Since returning to the U.S., I have been saddened by the constant stream of media fear and alarm that only ever seems to escalate with no real solutions offered. It seems that it is time to bring out the placards “Repent the end is near!”
I do not doubt that the trouble in the world is escalating, but I do object linking the concept of repentance to the idea of final judgment. One of the most liberating steps in spiritual understanding comes when you realize that repentance is not a punishment! It is the gift of God that restores relationship.
To repent is to turn. You have been going in the wrong direction! When you repent, you adjust your course to go the right way. In fact, the word translated “repent” is often translated “turn” as in Matthew 18:3-4, in the ESV when Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
When Christ who is the “way” arrived, He announced repeatedly, as in Matthew 4:17 “From that time on Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The point is that HE was at hand, right there beside them offering relationship with himself if they would only “turn” to Him.
That was then, and yes, it is different now. We cannot see a physical person that we can follow physically down through the streets and businesses of our city. It is difficult to grasp that His physical presence could have been a hindrance for them. With the limitations He placed upon Himself when He accepted a physical body, Jesus could only be in one location at a time; although He did, through the Spirit, heal people who were not in his exact location at times.
Paul explains it as follows: Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “In him we live and move and have our being.”
Paul, who spoke after the death and resurrection of Jesus, says that if we want to turn to God, He is not actually far from any of us! If we are living, moving, and are self-aware we are doing it ‘in Him’. Should He suddenly decide to remove Himself completely from us, we would cease to exist. He veils Himself from us simply in order to give us the opportunity to make choices of our own free will. But the fact remains He is there. All we have to do is turn toward Him, and we will find Him. The God who sustains our very existence has promised, Deuteronomy 4:29 (ESV)
29 you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him,
Instead of “Repent! The end is near!”, Let’s adopt the better approach and “Repent! For HE is near!”