Repentance

           Have you ever heard the expression, "Just wait until your Father gets home."  You know what that meant.  For me, it meant that I had done something wrong and when he got home, I was going to get it and that meant some type of punishment from him.   My Mother never wacked me yard stick, but I got a couple of whippings from my Father.   A recent posting of "grace quotes' led me to this section of Scripture in the Book of Acts where Paul was preaching on Mars Hill in Athens.  The Greeks in that area seemed to be conscientious of spiritual things and had erected numerous statues of gods whom they probably worshiped.  The one that caught the eye of the Apostle Paul was the one that was inscribed, "to the unknown god." Perhaps they didn't want to miss any so had erected a monument to the unknown god.  This is the One that Paul was going to present to them.  Acts 17:30-31 says, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:   Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
        Paul's message was that of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The meaning of the word "wink" in this verse is that of "overlooking."  God had not judged them at that moment but had "overlooked" their sin.  Notice, however, that the "overlooking" was not going to continue.  God had commanded them to repent of their sin because a day had already been  appointed when judgment will occur.  We don't know when that day will occur but we can be assured that every day that passes puts us one day closer to the impending judgment.  We may look at the message of Mars Hill and conclude that God is still overlooking sin since nothing has happened that we can determine and so we think we are getting away with all of it.  That is not the case.  The appointed day is approaching.  What then, are we to do?  The obvious thing is to take heed to what Paul said in Athens.  We are to repent of our sin.  After all, it was our sin that caused our Savior to die on the cross.  We often think that it was the sin of the whole world and by thinking of it in a broad sense, we escape the personal side of the statement.  It is true that Christ died for all of the sins of the whole world but more explicitly, He died for my sins and for your sins.  Then, it becomes personal.  Our disobedience to God caused Him to send His Son according to John 3:16 to die on Calvary and to suffer and pay the price that was demanded.  Victory came three days later and we rejoice in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Have you repented of your sins?  Praise God that He sent His Son to pay for our sins.