Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy make it clear that Jesus Christ experienced repentance. This does not mean that He experienced sin, for never in thought, word, or deed did He yield to temptation. Peter says, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." 1 Peter 2:22. When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, it was because Jesus asked for it, and insisted upon it. If John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance" (Acts 19:4), he must have baptized Jesus with the only baptism he was capable of administering-a baptism signifying on the part of the sinless Candidate an experience of repentance.
But how could Christ experience repentance if He had never sinned? This is a most important question, for multitudes of saints are ready to ask, "How can I repent of sins I have never committed?" We have assumed that only evil people need to repent, or can repent. It is shocking to think that good people can repent, and incomprehensible how a perfect Person could repent.
If Christ was "baptized with the baptism of repentance," it is clear that He did experience it. But the only kind of repentance a sinless person could experience is corporate repentance. Thus, Jesus' repentance is a model and example of what we ourselves should experience.
Jesus' Baptism Unto Repentance
Jesus was genuinely sincere when He asked John to baptize Him. When He answered John's objections at the Jordan, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15), it is unthinkable that He was suggesting that He and John should together act out a play. Play-acting could never "fulfill all righteousness." The essence of righteousness is sincerity and genuineness. Our divine Example could never condone the performance of such a rite without the appropriate experience of heart. For Christ to subject Himself to baptism without an experience appropriate to the deed would have been to give an example of hypocrisy. Shallow formalism or hypocrisy is the last thing Jesus wants from anyone!
It is easy for us to misunderstand Jesus' baptism as merely a "deposit" of merit to be drawn on in a legalistic substitutionary way in certain emergencies when people cannot be baptized for physical reasons, such as the predicament of the thief on the cross. One must be baptized before he can enter Paradise; the poor thief is nailed to a cross and therefore cannot be immersed; Jesus' baptism becomes to him like a credit in the "bank", and the appropriate "deposit" is made to the account of the poor thief. We have supposed that the reason Jesus was baptized was to provide this "credit" balance of merit. The poor thief's "account" is duly credited, and he is promised a place in Paradise.
Whatever elements of truth may lurk in this legalistic concept, the idea leaves us "cold". Most Christians have had the physical opportunity to be immersed in baptism, and have complied. What does Jesus' baptism mean to them? Merely a physical demonstration of the method of baptism? Merely that we have seen the "Teacher" act out the physical deed He asks us to do? Once the truth of corporate repentance is recognized, Jesus' baptism takes on a meaningful significance. Hearts are touched and won by saving truth.
How Close Jesus Came to Us
Jesus indeed asked for baptism because He genuinely and sincerely identified Himself with sinners. He felt how the guilty sinner feels. He put Himself in our place. He put His arms around us and knelt down beside us on the banks of the Jordan, taking our sins upon Himself. His submission to baptism indicates that "the Lord … laid on Him the iniquity of us all" then and there. His baptism becomes an "injection" of healing repentance for sin into the "body" of the church. Peter says that His identity with our sins was deep, not superficial, for "His own self bare our sins in His own body." Peter's choice of words is significant. Christ did not bear our sins as a man carries a bag on his back. In His own "flesh," in His nervous system, He bore the crushing weight of our guilt. So close did He come to us that He felt our sins were His own.
This perfect identity with us began long before Calvary. Ellen G. White offers this perceptive comment on the reality of Christ experiencing a deep heart repentance in our behalf:
After Christ had taken the necessary steps in repentance, conversion, and faith in behalf of the human race, He went to John to be baptized of him in Jordan. (General Conference Bulletin, 1901, page 36.)
John had heard of the sinless character and spotless purity of Christ. … John had also seen that He should be the example for every repenting sinner John could not understand why the only sinless one upon the earth should ask for an ordinance implying guilt, virtually confessing, by the symbol of baptism, pollution to be washed away. . . , Christ came not confessing His own sins; but guilt was imputed to him as sinner's substitute. He came not to repent on His own account; but in behalf of the sinner. ... As their substitute, He takes upon Him their sins, numbering Himself with the transgressors, taking the steps the sinner is required to take; and doing the work the sinner must do. (Review and Herald, January 21, 1873.)
