Repentance. I have not really thought of it as a command, but scripture speaks of it this way. God always commands things with the intention of our freedom. His commandments are good and right and healing. The wisdom of Spurgeon, in his sermon “Faith and Repentance Inseprable,” brings clarity to a familiar word. He reforms and redefines and corrects the false ideas around the critical topic of repentance. Too often our minds check out and go numb to critical and evaluative thinking. Those who have been in the “Christian” world for many years simply stop thinking. If we are not careful and proactive about study, meditations and reflection, we will stop growing. In summary, we have forgotten about the necessity of repentance, and the gift of grace it is to us.
Spurgeon explains the meaning he extracts from the Greek word for repentance used in Scripture. The Greek actually has two words for repentance, one is less intense, “changing your mind,” and one the other is more thought-provoking. This definition is very helpful to our understanding the critical nature of repentance. It means “aftercare,” which is linked to the idea of sorrow or anxiety. The unrepentant heart is an anxious heart. By definition this is a heart full, and stuffed with angst and dark splinters, slowly hardening and missing out on the healing, unlocking power of grace. Spurgeon actually speaks of repentance as, “a blessed grace of the Holy Spirit.” A Grace. Reflection surfaces the question, “How is repentance a gift of grace?” The truth is, it is wrenching to think about my offenses. However, I long to consider how this is true and seek to measure the insights and confident statements of Charles Spurgeon.
There are two closely linked means of missing out on grace. One Spurgeon mentions first is to have the subtle mentality that these sins, these depressing and shameful sins, are beyond the pardon of God. This temptation is very real. In essence Spurgeon names this approach to sin a “sin” in and of itself. I do not usually think of this as sin...but with more contemplation it makes sense: If I weigh my sins as too big and too offensive and too overwhelming, I am making the cross small and the blood of Jesus impotent. God makes a promise to take all sin and cast it as far as the east is from the west, to forgive it and erase it and even use it for my personal redemption. With an honest look at such sins, I struggle deeply to believe the punishment for my sin is paid for. These sins carry with them a burdensome weight of consequence. How, in the name of justice and common sense, can they be pardoned? This is grace. This is the gift forgotten, misunderstood, and dismissed. A costly gift we daily set aside.
Spurgeon describes this thought in a way only he can, “[Jesus] can save you; be you as black as hell he can save you; and it is a wicked falsehood, and a high insult against the majesty of divine love when you are tempted to believe that you are past the mercy of God.”
The other angle of repentance that he addresses in his sermon is also quite tempting to settle into and takes the previous point to another level. All too often we find ourselves living in the despair that results from sin which essentially hardens the heart. Here is a hopelessness that takes root and begins to twist a life into a state of isolation from God and the grace He gives. In many ways, it “feels” right to despair and to sit locked in the dark room of my consequences. It “feels” right to have deep regret and misery. But too much despair leads to a resignation, a throwing in the towel. On the other hand, true repentance brings a softening of the heart, not hardening it with fear, angst, or hopelessness. These are natural responses to offending or hurting, so they seem “right.” But Spurgeon describes it this way,
If they could once get the thought that God would forgive them, their hearts would flow in rivers of repentance; but no; they feel a kind of regret that they did wrong, but yet they go on in it all the same, feeling that there is no hope, and that they may as well continue to live as they were, and get the pleasures of sin since they cannot, as they think, have the pleasures of grace. Now that is not repentance. It is a fire that hardens, and not the Lord’s fire which melts...
This is how I live my life. Desperation and hopelessness follow like a shadow behind me and sometimes in front of me. But always near. I am attached to the regret of my sin, but I am failing to dwell in the freedom and grace of forgiveness. Repent and rejoice. These two are linked and produce true repentance in the heart. Regret feels right, and initially is healthy. But it cannot stay in that place or despondency sets in. It is all too common, and one of Satan’s goals, to keep one stuck in the destructive patterns of sin since lines have already been crossed. But here is the neglect of grace. The dismissal of the greatest gift of freedom. This is the failure to rejoice in the power of the cross. A slap in the face. A sin of the worst kind. Making the cross small, insignificant and pointless. To keep on sinning, to stop fighting, to embrace and get comfortable with dark pleasure is to cheapen grace and live in bondage. This is a crisis, a failure of belief that this gift is real and effective for change and hope.
Repentance unlocks the chains around our souls. Seems strange and backwards at first thought. Seems easier to ignore sin, pretend that it didn’t happen, or resign to its power. I always thought that would be freedom. But grace comes in strange ways and unexpectedly. Grace falls on us by the acknowledgement, confession, and sorrow over sin. Here is where we not only realize how valuable the cross is, but also what it means that Jesus takes it, and tosses it so very far away. Gone. Not stuffed down and left dark and festering. Gone. Forgotten. Freedom; a true freedom. Pretending that these offenses are not inside us, does not make them disappear. Instead they simply stay hidden, and grow in power. We turn the other way while they wrap themselves around our souls. So He commands us to repent. He commands this simply because He loves us so. Let the sins that easily weigh us down and harden our hearts be extracted from the deepest places within us. Lay them before the Healer and Forgiver, let Him take them and toss them.
Let Him anoint you with grace.
