4. PERSONAL WORSHIP of THE GODHEAD
4.4.1b – 4.4.2e2f5.
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4.4.1b. The Greek word
more frequently used in the New Testament
for repentance is metanoia,
which signifies an “after understanding”,
or “after knowledge”;
as when a man takes into serious consideration a
fact after it is committed, and thinks otherwise of it, and wishes he
had not done it, is sorry for it, and resolves, through the grace of
God, to forsake such practices; this is a proof of a man’s wisdom and
understanding; now he begins to be wise, and to show himself an
understanding man; even an heathen [6] could say, “Repentance is the
beginning of wisdom, and an avoiding of foolish works and words, and
the first preparation to a life not to be repented of.”
It is a change of the mind for the better, and which produces change of
action and conduct: this, as it is expressive of true repentance, flows
from the understanding being enlightened by the Spirit of God, when the
sinner beholds sin in another light it did, even as exceeding sinful;
and loathes it, and abhors it and himself for it.
There is another word the Greeks use for repentance, metameleia,
and though the noun is not used in the New Testament,
the verb is (Matthew 21:29, 32),
and
signifies a care and anxiety of mind after a fact is committed, a
concern with sorrow that it should be done, and a care for the future
not to do it again; hence the apostle, among the genuine fruits of
godly sorrow for sin, mentions this in the first place,
“What caution it worked in you”,
not to offend more (2 Cor. 7:11).
It also signifies a change of mind and conduct,
as appears from (Matthew 21:29),
a penitent sinner has another notion of sin than he had; before
it was a sweet morsel, now a bitter and evil thing; before his heart
was bent upon it, now determined through divine grace to forsake it,
and cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart.
4.4.1c. Thirdly, The Latins generally express repentance
by “poenitentia”,
from “poena” punishment;
hence our English word “penitence”,
( and the popish “penance”), which is a sort of corporal punishment for sin
inflicted on the body by fastings, scourgings, pilgrimages, etc., but
true penitence lies not in these things, but is rather an inward
punishment of the mind, when a man is so displeased with himself for
what he has done, and so severely reflects upon himself for it, that he
takes as it were a kind of vengeance on himself within himself, which
are the lashes of conscience; [7]
so the apostle observes of godly sorrow,
“What indignation, yes what revenge”
it wrought in you, as in the above quoted place;
and this inward revenge is sometimes expressed
by outward gestures, as by smiting upon the thigh, and upon the breast
(Jer. 31:19; Luke 18:13).
There is another word which the Latins use for repentance,
“resipiscentia”, which signifies a man’s being wise again, a coming to
his wits, to his senses again. [8]
Lactantius [9] explains it of the recovery of a man’s mind
from a state of insanity; a man, while he is
in an unconverted and impenitent state, is not himself, he is not in
his right mind; not only his foolish heart is darkened, and he is
without understanding, and to do good has no knowledge, but
“madness”
is
“in his heart while he lives”
in such a state; every act of sin is
not only folly but madness,
as all acts of hostility committed against God,
which sins are, must needs be;
“the man that
lived among the tombs”
(Mark 5:1-20),
is a fit emblem of such persons: now when an
impenitent sinner becomes penitent, he may be said to
“come to himself”,
as the prodigal did (Luke 15:17),
so the apostle Paul before conversion was exceeding mad against the saints,
and thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus;
but when he was converted he was recovered from his insanity,
and appeared sober and in his right mind, and said,
“Lord, what would You have me to do?”
when a sinner is truly convinced of sin, and thoroughly humbled for it, and
has repentance unto life given him, and a comfortable application of
the blood and righteousness of Christ unto him for his pardon and
justification, and his mind is become sedate, serene and quiet, the man
who before was mad, is an emblem of him, when he was seen
“sitting clothed and in his right mind”
(Mark 5:15).
4.1d. Fourthly, the word “contrition”,
or brokenness of mind,
is sometimes used for repentance,
and there is some foundation for it in the word of God;
we often read of a contrite heart and spirit;
David says he was
“feeble and sore broken”
(Ps. 38:8),
which seems to be
under a sense of sin: a man’s heart is naturally hard, as hard as the
nether millstone, and therefore called a
“stony heart”,
and such an one is an impenitent one; hence hardness, and an impenitent heart,
are put together,
as designing the same thing (Rom. 2:5).
