The Goodness of God That Leads to Repentance
By John Weaver
May 1, 2025
I recently asked the question, “What was most influential in your becoming a believer: the fear of hell, or the love of God?” Overwhelmingly, it was the love of God.
Many of us have heard warnings preached and vivid descriptions of hell given from the pulpit, striking terror into our tender hearts, and often leading to the perception of God as a cruel mas-ter who would condemn us for any in-fraction of His numerous rules and ex-pectations.
Many a “conversion” was not much more than a way to escape hell coupled with a dread that we would have a very difficult time trying to make it to heav-en. The road was hard and God was demanding.
Unfortunately, preachers and teachers today still deliver the same message. Street preachers often preach hell. Not surprisingly, they turn many people away from anything to do with God.
How should we present God to a lost and dying world? We should do as Je-sus did. He went out of His way to min-gle with the worst of sinners. He was a friend to sinners. He did not condemn the woman who was caught in adultery. He preached a message of hope to those who thought they could never be good enough. They heard and gladly re-ceived His message.
It was the religious ones who, as Jesus Himself said, “For they bind heavy bur-dens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matt 23:4). Jesus re-served His condemnation for those who were righteous in their own mind and rejected others.
Our message should be a message of hope and encouragement. I tremble at the thought of preachers, then and now, who entirely misrepresent the God who so loved the world that He gave His only son to die so we could be saved. How do you think a God of love feels to be so misrepresented?
Ok, so should we not give warnings? Yes, but what warnings? It is out of character to warn of God’s wrath (which is for the children of disobedi-ence) without first giving a clear mes-sage of God’s love and mercy.
Our message must clearly represent the God of love. Our life must represent the same. I preach about the love of God. I occasionally preach a message on hell to give an honest picture of God’s com-plete fairness. He is just and holy. He has offered to save us from our sins by becoming disciples of Jesus. If we re-ject His offer to make us holy and righteous, He will also reject us.
For years and years, I didn’t understand repentance. I thought that repentance was filled with agony as a person would weep and go through much tur-moil trying to achieve a state that would pass for repentance. Repentance is simply turning around and walking in a different direction, just like the prodi-gal son did. When he did, he was met with a dose of the love of God like he had never seen or heard before. He will meet all of us and welcome us the same way if we come to Him for help.
The real conversion happens when we change from a bad tree to a good one. God will do a complete and thorough job of making us into a new creature. The result is that we start to bear good fruit, whereas before, the fruit was, as they say, here in Honduras, “malo.” It was bad.
First make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Or, if the tree remains corrupt, then, no doubt, the fruit will be corrupt. What many preachers did was to try to force corrupt trees to bear good fruit. It cannot happen. The good fruit can only come from branches firmly attached and connected to the vine… which is Jesus Christ.
Amen!
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