Repentance revisited

The following quotes are from a sermon I did in 2009 about repentance. It sparked a flurry of study and teaching to my own heart and those around me about what repentance actually is and deep and continual need for it.

The message began with my teaching from Mark 6 when Jesus sends out his disciples with one message…telling people to repent.

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

                        

                       Martin Luther

These are the first words of the infamous 95 theses that the entire protestant reformation is built around.  That is to say that deep sorrow that leads to life and worship will paint the life of the follower of Christ. 

“But in the gospel the point of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God’s heart.”

                       

Tim Keller

Keller’s point is that sorrow and guilt are not the point of repentance, but life is.  Repentance is the vehicle that gets us to the destination of life and joy.  Live it in all the time.

“Repentance is the act of salvation of the soul, the germ which contains all the essentials of salvation, which secures them to us, and prepares us for them.”

“Repentance is a grace”

                        Charles Spurgeon  

Spurgeon continues in this sermon that is from 1855 to say that dwelling upon the ultimate grace, the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross and dwelling and thinking all the way through that, meditating on it and hearing the shrieks of Jesus, “My God why have you forsaken me?”  The sorrow and the life that is found in that man on that cross is the grace that leads to repentance which leads to life.
If Spurgeon is right and repentance is a grace, that means that repentance and all that is necessary to repent is NOT born in us. Jesus provides it.


“Repentance is the heart's acknowledgment of the justice of God's sentence of condemnation; faith is the heart's glad acceptance of the grace and mercy which are extended to us through Christ. Repentance is not simply the turning over of a new leaf and a vowing that I will mend my ways: rather is it a setting to my seal that God is true when He declares I am “without strength”: that in myself, my case is hopeless, that I am no more capable of “doing better” than I am of creating a world. Not until this is believed on the authority of God's Word shall 1 really turn to Christ and welcome Him—not as a Helper, but as Saviour!”

                        A W Pink  

I love his thought that he is no more capable of doing better than he is of creating a new world. Our culture presses on us so much, even our gospel centered churches, to measure ourselves by how well we are behaving and good we are doing at repenting.

But how can we do this?  What does it look like?  The most practical definition I have found is from Keller.

“Consider the free grace of Jesus until there is no cowardly avoidance of hard things, since Jesus faced evil for me.  Until there is no anxious or rash behavior, since Jesus death proves God cares and will watch over me.  It takes pride to be anxious – I am not wise enough to know how my life should go.  Consider free grace until I experience calm thoughtfulness and strategic boldness.”

                        Tim Keller