IN the first place, I am to consider the Springs or Sources of true repentance. And 1. The exercise of true or evangelical Repentance flows from the work of the Holy Spirit, in regeneration and sanctification.—God hath exalted Christ “with His right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts v. 31). The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ, implants the principle of it in the heart at regeneration, and converts this principle into a habit in sanctification. True repentance is not the work of nature, but of grace; not of a man’s own spirit, but the Spirit of Christ. As it is the office of adorable Mediator, to give repentance, so He gives it to His elect, by performing these promises to them: “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. xxxvi. 26). “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him” (Zech. xii. 10). True repentance, which is an evangelical contrition of heart, and a fixed resolution of spirit, to turn from all sin to God, is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit being given without measure to Christ, He, in the day of His power, communicates the same Spirit to His elect, who, by His almighty operation, breaks their hearts from, and for sin, and converts them from sin to holiness. This is the primary source, from which, a true penitent’s views of the malignity of sin, and his feelings of regret for it, do spring. They all result from the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. It is His peculiar province, as the Convincer of sin and misery, and the gracious Comforter, to implant in the soul that holy principle, and to excite and regulate all its exercise. In producing and strengthening the habit, and in directing the exercise of this grace, the Holy Spirit commonly employs His blessed word. He makes use of His law to break the hard heart, and of His gospel as a fire, to melt it into godly sorrow for sin. “Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. xxiii. 29). Thus, the awakened sinner is, on the one hand, driven by the law, and on the other, kindly drawn by the gospel, to the exercise of sincere repentance.
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Meditation or consideration of such subjects, as tend by the Holy Spirit to produce and increase in the heart, evangelical repentance, is one of the springs of it.—Multitudes remain impenitent for want of consideration. Thus saith the Lord, “I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” (Jer. viii. 6). Impenitence is, in a great degree, the effect of extenuating notions of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Repentance, therefore, must spring from a deep consideration, and a true sense, of its infinite malignity and demerit. It flows from deep and affecting meditation, on the majesty and glory, the holiness and justice, the authority and law, the threatenings and judgments of God; and on His just severity against the angels who sinned, against Adam and all his posterity, against Sodom and Gomorrah, the nations of Canaan, and the Jews, in the final destruction of their city and temple, and in the continued dispersion of their nation. These awful examples of His inexorable justice, and tremendous fury, show us, what His judgment of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and of the dreadful punishment which awaits the impenitent sinner, is. And they are left on record, that they may direct us, to judge of the sin of our nature, and of the transgressions of our life, as God judges. And we may be sure, “that the judgment of God is according to truth” (Rom. ii. 2). The exercise of true repentance flows, in an eminent degree, from a deep and affecting meditation on the doleful anguish, and amazing death of the Lord Jesus, our adorable Surety. When we seriously consider, who He was, for whom He suffered, and what He endured, we cannot but perceive God’s infinite, and irreconcilable abhorrence of all iniquity. Here we see that, rather than leave sin unpunished, or permit angels and men to be ignorant of His infinite detestation of that abominable thing, He would deliver up His only begotten Son, in whom His soul delighted, to the most direful anguish, agony, and death. Here we perceive that, the fiery indignation of God against sin, does not proceed from the smallest defect of love to sinners as His creatures; but from that infinite abhorrence of sin, which arises from a full view of its infinite malignity, and contrariety to the holiness of His nature and law. It is, then from spiritual and heart-affecting views of the Lamb of God, bearing our sins and carrying our sorrows, that the exercise of evangelical repentance immediately flows. Reader, behold in the glass of the holy and righteous law, and especially, in that of the adorable Redeemer’s unparalleled sufferings, what an evil thing and bitter, sin is (Jer. ii. 19). It is not only their love of sin, but their false apprehensions of the evil and demerit of it, that make sinners persist in cleaving to it. Were they to contemplate, under the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit, the infinite malignity and desert of the sin of their nature, and of the aggravated transgressions of their life, they would flee from them with horror. Were convinced sinners but to consider seriously, the heinousness of their innumerable sins,—the afflictions and warnings,—the counsels and reproofs,—the mercies and deliverances,—the light and knowledge,—the obligations and vows, against which they have sinned, their eye would affect their heart, and their repentings would be kindled together (Hos. xi. 8).
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The exercise of evangelical repentance, issues from a true sense of sin.—A genuine sense of sin consists of an affecting sight, and a painful feeling, not only of the hurtfulness and danger, but also of the deformity and hatefulness of sin (Exod. xxxvi. 31). When the Holy Spirit strikes home the doctrine of the law upon the conscience, the consequence is, that the sinner is instructed, and then He smites upon His thigh (Jer. xxxvi. 19). A true sense of sin, includes an affecting sight, or discernment of it, by the enlightened mind. “My sin,” says the Psalmist, “is ever before me” (Psal. li. 3). No sooner are the eyes of a sinner’s understanding opened, than he begins to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, in his heart and life. He sees his innumerable provocations, and discerns that malignity in sin, which he never saw before. He sees, and is deeply affected, with the sight of, his great transgressions against an infinitely holy, and gracious God. The holy law, as a looking glass, is held before his eyes; and he therein discerns his pollution and deformity. And now that he has begun to see, he searches every corner of his heart, and every period of his life, which were before neglected as the sluggard’s garden; and multitudes of secret abominations are set in the light. Now his mouth is stopped, and his sins at length have found him out (Num. xxxii. 23). A true sense of sin, includes also such a consciousness or conviction, as is a painful feeling of it. Now that the sinner is spiritually alive, he has not only spiritual sight, but spiritual feeling. He begins to feel the sores of his diseased nature. The sin which sat lightly on him before, becomes now a burden too heavy for him (Psal. xxxviii. 4). It is such a burden on his spirits, as sinks them; on his head, as it is impossible for him to discharge; and on his back, as bows it down. I am bowed down greatly, says the holy Psalmist, I go mourning all the day long (Psal. xxxviii. 6). Accordingly, when the awakened sinner is coming to Christ, he is described as one who has a heavy burden upon him (Matth. xi. 28). “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord, say unto Him, Take away all iniquity,” Hebrew ‘Lift off all iniquity as a burden’ (Hos. xiv. 2).
