures and statistics that tell us of what man has done may not lie, but they may encourage the wrong inferences. Data gathered and numbers tabulated tell us very little about the spiritual growth of the church. Men easily rely overmuch upon numbers—the increase in tithe and offerings, the numbers baptized, the religious material distributed. But who can reduce to percentages the spirituality of men?

Granted that the church must of necessity have its material side, its organization. These things cannot be avoided. They contribute to the high purpose of the kingdom of God. But they become a hindrance when they become objects of our chief interest and concern, when the means are mistaken for the end. Men are easily concerned with the externals of religion. It seems easy to lay emphasis on the wrong things that encourage the self-sufficient attitude.

To belong to the remnant church must come to mean that members find themselves in touch with those spiritual forces that change lives, to give to God’s work because He has really commissioned us. Then we will find all other attractions and fascinations dim beside the steady flame that burns within our hearts.

Men need salvation from their own self-dependence and self-seeking. God is intensely opposed to any attitude that centers a man in himself, to those idolatrous loyalties that run competition with Jesus Christ. The thing that makes religion superficial is not necessarily a lack of ability and knowledge, but a lack of seeing and doing all things to the glory of God. There are some problems that never seem to be solved. One of these is a concern for personal prestige and power.

In the church, administrative excellence is not necessarily synonymous with spirituality and with communion with God. The peril is that men may become obsessed with the notion that organization counts more than the spiritual effects upon men and women who wait for guidance. Men easily come to enjoy looking at the splendor of their own achievements in the field of religion. But unless the Christian minister and worker finds Christ at the center of his life, he will undoubtedly discover himself as the center of power and authority. And when man worships himself, he cannot worship God.

From the text in Revelation, Laodicea’s sin is not a willful known violation of God’s commandments. We are dedicated to keeping the Ten Commandments. We know when we willfully violate them. But the Scripture says that Laodicea "knows not that she is miserable, poor, blind, and naked." Consequently, the church’s problem is not obvious or easily understood.

Self-sufficiency and self-exaltation are hard to detect and deal with. Men do not repent of things that they do not understand or acknowledge. The limits of repentance depend upon the limits of our willingness and ability to see ourselves before God. The Pharisees were not willing to see themselves in the light of Jesus Christ. Therefore they could not and would not acknowledge the terrible nature of their sin, pride and self-exaltation. What, they asked, could possibly be wrong? What could they have to repent of? Their own superiority complex made repentance impossible.

The blinding nature of self-centeredness is that we sin without the awareness of it. We exalt ourselves without any pangs of guilt. Our faces are not flushed with crimson when our ego prevails. The self-centered man, the self-willed man, the self-exalted man in the message to the Laodiceans has not stolen anything, killed anyone, or betrayed his family. He has done nothing that startles and shocks the conscience.

If God is going to be our Lord and we are going to be Spirit-filled, we must disavow the worship of man and his abilities that puts human achievements before spiritual power. The message to the Laodiceans finds Christ standing at the door calling upon us to repent. If we believe that God’s loving interest in His people is so great that He not only has redeemed us but has commissioned us with the final message for the world prior to Christ’s return, then the obvious thing to do is to enter fully into a vital relationship with God and a complete dependence upon Him. Only transformed men can transform the world.

The world is on the verge of one of the greatest spiritual awakenings, the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. There is an upsurge of spiritual craving throughout the world. A Spirit-led, Spirit-filled church will find adequate power for the tasks that confront it. God has a true remnant, the unseen and unobtrusive "seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Only God knows who they are. We have intelligence. We have brilliance in education, in organization. We have promotion. Religion was never better advertised than it is today. But living the third angel’s message, the everlasting gospel, should surpass any mere attempt to promote it.

An honest dealing with the fact as God states it in the message to the Laodiceans does not put truth or spirituality in peril. The very conditions that prevail have in them the possibility of strengthening faith and character, provided that the truth about ourselves is really faced as behooves sincere Christians. The Laodicean church is called to be a peculiar people. The message can be advanced in every community by genuine Christian witnesses. We must relate ourselves to the things we own, as stewards of the kingdom of God. Life with Christ must become a beacon light in the midst of a hard and money-grabbing world.

Where do we get the impulse toward reformation and repentance, righteousness and regeneration? Through prayer and the study of the Word of God we make an effort of will to establish and maintain dependence on God alone. We cannot fully turn from self-sufficiency without a diligent seeking after God. Personal communion with God needs to become far more real.

Repentance unto life is offered to those who discover that until they do repent and experience God’s forgiveness and regenerating power, they cannot proceed any further in life. The understanding of oneself can be seen only in the presence of Christ. Job came to see that when he said: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42: 5, 6).

Man cannot attain to a knowledge of himself from within himself. He can only do that within the circle of God’s presence and love. Never will man make a more important discovery than when, under the presence and love of God, he sees clearly the horrible nature of self-sufficiency and self-exaltation. The believer has the strongest motives for coming to Christ who loves him. The repentant sinner may submit himself with confidence and depend with joy upon the One whose love is an everlasting love and whose power to save is to the uttermost.

This is an individual matter. This is a way of God’s saying to us: "If you are really serious in your resolve to belong entirely to Christ, I hereby promise you that in the sight of all heaven there are no obstacles that stand in your way that cannot be overcome or overpowered." God will take upon Himself to banish those things that rise up to hold you back. Let a man, hearing the call of Christ and the voice of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, resolve to turn his mind and heart to Christ. To such a man we say in the name of Christ: Let nothing dishearten you or distract you from your soul’s intention. Make bold to say to God that with all your heart and mind you choose to follow Him, come what may.