Acts 17:30

AN UNIVERSAL COMMAND

‘And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.’

Acts 17:30

The time of ignorance, during which there had been merciful Divine forbearance, had come to an end. There was much that was startling to an Athenian audience in the Apostle’s representation of their past condition as one of ignorance. Were they not the wisest and most cultured of mankind? Yet in that chosen seat of human learning ignorance on the highest subjects, and of the grossest kind, had for ages darkened the mind of man. With St. Paul’s preaching ignorance passed away. Forbearance, so long exercised, could no longer be claimed. With the passing of the darkness God required that life with them should take a new and better shape. A time of light and grace had visited them, in which, and because of which, God demanded of them repentance. Let us remember that repentance is the instant and universal duty of man under the Gospel.

I. The Gospel furnishes the highest reason and motive to repentance.—It is the crowning revelation of God, the supreme manifestation of the Divine love, the strongest expression of the Divine mind concerning sin.

II. The Gospel allows no exemption from the duty of repentance.—It makes the same demand upon all men, everywhere—at Jerusalem, at Antioch, and now at Athens. The ancestry and privileges of the Jew, the learning of the Greek, the natural virtues of the barbarian could not render repentance unnecessary.

III. The Gospel grants no delay for the duty of repentance.—God has done so much for man, stooped to such unspeakable depths of mercy and compassion in the Gospel, that He allows no further trifling and delay.

Illustration

‘Grieve not so much that sin

Hath found a stealthy passage to thy heart,

As now rejoice that Penitence hath tracked

Its subtle footsteps there.’