A Hindu said to a native missionary, “I am sure if I lead a good life and do what is right, giving up my bad habits, God will be pleased with me and receive me into heaven.” “That is the way most people reason today,” replied the missionary. “You know the babul tree (a tree with long, sharp thorns). Now, suppose you break off from its branches a hundred or more of the nasty thorns, then will the tree cease to be a babool tree?” “Certainly not.” “Suppose you should apparently stop one or another or even many of your evil ways and habits, you would still remain the same like the babool tree. You must have an entirely new nature, must become a new man, in order to please God. Only Christ can give you a new heart.” The missionary’s reply was sound and scriptural. The message of Christ, His first and only message to sinful man, is his need of repentance.
True obedience only comes when we have the right motivation toward God and that is only going to happen when we have repented of our sins. This is true for the believer as well as for the person seeking to be saved. One man has described repentance as being man siding with God against himself.
Francis Fuller very wisely said, “To repent is to accuse and condemn ourselves; to charge upon ourselves the desert of hell; to take part with God against ourselves, and to justify Him in all that He does against us; to be ashamed and confounded for our sins; to have them ever in our eyes and at all times upon our hearts that we may be in daily sorrow for them; to part with our right hands and eyes, that is, with those pleasurable sins which have been as dear to us as our lives, so as never to have more to do with them, and to hate them, so as to destroy them as things which by nature we are wholly disinclined to. For we naturally love and think well of ourselves, hide our deformities, lessen and excuse our faults, indulge ourselves in the things that please us, are mad upon our lusts, and follow them, though to our own destruction.”
When John the Baptist first preached, he announced that the Israelites needed to repent. Turn away from their sins and not repeat them. Look at Matthew 21 again:
Mat 21:28-32 But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. (29) He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. (30) And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. (31) Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. (32) For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
The “worst” sinners – the publicans (tax collectors) and the harlots believed what John taught and repented. The “best” sinners – the Pharisees – did not listen to John and did not listen to Jesus Christ. They felt they were following God, but they were doing it with their own rules and ways. Therefore they were not obedient to God.
It is like a major league baseball game: A batter hits the ball but instead of running to first base like he is told, he runs to third base. That man may even run so fast that he beats the throw to third, but is he going to be allowed to stay at third base? No, because he did not follow the rules set forth by major league baseball. That man will be declared out, because he was not obedient to the rule book. He may have a perfectly clean uniform, he may have run nice and straight, and he may have even run carefully around any ants that were in the base path, but he was not obedient to the rules.
The only proper reason to obey God’s commandments is because we love Him. Any other reason is invalid. Jesus Christ said: If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15