221. God Repents of Evil
Jeremiah 26:13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
A conditional promise: if you amend your ways and your doings and obey the Lord, then the Lord will repent of the evil He pronounced against you. If you repent the Lord will repent. Our repentance is not the cause of God changing His mind. Rather, the Lord is able to change His mind from the judgment, which He always wanted to do anyway, because you are open to receiving the forgiveness of sins and The dispensing of judgment. Repentance and faith receives the forgiveness of sins and the change of heart.
Amending our ways and doings is simply turning to God for mercy and goodness instead of turning away from God. When we are turned away, or turned toward other gods and things, we make ourselves unavailable for the goodness of God. Amending is trusting in the Lord alone for everything. We are willing to let God be God and know that He is good. Amending our ways is sincere repentance and simple faith in the Gospel.
When God looks at us without Christ in us, or without faith in Jesus, He can see only sin, and sin always deserves judgment, a pronounced evil. It is “pronounced” in that it wasn’t that we didn’t know about the consequences of sin. God said that bad things happen because of sin, and we know it. But when God looks at us in Christ, or with faith in Jesus, He can see only righteousness and sinless perfection; He sees Christ on the cross dying for our sins; He sees the resurrected life of Christ living in us by faith.
Turn to Jesus and the Empty Tomb and the Lord will have mercy instead of judgment, good instead of evil. He gives righteousness in place of sin. Christ’s death causes God to change His mind from evil pronounced to mercy granted. Amending our ways is believing in Jesus and having eternal life.