True and False Repentance
August 2007
In
His providence, the Lord sees fit from time to time to keep my mind
occupied on a particular subject for an extended period of time. I am
sure you have had the same thing happen in your life. You find your
favorite radio program, the Sunday sermon, the newspaper article,
favorite Christian magazine, Sunday school or a book you recently read
all dealing with the same theme. Sometimes God plants a theme in front
of my face and causes me to think on it for a time.
Recently I have found this true with the subject of the gospel.
For the three and a half years that we spent in the book of Acts, I
planned on preaching a sermon on the subject of the gospel message as
preached in Acts. I titled it The Gospel of Acts. I accumulated
material and ideas as the subject of the gospel that was preached by the
Apostles slowly percolated in my head. (Most things happening in my
head happen slowly.)
Back in January I planned my reading for 2007 and decided to revisit a
book I read over 10 years ago to refresh my familiarity with it, The
Gospel According to Jesus, and its sequel which I had not yet read,
The Gospel According to the Apostles, both by Dr. John MacArthur.
I
picked those books up to read about the time I was finishing up the book
of Acts and preparing the message on the gospel. At the same time I was
preparing 2 one-hour workshops for the Camp Staff Training out at
Cocolalla Lake Bible Camp titled “A Theology of Evangelism” and “The
Practice of Evangelism.”
Right about the same time, I started studying the book of Philippians in
preparation for preaching the book and was confronted in Chapter 1 with
the priority of the gospel and the concept of fellowship in
the gospel (1:5). It seems that the gospel is going to be the focus
of my studies for the next 6 or 7 weeks as I work my way through Chapter
1 on Sunday mornings.
All of that is evidence of divine providence. I shall save that subject
for another newsletter article.
With all of this floating around in my mind, I have been giving
considerable thought to the doctrine of repentance and its connection to
the message of the gospel.
It
is not an overstatement to say that “repentance” is not something you
hear much about anymore. The gospel of easy-believism has pushed the
declaration that “all men everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30-31)
to the sidelines. It is no longer in vogue to declare the sinfulness of
men and call them to repentance. We are told to simply present Jesus as
a life improvement option to the sinner. That is a far cry from
the preaching of Jesus and the Apostles.
What is Repentance?
The Greek word translated “repentance” in the New Testament is
metanoia, from meta, “after,” and noeo, “to understand.” Literally
it means “after thought” or “change of mind.” Some people try to limit
the understanding of metanoia to simply a change of thinking
concerning Jesus which does not necessarily manifest itself in a
turning from sin to Christ. However, that “change of mind” cannot be
biblically divorced from a change of life. Genuine, God-wrought
repentance will manifest itself in “fruits of repentance” (Acts
26:20) just as God-wrought saving faith will manifest itself in good
works (James 2:14-26).
Biblical repentance is not merely a change of mind, but a change of mind
that manifests itself in a changed life. The Bible stresses a change of
purpose and specifically a turning from sin to God and Christ. Paul
described the conversion of the Thessalonians saying that they had “turned
to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” No change of mind
can be called true repentance if it does not bring forth the fruits of
repentance, that is, turning to God and away from idols/sin.
This type of genuine repentance always accompanies saving faith. As
theologian Louis Berkhof rightly notes, “True repentance never exists
except in conjunction with faith, while, on the other hand, wherever
there is true faith, there is also real repentance. . . . The two cannot
be separated; they are simply complementary parts of the same process.”1
Let me offer a brief survey of “repentance” as it was presented in the
preaching of Jesus and the Apostles.2
Jesus on Repentance
Jesus called on men to repent. Matthew 4:17 records that “From
that time [the imprisonment of John the Baptist] Jesus began to preach
and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Jesus
even described His own ministry as one of “calling sinners to
repentance” (Luke 5:31). He boldly proclaimed in Luke
13:3,5, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Repentance and the Apostles
The Apostles certainly did not avoid the subject of repentance in their
preaching. When Peter preached his Pentecost Day sermon in Acts 2 the
crowd that heard him was cut to the heart and cried out, “Brethren, what
shall we do?” Peter responded by saying, “Repent, and each of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for [because of] the remission of
sins” (Acts 2:38).
After indicting the crowd in the temple for their sin of “disowning
the Holy and righteous One,” Peter says, “Therefore repent
and return so that your sins may be wiped away” (Acts 3:19).
In Acts 3:26 Peter describes that mandatory repentance as a work
and gift of God (more on that in a moment) by saying, “God raised up
His Servant [Jesus] and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of
you from your wicked ways.”
In
his sermon to the Sanhedrin, Peter coupled God granting repentance with
the forgiveness of sins saying, “He is the one whom God exalted to
His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel,
and forgiveness of sins.”
In
Acts 11, when the Apostles in Jerusalem found out about Peter leading
Cornelius (a Gentile) to Christ they concluded, “Well then, God has
granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life” (Acts
11:18).
Paul preached the same message proclaiming that “God is now declaring
that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in
which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has
appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the
dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
Paul even described his own message as one of “repentance toward God
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
Paul described his Damascus Road commission to Agrippa in terms of being
sent to the Gentiles to “open their eyes so that they may turn from
darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.” Paul
didn’t disobey that heavenly vision but declared to all men, “even to
the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds
appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:17-20).
