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Bible Repentance: Path to Love - Robert J. Wieland

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them <strong>to</strong> repentance. If we do everything we can for<br />

them, and yet they do not repent, the sin lies at<br />

their own door; but we are still <strong>to</strong> feel sorrow of<br />

heart because of their condition, showing them<br />

how <strong>to</strong> repent, and trying <strong>to</strong> lead them step by step<br />

<strong>to</strong> Jesus Christ. (MS. 92, 1901; SDA Commentary,<br />

Vol. 7, pp. 959, 960).<br />

However faint such a reflection may be,<br />

repentance like this in “behalf” of others must be<br />

based on Christ’s “repentance … in behalf of the<br />

human race” that Ellen White discusses (General<br />

Conference Bulletin, 1901, p. 36). It would be<br />

impossible for any of us <strong>to</strong> feel such concern and<br />

sorrow “in behalf” of others, had He not felt it first<br />

in our “behalf.”<br />

If it is true that “we love because He first loved<br />

us,” perhaps we can also say that we repent<br />

because He first repented in our “behalf.” He is our<br />

Teacher. Let us be His disciples.<br />

103

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