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Repentance to Be Followed by Change of Character, December
19
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his
ways,” says the Lord God. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions,
so that iniquity will not be your ruin.”
Ezekiel 18:30
, NKJV.
The learned Nicodemus had read these pointed prophecies [e.g.,
Psalm 51:10-
13
;
Ezekiel 36:26, 27
] with a clouded mind, but now he began to comprehend their
true meaning, and to understand that even a man as just and honorable as himself
must experience a new birth through Jesus Christ, as the only condition upon which
he could be saved and secure an entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus spoke
positively that unless a person is born again he or she cannot discern the kingdom
which Christ came upon earth to set up. Rigid precision in obeying the law would
entitle no one to enter the kingdom of heaven.
There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of
God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God
fits mortals for the glorious kingdom of heaven. No human invention can ever find
a remedy for the sinning soul. Only by repentance and humiliation, a submission
to the divine requirements, can the work of grace be performed. Iniquity is so
offensive in the sight of God, whom the sinner has so long insulted and wronged,
that a repentance commensurate with the character of the sins committed often
produces an agony of spirit hard to bear.
Nothing less than a practical acceptance and application of divine truth opens
the kingdom of God to human beings. Only a pure and lowly heart, obedient and
loving, firm in the faith and service of the Most High, can enter there. Jesus also
declares that as “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life.”
The serpent in the wilderness was lifted up on a pole before the people, that all
who had been stung unto death by the fiery serpent might look upon this brazen
serpent, a symbol of Christ, and be instantly healed. But they must look in faith,
or it would be of no avail. Just so must people today look upon the Son of man as
their Savior unto eternal life. The human race had separated itself from God by sin.
Christ brought His divinity to earth, veiled by humanity, in order to rescue the race
from its lost condition. Human nature is vile, and the character must be changed
before it can harmonize with the pure and holy in God’s immortal kingdom. This
transformation is the new birth.—
The Signs of the Times, November 15, 1883
.
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