False Repentance
Some people assume that because someone feels sorrow over sin, they have
therefore “repented” of it. It is important for us to understand what
true repentance looks like. Sometimes it is easier to see the
qualities of the genuine article by comparing it with its counterfeit.
Such is the case with repentance. Let us examine what repentance is
not.
First, genuine repentance is not merely a sense of terror over
sin. Repentance is not the same as a fear of consequences. A man may
be caught in a horrible sin and fear the consequences of that sin. That
does not make him repentant. Have you ever had a child express sorrow at
the punishment they received while never turning from the sin that
brought the punishment? Sure you have! There may be terror over the
punishment for the crime yet no change of heart.
Thomas Watson rightly wrote, “It is one thing to be a terrified
sinner and another to be a repenting sinner. Sense of guilt is enough to
breed terror. Infusing of grace breeds repentance.”3
C.H. Spurgeon said, “Every murderer regrets his crime when he hears
the hammers going that knock the scaffold together for his hanging. This
is not the repentance which the Spirit of God works in the soul: it is
only such a repentance as a dog may have when he has stolen meat, and is
whipped for his pains.”
Second, repentance is not merely a resolution to stop sinning. A
person may promise God they will stop sinning without ever being
repentant. Have you ever known someone to try to cut a deal with God? “God,
if you just get me out of this predicament, I’ll never do such and such
again.” That is not repentance. Such a resolve may come from the
difficulty of circumstances and not a changed heart.
The resolution that is raised in the storm dies in the calm. C.H.
Spurgeon said, “Travelers in great storms will tremble, and,
trembling, will confess their guilt, and begin to pray; but when the
tempest is over, their trembling, their confession, and their praying
are all over. They shake because of their sins, but they are not shaken
out of their sins.”
A
person who makes such a resolution does so not because sin is sinful,
but because sin is painful! This type of “repentance” is not a hatred
for sin, but a dislike of consequences.
A
person may make a resolution to stop sinning because of fear of future
evil. He may realize that a course of action will bring destruction,
disease, death, or suffering and so resolve to stop. Such a commitment
to stay away from sin is made from a love of self (self-preservation,
self-interest, and self-benefit) not from a love of God. For instance, a
man stops committing adultery because he fears contracting a life- or
career-threatening disease (AIDS), or stop drinking because he doesn’t
want to end up with a liver transplant at 50. That is not
repentance.
Third, repentance is not merely leaving certain sins. Man,
without the grace of God, does not abandon his sin. Thomas Watson said,
“So dear is sin to a man that he will rather part with a child than
with a lust.”4 A man may
give up one particular sin in exchange for another. A man may leave
certain sins only to entertain different and new ones. Sin can be
exchanged and yet the heart remain unchanged.
A
person may even stop a sin because it is prudent to do so. A person may
stop sinning because he tires of a certain sin or group of sins. A man
or woman may stop smoking because it is unhealthy. That is not
repentance. A man may stop going to bars because he doesn’t like the
smoke. That is not repentance. A person may stop drinking because it
wastes their hard-earned money. That is not repentance.
We
should never confuse repentance of sin with a reformation of a life. You
can wash a sow and move her inside to eat with the family, but that does
not change the fact that she is still a sow. The outward reformation of
a life and cleaning up of conduct is not itself a turning from sin. A
dog is still a dog and will return once again to its vomit.
Fourth, repentance is not merely a feeling of shame. In our
culture, certain things bring a measure of shame (although that list of
shameful things seems to be growing shorter every day). A man may feel
shamed, ashamed, or even shameful without ever repenting of the sin that
brought the shame. Our world contains plenty of shame for wrongs done,
yet none of it can be equated with genuine Spirit-wrought repentance.
Spurgeon was speaking of false repentance when he
wrote, “In some there is a repentance of sin which is produced by a
sense of shame. The evil-doers are found out, and indignant words are
spoken about them: they are ashamed, and so far they are repentant,
because they have dishonored themselves. If they had not been found out,
in all probability they would have continued comfortably in the sin, and
even have gone further on in it. They are grieved at having been
discovered; and they are sorry, very sorry, because they are judged and
condemned by their fellows. It is not the evil which troubles them, but
the dragging of it to light.”
Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly
humbled and visibly reformed. Repentance is not merely a terror over
consequences, a resolution to stop sinning, the abandonment of sin, or a
feeling of shame. It certainly involves those things, but
it is far more. It is a changed heart, a changed mind. It is a work of
grace by the Spirit of God. That gracious work will produce a grief and
terror over consequences. It will produce a resolve to live holy and it
will produce a turning from sin. These will be produced not because of
self-love, self-preservation or self-interest, but because the heart and
mind have been changed and sin is seen for what it is, an affront to a
holy God.
Next month, we’ll take a look at the elements of true repentance.
Without Wax-
Jim Osman
Pastor/Teacher
Footnotes:
1. Louis Berkhof, Systematic
Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 487.
2. For a more complete treatment
of these issues and their relationship to gospel preaching, I would
recommend The Gospel According to Jesus and its sequel, The Gospel
According to the Apostles, by Dr. John MacArthur. Consider also a good
puritan classic by Thomas Watson titled, The Doctrine of Repentance,
available through Banner of Truth Trust.
3. Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of
Repentance (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 15.
4. Watson, 16.
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