OUTLINE
1. The Heart of Biblical Repentance
2. True and False Repentance
3. Repentance - A New Testament Overview
4. Biblical Repentance is a Spiritual Medicine
2. True and False Repentance
Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 7:5-13
The subject of repentance can be a
minefield if we do not make a careful distinction between true and false
repentance. The doctrine of repentance is complicated by the fact that our
great enemy, Satan, is a skilled imitator. He disguises himself after all as an
angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14,15). The magicians of Egypt likewise imitated many
things that Moses did, but ultimately there were limitations to their
abilities. There are counterfeit repentances. One of the most disturbing issues
about our fallen, sinful human nature is the awful capacity that we have to
deceive ourselves (Jer. 17:9)
thinking that we have repented of our sin, when nothing of the kind is true
before God. For this reason, Augustine, in
his Confessions wrote these words: “Repentance
damns many.” Superficial repentance damns
many. It is therefore in our interest to understand this subject. I
have been greatly helped in this regard by the Puritan pastors. [1]
[2]
[3]
TWO FALSE
VIEWS OF REPENTANCE
1. Trusting in man’s word for absolution from
sin: Many seek their absolution of sin from
people and not from God Himself. A classic example is the Roman Catholic system
of confession. You go to your priest and you tell him your sin. He then prays
for you, tells you to say that and do this and he absolves you from that sin. Protestantism has not escaped this tendency,
as people come to their pastor with a sin burden, hoping that he will help them
to get rid of it for them! This is a fundamentally false approach to repentance
and we need to be helped in this regard by learning the biblical logic.
Please note that David did not make
the prophet Nathan, his confessor. He did not first go to Bathsheba to say ‘sorry’. When David’s sin was exposed by Nathan the
prophet, he said, “I HAVE SINNED AGAINST
THE LORD!“ (2 Sam. 12:13). We learn that David went first to God and he said,
“Have mercy
on me, Oh God according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant
mercy“. (51:1).
He is not exempted from asking for
forgiveness and making restitution from the person(s) against whom he had sinned. What we are establishing here is the PRIMARY
PRINCIPLE, namely that all sin is foremost against God, and must therefore be addressed
by first going to Him. Please note David’s words again in this regard: “Against you, you only have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight.” (51:4).
Let this primary truth sink in: When we sin against others, we sin
primarily against God. We sin when we go against God’s Word, God’s law. The law
that says that adultery is wrong! The 7th commandment (Ex 20:14 )comes from God! And so, if David has committed adultery,
then he must FIRST go to God against whom he has transgressed.
Incidentally, all that we have said about trusting in man’s word for absolution from sin is also true also for our first act of repentance, when we become a Christian. Many people think that their coming forward at a meeting to meet a pastor, their praying the sinners’ prayer is what repentance is all about. It may include that but this isn’t the definitive mark of repentance. The definitive mark of repentance is that you come with ALL your sin to Jesus- your Saviour. There may be someone present to hear your confession, but it is to God that we direct our heartfelt repentance. That may involve tears, emotions, coming to see your elders and praying the sinner’s prayer. But the difference is this: your eyes must be not on your tears, on your emotions, not on the man who is praying with you and for you. Your eyes must be on the LORD – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – your sin! (Jn. 1:29,36). This is the first thing we must know. Feelings or experiences can mislead us. People may give us false assurance! But when we deal with God Himself, our repentance, made on the basis of His Word, and the promises of salvation by trusting in Christ’s merits alone, and sealed by the Holy Spirit, give us the desired assurance that our sins are indeed forgiven:
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:17).
I know that Nathan gave a word of assurance to
David, “The Lord has put away your sin;
you shall not die”, but it was still the Word of the Lord through the
prophet Nathan to David. And so, it must be for the rest of our earthly life.
We must deal with Almighty God Himself every day concerning our sin.
