I was reading John PIper’s sermon, Unless You Repent You Will All Likewise Perish. It is an exposition of Jesus’ words in Luke 13:1-5 to those who questioned Him regarding the death of some Galileans whom Pilate killed.
The people don’t say it, but Jesus hears it in their voices—these slain Galileeans must have done something horrible for God to allow something so horrible to happen to them. In other words extraordinary tragedy must signify extraordinary guilt…. What Jesus said was this. He said, “No, their sin was not extraordinarily horrible. It was ordinarily horrible, just like yours. And if you don’t repent, you too will experience a horrible end, all of you.” In other words, instead of saying that they are no more sinful than we are and being amazed at their death, he says that we are just as sinful as they are and should get ready to die like they did.
What Jesus teaches then is that all of us are extremely sinful. We are so sinful that calamities and disasters should not shock us as though something unwarranted were coming upon innocent human beings. There are no innocent human beings. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). There is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10). And what should amaze us in our sin is not that some are taken in calamity, but that we are spared and given another day to repent. The really amazing thing in this universe is not that guilty sinners perish, but that God is so slow to anger that you and I can sit here this morning and have one more chance to repent.
My heart goes out to the righteous and the unrighteous in New Orleans. God is not blind and we have a dramatization before our eyes of what is coming upon us all if we don’t repent of trading God’s glory for things we prefer. Let us do what we can to help, and let us tremble before a God who is so merciful as to allow us to load up this web page, breathe the air, and look forward to our next meal without being consumed in His anger.
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