C R Vaughan
We may examine the contrast between the two species of repentance – one springing from a godly sorrow that works salvation, the other springing from the sorrow of the world, that works death. The one is selfish, controlled by selfishness; the other is prudent, controlled by a lawful regard to well-being. One is confined to special sins; the other extends to all sin, whenever recognized as such. One is embittered, the other is humble. One is afraid of detection, the other is free to confess. One is disposed to extenuation and self-defence; the other is anxious to see more of its own evil. The one is revengeful to others; the other is revengeful towards itself. The one leads to a limited reform of faults in conduct, but to little or none in the heart; the other seeks an unlimited reform, and most eagerly in the inward parts. The one refers to God only as the source of danger, the other to God as rightly offended. The one produces effects which are not often permanent, even in their limited range; the other produces permanent effects of general improvement.
The effects of the one are not purifying; the effects of the other are purifying, especially in the heart. The effect of the one is not humility, but self-assertion; the effect of the other is self-condemnation. The desire for salvation produced by the one is soon discouraged; the desire for salvation produced by the other is permanent and inextinguishable. The effort to escape produced by the one soon ceases; the effort to escape produced by the other never ceases. The one never leads to the acceptance of gospel mercy; the other always does. The sorrow of the one leads to remorse and ends in death; the sorrow of the other leads to godly repentance and works out salvation. The one merely restrains the natural conscience from the paralysis of its functions by sin, when the restraining influences of the Holy Spirit enable it to do its work; the other is the gift of Christ, the Prince and Saviour exalted to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through the agency of the Spirit, and is the exercise of a regenerate heart.
The fundamental notion of all repentance is change of mind. If it is real repentance of the heart, it is necessarily a change of the heart in relation to sin. Prior to a real change of heart from the love of sin to honest hatred of it, all exercises of sorrow for sin are selfish; they are the kind of sorrow that works death. This selfish sorrow, from natural conviction, under gospel influences, is not useless, as it always precedes genuine repentance and tends
1An edited extract from The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Vaughan (1827-1911) succeeded Robert L Dabney as a professor of theology in Virginia, USA.
to lead to it, but it is dangerous and misleading to speak of persons in this state of mind as penitents; they are more properly designated as “mourners” or “seekers” or “inquirers”.
False repentance only seeks to comply with the terms of grace in order to escape destruction. True repentance is repentance for sin and wages war on it in all its known forms, “to escape its pollution as well as its danger”. False repentance may lead sometimes to the repair of wrongs and the restitution of injuries, under stress of remorse and as an inducement to mercy; but it is all selfish. True repentance leads to restitution, because it is just to do so, and because it has learned to abhor the crime which has injured others.
False repentance seeks reform in the inward parts, whenever it does seek it, but merely as the recognised path away from peril. True repentance leads to a habitual and eager purification in all areas of life, not only because it is essential to safety, but because it has learned to abhor the law of sin in the members. Paul said of it: “What carefulness it wrought in you; yea, what zeal, yea, what indignation, yea, what revenge!” It leads to a universal and permanent reform of heart and life. Not discouraged by a thousand failures and falls, weeping and ashamed of its lack of fidelity in duty, the grace-supported heart of a true penitent sends back evermore the heroic battle-cry of the weary but unconquered soldier of Christ: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy”; though I weep, I shall rejoice; though I am weak, yet am I strong; though I sit in darkness, the light shall arise unto me; though I fall, I shall rise again; though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. True repentance leads to life eternal.