True or false repentance?
Ξ January 28th, 2008 | → | ∇ Doctrine, Christian Living |
In a day in which the idea of accepting Jesus into your heart has gained so much momentum, and in which we have lost a clear conception of sin, it is thrilling to find that we have been left an account of what it really means to repent. The problem is, repentance has even lost its place of prominence that the gospel gives it :
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 3:1-2
But when he {John the Baptist} saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Matthew 3:7-8
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 4:16-17
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:14-15
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 9:13
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee.
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
John 8:10-11
If you still don’t believe that the gospel involves, as a chief element, repentance, then you will not believe by seeing more scripture cited. But as a further insight into understanding the aim of the gospel, look at what we are told (in no less than 3 gospels) about WHO the gospel was preached to:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:18
The poor have nothing to give. The poor have nothing of their own. The poor are very needy. Those that are rich don’t need. Those that are rich provide for themselves. Those that are rich tend to trust in themselves and their riches. Jesus’ message would not be received by the rich because they “have need of nothing” and the cost would be far too great for them. But for those with nothing worth holding onto, for those who were willing to give up their very lives to receive life, they would find that which few would find - eternal life. The gospel is something which brings down a man. It doesn’t lift him up. It brings down all his pride and requires him to be nothing. It requires him to lose all that he has gained in this life. The poor are eager to receive it because they don’t have much to lose. So for the poor in spirit, this message is incredible. It is life. For the proud and those that trust in themselves - though it is far better than what they have, they reject the gospel because it seems too costly.
Repentance. It is absolutely essential. Yet where do we hear of it today? We hear that Christ’s blood covers us. We hear about remission of sins. We hear that we are reckoned righteous because God sees Christ when He looks at us. We hear about all these TRUE things, but what is rarely pointed out is that for a man to be truly in that position before God, he first needs to repent. And that means that three things must happen :
1. His heart must be turned from sin.
2. His head and eyes must be turned from sin.
3. His actions must be turned from sin.
The heart involves the affections. If our affections are sinful (even if we aren’t actually doing anything) then we, like Lot, will pitch our tent towards Sodom. That means that while we aren’t looking at, thinking explicitly about or actually doing something sinful, our hearts are yearning towards the sinful thing. This state MAY result in the sinful desire being “worn down”, but it isn’t the full thing. It is never wrong to stifle sinful desires in our mind or actions, but we need, for full and effectual repentance, for the heart to turn to the Lord. Without the fear of the Lord, this rarely happens. As we will see, that is one of the fruits of true repentance.
The eyes and the mind involve our willful intents. We are told that the eyes are the light of the body and that if it is single, the whole body is single. So if we spend our days watching things that seem innocuous but include depictions of things the Lord calls sin, then we are not pure. We are affecting ourselves spiritually, and certainly not repenting. We haven’t turned from sin but are - even if only passively - participating in it.
The body involves the actions. This is the most obvious level. And, while it is important for the body to refrain from sin, that doesn’t remove the sin. Lust is one example. We can lust with the eyes and heart and not with the body and we are still just as guilty of adultery in God’s eyes as if we had gone out and actually done it.
Without these 3 aspects of repentance, it is incomplete. But, as we have noted, without God, there is no way to change one’s heart. So, it should be of some note that God, in Jesus Christ, tells us to forsake our sins. To flee anything that causes us to sin. To repent zealously.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 3:18-19
There is clear indication, now, that Christ’s rebuke and His command to repent comes with the work of the Holy Spirit to convict deeply. To convince us of our need. After all, that is what one of the stated offices of the Holy Spirit is:
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
John 16:7-11
So far, we haven’t talked about asking Jesus into one’s heart. We haven’t talked about any inherent need for Christ (though it is there) and we haven’t talked about what one wants. The ground of all this is much deeper than one’s desires. This transaction takes place on a very fundamental ground that supercedes the flesh. It is the basic ground of transaction. If that ground is taken up with tending to the flesh, we die. If taken up with heeding the Spirit of God and living according to that Spirit, then we live. So it should start to become apparent that true repentance doesn’t come because one is asked to invite Jesus into one’s heart, but rather it is done by the work of the Holy Spirit in the words of one who seeks to shed light on the heart of the hearer.
