part 2 of 2
The Miracle-working Power
of Repentance
If the sinner narrows his repentance within the Limit:.: of those few “little” sins he feels personally guilty of actually committing, he likewise narrows his reception of righteousness from Christ to equally restricted limits of his poor idea of what it should be. The result: pride, complacency, pathetic ignorance, and lukewarmness. Such an impenitent “saint” is living as far below his capacity for life as a sea gull made to fly the ocean who bathes in a birdbath.
Miracles will become natural to the one willing to receive the gift of corporate repentance from Christ. Such love for sinners “hopeth all things.” Like the Lord Himself, the repentant sinner “delighteth in mercy” and discovers his greatest pleasure to be taking apparently hopeless material and making these people subjects of God’s grace. Think of the beautiful work you will be able to do once you receive in “the mind of Christ” His own experience of repentance:
Tell the poor desponding ones who have gone astray that they need not despair. Though they have erred, and have not been building a right character, God has joy to restore to them, even the joy of His salvation. He delights to take apparently hopeless material, those through whom Satan has worked, and make them the subjects of His grace. . . Tell them there is healing, cleansing for every soul. There is a place for them at the Lord’s table. (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 234.)
Such delight in transforming “apparently hopeless material” is “the joy of the Lord.” The church is invited to enter into it, now.
We have reached the time in history when individual repentance need no longer be confused with corporate repentance. Paul’s doctrine must now come into its own, and the seed sown nearly two thousand years ago begin to bear the blessed fruit that the whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain to see.
The kind of repentance Christ calls for in the Laodicean message is already a concept beginning to be realized. When one member in a congregation falls into sin, a little reflection can convince many of the members that they actually share in the guilt. Had we been more watchful, more alert, more kind-hearted, more ready to speak “a word in season to him that is weary,” more effective in proclaiming the pure truth of the gospel, we might have saved the erring member from his fall. With knowledgeable pastoral care, almost any church can at present be led to feel this corporate concern.
It is encouraging therefore to trust that within this generation the same sense of loving concern can be realized on a worldwide scale. When this time comes (and it will come unless hindered and opposed), there will be a heart-unity and corporate concern between races and nationalities seldom seen as yet. The fulfillment of Christ’s ideal will be seen on all levels and among all groups. The winter of frozen inhibitions and fears will give way to a glorious spring and summer where the loves and sympathies that God has implanted in our souls will find true and pure expression to one another. Racial and cultural barriers will come down. It will be impossible any longer to feel superior to or patronizing toward people whose race, nationality, or cultural milieu was deprived. With the “mind of Christ,” you automatically feel yourself on their level, and a bond of sympathy and fellowship is established “in Him.” Again, this will be a miracle, but one that will follow the laws of grace.
This repentance will take us a step further in the path to spiritual maturity. Instead of limiting itself to a shared repentance in behalf of our contemporary generation of the living, it will take in past generations as well. Paul’s idea, “As the body is one, and hath many members, … so also is Christ,” will be seen to include the “body” of Christ in all time.
Already we can sense the concern “in Christ” which the Holy Spirit imparts to the church, so that we can share the guilt of a fellow-sinner who is our contemporary; it is only another step to share the guilt of one who is not contemporary. Thus a repentance becomes possible for the sins of previous generations, and Moses’ command is found possible of obedience (Leviticus 26:40). Thus the “final atonement” becomes a reality, and the pre-Advent judgment concluded.
The perfect “one body” experience will fill the church. While it is true that there will be a “shaking,” and some, perhaps many, will be shaken out, the inspired word that describes this process of separation clearly implies that a true remnant of believers in Christ will remain. The “shaking” of the tree or branches will certainly mean that “gleaning grapes shall be left in it” (cf. Isaiah 17:6; 24:13). Those who are “ “ “shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord” (verse 14). Those who are shaken out will only make “manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:19). God’s work will go forward unhindered, but rather greatly strengthened.
In this time, the church will be united and coordinated like a healthy human body. Church tails will be a thing of the past. Backbiting, evil-surmising, gossip, even forgetfulness of the needs of others, will be overcome. The listening ear having learned to be sensitive to the call of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of duty will be heard and acted upon. When He says to one as He said to Philip the deacon, “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot,” the obedient response will be immediate; and a soul will be won as Philip won the Ethiopian official from Candace’s royal court. At last the Holy Spirit will find a perfectly responsive “temple” in which to dwell; and rejoicing over His people with singing, the Lord will gladly bring into their fellowship all His “people” now scattered in Babylon.
Miracles of heart-healing will come precisely as if Christ Himself were present in the flesh to minister them. Chasms of estrangement will be bridged over. Marital dissensions will find solutions that have evaded the best efforts of counselors and psychiatrists. Broken homes will be cemented together in the bonds of such divine love that elicits ultimate contrition and repentance from believing hearts. Harps now silent will ring with melody when the strings are touched by this hand of love. Bewildered and frustrated youth will see a revelation of Christ never before discerned. Satan’s enchantment of drugs, liquor, immorality, and rebellion will lose its hold, and the pure, joyous tide of youthful devotion to Grist will flow as never before to the praise of His grace.
