Chapter 3—Repentance
How shall a man be just with God? How shall the sinner be
made righteous? It is only through Christ that we can be brought into
harmony with God, with holiness; but how are we to come to Christ?
Many are asking the same question as did the multitude on the Day
of Pentecost, when, convicted of sin, they cried out, “What shall we
do?” The first word of Peter’s answer was, “Repent.”
Acts 2:37, 38
.
At another time, shortly after, he said, “Repent, ... and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out.”
Acts 3:19
.
Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. We
shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away
from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.
There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repen-
tance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an
outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will
bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the
Bible sense. They lament the suffering rather than the sin. Such
was the grief of Esau when he saw that the birthright was lost to him
forever. Balaam, terrified by the angel standing in his pathway with
drawn sword, acknowledged his guilt lest he should lose his life; but
there was no genuine repentance for sin, no conversion of purpose, no
abhorrence of evil. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, exclaimed,
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“I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.”
Matthew
27:4
.
The confession was forced from his guilty soul by an awful sense
of condemnation and a fearful looking for of judgment. The conse-
quences that were to result to him filled him with terror, but there
was no deep, heartbreaking grief in his soul, that he had betrayed the
spotless Son of God and denied the Holy One of Israel. Pharaoh, when
suffering under the judgments of God, acknowledged his sin in order
to escape further punishment, but returned to his defiance of Heaven
as soon as the plagues were stayed. These all lamented the results of
sin, but did not sorrow for the sin itself.
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