REPENTANCE GOD AND MAN

As you can see by now, either I am very verbose or confusing. I keep writing about repentance and each time I seem to take the doctrine in a little different direction. Am I changing views or am I simply unsure of what repentance really is? So let me say that what I DO believe is that repentance is a very complex doctrine that can only be fully understood by looking at it in a variety of different ways much as one would look at a beautiful diamond to behold its fully glory. In the last post we made the point that repentance is a gift of God that comes from one’s faith in Jesus Christ. This is a truth from which the author will not run. If ‘salvation is of the Lord’, then repentance which is a component of salvation must be of the Lord also. From this truth let us never shrink back. However this truth comes loaded with a danger. The truth that spiritual realities are gifts from the Lord can be interpreted to mean that the Lord is both the creator of the gift AND the means by which the gift is applied. Now this is true for many of the salvation doctrines. Election, for example, is a work ordained by the Lord and brought to reality in His own power. Man has absolutely nothing to do with his election by God. In election God not only pays the entire bill and is also the One who writes the check and delivers the funds to its intended destination. Man has nothing to do with his own election by God. There are a host of other doctrines, however, in which God uses means to complete them. Such is the case with repentance. God pays the bill, that is he provides all that is necessary for repentance to take place — the energy, the grace, the circumstantial events —, but He then ordains certain means to accomplish His plan. Repentance is one of those activities in the life of the Christian whereby human means must be employed for its accomplishment. It’s still all of God but He chooses to use means to bring them to pass. When a fisherman goes out on the sea to fish he does all the work in planning, buying the tackle, choosing the spot, executing the skill of casting etc. Yet he still uses the fishing pole to catch a fish. Is fishing the sole work of the fisherman? Indeed it is. But the fisherman uses means to accomplish his goal. And the means to not detract from him being the sole author of the process. So it is with repentance. God uses means to perfect repentance in the life of the Christian. For example in one of the great ‘repentance’ sections of the New Testament, the 7th chapter of Second Corinthians, we find this to be the very case. Paul has been speaking on the change of heart by the Corinthian Church toward him. This change of heart Paul calls ‘repentance’ (2 Cor 7:9). Paul then goes on, ‘For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter’ (2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Paul says that the repentance that gives life is evidenced by the normal operations of the human will. Paul says their repentance was evidenced by ‘indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and punishment of the wrong.’ In other words God worked a mighty work of repentance in the hearts of the Corinthians toward Paul and this work was highly visible and very human. A complementary verse is found in Philippians 2:12. Though the text is not directly related to repentance it does lay out the general pattern of God in the accomplishment of anything in the Christian’s sanctification. He commands the church simply ‘to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.’ On the face that verse sounds very Pelagian (man has the ability to save himself). But when you link it with the next verse you see it is anything but Pelagian. Paul goes on, ‘for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ The will of the Christian in any aspect of sanctification (which repentance is a part) is energized and grounded in the prevenient work of God. God, has performed the great gospel truths on His own, (the cross, predestination, election, calling, etc.) and to apply them he chooses to work in every believer to do His will, that is, God chooses to employ means. Thus the plan of God in sanctification does not bypass human effort but includes it. Now of course we know that because God uses the human will to accomplish sanctification the process will be far from perfect. The Christian still has elements of death influencing His soul and the will is often tainted by it. This means sanctification, including the doctrine of repentance, progresses in the believer inch by inch. But here again God employs other means to help the believer along in this slow and steady progression. He has provided many things so as to bring repentance to maturity (which will never be complete in this life). He uses the Bible, the gift of prayer, service, fellowship in the body, the sacraments and other things to help the Christian on his journey toward repentance. Thus we argue that repentance is a work of God but it is also a vital work of man. God is the outfitter giving to the Christian all that is needed for his perfection, but God also provides means to which the believer must avail himself in order to achieve the goal. So then repentance is not a totally passive activity. It requires human response. This is why the Bible frequently commands men to repent (Acts 2:38; 17:30). But the command can only be attained in those in whom a prevenient work of God has already taken place. Repentance rests on the work of God which is its sufficient cause. It also rests on the work of man which is necessary but not of itself sufficient. This is the great mystery of repentance. And this is why it is not a doctrine easily grasped by the human mind. But over time as the believer repents, he will slowly repent of his former views of the doctrine and become more and more in conformity to the divine will. Repentance of our former views of repentance is part of the Christian journey and is a beautiful thing indeed. Amen.