The watching world and the vast universe beyond will behold with joy the final demonstration of the fruits of Christ’s sacrifice. In a profound sense hardly dreamed of by the pioneers of the Advent Movement, the heavenly sanctuary, nerve center of God’s great controversy with Satan, will be “cleansed,” justified, set before the universe in its right light.
The Church a Powerhouse
of
Ministering Love
Such an experience of repentance will transform the church into a dynamo of love. The strongholds of Satan will be pulled down before it. No church will have seating capacity for the converted sinners who will stream into it. Because He took the steps the sinner must take in repentance, Christ was enabled to pass by no human being as “worthless;” He broke the spell of the world’s enchantment for the wealthy, the pleasure loving, the vain; He inspired with hope the “roughest and most unpromising;” He cast out “devils.” Corporate and denominational repentance is the “whole church” experiencing this same Christlike love and empathy for all for whom He died.
Those who say, “It’s too good to be true! It just can’t happen! I’ll never see it!” should be careful how they react to the heavenly vision of success. In the days of Elisha, Samaria suffered a terrible siege famine. “A donkey’s head cost eighty pieces of silver, and half a pound of dove’s dung cost five pieces of silver.” Acts of frightful cannibalism were well known. Blaming the Lord for it all, the king wanted to kill the prophet. (Are the present attacks on Ellen White also the result of a similar motivation?)
Elisha responded by promising that within twenty-four hours “ten pounds of the best wheat or twenty pounds of barley” would be selling in the city gates for only “one piece of silver.” The instant reaction of “the personal attendant of the king” was that such plenty would be too good to be true. “That can’t happen,’ he responded,”—not even if the Lord himself were to send grain at once!”
“You will see it happen, but you won’t get any of the food,” Elisha replied. The Bible story continues, “It so happened that the king of Israel had put the city gate under the command of the officer who was his personal attendant.” When the Lord suddenly frightened the invading Syrians and they left their huge supplies for the starving Israelites, the officer was “trampled to death by the people at the city gate.” (See 2 Kings 7:1-20, G.N.B.).
Our unbelief in this “time of the latter rain” will likewise shut us out from taking part in the glorious experience that the Lord foretells for His people once they repent in obedience to His command. Numerous inspired statements confirm the vision of the “whole church” within history fully experiencing such blessing.
An example is the following vision of a repentance yet future, but which is to be experienced by the leadership of the church. Note that it will be a repentance so deep and effective that previously unknown and unrealized sin will be brought to consciousness. Note also the reference to the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10 of God’s people sensing their involvement in the sin of piercing Christ:
In the night season I was in my dreams in a large meeting, with ministers, their wives, and their children. I wondered that the company present was mostly made up of ministers and their families. The prophecy of Malachi was brought before them in connection with Daniel, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zechariah. The teaching of these books was carefully investigated. The building of the temple, and the temple service, were considered. There was close searching of the Scriptures in regard to the sacred character of all that appertained to the temple service. Through the prophets, God has given a delineation of what will come to pass in the last days of this earth’s history; and the Jewish economy is full of instruction for us.
The offering of beasts … The rivers of blood … provision for the poor to receive the comforts of life … the whole sanctuary service . . .
All these things were closely studied by the company before me in my dream. Scripture was compared with scripture, and application was made of the word of God to our own time. After a diligent searching of the Scriptures, there was a period of silence. A very solemn impression was made upon the people. The deep moving of the Spirit of God was manifest among us. All were troubled, all seemed to be convicted, burdened, and distressed, and they saw their own life and character represented in the word of God, and the Holy Spirit was making the application to their hearts.
Conscience was aroused. The record of past days was making its disclosure of the vanity of human inventions. The Holy Spirit brought all things to their remembrance. As they reviewed their past history, there were revealed defects of character that ought to have been discerned and corrected. They saw how through the grace of Christ the character should have been transformed. The workers had known the sorrow of defeat in the work intrusted to their hands, when they should have had victory.
The Holy Spirit presented before them Him whom they had offended. They saw that God will not only reveal himself as a God of mercy and forgiveness and long forbearance, but by terrible things in righteousness He will make it manifest that He is not a man that He should lie.
Words were spoken by One, saying, “The hidden, inner life will be revealed. As if reflected in a mirror, all the inward working of the character will be made manifest. The Lord would have you examine your own lives, and see how vain is human glory.’ ‘Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.’ (Review and Herald, February 4, 1902.)
If it were in your power to “vote” that this experience take place now, would you want it to?
Well, the vote is in your power, and mine.
And we will exercise it, one way or the other.