Repentance
I have been thinking a lot about repentance these last days being immersed in the opera La Traviata (I did a little writing about it which you can find here). La Traviata is very much a drama about sin and redemption, about the power of love, but also how hard it can be to leave a life of sin. We all know it is impossible without God delivering us from the captivity of sin, without his redemption.
La Traviata very much has this theme, a fallen woman, Violetta, who have never loved in her life, or been loved, only the physical aspect of love has she seen, and also used to her advantage, and in the process she has lost herself, her heart brought to coldness, all her heart knows is strategy and calculation until she meets Alfredo that one day saw her and fell head over heel in love with her, and one evening is he declaring his love for her, the love that is mysterious and noble, and unattainable, the pulse of the universe. So she meets a man that does not care for the coldness and calculation of physical love but is driven by a pure love, and interest for her. For a year he has loved Violetta from afar. She is taken with this new experience, and when all have left her, and she alone thinks and ponder this new experience, this love that is the pulse of the whole universe, that is both painful and delightful at the same time, she gives in, until the strategy and coldness takes over, she calls this love for madness, it is not for her, she only has to live for pleasure and to revel in parties, this will bring her easement from her empty and purposeless life. When she has decided that love is madness she hears Alfredo sing in the distant about his love for her, and she abandons her former life of sin, her former life of cold calculated pleasure for a new life in another form of sin, but nonetheless a better life.
In this state Violetta has not repented and been converted to the Lord, but she thinks that her repentance has brought her forgiveness of sin. Her work of repentance has saved her. She knows in a way that the forgiveness of the Lord means a complete eradication of her former sins, but she still has the view that repentance is a work that she must do. This is apparent today: We have the view that God either does not care if we repent or not or that repentance is a work that God absolutely wants us to do to in order to forgive us. Both of these views are wrong.
Yes, God needs us to repent of our sins. Scripture is clear. There are countless examples in the NT where repentance is described (either with the Gk. verb μετανοέω or the Gk. noun μετάνοια). We shall bring forth fruit meet for repentance (Matthew 3:8), Jesus is come to call sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:13), and we are to repent and be baptised for the remission of our sins (Acts 2:38), or to repent and be converted that our sin may be blotted out (Acts 3:19), and Paul is fearing that he will meet a congregation that has not repented their former uncleanness and fornication (2 Corinthians 12:21), and Paul is saying that the goodness of the Lord leads us unto repentance (Romans 2:4), and it is God that gives repentance, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:24–26).
True repentance is a gift we are given from God and at the same time something we must do. But it is neither work unto salvation, nor something we can skip. Paul is saying that in 2 Corinthians 7:9–10, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” This is the repentance unto life. For to return to La Traviata, when Violetta says to Alfredo’s father that she has left her former life (which was true), and that God has erased her past on account of her work of repentance, she had this false view of repentance. She will later find the true path to salvation and repentance, at least I believe so.
We are to repent of our sins, this is the biblical way, and this repentance is both a gift and something we do, not as a work but as an act of thankfulness and understanding and sorrow of past sins.
For to look at two Hebrew words, we have שׁוּב (shuv) meaning ”to turn back,” ”to return,” ”to turn away from,” ”to abandon,” ”to bring back,” ”to restore.” A clear example is in 1 Kings 8:35 in Solomon’s prayer at the temple opening, if they ”turn from their sin,” or in Job 36:10 where God opens their ear to instruction and, ”commandeth that they return from iniquity,” or ”turn from transgression” (Isaiah 59:20), or ”turn not from his wickedness” (Ezekiel 3:19), or ”neither turned they from their wicked works” (Nehemiah 9:35). But the word is not only used about repentance in a theologically important meaning but can also be used in purely profane terms as well. Bavinck calls it an external conversion (that was what Violetta had done before, turned from her sins, unto a life of repentance, but this was only an external conversion). And we also have the Hebrew verb נָחַם (nacham) meaning ”to regret,” ”to be sorry,” ”to comfort,” ”to repent,” ”to be comforted.” We see this verb in Judges 21:6, 15 where Israel ”repented” for their brother Benjamin. It describes how Job repents after God has appeared to him in the whirlwind (Job 42:6). God expresses anger and despair over Israel, where no one repents of their wickedness (Jeremiah 8:6), Israel asks God to convert them so that they remain converted, and after they have turned around, they feel repentance (Jeremiah 31:19).
If salvation and regeneration is a monergistic work of the Holy Spirit, then repentance is a synergistic one. We have a duty to repent. We must also preach repentance, but only God can enable repentance. The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF 15.1) states, ”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.” Sproul says that we are seeing a clear crisis in the modern church where cheap mercy is preached. It is preached that God loves them unconditionally, and there is no mention of repentance. ”And if people are called to faith in Jesus Christ, faith is too often defined as a fleeing to Christ for salvation, but not as a fleeing from our sin in true repentance. If repentance is not preached, the message is a false gospel."
In the end when all is lost Violetta comes to God and asks him to forgive her, and to make her his own, all work is gone, all calculation and strategy is gone, all worldly hope is gone, there is only one hope left, and to him, she comes, to him, she gives her whole life. That does not mean that all despair is gone, but Violetta repents and is given the true life which only God can give, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3–5)
Only in God do we have hope, let us pray for forgiveness and true repentance unto God who gives liberally to all who asks, and to live in the lively hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ unto the incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven, which will be revealed in the last time. Let us repent.