We have examples of this approach. We can see how, first of all, Peter speaks to many without making an altar call, but rather speaking to the hearts of the hearers and letting the Holy Spirit do His work on the unseen man. It is of note that they have just healed the man born lame. His response to their healing was one of praising God and shouting. And in the wake of that glory, the opportunity for the Spirit to move on many is opened up. But also, note that the miracle did not produce faith in those that saw - it merely ministered an entrance for the apostles to testify to the Work of God in the prophets and leading to the ministry of Jesus Christ:
And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these day
Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
Acts 3:11-26
There may be no formula, but there is something common to every EFFECTUAL call of the gospel : REPENT. And how can a man repent unless he is first CONVICTED? Peter is not shy in laying at the feet of these Jews a charge which few today would level at anyone without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He straight out calls them murderers of the Lord! He is unashamed in preaching the unvarnished truth! He doesn’t try to sugar coat it, but rather lets the full force of the truth have its way in the hearts of those that will hear. He doesn’t say “Accept Jesus”, but rather says first REPENT and THEN, says AS A RESULT, their sins may be blotted out. But, again, he says it twice. He is clear that without full repentance (after hearing the full weight of the guilt that is upon them), there will be no “blotting out” of their sins or being turned away from one’s iniquities. THEN comes the “times of refreshing” from heaven.
While it is true that Peter shows the mercy of God by declaring that while they murdered the Christ, they did so ignorantly and the Lord has offered them another chance to turn. But, as will be seen, once Stephen does the same thing (again) in the temple, the message of the gospel goes to the Gentiles. The Kingdom is being wrested from the grasp of Israel and being given to a nation “bearing the fruits thereof”.
That brings up another point. Repentance is not just a legal maneuver to make one LOOK sinless, but rather it is a way whereby one enters into righteousness and all his past sins come under the blood of Christ. While that one may fall again, to continue in sin without repentance is presumption upon the blood of Christ, to use grace as a license to sin, and to risk counting the blood of Christ an unholy thing. The Lord commanded EVERYONE EVERYWHERE to repent. And what is looked for? Fruit. If we truly repent, we are given POWER to become the Sons of God. But if we don’t, we flounder in impotence and walk in our own power and according to our own lusts. Who knows how long the Lord will tolerate such a situation? Let us not test the Lord, but, while it is called today, let us everyone of us exhort each other to steadfastness in resisting sin, lest any of us be hardened by its deceitfulness (Hebrews 3:13). For, as the verse just prior to that says, it is possible for one to DEPART from the living God (that is, implying clearly that one was originally WITH the Living God) by an evil heart of unbelief. For if one under Moses’ Law died without mercy under 2 or 3 witnesses, how much WORSE will be the punishment who tramples under foot the blood of the Son of God by doing despite to the Spirit of Grace? It is indeed a Fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God. So, while there is a legal “reckoning” of past sins, we are not to use that as an excuse for sin now - for the Lord looks for fruit. And a bad tree cannot forth good fruit. Neither can a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit. So if we ARE in Christ, there will be a tangible change. And it begins with REPENTANCE. TRUE REPENTANCE.
Look again at Peter’s speech. The reaction was mixed - but none were neutral:
And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Acts 4:1-4
So Peter is detained for his speech. But while many are angry with him, at the same time 5,000 join the church. Without an altar call, 5,000 people receive the Lord Jesus Christ!
And even beyond that, the elders and religious leaders question Peter and John and eventually find nothing that they can be charged with. All they tell them is to not preach in Jesus’ name. But both Peter and John are unflinching. Without challenging the authority of the leaders, they simply declare that they have to obey God - not them. The result is yet further overflow as the church has all things in common. Beyond that, the situation with Ananias and Sapphirah leads to yet more church growth (see my blog on “The Fear of the Lord”)! One word bears great fruit. And it has nothing to do with man’s desires or seeking man’s will. It is founded on repentance and the uncompromising Word of Truth.
To wind things up, let us look at what repentance looks like in the church. We have already seed that Jesus commands His own people to “be zealous and repent”. We, today, are conditioned to think that repentance results in a weak, airy-fairy, cloud-9 type feeling that may or may not result in practical change in the life of the repentant one. But are we being deceived? Are we deceiving ourselves? The boldness of the apostles should make us wonder. We should question if we are going after our own bellies (desires and feelings) or if we are seeing the real thing?
Simply put, we don’t have to wonder. Paul has left us with what is a clear demonstration of the work of repentance in the life of the truly repentant one. For that, we need to look at his second letter to the Church at Corinth. Paul is speaking to the church with a view to seeing them purged of the filthiness of the flesh. They have come to Christ, but there are still very fleshly things in their midst. It is not a pretty sight and the church is not maturing. But there are signs of some life. So Paul commands them to cleanse themselves from ALL filthiness of the flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord (2 Corinthians 7:1). Paul has clearly had to chastise the Corinthians prior to this letter and he knows it has caused sorrow. But his joy is that the sorrow has not caused death. For it is and was a GODLY SORROW. This is what he tells the Corinthians :
Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.
