part 2 of 2

A Demonstration of
Corporate Repentance; Pentecost

Jesus was disappointed in His appeal to the Jews for a national repentance. Yet there did come in the experience of Pentecost a perfect demonstration of the principle of corporate repentance. At Pentecost the “remnant” who saw their sins as one with the sins of their “fathers” recognized their guilt of the blood of the Son of Cod. Peter charged them all with the same guilt: “Ye have crucified … Christ” (Acts 2:36).

It is hardly likely that the “three thousand” who were converted that day were all personally present at Christ’s trial and shouted “Crucify Him!” or mocked Him as He hung on the cross at Calvary. Peter’s hearers at Pentecost recognized their guilt shared as a nation and as a people, even though they may not have personally taken part in murdering Christ. Repeatedly Peter laid the charge upon the leaders of the Jewish nation: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,. . . even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole” (Acts 4:10). Yet they stubbornly persisted in refusing to recognize their guilt. “Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? … Ye … intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28).

Peter was kind enough to concede that the people and their rulers did what they did “through ignorance;” but nevertheless, the guilt was laid where it belonged: “Ye denied the Holy One;” “ye delivered Him in the presence of Pilate; “ye … desired a murderer to be granted unto you;” “ye … killed the Prince of life” (Acts 3:13-15).
Pentecost was a glorious model and ideal inspiring God’s people for nearly 2000 years. What made those grand results possible? The people accepted the principle of corporate guilt, and frankly confessed their part in the greatest sin of all ages. “When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

The antithesis of Pentecost was the refusal of the Sanhedrin to accept Stephen’s portrayal of corporate guilt through their national history. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:51, 52). This was too much for these men. They “stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him” (verses 57, 58).

A pattern had been worked out. It began with Cain, and extended throughout Israelite history. Generation after generation refused to acknowledge their corporate guilt. Israel earned her unique distinction to demonstrate to the world a tragic example of national impenitence, a solemn warning of the hopeless consequences of denominational pride and stubbornness. A similar ruin must overtake any church who follows her in impenitence.
But in that very hour when Israel sealed her eternal doom by murdering Stephen, a process began to work itself out in honest human nature that would lead to a corporate and national correction of the sin of Israel.

When the “witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul,” they little realized that this young man with a disturbed conscience would soon think through the structuring of a worldwide “body of Christ.” It would eventually exhibit in full and final display the blessings of corporate and national repentance which the Jews tragically refused.

Ezekiel And Corporate Guilt

At this point, a sincere question needs to be considered: does Ezekiel deny the principle of corporate guilt and repentance? He says:

What mean ye, that ye use this proverb, … The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? … Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. . . .

Yet ye say, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all My statutes, and hath done them, he shall ‘surely live. The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:2, 4, 19, 20; cf. Jeremiah 31:29, 30).

Ezekiel discusses a good man who does everything right, but who has a son who does everything wrong. Then he discusses how the wicked man’s son “seeth all his father’s sins … and doeth not such like.” “He shall not die for the iniquity of his father” (verses 14-17). The prophet’s point is that sin and guilt is not communicated genetically.

But Ezekiel surely doesn’t intend to suggest that any “righteous” man is righteous of himself, nor does he intend to deny the Bible truth of justification by faith. Any “righteous” man must be righteous by faith, and apart from Christ he has no righteousness of his own. The “wicked” man is the one who rejects such righteousness by faith. The prophet does not deny that “all have sinned,” and “all the world … become guilty before God” (Romans 3:23, 19). Apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ, therefore, “all the world” is alike “guilty before God.” Ezekiel is not denying the reality of corporate guilt which we all share “in Adam.”

The “son” who saw his “father’s sins” and repented is delivered from the guilt of those sins by virtue of Christ’s righteousness, but he is not intrinsically better than his father. There is a certain sense in which his repentance is a corporate one: he realizes that had he been in his father’s place he could well have been alike guilty. He does not think himself incapable of such sins. He humbly confesses, “There but for the grace of God am I.”
Ellen White offers a challenging insight into the reality of corporate guilt and repentance:

The life we live is to be one of continual repentance and humility. … When we have true humility, we have victory. … The mind is susceptible to divine impressions, and the light of God shines in, enlightening the understanding. . . .

A true sense of repentance before God does not hold us in bondage, causing us to feel like persons in a funeral procession. We are to be cheerful, not sorrowful. But all the time we are to be sorry that after Christ had given His precious life for us, we gave so many years of our life to the powers of darkness. . . .

As we see souls out of Christ, we are to put ourselves in their place, and in their behalf feel repentance before God, resting not until we bring them to repentance. If we do everything we can for them, and yet they do not repent, the sin lies at their own door; but we are still to feel sorrow of heart because of their condition, showing them how to repent, and trying to lead them step by step to Jesus Christ. (MS. 92, 1901; SDA Commentary, Vol. 7, pp. 959, 960).

However faint such a reflection may be, repentance like this in “behalf” of others must be based on Christ’s “repentance … in behalf of the human race” that Ellen White discusses (General Conference Bulletin, 1901, p. 36). It would be impossible for any of us to feel such concern and sorrow “in behalf” of others, had He not felt it first in our “behalf.”

If it is true that “we love because He first loved us,” perhaps we can also say that we repent because He first repented in our “behalf.” He is our Teacher. Let us be His disciples.