Repent-Without It All Men Perish

The Webster’s New World Dictionary, Senior Edition, defines the word repent as a verb, both transitive and intransitive. If you have been away from an English grammar class as long as I have, you might like to know what I found out about transitive and intransitive verbs. The transitive verb needs an object to complete its meaning. For example, “The boy shot.” That means nothing unless you tell what he shot, and what makes it a transitive verb. However, to say the boy died, is saying something complete. The verb died needs no object. You would not say, “He died a shotgun”, but you could say, “He died by a shotgun wound.”

In Jerusalem on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost, just after the Lord ascended into heaven, the promise given by the Lord was fulfilled. That account is written beautifully in the Acts of the Apostles in Chapter two. There came together 19 distinct groups of people who spoke just as many languages. Acts 2:9-11says that along with the Galileans there were, “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians.” Many of whom mocked in wonderment at the God sent phenomenon. That audience, 3000 or more people, were seized by what was taking place in the upper room among a tiny group of the Lord’s disciples. Those totaled about 120 people. Being filled with the Holy Ghost, the Apostle Peter expounded to the huge audience of unbelievers the prophecy of the Prophet Joel.

 Joel 2:27-32 tells us, “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also, upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”

He began by telling the huge audience what they were ‘not’ witnessing, that is, a bunch of drunken people. He then convinced them that the prophet Joel had defined long before, what was to happen in the last days. They heard his discourse, which ended with Acts 2: 36, “Let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Added to those words from the Apostle, the scripture tells their response in verse 37, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren what shall we do?”

Just as surely as the Apostle Peter began his sermon in a negative mode by saying, “these are not drunken, as you suppose”, it becomes my delight to emphasize that Peter did not hear a response from them on anything he said, until the end. He heard no questions about what they should think, believe, suppose, what denomination they should join, where they should sign on the dotted line, or where they should go. The question to him, and the other apostles, from the multitude was, “What shall we do?” It is amazing that in our day of great knowledge, education, wisdom, and prudence, we propose we can please the Lord of heaven and earth by what we feel, believe, say, or think. There is a most definite and divine obligation to put functional feet and hands on the repentant-one, that would enable him to do something, to act. When the repentant-one only thinks, says, purposes, recites a pledge, recites a promise, whether written or audibly, or uses sign language before witnesses under oath, or affirms, and still does nothing, it becomes little more than an interview.

To answer their question and tell the multitude what to do, the first recorded word to fall from Peter’s lips was repent. Of course, they were smitten in their hearts and felt every emotion that the dictionary defines repentance to be. That definition is, “to feel sorry for a past error, sin, omission, etc., to feel such regret over some past action or intention, etc., as to change one’s mind.” Everybody needs a good Webster’s Dictionary if he or she talks or writes, but they need to set it aside for a Bible when they repent. Surely most would feel repentant in mind and heart, yet just feeling certainly does not accomplish anything. Instruction from the apostle on what to do, secondly brings water baptism, Acts 2:38 says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” Sorrow for the regret of past sins may impress court judges and crime victims but remission of sins is not imputed for emotions, apart from obedience to proper baptism. Please, let none be deceived into thinking Jesus mistakenly said in Mark 16:16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

In the same sentence that the apostle Peter ordered water baptism, he finished his sentence by saying, “and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” After the repentant-one obeys, doing as he is told to do in scripture, acting, the Lord’s promise in return to the repentant-one, is to baptize him with His Spirit. That beautifully parallels Jesus’ message to Nicodemus, in John 3: 5 which says, “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” As surely as the sun has to appear to inaugurate the day, or there will be no day, repentance initiates the process to expand God’s Kingdom, by all who are willing to do it.

Can “the first and great commandment” given from heaven be found in this kind of repentance? Jesus told a lawyer in Matthew 22:37. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” To make sure it was not overlooked, the gospel writers, Mark and Luke also included, “and with all thy strength.”  

A Jew once told me in Bolivia that this strength in the Hebrew language, did not refer to the physical, but rather to financial strength. The young man that Jesus was speaking to was very rich and could not give that up to put the Lord first and foremost in his life. He went away sorrowfully, but not repentant. Our friend told me he was a baptized convert that had studied for the Jewish priesthood in Jerusalem. My wife and I know relatives of his in La Paz Bolivia. He, Samuel Lopez, has since died in Jerusalem.

About a week ago I was thrilled to hear a testimony from an old man about his repentance. In this he said when he repented, as a youth he had bought shortly before, a carton of cigarettes, and had a pack in his pocket. He threw away all his cigarettes completely the day he repented and never returned to smoking. God honors the doer of a deed, more than just a thinker in mind. This is additionally supported by the word of God in 1 John 3:18 which says, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

We see this story in John 8:3-11, “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.”  Jesus did two things on this occasion. What he did so condemned the accusers that they voluntarily left, leaving off any additional words, yet Jesus had some final things to say.

“But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So, when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” Anyone who is brought to Jesus or comes to him on their own volition can go away liberated, yet at the same time obligated to leave off their lifestyle of sin. Not all understand that the Lord Jesus saves ‘from’ sin, not ‘in’ sin.

John the Baptist frantically practiced ‘profess your faith by what you do’. Without timidity he challenged all the region round about Jordan. Matthew 3:1-9 says, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”  Your background, who your dad and mom are, or who your grandparents were, is of no consequence to God. He calls us all to repentance individually.

A search was made of every scripture verse in which the word repent is found in the Old and New testaments. I then made notation of the different words that preceded the verb repent. That was done a second time to note the word following repent. My finding was that the word ‘and’ was the most frequently used word in both instances. By counting the number of times, the word ‘and’ was found, it amazed me to see that 9 times, it was found in each instance, before or after the word repent. Four times there was a match of the three words: “and repent, and.” The coordinating conjunction’s definition may not apply in every application, but there is enough evidence to convince me in this finding, that ‘repent’ needs an object to qualify it as a transitive verb.

Please indulge me in a little patience to read the four portions of scripture from the Old and New Testaments employing the match of the three words: “and repent, and.” 1 Kings 8:47 says, “Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness.” Joel 2:14 says, “Who knows if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?”  Jonah 3:9 says, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” And Revelation 2:5 says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”  

All things genuinely repented of, become dead to him that truly repents, and are forgotten by the Lord. We read in Ecclesiastes 5:4-7, “When thou vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.”  

‘Repent’ is a directive from the Lord and an action verb that demands a response, aka action on our part. Without it all men will perish, but with it, the hope of everlasting life is a promise to us all!