The word of God is made use of to break it in pieces,
“is not My Word-
-like a hammer
to break the rock in pieces?”
that is, to make the heart contrite, which
is like to a rock, and whereby it becomes soft and tender, as Joshuah’s
was, like an heart of flesh, susceptible of serious impressions, and of
a true sense of things; and though this contrition of heart seems to be
a work of the law, by which is the knowledge of sin, and which works
wrath in the conscience on account of it, smites and cuts and wounds
it; yet hereby it is prepared to receive the benefit of the gospel,
by which the Lord
“heals the broken in heart,
and binds up their wounds”
(Ps. 147:3; Isa. 61:1).
However, great notice is taken of men of
contrite hearts and spirits; the sacrifices of such hearts are
acceptable to God; he looks unto, is nigh unto, and dwells with those
who are of such a spirit and saves them
(Ps. 51:17; 34:18; Isa. 57:15; 66:2),
besides the heart may be broken, made soft and melted down as
much or more under a sense of pardoning grace displayed in the gospel,
than under a sense of wrath through the threatening
and terrors of the law.
4.1e. Fifthly, repentance is expressed by sorrow for sin.
“My sorrow
is continually before me”,
says David,
“I will be sorry for my sin”
(Ps.38:17, 18),
and which is signified not by outward gestures, not by
rending garments, but by rending the heart (Joel 2:13), it is a felt
pain and inward sorrow of the heart for sin,
and what the apostle calls a sorrow
“after a godly sort”,
kata theon,
“after God”,
which is according to the mind and will of God; and because of sin committed
against God, a God of love, grace, and mercy, and which springs from
love to God and hatred of sin, and is attended with faith in God, as a
God pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, for Christ’s sake;
but of this more hereafter.
4.2. The Nature
and Kinds of Repentance.
( Not to take notice of the penance of the Papists,
which lies in punishing their bodies, as before observed;
and in men making themselves, or in others making them,
public examples in such a way;
which though it may be called
“repentance before men”,
it is not Repentance towards God
AND MAY BE AN ETERNAL MISTAKE
TO WHOM IS THIS IMPORTANT TO FIND OUT ABOUT FOR SURE ?
YOU.
nor does it answer the end vainly intended by it,
of making Satisfaction for sin;)
External reformation of life and manners
Repentance in the sight of God.
Men may be outwardly reformed, as the Pharisees were, and yet not
repent of their sins, as they did not
(Matthew 21:32; 23:28),
and after such an external reformation men may return to their former sinful
course of life, and their last end be worse than the beginning;
besides there may be true repentance for sin where there is no time and
opportunity for reformation, or showing forth a reformation of life and
manners, as in the thief upon the cross and others, who are brought to
repentance on their death beds; and reformation of life and manners,
when it is best and most genuine, is the fruit and effect of
repentance, and a bringing forth fruits meet for it,
as evidences of it, and so distinct from that itself.
4.2a. First, there is a natural repentance,
or what is directed to by the
light of nature, and the dictates of a natural conscience; for as there
was in the heathens, and so is in every natural man, a knowledge of
good and evil, of the difference in some respects between moral good
and evil, and a conscience which, when it does its office, approves of
what is well done, and accuses for that which is ill;
so when conscience charges a man with doing an ill thing,
and he is convinced of it,
the light of nature and conscience direct him to wish he had not
done it, and to repent of it, and to endeavor for the future to avoid
it; as may be seen in the case of the Ninevites, who being threatened
with the destruction of their city for their sins, proclaimed a fast,
and issued out an order that everyone should turn from his evil ways,
in hope that the wrath of God would be averted from them,
though they could not be fully assured of it.
The Gentiles laid great stress upon their repentance
to conciliate the favor of God unto them; for they
thought this made complete satisfaction for their sins, and wiped them
clean, so that they imagined they were almost if not altogether pure
and innocent: [10] there is a repentance which the goodness of God in
providence might or should lead men unto, which yet it does not, but
after their hardness and impenitent heart treasure up wrath against the
day of wrath, and righteous judgment of God
(Rom. 2:4, 5).
4.2b. Secondly, There is a national repentance,
such as the Jews in Babylon were called into,
to which temporal blessings were promised,
and a deliverance from temporal calamities; as on the one hand, a
living in their own land, and a comfortable enjoyment of good things in
it; and on the other hand, captivity,
and all the distresses of it threatened;
“Repent, and turn yourselves
from your transgressions,
so
iniquity shall not be your ruin”
(Ezekiel 18:30-32),
and which has no
connection with the special grace of God,
and with spiritual and everlasting things.
