To help the exercised reader identify true repentance, consider the fruits that demonstrate godly repentance.
1.A real hatred of sin as sin, not merely it's consequences. A hatred of not only of this or that sin, but of all sin, and particularly of the root itself: Self-will. "Thus saith the Lord God, Repent, and turn from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations" (Ezekiel 14:6). He, who hates not sin, loves it. God's demand is, "Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed" (Ezekiel 20:43). One who has really repented can truthfully say, " I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104). He who once thought a course for holy living was a gloomy thing, has another judgment now. He , who once regarded a course of self-pleasing as attractive, now detests it and has purposed to forsake all sin forever. This is the change of mind God requires.
2. A deep sorrow for sin. The non saving repentance of so many is principally a distress occasioned by forebodings of divine wrath; but evangelical repentance produces a deep grief from a sense of having offended so infinitely excellent and glorious a Being as God. The one is the effect of fear, the other of love. The one is only for a brief season; the other is the habitual practice for life. Many a man is filled with regret and remorse over misspent life, yet has no poignant sorrow of heart for his ingratitude and rebellion against God. But a regenerated soul is cut to the quick for having disregarded and opposed his great Benefactor and rightful Sovereign
This is the change of heart God requires.
"ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner... for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation" (2 Cor 7:9-10). Such a sorrow is produced in the heart by the Holy Spirit and has God for its object. It is a grief for having despised such a God, rebelled against His authority, and been indifferent to His glory. It is this that causes us to "weep bitterly" (Mat 26:75). He who has not grieved over sin takes pleasure therein. God requires us to "afflict our souls (Lev 16:29). His call is, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful" ( Joel 2:12-12). Only that sorrow for sin is genuine which causes us to crucify "the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Gal 5:24).
3. Confessing of sin. " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). It is second nature to the sinner to deny his sins, directly or indirectly, to minimize or make excuses for them. It was thus with Adam and Eve at the beginning. But when the Holy Spirit works in any soul, his sins are brought to light, and he, in turn, acknowledges them to God. There is no relief for the stricken heart until he does so: " When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer" (Psalm 32:3-4). The frank and brokenhearted owning of our sins is imperative if peace of conscience is to be maintained. This is the change of attitude that God requires.
4. An actual turning from sin. "Surely there is no one here so stupefied with laudanum of hellish indifference as to imagine that he can revel in his lusts and afterward wear the white robes of the redeemed in paradise. If you imagine you can be partakers of the blood of Christ, and yet drink the cup of Belial; if you imagine you can be members of Satan and members of Christ at the same time, ye have less sense than one would give you credit for. No, you know that right hands must be cut off and right eyes plucked out-that the most darling sins must be renounced-if you would enter the kingdom of God" (from Spurgeon on Luke 13:24).
Three Greek words are used in the New testament that present different phases of repentance. First, metanoeo, Which means a "change of mind" (Mat 3:2; Mark 1:15,). Second, metanolomai, which means "a change of Heart" (Mat 21:29,32; Heb 7:21). Third, metanoia, which means "a change of course of life" (Mat 3:8; 9:13; Acts 20:21). The three must go together for genuine repentance. Many experience a change of mind: they are instructed and know better, but they continue to defy God. Some are even exercised in heart or conscience, yet they continue in sin. Some are informed in mind and uneasy in heart, who never reform their lives. The three must go together.
"He that covereth sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). He who does not, fully in his heart's desire and increasingly so in his life, turn from his wicked ways has not repented. If I really hate sin and sorrow over it, shall I not abandon it? Note carefully the "wherein in time past!" of Ephesians 2:2 and "were sometimes" of Titus 3:3! "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him" (Isa 55:7).
This is the change of course God requires..........to be continued
A.W. Pink
