Reading Luke Chapter 13 verses 1 to 9

Repent Before It Is Too Late

We have all seen or heard of the devastating Tsunami in the Far East on Boxing Day morning a few years ago. How much has been suffered by so many people! How much destruction and death there has been all around the area struck by those great waves. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like - the sea suddenly rising up and crashing ashore as it did that Sunday morning. Families, friends, whole communities have been swept away and millions made homeless, all they had has been destroyed in a few minutes. What can we say about such events?

The Bible tells us that God is Sovereign in everything. Nothing is outside His control and nothing happens that He has not planned and allowed in His wisdom and power. This is the first thing we must say.

People imagine God to be limited in what He can do - just as they are limited. People like to think that God thinks about things, particularly sinful things, in the same way that they think about them. They minimise sin and say it does not matter. In Psalm 50 God lists a number of offences He had seen and says in Psalm 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. God must judge sin - so is that what we witnessed in the Far East? Was it God's judgement on particularly wicked people? Were the people who suffered there much greater sinners than the rest of us?

A persons' suffering is not always the measure of how sinful they are.

Everyone breaks Gods law. The Bible says ALL have sinned and we read in Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Our way of seeing things is spoiled by sin. Our ability to assess situations is spoiled by sin. Our minds do not function as they ought. We do not, by nature, think properly or understand how things really are. The truth is we are no better than those people who suffered so much and if what happened to them was judgement then we had better watch out because as sinners we deserve judgement too.

Abraham, when he pleaded with God to spare those wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah said, as we read in Genesis 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? God is always right in all that He does. He is never unjust or cruel. It is only through His grace that anyone is spared rather than being destroyed.

Thinking that these people in the Far East were greater sinners than everyone else is a natural sinful human reaction. We like to think other people are worse than we are so we can make out that they deserve judgement and we don't. The Bible gives us an account of people who observed a disaster 2000 years ago and thought the same way. It is a comforting way to think. If the people died under Gods judgement then they must have been greater sinners than everyone else because, if not, then we have to accept that all sinners, including us, might be judged like they were.

The people who observed this disaster asked The Lord Jesus about the situation. They were trying to catch Him out so that they could accuse Him to the Romans but it is His answer that we should take note of. Luke 13:2-3 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The Romans, for whatever reason, had killed some people from Galilee who had come to Jerusalem to worship God. The people talking to Jesus thought that those who had died must have been more wicked than everyone else - and, though they did not say so, the Lord Jesus knew what they were thinking.

The Lord Jesus said they were not more wicked but that they were sinful and had not sought God's forgiveness. He turned the whole incident into a warning. He added his own reminder of some people killed when a tower fell on them as a further example of the danger of failing to repent when the end of life on earth can come so unexpectedly and so suddenly. A person does not have to be a great sinner to perish. One unforgiven sin is enough to bring a person to a lost eternity under Gods' judgement. If we are honest we all know we have all done a lot more than one thing wrong in our lives.

The Lord Jesus' warning is just as much to us now as to the people then.

In God's grace we have something we can learn for our good from the events in the Far East. Gods' word is quite plain. We all need to repent. We need to turn away from everything that breaks Gods' law and ask Him to forgive us for all the times we have offended against Him. To repent is to "about face" and travel in the opposite direction. Our sinful nature finds this impossible - sinful life appeals to us - but without repentance we face Gods judgement. God gives repentance as we read in Acts 5:31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

The Lord Jesus has done all that is needed to deliver sinners from judgement. The Bible speaks over and over about receiving salvation. To receive something it must first be given. God gives Salvation, deliverance from judgement, to all who ask. We all need to realise and admit we are sinful and worthy of Gods judgement. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Lord Jesus died on the cross in the place of all His people. It is because God has punished The Lord Jesus in the place of sinners that He can justly free them from the judgement that they deserve. God is faithful to do this for all who ask because He has promised to do it and He always keeps His word.