Let us take a second look at the important points in these statements:
1. Though Christ was utterly sinless, He did in His own soul experience repentance.
2. His baptism indicated that He felt in His own sinless heart the burden of guilt that oppresses the heart of the sinner. In other words, He knows exactly how the sinner feels, including "every repenting sinner". In our self-righteousness we cannot feel such sympathy with "every repenting sinner" because only a Perfect Man can experience a perfect and complete repentance such as that.
3. Not in pantomime, but in verity, Jesus took "the steps the sinner is required to take," and did "the work the sinner must do." This implies a reality of identity with us. We cannot in truth "behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" without appreciating how close our Lord has come to us in His human experience. This is why it is so important to "behold" Jesus, to "see" Him. Lukewarm impenitence is due either to not seeing Him clearly revealed, or to rejecting Him. Let us take a closer look at "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," and understand what our sin is that needs to be "taken away," so that it indeed can be taken away.
Why did Jesus, in His ministry, have such phenomenal power to win the hearts of sinners? Because in this pre-baptism experience of "repentance, conversion, and faith in behalf of the human race," Jesus learned to know what was "in man," for "Me needed not that any should testify of man" (John 2:25). Only through such an experience could He learn to speak as "never man spake" (John 7:46). Only thus could He break the spell of the world's enchantment as He would say to whom He would, "Follow me," passing by no human being as worthless, inspiring with hope the "roughest and most unpromising." "To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood." (Ministry of Healing, page 26.) It may be getting ahead of ourselves to take notice of this point right now, but it begins to be apparent that we ourselves will be able to achieve such empathy with sinners only when we have experienced the kind of repentance that Christ experienced in our behalf.
The "How" of Jesus' Power to Reach Hearts
Jesus' perfect compassion for every human soul is, as Son of God, a direct result of His perfect repentance in behalf of every human soul. He becomes the "second Adam," partaking of the "body," becoming one with us, accepting us as His "brethren" without shame, "in all things … made like unto His brethren."
We freely recognize our desperate need of this genuine, deep, unfailing Christ-like love for sinners. We can preach about it for a thousand years, but we will never get it except through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And such faith is a heartfelt appreciation of His character. A union with Christ that goes beyond mere theory is our desperate need.
But trying to come close to Christ without coming close to sinners is impossible, for through union with Christ by faith we become part of the corporate body of humanity in Him. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). Although He did not personally participate in our sin, He became a part of us, bearing the guilt of the human race. It is the purest selfishness to want to appropriate Christ, yet refuse to receive His love for sinners!
In fact, we have infinitely more reason to feel a kinship with sinners than did our sinless Lord, for we ourselves are sinners; but we find that our natural human pride too easily holds us back from the warm empathy that Christ felt for them. How to learn to experience this kinship is our need.
There is no better way to begin than by learning to recognize the truth of our corporate involvement in the sin of the whole world. Although we were not physically present at the events of Calvary two thousand years ago, "in Adam" the whole human race was there. As surely as we are by nature "in Adam," so surely are we in Adam's sin.
How can this be so?
Let any of us be left without redemption to develop to the full the evil latent in his own soul, let him be left to be tempted to the full as others have been tempted, and he will duplicate the sin of others if given enough time and opportunity. None of us dares to say, "1 could never do that!"
If Abraham's great-grandson "yet in the loins" of Abraham "when Melchisedeck met him" paid tithes "in Abraham," it is easy to see how every one of us partakes together of the corporate body of humanity. If Levi paid tithes "in Abraham," so do we, for we are Abraham's spiritual descendants as much as Levi was. (See. Hebrews 7:9, 10).
