The God of the Second Chance

Jonah 2:4-3:1 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. “ Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.” So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.

Twice this week, I’ve heard on Christian radio references how life-changing Jonah 3:1 has been in so many who struggle with the reality and realization that we have sinned against our just and holy Creator of heaven, Earth and every living thing; Father God. How many go through life never thinking that they are living outside the will of God and no thought of going to heaven or hell? How many do not know that they are falling short of the loving commands, statues and laws of God, the sovereign ruler all, and have set themselves and this god-rejecting society as their standard, never giving a thought to the immediately and eternal consequences of their actions? Sin is missing the mark that God has set for us, but what we don’t realize is that when we miss the Lord’s mark, we hit a different mark. When our eyes are open to who God truly is and the reality of sin against Him in our life, then we see the truth of our standing before God, which we can not remedy or repair on our own. Like Jonah, we see our unrighteousness in our personal short-comings and offenses against our loving LORD and cry out. And he hears our cries.

Romans 3:10-12 “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:19-20 "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

God is always willing to give us a “second chance”. As the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, when we turn from our own sinful ways and, by faith in Jesus, turn their lives to God in repentance, He is faithful and just to forgive all who believe, because He loves us and wishes none to perish in hell, and because He is the God of the second chance.
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." - who paid the price to give us all a second chance. Tell everyone.

In Christ, Brian