Introduction:
Repentance is a word that is tragically avoided in many Churches today. Scripture itself clearly teaches that if people do not repent then they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God but are destined to go down into the pit of Hades and ultimately into the lake of fire.
Right at the beginning of His public ministry the Messiah our Lord Jesus started to command men and women to repent of perish. Right throughout scripture we see repentance the prerequisite to everything that pertains to entering into the Kingdom of God and experiencing His transforming power through the Holy Spirit.
In God’s Word, whether it was Noah, the preacher of righteousness, the Hebrew prophets, the Lord Jesus Himself or the apostles, they all commanded men and women to repent. In fact repentance must come first before seasons of spiritual refreshing come from the presence of the Triune God in heaven (Acts 3:19).
In the Book of Acts chapter three we read where Peter and John were going up to the Temple and had been used by God to heal a crippled man which had been that way from birth.
The miraculous healing had astonished everyone who was going into the Temple to worship God. Many undoubtedly were not born again including most of the religious leaders as well as the congregation engaged in acts of worship.
Peter the spokesman for himself and John were both quick to give God the glory and then Peter preached the gospel of the kingdom centred in the cross and describing how their rejection of the Messiah our Lord Jesus was due to their betrayal of Him before Pilate. Many undoubtedly would have been in that crowd calling for the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion at His trial.
Peter did not direct them to go to the priests. He did not tell them to go for counselling or to seek to live a better life, or to improve their religious observances and sacrifices, or to give their money. He did not tell them to merit God’s favour through good works or through religious observances, rituals and ceremonies. Peter did not give them a motivational talk or try to whip up some kind of emotional response. Peter was not into “working the crowd.”
Peter did not mince his words but went for “the jugular vein” as it were spiritually speaking. We read what he said…
“Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the LORD, and that He may send Jesus, the Messiah, who has been appointed for you. Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through His holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-21). Many of the scriptural commands concerning the need for repentance and holy living are given in light of the Messiah’s Second Coming.
On the day of Pentecost we read in scripture that those listening to Peter’s message were “cut to the heart” and in their desperation cried out “men and brethren what must we do!” The first response out of Peter’s mouth was to repent, followed by water baptism to witness to their faith in Messiah in order to receive forgiveness of sin, and to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39).
Now in Luke chapter 13:19 the Lord Jesus spoke very clearly to the assembled crowd about the need to repent in order to correct their thinking in this matter, and to further emphasise to them the absolute necessity to repent or perish.
The Greek word He used for “perish” was not speaking about annihilation meaning that when one physically dies they cease to exist. While physical death is the lot of us all should the Lord Jesus not return in our lifetime, there is an afterlife (Isaiah 14: 9-10) (Luke 16:19-31).
When physical death comes all those who have been spiritually reborn from above by the Holy Spirit will go to be with the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:6-9), while others will be incarcerated in Hades to await the Great White Throne judgement at the end of the 1,000 year Millennial Messianic kingdom of the Messiah our Lord Jesus on earth in the age to come (Revelation 20: 11-15).
Now the word “perish” means; “to destroy, to put out of the way entirely, to abolish, to put to an end, to ruin, to render useless, to kill, to declare that one must be put to death and metaphorically, to devote or give over one to eternal misery in hell, to be lost, ruined, or destroyed.”
The word “perish” then not only refers to the physical death of the body, but also to something laid aside and rejected and no longer able to be used for the purpose for which it was intended and created for. It does not imply something that ceases to exist. We are told in the Book of Hebrews that; “Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
Now let’s look at what the Lord Jesus said to the crowd gathered around Him.
(Vs.1-5) “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Apparently there had been some very religious worshippers in Galilee who had gathered together for worship and Pilate had ordered them to be killed and that their blood was to be mixed with the blood of their sacrifices.
We are not told what they had done to be killed, however, the point the Lord Jesus was trying to make was that without repentance one would die, and that after physical death they would experience the afterlife in conscious torment in Hades, something He made clear to the religious Pharisees seeking to kill Him. On one occasion He said to them; “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33).
The word “Hell” or “Hades” He used was the Greek word “Gehenna.” It referred to a valley near Jerusalem that historically was associated with child sacrifices in the Old Testament period. In later years, Gehenna continued to be an unclean place used for burning trash from the city of Jerusalem.