In the same way, we partake of the corporate sin of humanity in the crucifixion of Christ at Calvary. The sin of sins that underlies all sin, and of which we are all alike guilty in a corporate sense, is the murder of the Son of God.
Repentance Precedes Forgiveness
Many cannot sense how they are in any way responsible for a sin that was committed by other people in another land in another age, nearly two thousand years before they were born. But here is the very heart of the gospel itself: the "good news" tells us that God forgives us that sin. But how can we receive forgiveness for a sin we don't feel guilty of committing? The apostle John tells us that it is only when we confess a sin that we can experience Christ's "faithful" forgiving and cleansing from it (1 John 1:9).
But to confess a sin without sensing its reality is mere lip-service, perilously close to hypocrisy. Skin-deep confession, surface repentance, bring skin-deep love, surface devotion.
Jesus teaches that we must feel we have been "forgiven much" before we can possibly learn to "love much" (see Luke 7:14).
Note how an inspired comment clearly involves us all in the guilt of crucifying Christ:
That prayer of Christ for His enemies embraced the world. It took in every sinner that had lived or should live, from the beginning of the world to the end of time. Upon all rests the guilt of crucifying the Son of God. (Desire of Ages, page 745.)
The world was stirred by the enmity of Satan, and when asked to choose between the Son of God and the criminal Barabbas, they chose a robber rather than Jesus. … Let us all remember that we are still in a world where Jesus, the Son of God, was rejected and crucified, where the guilt of despising Christ and preferring a robber rather than the spotless Lamb of God still rests. Unless we individually repent toward our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the world has rejected, we shall lie under the full condemnation that the action of choosing Barabbas instead of Christ merited. The whole world stands charged today with the deliberate rejection and murder of the Son of God. The word bears record that Jews and Gentiles, kings, governors, ministers, priests, and people-all classes and sects who reveal the same spirit of envy, hatred, prejudice, and unbelief, manifested by those who put to death the Son of God-would act the same part, were the opportunity granted, as did the Jews and people of the time of Christ. They would be partakers of the same spirit that demanded the death of the Son of God. (Testimonies to Ministers, page 38.)
These astounding statements deserve a second look:
1. The guilt of crucifying Christ "still rests" upon the world, even upon "every sinner." Even "ministers" and church members partake of this sin. Apart from the grace of God manifested through repentance, we each share the guilt.
2. Without this grace, "every sinner" would repeat the sin of Christ's murderers if given enough time and opportunity.
3. The sin of Calvary is seen to be an out-cropping of a sub-stratum of sin which men are not aware of except by enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. At Calvary, every man's sin is fully unmasked. We can't "see" it until we "see" Calvary.
4. In a very real sense we were each one at Calvary, not through pre-existence or pre-incarnation, but in the sense of corporate identity "in Adam." If it is true that "upon all rests the guilt of crucifying the Son of God," Adam likewise partakes of that guilt equally with us today. His sin in the Garden of Eden was to Calvary what the acorn is to the oak.
5. The "righteous" in their own eyes, including "ministers" and "priests" of "all … sects," are potentially capable of revealing "the same spirit" as was manifested by those who actually crucified Christ. This statement includes Seventh-day Adventists.
The Acorn Produces the Oak
Every one of us is born with the "carnal mind" which is "enmity against God," and the little acorn of our "carnal mind" needs only enough time to grow into the full oak of the sin of Calvary. But he who has "the mind of Christ" will have the repentance of Christ. Therefore, the closer he comes to Christ, the more he will identify himself with every sinner on earth.
In order for Christ's righteousness to cover our sin, the principle of identity must work both ways; whereas He identifies Himself with every sinner on earth, we must do the same. Until we do, all our claims to be "covered" with the righteousness of Christ are empty and futile. If we would accept the gracious provision that "in Christ shall all be made alive" we must recognize the equal truth that "in Adam all die."
