Westminster Confession of Faith 15.1-6
I. Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ.
II. By it, 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.
III. Although repentance is not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Christ, yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it.
IV. As there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.
V. Men ought not to content themselves with general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly.
VI. As every man is bound to make private confession of his sins to God, praying for the pardon thereof; upon which, and the forsaking of them, he shall find mercy; so he that scandelizeth his brother, or the Church of Christ, ought to be willing, by a private or public confession and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those that are offended; who are thereupon to be reconciled to him, and in love to receive him.
Summary
Repentance is a grace of God. It is a gift. What does it mean? The Westminster Divines were a little wordy in section 2, but the gist of repentance is that it is a turning. In repentance, a sinner turns from his sins, and turns to God. Repentance is not true repentance if only done out of a sense and sight of the danger of sin, but also the filthiness and odiousness of sin. In other words, repentance isn't legitimate if you are only scared of hell. True repentance means turning from sin, not just to escape punishment, but because you actually see sin for its true ugliness and are rightly repelled away from it. It's like when a kid gets caught doing something wrong and says "Sorry", and his mom asks, "Are you sorry for what you've done, or are you sorry you got caught?" Repentance is not legitimate if it is only done because you "got caught", but it must be done because you see sin as being truly evil, ugly, and revolting.
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| Nathaniel rebukes King David for his sins. David responded with true repentance, seen in Psalm 51. |
Repentance doesn't earn God's mercy, in the same way that faith doesn't earn justification. But repentance, like faith, is the channel, the instrument whereby we lay hold on something. We use faith to grasp justification. We use repentance to lay hold on God's mercies. And, because God's mercies are deep, wide, and strong, we know that no sin is "unrepentable". The only unforgivable sin, according to Matthew 12:31, is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. If you look at the context of that passage it becomes clear that what this means is a person sees the works of God through the Holy Spirit, but they attribute it to demonic activity. In other words, they see what God is doing, but refuse to repent. The unforgivable sin is portrayed in Revelation 9:20-21, "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."
True repentance is radical, life-changing. It means not just admitting that we are sinners, but being real with ourselves and others about the specific ways we sin. One way that we often try to skirt repentance is a cheap, general acknowledgment of our fallen nature. "Of course I make mistakes. Nobody's perfect," we might tell ourselves, or others. But true repentance doesn't just see and acknowledge sin as a general state of affairs; it sees and acknowledges the specific ways that we sin against God and others, and it specifically repents from and hates those sins. We never sin against God and others in vague generalities; we always sin against them in specific ways. We must repent for those specific sins, not simply the fallen state of being a sinner.
True repentance is radical, life-changing. It means not just admitting that we are sinners, but being real with ourselves and others about the specific ways we sin. One way that we often try to skirt repentance is a cheap, general acknowledgment of our fallen nature. "Of course I make mistakes. Nobody's perfect," we might tell ourselves, or others. But true repentance doesn't just see and acknowledge sin as a general state of affairs; it sees and acknowledges the specific ways that we sin against God and others, and it specifically repents from and hates those sins. We never sin against God and others in vague generalities; we always sin against them in specific ways. We must repent for those specific sins, not simply the fallen state of being a sinner.
+ Blessings in Christ +