The fire in this rubbish dump was kept continuously burning and never went out. The Lord Jesus used Gehenna as an illustration of Hell or Hades. It was a place of continual burning.
The thinking in the minds of those listening to the Lord Jesus was that these ‘religious’ Galileans must have had done something terrible to experience such a demise in such a brutal manner at the command of Pilate. Surely they thought that their sins were not as bad as those who had died while in the very act of worshipping God.
The Lord Jesus was saying that no matter what those listening to Him thought, He was making it clear that these Galileans who were killed were not worse sinners than other men, as scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that “there is no partiality with God” concerning sin and its eternal consequences for all who refuse to repent and be saved (Romans 2:11-16).
Now to re-emphasise the importance of repentance the Lord Jesus also spoke about those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them all. This was not at the hands of man but caused by the collapse of the tower itself.
Whether one was engaged in worship or going about their daily secular “business as usual” they all needed to repent. The message the Lord Jesus spoke to those listening to Him was that when their lives were ended here on earth that both the unsaved religious and secular people who were unrepentant sinners in need of being saved, would all likewise perish unless they repented .
Now before we look at the next few verses we need to understand the meaning of Biblical repentance. What is repentance?
In the Old Testament repentance was shown by a sincere and passionate emotional response with a willingness to change ones behaviour before God and demonstrated by wearing sackcloth and ashes. It meant to grieve over ones wrongdoing to the point where one with all of their heart wanted to stop doing what they had been doing that was wrong.
There is a story told of a little boy in a Sunday school class whose teachers asked a question; “What does repentance mean?” As the class thought about it that little boy put up his hand and answered the teacher; “sir it means to be so sorry for what you have been doing that you stop doing it!” This answer perfectly fits the Hebrew understanding of repentance.
Isaiah the prophet wrote; “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon”(Isiah 55:6-7).
These two verses reveal what Biblical repentance is…
Firstly; one who wants to repent Biblically must seek the LORD when convicted of sin without any excuses or reservations but desiring to hold nothing back that needs to be confessed, and agreeing with what God says about sin without argument.
Secondly; one who wants to repent Biblically must not only seek the LORD but cry out to Him for mercy and forgiveness when the Holy Spirit is convicting them of sin.
Thirdly; one who wants to repent Biblically must acknowledge his wickedness and be willing to forsake his ungodly lifestyle and his sinful way of thinking.
Fourthly; one who wants to repent Biblically must, having repented, return to the LORD who will have compassion on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.
His willingness to pardon us is more desirable to Him that we are even willing to repent. In heaven when just one ‘sinner’ (as we all are) repents the angels in heaven go “bananas” with joy unspeakable and full of the glory of God!
As we also read what the Messiah our Lord Jesus said; “I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:7). I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
In the New Testament it means “a change of mind” the mind being; “the thoughts, the affections and the will.” One is walking in a certain direction in life and makes a complete turn around and starts to walk in the opposite direction. For one who is unsaved it means changing one’s mind, affections and will from a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting way of life to a Messiah loving, Messiah accepting way of life.
While we must initially repent, be baptised in the name of the Messiah Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and receive the Holy Spirit in order to be saved, there will be times when even after we have been saved we will need to repent during our life down here on earth because we still have our old sinful nature to deal with everyday which constantly fights against the new nature we received when we were born again by the Holy Spirit and had Him come to live in us (Galatians 5:16-18).
Having said this, the proof of Biblical repentance is that what we once did that displeased God, we now want to stop doing it in order to please God. Faith is the key that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). It is a faith that produces obedience to God and to His Word (Romans 1:5 and 16:26).
When we are conscious that we have sinned we need to run to our great High Priest, our Advocate sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and the one who is the appeasing sacrifice for our sins, and who ever lives to intercede for us! (Ecclesiastes 12:14) (1 John 1:9; 2:1-2) (Hebrews 7:24-26) (1 John 2:1-2).
If we have Biblically repented then we will have the spiritual fruit of that repentance in our life. We will not be living any longer the lifestyle of those who are unsaved in the world (2 Corinthians 5:17) (Galatians 5: 22-25).
