Paul’s Athenian Sermon and the Question of Repentance

Paul’s words in Acts 17:30 must be read within the flow of his sermon on Mars Hill and within the flow of God’s dispensational dealings with humanity. The key issues are: what “the times of this ignorance” refers to, what “now” refers to, and whether Paul is here preaching the kingdom message or the grace message, or moving from one to the other.

The question assumes that Paul may not yet have received his full mystery revelation, or that he did not yet know the truth expressed in 2 Corinthians 5:19, that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” I do not think that assumption is necessary or accurate. Rather, Paul is addressing a specific audience in a specific rhetorical setting, and he is interrupted before he can say everything that he would normally say.

“The times of this ignorance” and the pre-law era

In Acts 17:30 Paul says, “the times of this ignorance God winked at.” The “ignorance” in view is the time when mankind as a whole was “groping” for God, as he describes earlier in the sermon:

"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us’’ (Acts 17:27).

Here Paul is summarizing the era from Adam to Moses, what is often called the patriarchal dispensation. There was no revealed law-code given to a nation. God did reveal himself at points (e.g., to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), but humanity was largely in a state of ignorance, “happily” (that is, by happenstance) feeling after God.

This is important: the “times of this ignorance” cannot be the Mosaic law period. The law was not an era of ignorance. It was the most defined age of revealed instruction the world had seen: detailed commands, sacrifices, penalties, procedures. One could credibly argue that the law age was the greatest age of knowledge given to that point. So to say “in the law God winked, but now under grace he commands all men to repent” does not fit either the wording or the theology.

It is better to read:

• “the times of this ignorance” = pre-law, patriarchal dispensation;
• “but now” in Paul’s sermon = the time following that ignorance, namely the era of the law and the prophetic call to repentance.

Thus, “but now commandeth all men every where to repent” is describing what God did once the age of ignorance ended, particularly when the clear light of law and prophetic preaching came.

Locating “now” in the flow of the sermon

Paul is in the middle of a speech, not writing a doctrinal treatise. The “now” must be located in his narrative, not imported from our own experience. Many interpreters mistakenly read “but now” as “but now in the present age of grace,” as if Paul were marking the beginning of the body-of-Christ dispensation in Acts 17:30. That creates several problems:

• It portrays the Mosaic law era as “ignorance,” which it emphatically was not.
• It makes repentance in Acts 17:30 a requirement for the present grace gospel in a way that jars with Paul’s revelation that sins are not imputed (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• It risks confusing Paul’s grace message with a kingdom message that centers on repentance in view of a coming judgment according to works.

Instead, follow Paul’s own storyline: from creation, to humanity’s dispersion and limitation (Acts 17:26), to the purpose that all “should seek the Lord” (Acts 17:27), to the “times of this ignorance” that God “winked at,” and then to the commencement of a time when he “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). In that narrative, the “but now” is the post-ignorance era, characterized by clear revelation and the prophetic call to repentance under law, culminating in the kingdom offer.

Is Paul preaching the kingdom message to Greeks?

The question asks, “Why did Paul give the Greeks the kingdom message?” and ties that specifically to the command to repent and the statement about judgment:

"Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead’’ (Acts 17:31).

Paul is certainly warning of judgment according to righteousness. That theme is consistent with kingdom preaching, and with the prophetic line that runs through John the Baptist, Jesus in his earthly ministry, and the early chapters of Acts. However, several points need to be kept in mind:

• Paul is addressing pagan philosophers at the Areopagus, not a synagogue-only gathering. He begins with worldview and creation, not with Abrahamic covenant promises. He insists that there is one Creator God, not many deities, and that idolatry is incompatible with the truth that we are his offspring (Acts 17:28–29).
• His call to repentance is fundamentally a call to abandon idolatry and to recognize the true God and the risen man through whom judgment will come.
• The content is not a full exposition of the kingdom program for Israel; it is a confrontation of Gentile idolatry with the reality of one Creator and coming Judge.

So, is there an overlap with “kingdom message” themes? Yes, in the sense that there is a coming day of judgment, and men everywhere are commanded to repent. But Paul is not here giving a full-orbed kingdom offer to Athens the way Peter addressed Israel in early Acts.

