Apologetics

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The Case for the Human Ability to Repent and Appeal to God’s Mercy.

Theology is nice for stringing together a number of verses and coming up with a theory as to how God works. One of the litmus tests to be put to such a set of tenants is: Does it have a practical application in what we observe in scripture.

Take these Calvinist tenants:

We cannot please God, therefore there is nothing we can do towards Grace. Only the elect will be given the means to be convicted of sin, turn in repentance, generate belief, and possess faith.

Let’s put this to the practical test as we see the dynamic of faith, conviction, repentance and Grace in the scriptures.

We see in the example of Jonah, where an entire people hear and respond to judgment and appeal to God’s mercy, where, supposedly, those people who are living in evil are unable to give such a response unless they are among the elect and this is granted by God.

Jonah 3:5-9

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

Here also we have an entire city of approx 120,000, none of whom are Israelites, none of whom have the Law, none of whom have Abraham, hardly any and certainly not all could be considered to be “Elect” – we’re talking Sodom and Gomorrah type of dynamic here. Even so, when the message of judgment is put to the population, their reaction is astonishing – they act in repentance, and the only way this repentance can be manifest is through faith. Firstly, they had to have faith that Jehovah existed, secondly, they had to have faith of His sovereignty to perform what he threatened to do, and thirdly, they had to have faith in His prophet speaking for Him, that Jonah was not speaking out of his own madness.

Note that the people respond to the message, then the king’s proclamation is issued; the people are acting in response to the message, not repenting because the king told them to do so. Note also the king’s proclamation, and what a perfect example of contrite repentance it is. Firstly, it is a no-holds barred abandonment of an evil life; secondly, it denotes a physical manifestation of the turning of the heart – sackcloth, fasting, etc; thirdly, it involves a crying out to God with no expectation for obligation; it recognizes that God is just in His sentence, but only a hope remains that God would turn and relent from His just anger.

Certainly, God reacted to what the people did; his Mercy is a direct response to the actions of the people, not a preordained or orchestrated act. There is no mention that God moved upon the people or the king to facilitate their repentance, there is no mention that the Spirit took hold of the population that they should react so, there is only the proclamation of God’s sentence, and the reaction of the people who become convicted, and they do only what they humanly can in the face of Divine Judgment.

And God’s response is Mercy. The important thing here to understand is that the people appeal to God’s mercy, not attempt to obligate God, or appeal to his judgment. Repentance appeals to God’s mercy, not to satisfy his judgment.

Understand also, that appealing to God’s mercy does not equate to “pleasing” God. God extends Mercy not because He is pleased with the act of repentance, but instead because He has been moved to compassion – His judgment is still Just, but for God, being Just is not the all and end all of his Nature – as Jonah admonishes God in his little rant after the fact. He is moved to compassion, and moved towards Grace as a direct result of contrite repentance, though these actions are, by definition, not a pleasing act.

See “Is There Nothing We Can Do For Our Salvation” involving the parable of the Wicked Servant for a more in depth distinction delineating the difference between moving God to compassion and pleasing him.

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