REPENTANCE

(2nd Cor. 6:9–11)

To understand the true scope of this passage, we must bear in mind that it forms part of an apostolic letter to an early Christian Church, whose members had not long emerged from idolatry, with its attendant vices, and amongst whom, when Paul departed from them, various evils and abuses sprang up. To correct these, and to re-state in the clearest terms the Gospel which he had at first delivered to them, the Apostle had written his First Epistle to the Corinian Church - a letter full of faithful reproof, but couched in terms of tender affection and solicitude; and its reception, by God’s blessing, led to the most salutary effects, causing the people to thoroughly arouse from the sinful sleep into which they had fallen, and put away from them both the practice and the persons who had become stumbling blocks to them: they had sorrowed with a godly sorrow, had truly repented of the evils into which they had fallen, and it was now the Apostle’s glad task to administer words of comfort and healing, alike to those who had suffered and to those who had at first done the wrong, but for which they now sincerely sorrowed and were forgiven. God over-rules all things for His own glory and His people’s good, and it is deeply interesting to note how the 12th. of the First Epistle brings out the sweet grand truth, that just as the Lord Jesus is the Head of His Church, so all His people are membes one of another, sharing each other’s joys and sorrows, honour and humiliation - a forceful argument for pressing home on each of us the importance of godly jealousy and care in all our ways, since none of us live or die to ourselves; and it should ever be our aim to remove, and not put occasions of grief or stumbling in one another’s way; and for Christ’s sake, even more than for the sake of His people, we are to abstain from every form of evil.

Repentance means change of mind; a change of heart is the cause and a change of conduct the effect of Gospel repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and repentance, like conversion, is a repeated act of the believing mind. Whenever false steps are taken, unwise words uttered, or wrong feelings cherished, the need for repentance arises; and the strong terms employed in our test show how earnest and emphatic true repentance is - indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge, are the terms employed to set forth the agitation and activity of godly sorrow to right wrongs, remove grievance, and clear away reproaches. But the source of repentance in its later stages is the same as in its very earliest development; Jesus, as God’s exalted Prince and Saviour, gives it by His Spirit, the goodness of the Lamb of God makes it “unto salvation” an acceptable and effectual grace. As Toplady sings— “Not the labours of my hands

Can fulfil Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.”

Repentance has been beautifully described as “the eye of faith filled with tears”; and as Hart says — “Wheresoever faith is strong, Repentance is so too.”

They who are forgiven much, love much; and they who most fully realize the tender mercy of God, will the most heartily acknowledge their own unworthiness and shortcomings.

Light makes manifest, and the light of God’s counterance makes sin exceedingly sinful in our esteem, and effectually weans the heart from its love, while it destroys its power.

And it is unto salvation, because the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin, and His grace heals and raises up the contrite and the broken hearted; in all respects the sorrow of the world worketh death, but life abundant, everlasting life, flows from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The Gospel holds forth the glorious prospect that soon, and for ever, all who love Him shall be like their Lord, perfect, pure, and spotless; and “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure,” never resting, never satisfied with what has been attained, but pressing onward, ever onward, towards the heavenly goal. So we may run that we may obtain; and, guarded and sustained by almighty grace, may we live as those who know that they are not their own, but His who redeemed them with His own precious blood, till we join the spotless throng on high, and sing, “Worthy the Lamb, who has delivered us from all iniquity, and made us kings and priests unto God.” Amen.

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