Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

God’s word to the peoples of the world is not only an offer of grace, nor even less simply a call to live rightly, nor even less still a promise to make all our dreams come true if we just have faith. We have not heard all that God wants to say to us unless we have heard his command to repent.

Ezekiel said “Repent and turn from your transgressions” (Ezek. 18:30).  John the Baptist said “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2).  Jesus said “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  Peter said “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38).  And Paul said God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

Repentance has never been easy. No one likes to be told “Die to yourself.  Kill that in you.  Admit you are wrong and change.”  That’s never been an easy sell. It’s much easier to get a crowd by leaving out the repentance part of faith, but it’s not faithful. It’s not even Christianity. Of course, there is a whole lot more to following Jesus than repentance, but it’s certainly not less.  “Repent,” Jesus said, or “you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5).    Continue at Kevin De Young

True Repentance and Its Counterfeits — William S. Plumer

True repentance is a special mercy from God. He gives it. It comes from none other. It is impossible for poor fallen nature so far to recover herself by her own strength, as truly to repent. The heart is wedded to its own ways, and justifies its own sinful courses with incurable obstinacy, until divine grace makes the change. No motives to good, are strong enough to overcome depravity in the natural heart of man. If ever we attain this grace, it must be through the great love of God to perishing men. . .

 

But what is true repentance? This is a question of the highest importance. It deserves our closest attention. The following is probably as good a definition as has yet been given. “Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, whereby a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God, and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments.”. . .

True repentance is sorrow for sin, ending in reformation. Mere regret is not repentance neither is mere outward reformation. It is not an imitation of virtue, it is virtue itself. Hooker says, “Is it not clear that as an inordinate delight did first begin sin, so repentance must begin with a just sorrow, a sorrow of heart, and such a sorrow as rends the heart; neither a feigned ¹ nor a slight sorrow; not feigned ¹, lest it increase sin; nor slight, lest the pleasures of sin overmatch it.”  Continue at Eric T. Young

Worldly Grief

Tell Him All Your Sorrows