2 Corinthians 7:9-12
The first thing to note is that sorrow can be either of a Godly sort or a worldly sort. Worldly sorrow kills. Godly sorrow pierces and brings repentance and life. Worldly sorrow is self-condemning to no end and to no fruit. It just destroys. Godly sorrow comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. Worldly sorrow comes from the work of our own flesh. The two are worlds apart. So when Jesus says “Blessed are they who mourn…” He is speaking of those who mourn according to the Spirit of God - not according to the deathly mourning of the flesh.
And what is the result of this Godly sorrow? Salvation! Life! Nothing to be repented of! It is an entirely foreign thing to the natural man. And what is the nature of the life produced? Not, as we have said before, some “good feeling” or merely having the weight lifted off one’s shoulders (though this is certainly a part of repentance and forgiveness) - but something that we don’t see much of in the church:
Carefulness - a resulting care for the state of one’s own soul. A desire to avoid all sin and to keep free from the corrupting influence of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Clearing of yourselves - we do see this quite a bit. We see consciences cleared of the stain of guilt and the weight of the sin upon one’s shoulders. BUT…LET US BE CAREFUL THAT THIS IS NOT WHAT WE ARE OUT TO RID OURSELVES OF. WE MUST SORROW AFTER A GODLY MANNER WHICH MEANS WE MUST BE PRIMARILY CONCERNED THAT WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST GOD. NOT MAINLY BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT TO BE PUNISHED. NOT MAINLY BECAUSE WE DON’T LIKE THE FEELING OF BEING UNDER GUILT BUT MAINLY AND PRIMARILY BECAUSE WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE GOD WE SERVE AND THE GOD WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US! If we are after the simple removal of guilt, we will probably find that - but we have not sought full repentance and we cannot go on in the Lord until we do!
Indignation - a holy hatred of sin in all forms. Oh how we need this today but don’t have it! Even the church seems to be mainly aware of gross sins and more concerned with image than with the truth of the heart being cleansed from ALL unrighteousness. We need a renewed hatred of sin and a repugnance for ALL things that bring dishonor to the Name of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, a generation preoccupied with entertainment and vain pursuits will never know this indignation without the revival of the Holy Spirit to purge their consciences of dead works.
Fear - the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom - and by it men depart iniquity. Another thing that is almost impossible to find today even in the church. There is much here, but so that I don’t repeat myself, see my blog on “The Fear of the Lord”.
Vehement Desire - Along with all these things, a pure heart is directed towards the Lord and made to desire - with great passion - the things of the Lord. This is to be distinguished from a man who is simply asked to desire the things of God without first undergoing the work of the cross and full repentance in his life. Without those things, the passions are fleshly and even well-intentioned men will wind up merely inflaming the flesh and arousing base desires and trying to do what they think the will of God is - in their own strength. This is a train-wreck waiting to happen.
Zeal - similar to vehement desire and indignation, the zeal of the things of the Lord comes only from the indwelling and direction of the Holy Spirit. It is a burning desire to protect the things of God from profanation. Zeal without knowledge abounds in the church and we need a serious fundamental change.
Revenge - not a desire to clear one’s name by taking vengeance on one who wrongs them, the church does experience a renewed desire for justice in the repentance that arises from Godly Sorrow. That justice does not result in a cry to avenge “me”, but to see all treated fairly and a hatred of injustice and unfair treatment of other men. This can be a hard one to discern because even unregenerate men cry for justice. But rooted as it is in selfishness, this cry is sullied and never pure. The cry for justice of one who has been fully forgiven and fully repented is pure and results in the Lord moving on the behalf of the one crying out. Oh, that we might see this in the church in full force along with the other fruits of repentance!
The Corinthians approved themselves to be clear in this matter - by judging themselves, and finding a place of full repentance, the Corinthians have found themselves forgiven, relieved, strengthened in the truth and more fully approved in the work of God. They have put off the old man even more and are pressing toward the mark of the High Calling in Christ Jesus as they put aside all things that hinder them and focus on Jesus Christ - seeking His holiness and that the Truth of God be their light. That the God of Truth be their Protector. And that their weakness propel them to find the Lord’s strength. The Spirit of God has found ground to work in their lives and the enemy’s foothold has been weakened.
They know something of true revival!
A final note. Paul says something interesting at the end of this passage. Paul says that the letter of correction was not sent to show up the one who was wrong. It wasn’t even primarily sent to strengthen the one who suffered the wrong - but rather it was done to show the whole body the love of God and how it works. It was for Paul to manifest the Love of God in correction and, ultimately, that that glory might be given to God as a result of the functioning of full repentance in the midst of the Corinthians. The end of correction is not that we might repent (though that is certainly in view) but that the Lord might be glorified in our every action and in the church that bears His Name!
May the Lord meet us and be pleased to bring us low that we might be convicted and repent fully of all that hinders!
on January 28th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Once again you have given me much to think about! As you say “focus on Jesus Christ” is so important and not on the Me, or I; but for Him!
MC