When He was on earth, the Lord's ministry called for repentance. After going to heaven, He began a new ministry.
Now, He ministers through men, for "when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men" (Eph. 4:88Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Ephesians 4:8)), and we see the Apostle Paul coming forth with a line of grace, the gospel of the grace of God. While it involves the kingdom, Paul's ministry is an entirely new thing. Before, He was hidden, but now in grace God is coming out to manifest all that He is, in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul saw Jesus, not as a Man on earth, but as the exalted Son of man in the glory. In type, Elisha demonstrates the character of Paul's ministry.
You and I will never know God until we know something of these wretched hearts of ours. But that is where the gospel brings us. It gives us to see what we are, and we find that Elijah himself had to repent, and also Elisha. Repentance is not merely an act when we receive Christ as our Savior, but it is a state of soul. Unless you and I go through life conscious of what we are by nature and conscious of the grace that saved us (I am not saying, occupied with nature, but, conscious of it, because it is our happy privilege to be occupied with Christ), the enemy is going to get advantage over us.
The ministry of Elisha speaks of his coming in contact with the leper Naaman, a Gentile, and on repentance and owning the prophet of God and what the Word of God had to say to him, his flesh came again to him as a little child. This exemplifies a new beginning, a divine life, which comes only through sovereign grace.
As we closed the ministry of Elijah and began the ministry of Elisha, the subject of repentance was prominently brought before us, because the Spirit of God was bringing in a candidate for the kingdom of God. When we use the expression, "kingdom of God," we speak of it in a moral sense, not a literal kingdom on earth. "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. 14:1717For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17). The following principles set forth in Luke 9 give us illustrations of what repentance entails.
"And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." Luke 9:57,5857And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Luke 9:57‑58).
A man came to the Lord and proposed to follow Him wherever He went. Immediately the Lord told him that to follow Him called for being willing to be rejected and have nothing to depend on but the Lord Himself. The foxes had their holes, and the birds of the air had nests; but the Son of man had not where to lay His head.