A true sense of sin, in an affecting sight and feeling, especially of the exceeding sinfulness or malignity of sin. It is a sense, not only of our evil doings, but of the evil of our doings; not only of our sin, but of the exceeding sinfulness of our sin; and not merely of things which are in themselves sinful, but of the iniquity even of our holy things. The true penitent has a deep and affecting sense of the evil, that cleaves even to his best performances (Isa. lxiv. 6). Of all evils, he concludes that sin is the greatest; and of all sinners, he often thinks that he himself is the chief. He sees and feels, that the innumerable evils which compass him about, are the weightiest of burdens, the heaviest of debts, the foulest of stains, and the worst of enemies. He has a true sense of the evil of sin, in reference to himself (Rom. vi. 21), and of the evil of it, with respect to God. He sees that, it is the very opposite of the infinitely holy and amiable nature of God in Christ (Hab. i. 13). The true penitent loves God supremely, and therefore his sins are a heavy burden to him. He loathes himself, because he has walked contrary to the holy Lord God, and thereby insulted, reproached, and provoked Him (Lam. v. 16). He sees also that, sin is contrary to that law of God which is holy; to that commandment which “is holy, and just, and good” (Rom. vii. 12). Discerning the perfect equity, and purity of God’s law, the penitent sees the great evil of every transgression of it (1 John iii. 4). He sees the sinfulness of sin likewise, with respect to Jesus Christ. He has an affecting discovery of it, as the procuring cause of the unparalleled sufferings of his dear Redeemer (Zech. xii. 10). The doleful anguish, and excruciating death of the Lamb of God, are comments on the evil and demerit of sin, which the penitent reads with deep attention. The agonies and groans of that adorable, that dying Saviour, who loved him and gave Himself for him, rend his heart, and afford him the most affecting view of the evil of sin. Hence, he has such a true sense of the sinfulness of his sin, as is an abiding source of evangelical repentance.
- Lastly, A spiritual apprehension of the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, is one of the springs of true repentance.—Without the begun exercise of saving faith, or the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, there may be a sense of sin, but not a true sense: there may be a sense of sin, as hurtful to the sinner himself (Gen. iv. 13); but not a sense of it, as hateful to an holy God (Hab. i. 13). To apprehend the mercy of God in Christ, is, to exercise the faith of the His pardoning mercy. It is to rely by faith on the surety-righteousness of Jesus Christ, for a right to pardon, and acceptance as righteous in the sight of God, and to trust in His redeeming mercy. Accordingly the holy Psalmist says, “I have trusted in thy mercy” (Psal. xiii. 5). And, again, “I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever” (Psal. lii. 8). Such a knowledge of sin as is only by the law, may produce slavish fear and worldly sorrow; but it is the faith of redeeming mercy alone, as revealed and offered in the gospel, that paints iniquity in such hateful colours, as to make the penitent ashamed and confounded. A deep sense of sin, indeed, may proceed from the faith of the law; but a true sense of it, must arise from the faith, both of the law and of the gospel. The faith of redeeming mercy, is a spring of true repentance, and that by which, the exercise of it is influenced and regulated. Though the graces of faith and repentance are, in respect of time, implanted together and at once; yet, in order of nature, the acting of faith goes before the exercise of true repentance. The sinner, then, must cordially believe or trust in Christ for pardon, in order to exercise evangelical mourning for sin, and turning from it unto God. True repentance is very pleasing to God, “but without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. xi. 6). To trust firmly in the Lord Jesus, both for pardon and purification, is that which, under the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, will be most effectual, to melt down the heart into true repentance. It is, when sin is contemplated by the believer, as a base, a criminal, outrage against the Father of mercies, and his own God and Father, that a sense of the malignity of it, is deeply impressed on his heart. And it is this affecting persuasion, that, by his innumerable sins, he in particular pierced the adorable, the dear Redeemer; or, that the Redeemer was wounded for his transgressions or bruised for his iniquities—it is, I say, that melts his heart into godly sorrow, and penitential mourning, for his aggravated crimes (Zech. xii. 10). It is evident, then, that the exercise of true repentance, flows from the acting of unfeigned faith in a crucified Redeemer, and in the mercy of God through Him; and that, in proportion as the acting of faith is frequent and lively, the exercise of repentance will be deep and spiritual.
These, though they do not merit evangelical repentance, nor give sinners a federal right to it; yet are the springs from which the exercise of it flows.
Is a true sense of sin, one of the springs of evangelical repentance? Then it is manifest, that the unconvinced sinner, is not only an impenitent, but an unregenerate sinner. Reader, if ever the Holy Spirit has regenerated you, He has given you a spiritual sight, and a painful feeling of the sin of your nature and of the transgressions of your life. He has brought home to your conscience the precept and penalty of the Divine law, as a broken covenant. The consequence has undoubtedly been, that you have been truly convinced, not only of your sin, but of the malignity of your sin; not only of your evil doings, but of the evil of your doings; not merely of doings which are in themselves sinful, but of the iniquity even of your holy things; and not only of their desert of punishment, but of everlasting punishment. If you never had in any degree this sense of sin, you have never exercised true repentance. You may have, perhaps, been trying to wash away your sins, with the tears of a legal repentance; but without this sense of sin, you have not exercised that repentance, which is the consequence of having washed them away, in the blood of the Lamb.
(To be continued.)