Most significantly, the sermon breaks off when he mentions the resurrection. When he speaks of the resurrection of the dead, some mock and others say, “We will hear thee again of this matter” (Acts 17:32). Luke then says, “So Paul departed from among them” (Acts 17:33). It appears Paul was cut short; he did not have the liberty to carry the message forward to its fullest expression. That strongly suggests we are hearing only one part of what he would normally proclaim.

Did Paul already have his full mystery revelation?

The last two parts of the question ask:

• Did Paul only have part of his revelation at this time?
• Did this take place prior to his learning the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:19?

I answer both in the negative.

• There is no compelling exegetical reason in Acts 17 to assume that Paul possessed only a partial revelation.
• Chronologically, by the time of Acts 17 he is well into his ministry, preaching “the gospel of Christ” and establishing Gentile assemblies. There is no internal marker in Acts 17 that suggests ignorance of the truth that God is not imputing trespasses in the present dispensation.

Our Acts 28 brethren often posit that Paul’s full mystery revelation comes only after Acts 28, and they can use passages like this to argue that he was still preaching a kingdom-oriented message earlier. While this is a logically possible scheme, it requires a very sharp and late division that does not fit the evidence of Paul’s earlier epistles. I do not adopt that framework.

Rather, Paul already knows the content expressed later in 2 Corinthians 5:19. In Athens, he is not ignorant of grace truth; he simply is not finished with his sermon when he is interrupted.

Repentance and non-imputation of sins

The core tension the question raises is this: if God “is not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Corinthians 5:19), why does Paul speak of God “commanding all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30) and of a coming judgment “in righteousness” (Acts 17:31)? Are these incompatible?

Several clarifications help:

1. Different aspects of God’s dealings can be emphasized to different audiences. To idolatrous philosophers, Paul begins with the bare reality of Creator–creature distinction, human accountability, and a future day of judgment. This is an appropriate law-and-judgment emphasis for people who have not yet even acknowledged the one true God.
2. Non-imputation in 2 Corinthians 5:19 describes God’s posture in the ministry of reconciliation. It does not mean there will be no judgment of unbelievers. It means that the present proclamation of reconciliation is not “you are damned for your sins,” but “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” and we therefore “beseech you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
3. Repentance in Acts 17 is especially a call to change mind about God and idols. Paul’s point is that once revelation has been given, continuing in idolatrous ignorance is no longer “winked at.” Men must turn from it. That is perfectly consistent with the later, fuller explanation of reconciliation.

If, however, one forces Acts 17:30 to be a direct and complete statement of the mechanics of the grace gospel, then one quickly runs into contradictions with clear grace-texts. The better approach is to see Acts 17 as an evangelistic sermon, heavily colored by creation, conscience, and coming judgment, which would have pivoted to the grace message had Paul been allowed to continue.

Was Paul interrupted before preaching grace?

Notice the sequence:

1. Paul sets the worldview: one Creator God, not dwelling in temples, not needing human service, giving life and breath to all (Acts 17:24–25).
2. He states the unity of the human race and God’s sovereign ordering of history (Acts 17:26).
3. He articulates the purpose that men should seek God, though they have been groping in ignorance (Acts 17:27).
4. He exposes idolatry as incompatible with being God’s offspring (Acts 17:28–29).
5. He contrasts the “times of this ignorance” with a new phase in which God commands repentance (Acts 17:30).
6. He announces an appointed day of judgment by the Man whom God has raised from the dead (Acts 17:31).

At the mention of the resurrection, the audience reacts:

"And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them’’ (Acts 17:32–33).

Some do cleave to him and believe (Acts 17:34), and it is entirely reasonable to infer that those who later attach themselves to him would hear the fuller exposition of Christ’s work and of grace. But the recorded sermon ends abruptly; Luke does not present a completed “Romans in miniature” here.

Thus, I conclude:

• Paul already possessed his grace revelation, including the truth expressed in 2 Corinthians 5:19.
• In Athens he begins with creation, idolatry, ignorance, and coming judgment, and calls for repentance.
• The “times of this ignorance” are the pre-law patriarchal era; the “but now” relates to the post-ignorance period under law and prophetic light, not specifically “now, the age of grace.”
• The sermon is interrupted at the point where he might have unfolded more of the grace message. The text gives us only part of what he would normally proclaim.

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