Have you ever noticed that
when our Lord began preaching the Gospel, the first word He said was
"Repent." [Footnote: St. Matt. iv. 17.] Why did He call to the crowds so
earnestly to repent? Again and again that word keeps ringing out. He
wanted to make them see that He condemned the way they were living and
their religious professions. It was a call to stop and think, as if He
said to them, "You have lost your way, you are on the wrong road, stop and
turn round."
First He points to the right road. He proclaims that the Kingdom of God is
come. Then He says to them, But before you can enter in you must repent.
The people recognised the meaning of the call; they knew that if they
obeyed the whole course of their lives would have to be changed, because
having lost the true centre of life, they were simply _drifting_. The man
who is living without God is like a ship drifting on the wide ocean
without a pilot or chart or compass. For three years He pleaded with them
tenderly and lovingly, and at last they gave their final answer to His
message. They said, "We will not submit to the Divine government, we will
not have this Man to reign over us," [Footnote: St. Luke xix. 14.] _and so
they crucified Him_.
When we have been led by the Holy Spirit to repentance we see sin, and we
see ourselves in a new light. As soon as we really know God we cannot help
being sorry for our sin. We begin to long for a Saviour, a Mediator, and
it is then that the Holy Spirit points us to Jesus.
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