No statement could possibly be clearer. There is not the least ambiguity about it. Nothing could be more plainly set forth. It is impossible to be mistaken by any honest mind. All are addressed. Not one can escape its application. Every human being is included. There is no exception—not one. In whatever part of the world they are found, or to whatever nation they belong, the voice of God loudly calls—commands them to REPENT. Not some men, but “all men;” not English people, or French, or German only, but “all men every where.” Thus all are included, and none are exempt from this universal command of God to REPENT. And no marvel that it is so; for if all are His offspring, if all are partakers of that immortal principle which came from God when He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, then each member of the human family has a precious, immortal soul, a never-dying soul, a soul that must be either in everlasting glory, or everlasting misery. Who, then, can wonder that God calls so earnestly, pointedly, and imperatively to all? Did not Jesus, who knew all things, and could most truly estimate the priceless value of an immortal soul, say, “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Did He not also most faithfully declare to those who same to ask Him a question about others, “Except ye REPENT, ye shall all likewise perish”? (Luke 13:33I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3).)
But if God now calls upon all men everywhere to repent, is it not clear that “all have sinned,” and that all are guilty before Him? And so it is; for we are not only all sinners by nature, but by practice too “all under sin.” Oh, my reader! it is easy to talk about religion, and it may scarcely be considered respectable not to be active in religiousness of some sort, but “repentance toward God” is a very different thing. To be taken up with Bible questions, to be versed in creeds and opinions, to be members of denominational institutions, or clever in theological discussions, are all far short of repentance toward God. Persons may be highly intellectual, their heads crammed with high-flown theories and doctrines, have a burning zeal for sectarian distinction, be diligent to a degree in outward observances, and yet have never bowed to God’s call on “all men everywhere to REPENT.” The Jews attended to their ceremonial observances, kept periodically the feasts of Passover and tabernacles, attended strictly to synagogue engagements; but alas! alas! instead of hearkening to the call first of John, then of the Lord Himself, and lastly of the twelve apostles, to repent, they crucified the Lord of glory, that they might keep their own dead and formal religion. But they must repent—for in such a state alone could they be true before God—ere they are brought into their promised blessing; for Jesus said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Our Lord commanded, after He rose from the dead, that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations;” and Paul informs us that He preached “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ;” and again, in the Scripture before us, he declares that “God now commandeth all men every where to REPENT.”
No doubt in repentance there is change of mind. The natural mind at enmity against God, the heart without God, refusing His sweet words, and despising His matchless love manifested in the gift and death of His beloved Son, the repentant one sees the evil of this course, and his mind is changed toward God. To define repentance as sorrow for sin, would be far from the truth; for many a thief has been sorry for having so acted, because he feared it would be discovered, and he would be punished; yet, on the other hand, we cannot suppose that any sinner, taught of God’s Spirit, can think of how his sin appears in God’s sight without peculiar soul-distress. But is it not the characteristic of true repentance, that the soul is before God as a sinner in self-judgment? Surely nothing less can be “repentance toward God;” for then he takes his only true and becoming place of a guilty, hell-deserving sinner in His sight. His heartfelt utterance is, “I have sinned against heaven and before thee.” And can this be without distress and brokenness of heart? How is it possible that a sinner can thus think of himself in God’s sight, without a terrible sense of being justly exposed to God’s wrath? He knows, too, that his sinning has been against Him who sent His Son into the world to save sinners. And the thought of God’s abundant mercy in Christ Jesus, and through His precious blood, gives hope, and the more the stoning work of the Son of God is pondered, the more the future is lighted up before his soul; for God becomes known, not only as a just God, but a Saviour—the present and eternal Saviour of all that believe on His only-begotten Son. This surely is “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:2121Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21).)
For more than eighteen hundred years God has been sending forth the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ, and commanding “all men everywhere to REPENT;” and so attractive in heaven is it to see one soul on earth thus taking his true place as a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God, that our Lord assured us that there is “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.” What blindness and folly it is, then, for men to talk of “making their peace with God,” “trying to get better,” “turning over a new leaf,” and the like, when “God commandeth all men everywhere to REPENT!” Have you, my dear reader, thus repented toward God? for not only are you a sinner, guilty and helpless, but judgment is coming, and will soon overtake every unsaved person. “Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from among the dead.” (Acts 17:30,3130And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:30‑31).) What say you then, dear reader, to God’s command? for “God NOW commandeth all men everywhere to REPENT.”