Someone once said: “The preacher came to call the other day. He said at my age I should be thinking about the hereafter. I told him, ‘Oh, I do all the time. No matter where I am – in the parlor, upstairs, in the kitchen, or down in the basement – I ask myself “What am I here after?”’”
It had been 400 years since the prophet Malachi spoke of a prophet coming in the spirit of Elijah. “Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” [4:5-6 HCSB]
In those 400 years God had been silent. It had been a long time since the people of Israel had been prompted to think about the “hereafter.” Then as Luke tells us “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (and a bunch of other rulers), “God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” [Luke 3:2-3 HCSB]
God was no longer silent. His word was coming through a fiery prophet, John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. John was reminding people of the “hereafter” and their need of repentance for sins. He was, as Isaiah prophesied, a voice crying out in the wilderness, preparing the way for the LORD so that everyone would see the salvation of God. [Isaiah 40]
We know John’s message was incomplete. He acknowledged that he was not the Messiah to come. He conceded that he baptized using water and that the One to come would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. He also probably had no idea that Jesus, the Messiah, would have to die on a cross and be rejected by the religious leaders in order to secure the forgiveness for the repentance he proclaimed.
One thing I always note though, no matter how incomplete John’s understanding of repentance was, as he spoke of repentance he also tied repentance to a change of behavior. The people who flocked to him in the wilderness asked him what they had to do, he told them that a change of behavior was associated with their repentance.
Repentance is so much more than “feeling remorse” for something we have done or failed to do. True repentance that seeks the forgiveness God offers through Christ must always be accompanied by a change of heart and a change of behavior.
