LET me draw your most earnest attention, dear reader, to a requirement of God, which, alas! is painfully overlooked on all hands, but which is, nevertheless, of primary moment and of universal obligation. It is more than a requirement; it is a plain and positive command! Yet it is not one of the ten which go to form the well-known Decalogue. It is not a prohibition against the commission of any particular sin.
Nor is it an appeal to love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, which is, I may say, the Decalogue presented in a positive way. It is not a law limited to a certain nation, nor a bond of relationship between God and a certain people. No, it has its application to every soul throughout the wide world; and I wonder, my friend, whether you have personally rendered obedience to it.
That you should do so is of eternal importance. Your salvation from hell, and your acceptance into God’s everlasting kingdom hinges upon your response or otherwise.
It is God’s call to repentance. I quote the words: “GOD NOW COMMANDETH ALL MEN EVERYWHERE TO REPENT” (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30)). Let us patiently take these words in their order and examine them: ―
“GOD,”
to whom you are responsible, and against whom you have sinned. Your Creator, the omniscient and almighty Ruler of all, “in whom we live, and move, and have our being,” and He who, withal, spared not His Son to the death for sinners, and has raised Him from the dead in proof that the atoning work of Calvary is sufficient. Yes, God
“NOW”
at a time when He has shown by that death and resurrection the way of present pardon, and peace, and reconciliation, and when He has therefore spoken as never before. No prophet’s voice could equal that of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; no moment of time could out-value that wherein sin was borne and its awful curse endured. The cross stands alone; it was the event of supreme importance for fallen man. And therefore, on the ground of that wondrous and finished work, God now
“COMMANDETH”!
It is no mere appeal, no gentle behest, no passing call! It is a command! It carries authority; it demands attention; it silences opposition. God’s present command makes itself heard at the eternal peril of the disobedient. If to disobey Moses’ law meant certain death, how much worse a fate shall befall the offender in this case? This voice speaks from heaven! It is universal, and hence God now commandeth
“ALL MEN,”
Jew and Gentile alike, men of every clime and country, of every rank and station; the king, the captive; the wise, the ignorant; the rich, the poor; the priest, the people―all, without one single, solitary exception. It is the bounden duty, the strongest and most unalterable obligation, of all men to yield to this command. Submission, the fullest and most absolute, must be rendered, and that
“EVERYWHERE,”
from palace to hovel, and from court to cottage, in the streets and lanes of the city to the highways and hedges, on the ocean wave or the bleak moor-side―not one corner of this sin-blasted and rebellious earth but must see the effect of obedience to this all-embracing command
“TO REPENT.”
Yes, to repent! Explanation is not needed. We all know what this means. Theological definitions might only bewilder and lead us away from the scent. A naughty child knows in its conscience the philosophy of repenting. He requires no lengthened tutoring in the art of confessing his offence.
No explanation is given in the verse I quote. God commands repentance! That is quite enough; and believe me, woe betide the soul that refuses to cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner”! Yes, a thousand times woe!
Friend, have you repented? Pause, I beg of you―for, if not, you shall certainly perish! Repentance is absolutely necessary.
God chose that Athens, and its famous court of Mars Hill, should be the earthly source of this command. That proud, intellectual city! It was she who first heard this command to repent.
And did she repent? Well, the response given at the moment was deplorably small. Pride made it so! Ah! that wretched pride of intellect, or position, or wealth, or morality. What a curse it is!
Friend, your soul is at stake! God commands― do you obey!
J. W. S.
“THERE is but one way into the holiest of all, and that is a blood-sprinkled way. It is vain to strive to enter by any other. Men may attempt to work themselves in, to pray themselves in, to buy themselves in, to get in by a pathway of ordinances, or it may be of half-ordinances, half-Christ — but it is of no use. God speaks of one way, and but one; and that way has been thrown open through the rent wail of the Saviour’s flesh. Along that way have the millions of the saved passed, from age to age. The one sacrifice of the cross is divinely sufficient for all. God asks no more, and He can take no less.”
C. H. M.