Except Ye Repent: A Meditation on Luke 13, for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

And Jesus answering said unto them,

Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the

Galileans, because they suffered such things?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam

fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above

all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent,

ye shall all likewise perish.

He spake also this parable;

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard;

and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard,

Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree,

and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?

And he answering said unto him,

Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it,

and dung it:  and if it bear fruit, well:

and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Nearly 500 years after inheriting a Reformation theology (often boiled down to the phrase Justification by Grace through Faith in Christ Alone,) it is important to remember just what kind of faith the Reformers preached from the Scriptures.  What Luther and his companions preached and taught as saving faith (a faith which received the grace of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and thereby justified the sinner before a pure and holy God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ) was in harmony with the whole of Scripture, including this teaching from Jesus in Luke 13.

The idea of a faith which was nothing more than intellectual assent to theological or historical points, and which did not work itself out in the life of the Christian in real and tangible ways, was just as condemned by Luther as it was by Roman Catholics, the epistles of St. Paul and St. James, and the very mouth of Christ Himself.  Remember that Luther, as he built his catechisms for the education of pastors and families, began it with a remembrance and explanation of the Ten Commandments, calling all people to repentance from evil and into good works of love and duty toward the neighbor.  Luther was keenly aware, as were the Fathers and Doctors of the Church from antiquity, that a faith which justified the sinner before a holy God through Jesus Christ, is a faith which by the power of the Holy Spirit turns from evil toward the good; i.e., a faith which lives in repentance, and cannot be divided from it.  Any pretence of faith apart from repentance was rightly considered a farce that would save no one, anymore than it would save the fig tree in the parable above.

The great question on repentance that emerged in the Reformation was not the necessity of repentance to accompany saving faith, but how and to what effect repentance was exercised.  Was a person to practice repentance so as to achieve and grow their faith, or would faith as a gift from God lead and empower a person to authentic repentance?  While it may sound like a finely nuanced question without significance, the way it is answered can have a dramatic impact on the heart of a person.  If one were to think that the only way they could receive a saving faith (and/or saving grace) is to work harder in repentance to achieve it, they would quickly realize that their own resources were far too weak for the task.  As fallen human beings, all people are constantly inclined toward evil, with every waking moment drawn toward pride, avarice, lust, covetousness, idolatry, hatred, murder, and every other vile pursuit under the sun.  The fallen nature simply isn’t capable of working true repentance, because at root the fallen nature trusts neither God nor His Word.  Our fallen nature might be able to do pious looking things, make prayers and sacrifices, or even do heroics which seem righteous in the civic realm.  On its own, however, the fallen nature cannot cure the deep root of its own sin:  the deadly poison which is so entangled in both body and soul that no remedy of man can extract it.  To surmise that one can achieve saving faith and grace through one’s own works of repentance is nothing less than to conclude that man can ascend unto God of his own free will, disdaining the Cross of Christ as unnecessary or extraneous.

So it must be concluded that saving faith which receives saving grace, must itself be a gift from above just as St. Paul teaches—and that such saving faith will bring forth as a gift the repentance which attends it.  How does God give such great and wonderful gifts to mankind?  St. Paul shows us this, too, when he declares emphatically that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  It is what descended into the first darkness of empty chaos to bring light and life to the cosmos, and is that which continues to descend into the darkness of fallen human hearts to breathe light and life into the saints.  His Word comes to us as Law which shows us the clear delineation between good and evil, and as Gospel which declares us forgiven of our evil for Christ’s sake.  The Law which shows us our sin and calls us to holiness brings us to despair of our own ability to save ourselves, and yet the Gospel heals our despairing heart with the love and mercy of Jesus who takes upon Himself our justice so that He might give to us His grace.  Thus it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which raises up sinners who are dead in their trespasses and sins, and lends to the Law a new light; a light by which the Christian may walk in love by faith as the Holy Spirit empowers them to trust and live in the Word of God.

As you read the words of Christ anew this Lent, let their Law and Gospel wash over you once again.  Hear the Lord your God speak the truth that without repentance, like all other unrepentant sinners before and after you, there is no end for you except death and hell.  Yet in the righteous terror of that Law hear also the Gospel which declares you righteous and forgiven for Christ’s sake, and by the power of the Holy Spirit put your living trust and faith in that Word unto everlasting life.  There raised up unto a new life you’ll be given a new nature which can hear God’s Word and abide in it by faith, resisting all the temptations of the evil one and working toward the pure love of God and neighbor.  And if you yield to your fallen nature and thereby fall again into deadly sin, hear the Law and Gospel once more, so that you may be converted back unto the path of life.

Just as there is no saving faith apart from true repentance, so there is no saving faith which rests comfortably in unrepentant sin.  But the remedy is always close at hand for us all, which is the Word of Christ constantly calling us to receive His free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation—a gift which always accompanies His gifts of faith and repentance.  Hear Him calling to you today.  Repent and believe the Gospel.  Amen.