The same people were called to repent of their
Pharisaism, of their disbelief of the Messiah, and other evil works;
and were told that the men of Nineveh would rise up in judgment and
condemn them, who repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and yet a greater than Jonah, even Christ himself,
called them to repentance
(Matthew 12:41).
The same people were called upon by the apostles of Christ to
repent of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, and to turn unto
him, and to save themselves from temporal ruin, which for their
impenitence and unbelief came upon their nation, city,
and temple
(Acts 3:19).
4.2c. Thirdly, there is an external repentance,
or an outward humiliation for sin,
such as was in Ahab,
which, though nothing more,
it was taken notice of by the Lord,
“See how Ahab
humbles himself
before Me?”
and though it lay only in rending his clothes, and putting on
sackcloth, and in fasting, and in a mournful way, yet the Lord was
pleased to promise that the evil threatened should not come in his days
(1 Kings 21:29).
And such is the repentance Tyre and Sidon would have
exercised, had they had the advantages and privileges that some cities
had, where Christ taught his doctrines, and wrought miracles; and of
this kind was the repentance of the Ninevites which was regarded of God
(Matthew 11:21; 12:41).
4.2d. Fourthly, there is an hypocritical repentance,
such as was in the people of Israel in the wilderness,
who when the wrath of God broke out
against them for their sins, “returned” unto him, or repented, but
“their heart was not right with him”
(Ps 78:34-37),
so it is said of Judah, she
“has not turned to Me
with her whole heart,
but
feignly, said the Lord”;
and of Ephraim, or the ten tribes,
“they return, but not to the Most High,
they are like a deceitful bow”
(Hosea 7:16),
who turned aside and dealt unfaithfully.
4.2e. Fifthly, there is a legal Repentance
and there is a SPIRITUAL Repentance.
4.2e1. There is a legal Repentance,
which is a mere work of the law,
and the effect of convictions of sin by it,
which in time wear off and come to nothing;
because,
4.2e1a. There may be a sense of sin
and an acknowledgment of it,
and yet
no true repentance for it,
as in the cases of Pharaoh and of Judas, who both said,
“I have sinned”
(Ex. 9:27; Matthew 27:4),
yet they had no true sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
nor godly sorrow for it.
4.2e1b. There may be a kind of sorrow for it,
not for the evil of fault that is in sin,
but on account of the evil of punishment for it,
as
appears in some cases, and in Cain’s
(Gen. 4:13).
4.2e1c. There may be a great deal of terror of mind because of sin,
a great outcry about it, a fearful looking for of judgment for it,
abundance of tears shed on the account of it,
as were shed by Esau for the blessing, without success;
The devils believe
and tremble,
but do not repent; [11]
There are weeping
and wailing in hell,
but no repentance.
4.2e1d. Such a repentance, if no more than a mere legal one,
issues in despair,
as in Cain, whose words may be rendered,
“My sin
is greater than that
it may be forgiven”;
it is a repentance that may be repented of
and is not unto ETERNAL life, but ends in death, as it did in Judas; it is
“the sorrow of the world
which works death”
(2 Cor. 7:10).
4.2e2. There is an SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE, which exists.
4.2e2a. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE
has a true sight and sense of sins;
in a sight of sin, as in itself considered as exceeding sinful
in its own nature,
and not merely as in its effects and consequences ruinous and destructive;
not only in a sight of it in the glass of the Divine Law, but as that is held in the
hand, and seen in the light of the Blessed Spirit; and in a sight of it
as contrary to the Pure and Holy Nature of God, as well as repugnant to
His Will, and a breach of His Law; and in a view of it as it appears in
the glass of Pardoning Love and Grace.
4.2e2b. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE has a hearty
and unfeigned sorrow for sin;
This sorrow for sin is the rather because sin is against God,
and that sin is not only against GOD
as a Holy and Righteous Being,
but as a Good, and Gracious, and Merciful god,
of Whose Goodness, both in Providence and Grace,
the sinner is sensible;
the consideration of which increases his sorrow,
and makes it the more intense and hearty.
4.2e2c. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is attended with shame
and confusion of face,
as in Ezra 9:6, 8, 10 and Luke 18:13
this shame increases the more, the more a sinner
is sensible that God is
“pacified towards him
for all that he has done”
(Ezek. 16:63).
4.2e2d. Such a SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is accompanied
with a loathing, detestation,
and abhorrence of sin as the worst of evils;
to truly penitent sinners sin appears most odious and loathsome;
no they not only loath their sins but themselves for them,
and the rather when most sensible of the goodness of God
in bestowing both temporal and spiritual blessings on them,
and especially the latter (Ezek. 20:40-44; 36:25-31),
yes they abhor it as of all things the most detestable, when they are in the
exercise of this grace; so it was with holy Job, when favored with a
special sight of the greatness and goodness of God
(Job 42:6; Isa.6:5).
