Bible Repentance - chapter 3part 2 of 2

How Caiphas Could Have Led
Israel to Repentance

For example, even if he had sincerely not known how to relate himself to Jesus in the early days of the Saviour’s ministry, he could at least at the time of Jesus’ trial have taken a firm stand for the right. He could have said to the Sanhedrin members assembled, “For a long time I didn’t understand the work of Jesus of Nazareth. You brethren have shared my misunderstanding. Something has been happening among us that has been beyond us. But I have been doing some study in the Scriptures lately. Now I have seen that beneath His lowly outward guise, Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the true Messiah. He fulfills the prophetic details. And now, brethren, 1 humbly acknowledge Him as such, and I forthwith step down from my high position and I shall be the first to install Him as Israel’s true High Priest!”

A gasp of surprise would have run through the court chambers as Caiphas said these words. But had Caiphas done so, he would today be honored all over the world as the noblest leader of God’s people in all history. The Jews, many of them, would doubtless have followed his lead, for we have already noted how their religious leaders fastened upon them their national guilt (see page 36); thus it follows that they could also have led them into national repentance. Christ could have been “offered” in some other way than murder by His own people, and Jerusalem could today be the “joy of the whole earth” rather than its sorest plague spot.

The Jewish leaders, led by Caiphas, chose to reject Heaven’s gift of corporate repentance. Terrible have been the sufferings of their children.

If it should be, through unmitigated tragedy, that the church of today should ultimately choose to follow ancient Israel in impenitence, Christ would suffer at her hands the most appalling humiliation He has ever had to endure. He would be crucified afresh, wounded anew “in the house of His friends.” Humanity’s final indignity would be heaped upon His sacrifice.

Fortunately, however, the very nature of His sacrifice on the cross assures us that the church will not at last repeat this tragic pattern of the past. For once in history, Christ will be fully vindicated by His professed people. An infinite price was paid for our redemption; in the end the great price will be seen to have been worthwhile. An infinite sacrifice will redeem and heal an almost infinite measure of impenitence.

“Certain of the scribes and Pharisees” approached Jesus as representatives of the nation, inquiring for evidence on which to base an official policy toward Him (Matthew 12:38). In reply He told them He would give them no further evidence than the divine call to repentance of which Jonah’s call and ministry to Nineveh was an example. Accept Me as the Ninevites accepted Jonah, He said.

Though He was “a greater than Jonas” and “a greater than Solomon,” yet He did not appear in the glorious garb and pomp of Solomon, nor did He “cause His voice to be heard in the streets” as did Jonah (cf. Matthew 12:41, 42; Isaiah 1*2:2). But the Jewish leaders had evidence enough that Jesus was the true Messiah by the quality of His solemn call to repentance. No other “sign” was to be given that “evil and adulterous generation.” “The men of Nineveh shall rise in Judgment with this generation and shall condemn it”, literally at last, as well as figuratively in history. Israel’s frightful doom was just, because they failed to recognize and heed Heaven’s gracious call to repentance.
But still there remains a strange hope for ancient Israel’s literal descendants in our day:

I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. … For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. … Through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. (Romans 11:25-31.)

The Ingathering of the Jews

The Spirit of Prophecy agrees with Paul’s bright hope. In the days of the “loud cry” we shall see some surprising developments in regard to repentant Jews:

When this gospel shall be presented in its fullness to the Jews, many will accept Christ as the Messiah. … In the closing proclamation of the gospel, when special work is to be done for classes of people hitherto neglected, God expects His messengers to take particular interest in the Jewish people whom they find in all parts of the earth. … This will be to many of the Jews as the dawn of a new creation, the resurrection of the soul. . . They will recognize Christ as the Saviour of the world. Many will by faith receive Christ as their redeemer. . .

. . . The God of Israel will bring this to pass in our day. His arm is not shortened that it cannot save. As His servants labor in faith for those who have long been neglected and despised, His salvation will be revealed. (Acts of The Apostles, pp. 380, 381.)

Could it be that these marvelous things have to wait only because of our continued impenitence? How can we possibly call Jews, even though they are “mighty in the scriptures,” to such repentance unless we know the experience ourselves? God’s great heart of pity is moved in behalf of the suffering Jews; and a great blessing is awaiting them when we are prepared to be the agents to bring it:

Notwithstanding the awful doom pronounced upon the Jews as a nation at the time of their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth, there have lived from age to age many noble, God-fearing Jewish men and women who have suffered in silence. God has comforted their hearts in affliction and has beheld with pity their terrible situation. He has heard the agonizing prayers of those who have sought Him with all the heart for a right understanding of His word. Some have learned to see in the lowly Nazarene whom their forefathers rejected and crucified, the true Messiah of Israel. As their minds have grasped the significance of the familiar prophecies so long obscured by tradition and misinterpretation, their hearts have been filled with gratitude to God for the unspeakable gift He bestows upon every human being who chooses to accept Christ as a personal Saviour. (Ibid., pp. 379, 380).

One’s heart beats a little faster when he reads those words so pregnant with hope and wonder. What joy to witness the fulfillment of Paul’s bright visions of future restoration of the true Israel! Millions of sincere Christians of many denominations look to literal Israel in Palestine as the fulfillment; the servant of the Lord, in harmony with Paul’s concept of justification by faith, foresaw the genuine.

Could it happen in our time?

Or must we all go into our graves and leave the blessing to a future generation to witness?

The repentance our Lord calls for from us is the key.

Read Chapter 6 — How the Jewish Nation Rejected Repentance
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