It is only a godly sorrow wrought by the Holy Spirit that brings about true repentance. As we read; “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (2 Corinthians 7:10a)
The next section of our text clearly relates to the fruit of repentance. Let’s now look at this.
(Vs.6) “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
Now the fig tree can represent the nation of Israel. Through God the Son, when He tabernacled among men God the Father was looking for spiritual fruitfulness in His people. The vineyard was the place where His people would be living and bearing the spiritual fruit that would be the results of true repentance.
We see this in what John the Baptist said to the Pharisees who wanted to be baptised by him, but who in reality were self-righteous and unrepentant; “But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:7-8).
One can have remorse, tears and anguish and guilt over sin committed, as we see in the case of Esau and Judas Iscariot, but it does not always produce repentance in the life unless there is willingness, with God’s help, to change one’s direction in life and to live to please God. Now we are told that the LORD found no “spiritual fruit” on “the fig tree.”
(Vs.7) “And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’
The “vinedresser” is the Holy Spirit and He is constantly working and communicating in prefect harmony with the Messiah our Lord Jesus, “the man” looking for spiritual fruit on the fig tree, God’s people. For three years during His ministry the Lord Jesus had been calling sinners to repent, whether in secular society or within the ‘hallowed’ halls of religious attendees in the Temple.
While He was speaking about Israel as a whole, it was more important that individuals repented personally and believed in the Lord Jesus for salvation. It is the same situation today as it has always been down through history.
Now the fig tree had born no fruit meaning that the people of Israel by and large had rejected the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, saviour and rightful Lord and had no spiritual fruitfulness that God accepted from those who walk by faith in Him.
For example we are told concerning Esau; “See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears” (Hebrews 12:16-17).
We know that the people of Israel by and large rejected the Messiah and their guilt was compounded by calling for His crucifixion at His trial before Pilate and calling down a curse on their own heads and that of their children. As we read; “All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25).
Down through history we have seen the terrible results for Israel of this curse, being added to the curse of the Law in Israel’s long and troubled history even to the present day.
Having said this, it also needs to be firmly and clearly stated that the curse of the Law was broken by the Messiah’s atoning blood as the Passover Lamb who took upon Himself that curse and its consequences, not only for the people of Israel, but for the sins of the whole world.
As it is also written; “The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in the Messiah Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14).
Whenever any Jewish man or woman or young person or a Gentile repents and believes on Him who shed His blood to atone for their sins are justified (acquitted) before God and the power of the curse of sin broken over their lives so that they become brand new spiritual creation in the Messiah (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It also needs to be firmly stated that when any Jewish man or woman of young person comes to repentance and faith in the Messiah as their Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for their sin, they do not cease to be Jewish or to lose their Jewish identity. In fact they understand what it really means to be truly Jewish from God’s perspective.
As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Romans 2:28-29).
It also needs to be said that God has not finished with Israel as a nation and even though the nation is yet to pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, they will be saved out of it as a nation, because God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable (Jeremiah 30:1-7) (Romans 11:25-29).
Now in the parable the man, representing the Messiah, told the vinedresser to cut down the unfruitful fig tree. However, the vinedresser, representing the blessed Holy Spirit, interceded for the people. He knew that God the Father in heaven was not willing that any should perish in their sins, but that all should come to “repentance unto eternal life” (Acts 11:18b), through faith in the atoning work of the Messiah at the cross.
As we also read in scripture; “The LORD is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).
As we also read in scripture; “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:9-10).
It is the Messiah living in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit that will bring us into God’s glorious presence (Colossians 1:27).
The shed blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus was the price paid to redeem men and women from their sins and doomed for judgement in order to deliver them out of this present evil age according to the will of God the Father, whether they are Jew or Gentile.
As we read in scripture; “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Galatians 1:3-4).
As we also read in scripture; “In Him (the Messiah our Lord Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (unmerited, unearned favour)” (Ephesians 1:7).
Now in the parable, continuing to interpret it metaphorically, after the Messiah instructed the Holy Spirit to stop striving with the people of Israel God’s mercy was extended to Israel to give them more time to repent, to seek Him through repentance towards Him, and to exercise faith towards His Son the Messiah (Acts 20:21).