4.2e2e. Where this SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is
there is an ingenuous acknowledgment of sin,
as may be seen in David
(Ps. 32:5; 51:3 in Dan. 9:4, 5),
and in the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 1:13-15),
so the prodigal, as soon as he came to himself,
and was made sensible of his sin, and repented of it,
went to his father, and said to him,
“Father, I have sinned
against heaven
and in Your Sight”
(Luke 15:21),
and to encourage such a sincere
repentance and ingenuous confession, the apostle John says,
“If we confess our sins,
He is Faithful
and Just
to Forgive us our sins,
and
to Cleanse us
from all unrighteousness”
(1 John 1:9).
4.2e2f. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is followed with a resolution,
through the grace of God, to forsake sin;
this the sinner is encouraged unto, as before observed, by
the abundance of pardon through the mercy of God in Christ (Isa. 55:7),
and indeed it is only such who can expect to share in it;
“Whoever confesses (sins)
and forsakes them,
Will have Mercy”
(Prov. 28:13).
Now such a repentance appears to be evangelical;
inasmuch, as
4.2e2f1. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is from the Spirit of God,
Who reproves for sin and convinces of it,
enlightens the eyes of the understanding to see the exceeding
sinfulness of sin; and as a Spirit of grace and supplication works this
grace in the heart, and draws it forth into exercise, to mourn over sin
in a gospel manner at the throne of grace (Zech. 12:10).
4.2e2f2. Such SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE, in the exercise of it,
follows upon real Conversion and Divine Instruction,
“Surely after that
I was turned
I repented,
and after that
I was instructed,
I smote on my thigh”
(Jer. 31:19)
upon such a turn as is made by Powerful and Efficacious Grace,
and upon such Instruction as Leads into the true nature of sin,
the effect of which is blushing shame and confusion.
4.2e2f3. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is what is Encouraged
and Influenced by Gospel Promises,
such as these in (Isa. 55:7; Jer. 3:12, 13),
now when repentance proceeds not
upon the terrors of the law, but upon such gracious promises as these,
it may be called evangelical.
4.2e2f4. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is that
which is attended with faith and hope:
Repentance towards God,
and Faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ,
go together as Doctrines,
and so they do as Graces; which is first in exercise is not
easy to say; our Lord says of the Pharisees, that they
“repented not,
that they might believe”,
which looks as if repentance was before and
in order to believing
(Matthew 21:32),
and elsewhere Faith is represented as first looking to Christ,
and then Repentance or mourning for sin;
Repentance, as some have expressed it,
is a tear that drops from faith’s eye
(Zech. 12:10).
However, that is truly evangelical repentance
which has with it Faith in the Blood of Christ for the remission of sins;
for Repentance and Remission of sins,
as they go together as Doctrines,
so also as Blessings of Grace
(Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31),
for where true Repentance for sin is,
there must be Faith in Christ for the Remission of it,
at least Hope of Pardon by His Blood,
or else such Repentance would issue in despair,
and appear to be no other than the sorrow of the world
which works death.
4.2e2f5. SPIRITUAL REPENTANCE is such a Repentance
which flows not from dread of punishment,
and from Fear of the Wrath of God, but from Love to God,
and of Righteousness and Holiness, and from an Hatred of sin;
They that love the Lord hate evil, and they love righteousness and hate evil
because he does; and when tempted to sin reason after this manner,
“How can I do
this great wickedness,
and sin against God”,
so holy just, and good, and who has shown such love and kindness to me?
(Gen. 39:9),
It was love to Christ, flowing from a sense of pardoning grace and mercy,
that fetched such a flood of tears from the eyes of the penitent woman
at Christ’s feet, with which she washed them, and wiped them with the
hairs of her head; and which caused Peter, under a sense of sin,
to go out and weep bitterly
(Luke 7:37, 38, 47; 22:61, 62).
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PLEASE SEE COMPLETE TEACHING HERE:
on
TURNING FROM SIN
in
REPENTANCE TOWARDS GOD
*****
Adapted from
THE JOHN GILL, DOCTOR of DIVINITY
ARCHIVE
THE BODY of DOCTRINAL DIVINITY,
THE BODY of PRACTICAL DIVINITY
&
EXPOSITION of The BIBLE
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Aware of The Godhead 