REPENTANCE WHAT IS IT?

God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent, because He has set a day in which He is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the Man whom He has appointed. (Acts 17:30=31)

REPENTANCE WHAT IS IT?

First it may be well to observe what repentance is not. Repentance is neither penitence – simple sorrow for sin – nor an attempt to atone to some way for wrong done, nor reformation – an attempt to replace bad habits with good ones. Repentance is a complete reversal of attitude. To repent is to change one’s attitude toward self, toward sin, toward God, and toward Christ. John came preaching “Repent” to those who recognized themselves as sinners, and “Change your attitude” to the haughty scribes and legalistic Pharisees (Matthew 3:2,7-11). Our Lord Jesus proclaims to everyone, “If ye repent not, ye shall all perish” (Luke 13:3,5). True repentance implies that the pleasure lover see and confess the folly of his or her empty life: that the self-judgment learn to hate the passions that express the corruption of his or her nature; that the self-righteous see themselves as condemned sinners in the sight of a holy God; and that all own their need of a Redeemer, and accept Jesus as their own Redeemer, thus obtaining life and salvation.

To come right out and state frankly, “I am  guilty and lost” is not easy, but it is the prelude to life and peace.  It is not a question of a certain depth of grief and sorrow, but simple recognition and acknowledgement of need and a turning to Christ to meet that need. None can perish who put their trust in Him. His grace super-abounds all our sin, and His expiatory work on the cross is so infinitely precious to God that is fully meets all our uncleanness and guilt.

H.A. Ironside