Pentecost was the means by which God’s mercy was to be extended to Israel and to the Gentile nations as well through the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the last great end-time sign that will usher in the end of this present age when the Lord Jesus comes back (Acts 1:8) (Matthew 24:14).
As Rabbi the apostle Paul also writes to the saved Gentiles at Rome who had been spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel; “Remember that at that time you were separate from the Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in the Messiah Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of the Messiah. For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility (between Jew and Gentile)” (Ephesians 2:12-14).
Now when the Lord Jesus spoke to the Holy Spirit about “cutting down the tree” being Israel, the blessed Holy Spirit interceded and asked the Lord Jesus to give the nation an extended time so that they might repent. The request was granted.
(Vs.8-9) “And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
After the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, God gave the nation Israel another 40 years to turn back to Him through repentance and faith in the Messiah for their salvation.
The blessed Holy Spirit would, through the preaching of the apostles and the Body of Messiah, the faithful New Covenant believers corporately, call many to repent and to believe in Him who had shed His blood on their behalf.
While many Jewish people came to faith in the Messiah in the 40 years after the death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, the nation as a whole refused to come to the Messiah our Lord Jesus to be saved because they insisted on clinging to their works based righteousness and their rejection of their Messiah. In 70AD, at the hands of the Roman Empire, Biblical Mosaic Judaism came to an end when the city of Jerusalem was sacked and the temple destroyed.
For almost 2,000 years Israel as a nation did not exist, however in 1948 the nation was reborn in a day (Isaiah 66:7-9). Today not only in Judaism, but within wider Christendom multitudes still need to repent of their sins (a subject in itself).
Repentance is a forgotten word in many pulpits today. Many preachers are no longer preaching about it but are producing sermons and motivational talks that leave men and women in their sins. The Commandments and judgments of God are no longer being proclaimed. Unless unsaved and spiritually backslidden men and women are confronted with the Law of God they will never appreciate the grace of God.
Down through the history of wider Christendom men of God who confronted people with the law of God and commandments of scripture, both within and without the Church, before they gave them the grace of God towards sinners who repent and believe in the Messiah and in His redeeming and cleansing blood, they showed them the Law of God first.
To name a few, you had men like John Wesley, George Whitfield, William Booth and D.L. Moody who were all anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Billy Graham was also a man who confronted men and women with the Law of God before He preached to them the grace of God.
In these last of the last days the great spiritual vinedresser, the blessed Holy Spirit, is seeking to produce a spiritual harvest within Israel, within wider Christendom and in the pagan Gentile world.
However, as we see the final apostasy increasing in frequency and intensity we know that “the axe is being laid to the root” of institutionalised religion and to the institutions of man, as the whole world continues on it’s out of control downward spiral towards impending judgement.
Indeed we are living at a time when the age old command of the Triune God still rings out “Repent or Perish!” This is the command of scripture from Genesis to Revelation and God’s Word will say the same thing tomorrow as it does today.
In light of the this age old command from our Triune God to repent or perish, how can one be saved from the power and penalty of sin and out of this present evil age bound for judgment and the lake of fire?
On the Day of Pentecost when Peter had preached about the salvation found only in the Lord Jesus the great crowd gathered there were “cut to the heart” and with deep conviction many cried out “men and brethren what shall we do?” having been convicted by the Holy Spirit of their neglect and failure to believe in the Messiah our Lord Jesus, Peter told them what they needed to do.
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
Rabbi the apostle Paul also wrote; “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
While the work of the New Birth is a sovereign supernatural work of the Holy Spirit deep down on the inside (John 3:8), scripture tells us the steps an unsaved person can take in order to receive this spiritual transformation.
If you are reading this article and you have never been spiritually reborn from above and had all of your sins forgiven, and have not received eternal life and your only fire escape from hell, here is what you need to do to be saved.
Firstly; you must repent, acknowledging that you have violated God’s commandments and are under the sentence of death and hell, and come to Him confessing your sin of unbelief in the Lord Jesus, and with a willingness to turn from your wicked way of life to one that is pleasing to God.
Secondly; you must be baptised in water by immersion, as a witness to your faith in the Lord Jesus to save you and identifying yourself with the name of the Lord Jesus, in order to receive forgiveness of all your sins.
