I have noticed something today that
has greatly concerned me. A neglect of a crucial command that the Lord has
given us which serves as a necessity towards both our reception of the gospel
message as well as our ongoing growth in grace. A few years ago, my wife and I
went to the Westmoreland County Fair. At first I was excited to come across a
church handing out tracts and sharing the gospel. That is until I got to the
end of the tract and saw that they had blacked out the word “repent” which
preceded “believe in Christ for your salvation.” It appears that both in
preaching and practice today, the doctrine of repentance has been “blacked out”
so to speak. It is not much emphasized and in some cases not mentioned at all.
However, repentance cannot be
ignored. After all, our Lord Jesus Himself did not exclude it in His preaching
and teaching. We see this in the summary of His message in the opening of
Mark’s Gospel, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark
1:15, emphasis added). He chastised the cities which refused to repent in light
of the display of His miraculous power (Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 10:13-15). Jesus
stated that He did not call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke
5:32). In light of tragedy and calamity, He reminded those who gathered round
Him that “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). There
is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than those who think that they do
not need repentance (Luke 15:7, 10). Jesus’ call for repentance was continued
through the preaching and teaching of His apostles, seen first when He sends
them out for an early evangelistic trip (Mark 6:12) and then in their ongoing
ministry after the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30; 20:21; 26:27). God’s
stated desire is not for any to perish but for “all to come to repentance” (2
Peter 3:9). To “black out” repentance is to “black out” the very teaching of
our Lord Himself.
The Greek word for repent literally means to change one’s mind. And it is a change
of mind that affects the will and direction of one’s life. If no change of
course has occurred, then no real change of mind has actually happened. You
will notice the continual call in Scripture to “bear fruits in keeping with
repentance” (Matthew 3:8; Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20). The call to repentance is a call for a change of direction. From
looking to yourself and bowing down to someone or something other than God to
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone and bowing your knee to Him. It is a
turning from walking towards sin to walking towards God as a result of the
working of the Holy Spirit in one’s heart. Kind of like an “about face” in the
military. When soldiers are heading one direction and their commanding officer
yells that phrase, they halt and turn around to face the opposite direction.
A key characteristic of repentance
is a genuine sorrow over one’s sin. Not simply that the person is sorry that
they got caught for what they have done or a grieving over the consequences of
it but a recognition of and grieving over the fact that they have sinned
against God Himself. Think about when you were little and may have had someone
you looked up to. Maybe it was an uncle or a grandparent but your greatest
desire was to please them. And then there was that time you did something that
you shouldn’t and it was told to them. You could see the disappointment in
their face. That pained you more than anything else. It was not because you were caught
for what you had done that bothered you but that you could not bear the thought of having
disappointed them. That’s a picture of the sorrow associated with genuine
repentance. A grieving over having displeased God with the sin, no matter what
it might have been.
Here are a few examples which might
help illustrate what repentance practically looks like. Repentance is the
prodigal son, after being brought to his senses, regretting his wayward living
and seeing himself as unworthy of being called his father’s son. And leaving
such a life to go back to his father. A sorrow over his sin moves him to turn
from it. Repentance is the tax collector in Jesus’ parable who cannot even look
to heaven on account of the grief of his sins but can only beat his breast and
say to God, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” Contrast that with the
Pharisee who doesn’t even recognize that he is a sinner and certainly doesn’t
turn from such pride. Repentance is Zachaeus, that wee little man, giving half
of his riches to the poor and paying back four times as much to those he
cheated. Clearly an abandonment of his former sinful way of living, evidence of
a certain change brought about in his life. And repentance is King David
responding to his sin of adultery with Bathsheba with “I have sinned against
the Lord,” grieving over such sin, and desiring to be cleansed from it. Just read
through Psalm 51 to see what his repentant heart looked like.
And repentance serves as a
compliment to faith. You really cannot have one without the other. They are two
sides of the same coin. In order to come to Christ, one must first leave their
sin. To turn from heading in that direction since Jesus stands at the opposite
direction. As Thomas Watson put it, “Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be
sweet.” Perhaps this is why the command is worded to repent first and then
believe.
Now does this mean that one is saved
by their repentance? Absolutely not! The Bible is clear that we are saved by
faith alone and not by any works at all (Ephesians 2:8-9). Repentance, along
with faith, is described as being a gift of grace produced in us by the work of
the Holy Spirit. Notice the wording in Acts 11:18 and 2 Timothy 2:25 of, in
both cases, repentance being “granted” by God. Faith serves as the sole instrument
in our justification but as previously mentioned, it is impossible to come to
Christ in faith without first turning from the sins they are embracing and the
idols they are trusting instead of Christ.
We need to remember as well that
repentance is not a one-time deal. An “I did it and it’s done” type of thing.
It is not just necessary for unbelievers. No, for the true believer who has
been born again, repentance is not a one-time action but an ongoing attitude.
As the Spirit of God continues to convict us of our sin, we should continually
be repenting over those sins. I like how Martin Luther said it, “When our Lord
and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of
believers should be repentance.” Or Charles Spurgeon, “A Christian must never
leave off repenting, for I fear he never leaves off sinning.”
So let’s be careful not to “black
out” the practice of repentance in our lives but to make it a daily habit for
us, continuing to grieve over our sins and turn from them, all the while
resting in the joy of what Christ has done for us on the cross to forgive us of
our sins. And when we share the glorious good news of the gospel with our
unsaved loved ones and call for their response to it, let’s not “black out” to
call for repentance either as those part of that church at the fairgrounds did
but follow our Savior’s lead and call all men to “repent and believe the
gospel.”
Love
in Christ,
Pastor
Lee