2. Legalistic or shallow repentance: Here is a person who knows that she has sinned. She is filled with guilt and remorse and she decides to repent, because she is sorry for what she has done. She has seen the awful consequences of her sin. She does not want to do it anymore. She takes her Bible, and reads Psalm 51 and prays it word for word. Now she concludes that she has done “penance“. She goes to church on Sunday and therefore she feels has fulfilled the law of repentance. She has said ‘sorry’ to God. On the basis of this she concludes that God must have forgiven her. And so, she moves on in life. Is this biblical repentance? It is not that it was all wrong. Legally it was alright. But what is missing here? It is the broken and contrite heart that is missing: “Oh God, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.“ (Ps. 51:4).
A case of shallow repentance is found in Hosea 6:1-3. See God’s
response in 6:4-6
We must make this point because our
sinful hearts are far more inclined towards a legal kind of repentance than a
heartfelt repentance. Let me explain this by way of an example. I trespass the
speed limit, and I must pay a fine. I
can do this in two ways: (i) The legal approach: I go to the
magistrate’s court and pay the fine. A clinical process … I pay … I am absolved
… but my heart is unmoved, and I am still inclined to trespass the law
again. (ii) The repentant approach: I go to the magistrate and pay the fine. I am
absolved, BUT in my heart I am convicted to obey the law from now on. I have
been liberated to obey the law from now on.
There is the difference!
A biblical
example to illustrate this difference between false and true repentance:
Judas the
traitor
had a troubled conscience when he finally saw what he had done in betraying
Jesus. In Matthew 27:3
we read,
“… when
Judas, His betrayer saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and
brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,
saying ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.“
At face value this was an act of
repentance. The Bible says that he changed his mind. He brought back the money
to the chief priests. But what did he do then? His sorrow over his betrayal of
Jesus did not lead him to godly repentance.
In his despair he does not turn to God in faith and heartfelt
contrition, but he turns to the ultimate act of human self- centeredness –
which is suicide. He did show remorse – but it was not biblical
repentance. It was true guilt to be
sure, that drove him back to the priests. But it was a legalistic attempt to
settle the matter – and God wasn’t in it. He would not even have God take him
out of this world. He died at his own hand.
Another example of this half-hearted, legalistic
repentance is found in Jeremiah 2:20- 23
and Hosea 6:1-6. Here the people of
Israel make verbal acts of confession before the LORD. They know what the law says. But in reality they play fast and loose with
God and continue to run after their idols.
What sort of repentance is that?
We see this so often when a person is in trouble e.g. when sick or in
financial difficulties. They ask others
to pray that God will help them - and so very often, by God’s mercy, they do
recover. However, when they have
recovered, what do they do? They are like 9 of the 10 lepers (Lk. 17:11-19). They had forgotten Him who
healed them. They are thankless, and they carry on as before – if not
worse! Legalistic repentance is not
induced by true remorse; not by a sincere weeping over the sinfulness of sin. There
is no change of heart. There is no sense of God in it!
Mere words of repentance will not do
before God. Biblical repentance depends a change of mind that leads to a change
of heart. It leads us to godly sorrow –
a sorrow that has God in view (2
Corinthians 7:8-11)
TRUE
REPENTANCE
“Against you
and you alone have I sinned!” We observe this very
clearly in David’s act of repentance in
Psalm 51. When David was finally confronted by Nathan the prophet, his response
was unconditional repentance. Not only was he deeply grieved by his sin, but he
took himself to God and pleaded with God
not to cast him from His presence, pleading also that God would not take
His Holy Spirit from him (51:11). He
then prayed for the restoration of the joy of his salvation (51:12), which was gone at this time,
for there can be no peace and joy for a sinning Christian. He therefore also
prayed for a strengthening of his will (51:12),
not only for courage to face the consequences of his sin (there were many
consequences!), but also praying for a resolution to resist future temptations
to sin. Lastly, he commits himself
towards helping others to turn from their sin (51:13).
One of the most valuable personal
encouragements gained from the 51st Psalm is that God hears the
prayer of the repentant sinner. God does not reject a broken and a contrite
sinner (51:17). Jesus came to
sinners (Matt. 9:12,13) – sinners
who came to Him and begged Him to heal them.
He not only healed their broken bodies, but He restored their
souls! The gospel is good news for such
broken people. Merely religious people will
easily miss this!
True repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11), and if
this is so, it is a grace gift from God. It proceeds from the power of God who
comes to touch the heart and to humble the heart before Him. The direction and
the impulse of your heart is changed toward sin and God. Unless it is of the
heart, it is not the grace of repentance. It is behaviour modification.
HOW IS TRUE
REPENTANCE POSSIBLE?
1. The basis of repentance: Christ’s atoning death. It is only
possible because Christ made it possible for us to be able to repent. By His
death He is able and willing to secure the salvation of every repenting sinner.
All repentant and believing sinners
(whether from a N.T. or an O.T. perspective) are justified by the cross of
Christ. The key phrase for David was, “according
to your steadfast love“ (Hebr. “hesed”- covenant love) Ps. 51:1
2. How is repentance applied?
By the Word and by the Spirit.
(i)
The word of God preached
is the engine which God uses to bring about repentance. “When
they heard this, i.e. the gospel
preaching of Peter, they were cut
to the heart ...” (Acts 2:37). David was cut to the heart when the prophet
Nathan brought the Word of the Lord to him.
(ii) The Holy Spirit who is central to the narrative of Acts 2 applies that Word in convicting power. True repentance is enabled by the work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11), and if this is so, it is a grace gift from God. It proceeds from the power of God who comes to touch the heart and to humble the heart before Him. The direction and the impulse of your heart is changed toward sin and God. Unless it is of the heart, it is not the grace of repentance. It is behaviour modification. If the Holy Spirit does not act upon the Word, no true repentance will be effected in the lives of hearers. It may actually even have the opposite effect. The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay. What is the reason that the word of God has such different effects in people? It is because the Spirit of God carries in some the word to the conscience by way of conviction, and to others, whose hearts are not warmed it carries the effect of resentment. Ultimately, the preacher is just the instrument: “Ministers are but the pipes and the organs. It is the Holy Spirit breathing in them that makes their words effectual.“ (Thomas Watson)[4] This is well illustrated in Acts 10:44 :
“While Peter was still saying all these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word…”
David repented when the Word of the
Lord came to Him via the prophet Nathan.
And David was very concerned that God’s judgment would be of such a
nature that the Holy Spirit would be withdrawn from Him (51:11). David knew that the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit would
mean that he would no longer be able to hear and feel the Word of God.
The ultimate answer to an effective
repentance is Grace in the soul. The
difference between the true and false believer is seen in how they respectively
react to the discovery of their sin. The true believer, when convicted of sin
immediately confesses their sin and repents and responds to God with heartfelt
contrition and godly sorrow.
A false believer tries to cover up,
wiggle their way out, make excuses, blame-shift or deny the fact that they have
sinned. When caught out, they may show signs of sorrow, but that sorrow is not
based on the heartfelt repentance of Psalm 51. This, we believe is the
difference between Paul’s differentiation of godly sorrow and worldly sorrow (2 Cor. 7:9-11)
This is the difference between king
David and king Saul, Judas and Peter.
I trust that we are seeing something
about the deceitfulness of sin, and the way that our warped minds and hearts so
easily work to justify ourselves before God and man. We need to be absolutely
certain that we understand the nature of biblical repentance lest we deceive
ourselves and find ourselves condemned at the end. Let me close by paraphrasing John 3:18
“He who
believes in (looks to) the Son is not
condemned (because he is truly
repentant), but he who does not believe
in the Son (but looks to other means of
justification – hence false repentance)
is condemned already , because he has not believed in the Name of the
only Son of God “
I freely acknowledge the help that I
have received from Thomas Watson, John
Owen and John Colquhoun
[1] John Colquhoun (1748-1827) , former pastor New Church in
South Leith, Scotland. Educated at Glasgow University
[2] Thomas Watson (c.
1620–1686) was an English Puritan preacher and author. He was ejected from his
London parish after the Restoration, but continued to preach privately.
[3] John Owen (1616 – 24 August 1683) was an English
Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the
University of Oxford.
[4] Thomas
Watson: The Doctrine of Repentance, Puritan Paperbacks, p.14
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