After the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out in His fullness of power, we find in the New Testament that it does not recognise a new covenant born again believer that has not been baptised by immersion. As the Lord Jesus Himself said; “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
The act of water baptism itself does not save you, however, if you have been saved then you will want to be baptised as an act of obedience to the Lord Jesus. It outwardly declares the death and burial of your old sinful way of life that leads to hell, and a resurrection to a new way of life in the Lord Jesus that leads to heaven (Romans 6:1-7) (2 Corinthians 5:17).
In fact baptism is part of the salvation process and the water symbolizes salvation, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge that one, having received salvation, has a clear conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah (1 Peter 3:21).
Thirdly; you are to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in His fullness of spiritual life and power. The word “receive” means “to reach out and to take hold of by faith of that which has already been poured out.” On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out and made available to everyone who repents and believes in the Lord Jesus, who, in His love for us, shed His blood on the cross as our substitute (John 3:16-18) (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Fourthly; you then need to confess verbally the “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Salvation will be granted if these conditions are met.
When you believe with your heart you will be at that moment acquitted of all your past sins in God’s heavenly Court room (Romans 5:1-10). You will be declared innocent because the price of your sins and the debt owing to God because of them was fully paid for by your substitute the Lord Jesus at the cross.
When you confess your faith in this way you will be saved.
Epilogue:
In closing; there are no degrees of sins, no mortal and venial sins as taught in Roman Catholicism. Sin is all the same to God. There are no little or big sins. All of us by nature are destined for God’s wrath and sinners from birth, and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glorious eternal life God requires to enter heaven (Psalm 51:5) (Ephesians 2:3) (Romans 3:23).
None of us can save ourselves because we are spiritually dead and under the power of sin and death because of our violation of God’s Commandments. There is no spiritual merit in us at all.
As it is written; “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:1-3). See also (Psalm 14:1-3) (Romans 3:10-12).
When you look at all the blood sacrifices, and there were many offered up at the one time associated with Temple Worship, and offered up as described throughout the whole of the Old Testament, it shows us the terrible nature of sin and its consequences and God’s attitude towards it (Habakkuk 1:13).
All of the sacrifices of course pointed to the cross where the pure and spotless “Passover Lamb of God without any spot or blemish” the Messiah our Lord Jesus was sacrificed once and for all time for the sins of the whole world, both Jew and Gentile (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Hebrews 7:27; 9:24-28).
It is only the pure untainted blood of the Messiah that can atone for our sins and cleanse us from them deep down on the inside and purge our conscience from those things we say, think and do that displease God (1 John 1:7-9) (Hebrews 9:14-15), justify us before God, and protect us from the wrath to come (Romans 5:9).
Only on the basis of the shed blood of the Messiah, and by faith in Him to save us, can we receive redemption and the forgiveness of our sins according to the unmerited unearned favour of God exercised towards us (Ephesians 1:7) (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus to save us and through water baptism, signifying a death and burial to a sinful way of life and a resurrection to a new way of eternal life, and by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit accompanied by a verbal confession before others, is the only way to receive Biblical salvation and to be reconciled to God for time and for eternity!
Those who were killed by Pilate the Roman Governor while they were worshipping and their blood mixed with blood of their sacrifices, and those who were killed when the tower fell on them were no worse sinners than those who were listening to what the Lord Jesus was teaching. His emphasis was on the absolute necessity to repent!
The reason the Lord Jesus has not come back is because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and by the new birth through the Holy Spirit produce spiritual fruitfulness for God in their life and for all of eternity (2 Peter 3:9).
Repentance will always bring about spiritual renewal in the life of one who is spiritually backslidden and repents, and eternal life to the one who repents and believes in the Messiah for salvation that they will never regret (Acts 11:18) (2 Corinthians 7:10) (John 10:10).
Having said this, God has fixed a day when He will judge the whole world with justice by the man He has chosen. As we read; “He (God) now commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30b-31).
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus means people will have to give an account to Him for the lives they have lived down here. Some will be raised to eternal life and others to eternal damnation (Daniel 12:1-2). Time is running out! The end of this present age is coming soon! “The axe has already been laid to the root!” “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3a)
Without firstly repenting no one can be saved! The Lord Jesus then made this clear when in light of those who had been killed He said to those listening to Him; “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” In other words He plainly said; “Repent or Perish.”
