Does God Change His Mind?
Does God Change His Mind? Barnes leads out in WHEN GOD INTERRUPTS, talking about Jonah not wanting to go to Nineveh. Jonah says to God, ” I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”. Jonah knew that the people in Nineveh were wicked and deserved to be punished.
That is what the whole story of Jesus Christ is about. God changing his mind about our sin having eternal consequences. All we have to do is repent from our sin and believe that Jesus came and paid the price for our sin. As we repent and believe that Jesus died and rose again for us, we have God’s grace. He gives us forgiveness and eternal life. He also walks with us teaching us how to live a life that is worthy of the gift God gave. Of course we will never be worthy but our goal is to model a our life after Christ.
“While Jesus lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored Good, God answered him. Through he was God’s Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do.” (Hebrews 5:5-6 Message)
Amazing, we have a God that is slow with his judgement, giving us a chance to believe in him. He does not want to punish us. He has lots of grace and we only have to be obedient to him. My heart breaks when people don’t believe. And if my heart breaks, I can only imagine the pain that God experiences when people don’t believe. He wants to change his mind.