Repentance and Judgment

In court proceedings, we often see the perpetrator apologize to his victims as a sign of contrition. If the judge is convinced, he may lower the penalty for the crime. Parents often tell miscreant children to say, "I'm sorry," in order to mitigate punishment. My own parents did that when I was a child.

Is repentance for the sake of mitigating punishment legitimate repentance? I certainly don't think so. So why repent?

In his book, The Necessity and Nature of Christianity, Southern Presbyterian Theologian James Henley Thornwell wrote, "[In Paul's sermon at the Areopagus], the general judgement is not presented as a motive to amendment, but as proof that it is commanded. He does not say that men ought to repent because they will be judged, but that they are commanded to do it. He first collects the command from a general judgment in righteousness, and then proves, not that there will be a judgment, but that it will be in righteousness, because Jesus has been raised from the dead."

Thornwell is referring to Acts 17:30-31: "Now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead." There are three things that Paul here tells the Athenians. The first is that God commands all men to repent. It is not a plea or an offer; it is a command. The second is that a general judgment by God is coming. And third, the proof of the coming judgment is the raising of Jesus from the dead. 

Picture a car speeding toward a cliff (thanks to Star Trek for the analogy). The driver is commanded to stop, because a deadly crash is not merely possible, but is a definite, approaching consequence of the current action. Stopping is not just a nice thing to do, or to be cajoled as a favor. There is an explicit choice between stopping and dying. In the same way, repentance is commanded because judgment is coming, and Jesus has been displayed as the only qualified judge by His resurrection.

Repentance is not for the mitigation of punishment, but for the acknowledgement of the justice of our judgment. And then, by faith alone, we can plead our surety, that same Judge, Jesus, who has already taken the judgment for all that are His.