Jonah 3:10  When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.

This passage is one of the rare times where we read the "God changed his mind" and relented from judgment. We should not assume that the people of Nineveh escaped their fate by virtue of their own deeds of repentance. Our own works cannot save us either. Nor should we assume that God God's judgment was somehow never warranted. God's judgment is our just outcome.

The Ninevites' turning in repentance is itself inspired by faith in the promise of God by which we, too, are delivered. God's change of heart changes the hearts of us all. There is no divine answer to Christ's cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). Here, Christ takes on the just judgment of our sin into death. But God will issue a new judgment in raising Christ from the dead and give to us a new and final verdict of grace. Death can no longer hold us in bondage. That new development is a promising change, indeed! We are regarded by God not by our sins but by the benevolent truth that grace is God's final word!

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