This simple truth found in the New Testament shatters selfesteem and complacency. Once let Paul's truth of corporate identity be recognized, we begin to appreciate something of the guilt of the sins of the world and our smug superiority is melted down to deep contrition and love for "every repenting sinner" on the face of the earth. Immediately we feel in our hearts that we are "debtor both the Greeks, and to the barbarians." The miracle of miracles takes place in our proud lukewarm hearts: we begin to love sinners exactly like Christ loves them.
To make this very practical, how did Christ love sinners? If He were to come into our churches today, we might be scandalized.
He "recognized no distinction of nationality, or rank or creed . . ., His gift of mercy and love … as unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of rain that refresh the earth." He "came to break down every wall or partition." In Christ's example "there is no caste, a religion by which Jew and Gentile, free and bond, are linked in a common brotherhood, equal before God. No question of policy influenced His movements. He made no difference between neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies. … He passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul. … Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellow men, only made Him more conscious of their need of His divine/human sympathy. He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising." (Ministry of Healing, pages 25 and 26.)
This is exactly the kind of practical love that corporate repentance produces in any human heart that will receive the gift. The "injection" of Christ's corporate repentance produces a love that permeates His body, the church. No longer are we hopeless to "reach" the sinner in modern times whose particular evil deeds we do not understand and pride ourselves on not having committed. Corporate repentance enables us to bridge the gap that insulates us from needy souls whom Christ loves, but for whom He can exercise no healing ministry because we as His instruments are "frozen" in our unfeeling impenitence.
Like Christ "who did no sin" but knew repentance, so we can feel a genuine compassion in behalf of others whose sins we may not personally have committed, either for lack of opportunity or for lack of temptation of equal intensity. Forthwith we begin helping them. Our work for them "comes alive," and we find our efforts become effective. Love is freed from the chains of our impenitence and immediately goes to work just like Jesus did. Our experience of repentance has produced a revolutionary change in our feelings toward "every sinner." Of each one we genuinely feel, "There but for the grace of God am I!" Make no mistake about it: he will immediately sense the reality of our identity with him in exactly the same way that sinners sensed the reality of Christ's identity with them.
Why Only a Perfect Person Can Experience a Perfect Repentance
One more thought before we close this chapter. The more nearly perfect a person is, the greater will be his experience of repentance. Only a perfect Being can experience a perfect repentance. This is why only Christ is the perfect Example of corporate repentance.1 Never before in world history and never since has a human being offered to the Father such a perfect offering of repentance in compensation for human sin. Because of His perfect innocence and sinlessness, only Christ could feel perfectly the weight of human guilt.
Ellen G. White has beautifully expressed this truth:
Through Christ was man's only hope of restoration to the favor of God. Man had separated himself at such a distance from God by transgression of His law, that he could not humiliate himself before God proportionate to his grievous sin. The Son of God could fully understand the aggravating sins of the transgressor, and in His sinless character He alone could make an acceptable atonement for man in suffering the agonizing sense of His Father's displeasure. The sorrow and anguish of the Son of God for the sins of the world were proportionate to His divine excellence and purity, as well as to the magnitude of the offense. (Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 283, 284.)
It is no accident, therefore, that only the 144,000 who are "without fault before the throne of God" (Revelation 14:5) will be' able to approach unto Christ's perfect example of corporate repentance, although sinners by nature.
At every advance step in Christian experience our repentance will deepen. It is to those whom the Lord has forgiven, to those whom he acknowledges as His people, that He says, "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight." Ezekiel 36:31. (Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 160, 161.)
Repentance is associated with faith, and is urged in the gospel as essential to salvation. … There is no salvation without repentance. No impenitent sinner can believe with his heart unto righteousness, … As the sinner looks to the law, his guilt is made plain to him, and pressed home to his conscience, and he is condemned. His only comfort and hope is found in looking to the cross of Calvary. (Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 365, 366.)