CLEARLY as the Scriptures teach that whosoever believes shall be saved, they teach no less clearly that except we repent we shall all perish. These graces are not only alike indispensable, but they cannot exist separately. Repentance is a turning from sin unto God, through Jesus Christ, and faith is the acceptance of Christ in order to our return to God. Repentance is the act of a believer; and faith is the act of a penitent. So that whoever believes repents; and whoever repents believes.
The primary and simple meaning of the word commonly used in the New Testament to express the idea of repentance, is a change of mind, as the result of reflection. In this sense, it is said, There is no repentance with God. He is not a man that he should repent. In the same sense it is said, that Esau found no place for repentance, when he was unable to effect a change in the determination of his father. In the ordinary religious sense of the term, it is a turning from sin unto God. This is the account commonly given of it in the word of God. I thought upon my ways, said the Psalmist, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.1 When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness, that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.2 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.3 And Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, said, If the people shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried away captives, and shall repent and make supplication unto thee, saying, We have sinned and done perversely, we have committed wickedness, and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul; then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause.4 To repent, then, is to turn from sin unto God. But as there is a repentance which has no connexion with salvation, it becomes us to search the Scriptures that we may learn the characteristics of that repentance which is unto life.
As conviction of sin is an essential part of repentance and as that point has already been considered, it will not be necessary to dwell long upon this general subject. The prominence, however, given to it in the Scriptures, and the large space which it occupies in the experience of Christians, demand that the nature of this turning from sin, which is so often enjoined, should be carefully studied.
There is one general truth in relation to this point which is clearly taught in the Bible; and that is, that all true repentance springs from right views of God. The language of Job may with more or less confidence be adopted by every Christian: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes.5
The discovery of the justice of God serves to awaken conscience, and often produces a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. This is the natural and reasonable effect of a clear apprehension of the rectitude of the divine character, as of a judge who renders to every one his due. There are accordingly many illustrations of the effects of this apprehension recorded in the Scriptures. Fearfulness and trembling, said the Psalmist, are fallen upon me; and horror hath overwhelmed me.6 While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.7 There is no rest in my bones because of my sins. For my iniquities have gone over my head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.8 These fearful forebodings are so common in the experience of the people of God, that the earlier writers make terror of conscience a prominent part of repentance. There are, however, two remarks upon this subject, which should be borne in mind. The first is, that these exercises vary in degree from the intolerable anguish of despair, to the calm conviction of the judgment that we are justly exposed to the displeasure of God. And secondly, that there is nothing discriminating in these terrors of conscience. They are experienced by the righteous and the unrighteous. If they occurred in the repentance of David, they did also in that of Judas. Sinners in Zion are often afraid; and fearfulness often surprises the hypocrite. These fearful apprehensions, therefore, are not to be desired for their own sake; since there is nothing good in fear. It is reasonable that those should fear who refuse to repent and to accept of the offers of mercy. But there is nothing reasonable in those fears which arise from unbelief, or distrust of the promises of God. It so often happens, however, in the experience of the people of God, that they are made sensible of their guilt and danger, before they have any clear apprehensions of the plan of redemption, that, in fact, fear of the wrath of God enters largely into the feelings which characterise their conversion. The apprehension of the holiness of God produces awe. The angels in heaven are represented as veiling their faces, and bowing with reverence before the Holy One. Something of the same feeling must be excited in the minds of men by the discovery of His infinite purity. It cannot fail, no matter what may be the state of his mind, to excite awe. This, however, may be mingled with love, and express itself in adoration; or it may co-exist with hatred, and express itself in blasphemy. Very often the effect is simply awe; (or at least this is the prominent emotion,) and the soul is led to prostrate itself in the dust. The moral character of this emotion can only be determined by observing whether it is attended with complacency in the contemplation of infinite purity, and with a desire of larger and more constant discoveries of it; or whether it produces uneasiness and a desire that the vision may be withdrawn and we be allowed to remain at ease in our darkness.