JESUS: REPENT OR PERISH?? Lent series: Journey to the Cross Luke 13:1-9 (NIV)

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us…” (1 John 3:16). “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).
The phrase “God is love” signifies that love is not just an attribute of God, but rather God's very essence, a foundational aspect of His being. And this is illustrated in Jesus, and what he did by dying on the cross for all humanity.
So how do we understand Jesus’ words: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish… But unless you repent, you too will all perish…Cut it down!” (Luke 13:3,5,7)? Doesn’t that sound harsh, even threatening?

• It may be difficult to understand, but God’s love is like a two-sided coin. On the one side are his grace, mercy, kindness, and gentleness that comforts, soothes and encourages us. On the other side are his justice, righteousness, and hostility and unacceptance for all evil and sin. Unless we learn to see both sides, we will never fully understand the magnitude and quality of his love. Strangely, that kind of (God’s) love brings disruption into a culture that does not recognize or accept the anointed One sent by God – The Messiah, Christ.
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• One of the biggest reasons for this is the rational cause and effect understanding we have about sin, good works, and God. Deep within we believe that if we’re “good,” God will (has to!) bless us. In fact, so often we look at all the good things we have, all our blessings, and put it down to God’s approval of us – proof that we’re on God’s good side, evidence of the good we do. Consequently we believe that the reverse must also be true. The reason that we are in difficult circumstances – why there is so much pain and suffering in our lives – is because we have not been good, and that God is “punishing” us for our sins either for not doing what he wants us to do or for doing what he specifically does not want us to do.
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• But that description of God reminds me of Santa Claus: have we been naughty, or nice, this past year?
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• Jesus comes to us with burning eyes – burning with love, and burning with holiness.
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• The necessity of the choice that we have to make – “repent or perish”
• Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14)
• Bad things that happen in our lives are not God’s judgement for particular sins. Jesus makes that very clear when talking about both tragedies
• The extent of our “misfortune” is not directly proportional to our sins, i.e. big calamities in our lives do not mean we are being punished for some past “big sin”
• “Perishing,” the physical death that we will all have to face is the result of sin that has tainted all humanity that causes spiritual lifelessness (Ephesians 2:1; 1 Corinthians 15:56)
• All of us will not just “perish” physically, we will also perish spiritually – unless we do something about it – unless we make a choice: Repent
• Repent: (Remember John the Baptist, 12.8.24?)

STOP! going the direction that you have been going
TURN FROM that direction
TURN TO another very different direction from the previous one
Repentance cannot be forced – it has to happen willingly. It has to be of one’s own choosing…even gladly
Repentance is never done at one’s own initiative
But usually is in response to a revelation and/or circumstance

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• The reality of the kindness of God that leads us to repentance – “give it one more year”
• Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
• God takes the initiative for making new life possible: It is by grace that you have been saved (Ephesians 2:8). God is the one that brings the fig tree into existence
• God is the one who nurtures the new life that he has given us: he is the one that makes the tree grow (1 Corinthians 3:7)
• But the ultimate proof that the tree is living is its fruit. The alternative is that the tree is dead.
• God’s grace has an expiration date – the moment we expire. The gardener (Jesus?) asks for one more year of grace; he would work with the fruitless tree. But the implication is that that period of grace is NOT forever.
• “Repent” is something that needs to be done daily. The Greek used points to a continuing activity
• We turn from self to God
• We turn from our “default mode” of going back to familiar sinful patterns to Holy Spirit inspired ways of living
• We turn from old, fruitless attitudes to new refreshing ones
• We turn from falseness to the Truth
• We turn from rigid legalism to compassionate graciousness
• We turn from building walls to building bridges

Does God’s kindness lead you to repentance? After all –
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)