THIS word means much in the word of God, and we should not glibly pass over it. Let us consider, then, three passages where this word occurs.
1. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). Without repentance before God man, alas! must perish! Sin has so taken his heart away from God that unless repentant, he desires not the knowledge of God's ways. Instead of his face Godward, man has turned his back upon God; and if honest he must confess with the prophet Isaiah that “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way" (chap. 53:6). It is therefore imperative that he repent, which not only means that he should be sorry for his sins, and seek for forgiveness, but that he should turn completely round from following the inclination of his own will, and seek God, with a desire to do His will. God looks for repentance towards Him, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing that comes in response to sincere repentance can only be bestowed in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is His meritorious death and triumphant resurrection and ascension into glory that has made it possible for God, as a just God and a Saviour, to receive those who truly seek His face.
Without this repentance there can be no salvation; and the Lord Jesus here solemnly warns that except ye repent, ye shall perish. Again, “God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained “(Acts 17:30, 31). The lost in hell will be there because they have crossed the threshold from time into eternity, unrepentant How solemn is this! O reader! I implore you to ponder it now before God.
2. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Why the necessity of a new birth? We need a new life if we are to dwell forever in the presence of God, for God is holy and man is sinful and unfit for heaven. Death has "passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 5:12; 6:23). This proves man's hopeless plight by nature, and his terrible exposure to the just sentence of death. The impending sentence cannot be averted, but by the substitutionary death of Another. Blessed be God, a Substitute has been found in the adorable person of His own Son, for His death has secured the gift of everlasting life for all who believe.
"Ye must be born again" are the words of Him who came to seek and to save the lost. Do you ask what it means to be born again? Listen. The soul passes from death into life, and is saved, when believing God, and the testimony of His word to the divine efficacy of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin. Not only born again, it is saved when it confides wholly in the propitiation for our sins made by the Son of God on the cross. Believing on God who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. "Marvel not—ye must be born again!”
3. "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). This truth, dear reader, is bound up closely with the truth of repentance. I own that it is considered an old-fashioned notion! Men no longer talk of conversion, and even the pulpits of the land are filled with those who shrink from pressing this upon their audiences, from fear of offending. But the word of the living God stands true and binding as when first written—"Except ye be converted!" Sometimes, when tendering the question to those around us, "Have you been converted to God?" you meet with the retort, "I have always been converted!" But, dear reader, this is not true, for by nature we all are the children of wrath, even as others, and there must be conversion to God, to be entitled to enter into the kingdom of God. Oh! how many are lulled to slumber in a Christless condition of soul, falsely satisfied with the externals of religion, remaining unpossessed of the sweet blessings that belong to those who sincerely repent, and are converted to God. To receive the gift of God is to have now everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. My reader, you must repent, or you will perish everlastingly; you must be converted, or born again, or you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, nor can you ever see God's kingdom!
Oh! don't be led away with the Satanic delusion that the word of God is played out. Professed ministers of the truth may lay themselves out to pander to the desire for false comfort and security, existing in the hearts of most of their congregations, by withholding these faithful utterances of the word of God, but God has not withdrawn them. And must not God be true, though every man a liar? Consider then this word "Except." May God lead you to repentance, that so, hating your sins, you may flee to the Saviour who died for our sins, and who was raised again for our justification.
W. G.