Double or Nothing

Luke 3:3-15

Apparently, repentance produces much good. People start being generous with the poor. They stop cheating each other. They become honest in their work. And in all that flurry of good works, they begin to transform society.

It is reported that as a result of the great Welsh revival of a century ago, the prisons were emptied. The Great Awakening and Holiness revivals of the 19th Century led Christians in America to fight slavery, abolish pew fees in churches, promote child labor laws, campaign for temperance in order to fight social injustices, and move toward voting rights for women.

Repentance, according to Luke, is a good thing, for it ushers in the overwhelming goodness of God. We respond to God in faith that He will forgive us. And amazingly that is exactly what happens. We discover that God’s forgiveness is off-the-charts. It is beyond-the-bounds generous.

As I’ve mentioned already, Luke uses the passage in Isaiah 40 to help us understand John’s mission. Remember the opening lines of that chapter? “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, and that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (40:1-2)

John comes preaching a baptism of repentance, Luke writes in 3:3, for the forgiveness of sins. What Luke means is that part of the process of repentance for John is the act of water baptism and this whole process is designed to usher in what God has promised. What has God promised? According to Isaiah, it is that we receive from God double for all our sins.

When we forgive someone, we recognize that some offense has to be paid for – it just can’t be ignored. Psychologists talk about this. You can’t move on until the debt for the wrong has been paid. Somehow things have to be settled between people. One option is the old “eye for an eye.” Another option is straight out forgiveness. In forgiving, we the offended choose to pay what the offender owes us.

When God forgives, He pays double. God is not content just to make it even. Godly forgiveness, according to Isaiah, is paying back twice what was owed.

Thus repentance toward God ushers in a whole new order of things. Which is why in Luke 3:15 the people were so filled with expectation that the promised Messiah was about to be revealed. Change of this magnitude could mean nothing less. In fact, they wondered if John himself might be that Christ.

When we repent and receive God’s forgiveness, our lives are filled to overflowing with God’s goodness. Picture yourself in a situation where you owe a large sum of money, say $100,000 and you have no way to pay it back. Maybe you are about to lose your house. The person you owe the money to, the banker, suddenly says you don’t owe that money any more. In fact, not only is your account wiped clean, but the bank has just given you an extra $100,000. Inconceivable!

That is how God’s forgiveness works. And what that forgiveness does in us is to create that much more anticipation as to what else God can do in our lives. This is what we call faith – the anticipation or expectation of what God will do. Repentance produces that faith, which in turn produces more faith, and so on. A whole cycle of God’s goodness is unleashed in our lives and in the world at large.

Want to start a revolution of change in the world? Repent, be baptized, start doing good things for people, and watch what happens. You just might cause an avalanche of grace.