Genuine repentance is a tangible repentance. It moves to action. Secondly, it is also difficult. It involves serving the Lord only. It means you make your heart steadfast toward the Lord. We cannot leave sin if we are not prepared to do the difficult - leave all false gods and serve the Lord only. We might just as well try to cure poison ivy by scratching, than try to serve the Lord faithfully without repentance from idolatry or any other sin.
Calvin described biblical repentance in a very tangible way. Here is the summary for today.
1. Those that turn from their sin to God mortify their flesh, and are alive to the things of God, yet traces of sinful corruption still remain. Calvin said, “There remains in a regenerate man a smouldering cinder of evil” (Pg., 602).
2. Some have called this remaining corruption weakness rather than sinfulness because the corrupt inclinations in believers are not sinful in themselves, until the will yields to them.
3. This is wrong. Calvin explains that even these corrupt inclinations in the Christian are sinful. “We label sin that very depravity which begets in us desires of this sort. We accordingly teach that in the saints, until they are divested of mortal bodies, there is always sin; for in their flesh there resides that depravity of inordinate desiring which contends against righteousness” (Pg., 603).
4. This does not mean God’s people remain under the dominion of sin. They do not. [Rom. 6; Eph. 5:26-27] God has promised to give delivering grace to free his adopted children from sin’s reign. “Sin does remain, but no longer reigns,” Professor John Murray said. [Rom. 6:6; 8:2; 7:6]
5. Not only are we freed from the reign of sin, but we are also freed from its awful guilt, because Christ was our substitute. [Eph. 5:26-27; Rom. 8:1]
6. In 2 Cor. 7:11 Paul gives seven elements involved in repentance. “They are earnestness or carefulness, excuse, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and avenging” (Pg., 607). Calvin explained them in these ways…
- By carefulness is meant a sorrow over sin, which brings self dissatisfaction and a diligent fight against sin.
- By excuse or “clearing of yourselves” (KJV) is meant “purification, which relies more on asking pardon than on confidence in one’s own cause” (Pg., 608).
- By fear it is meant that trembling which occurs in the mind when one truly understands the severity of his sin before the holy God, and the just severity of God’s wrath toward that sin.
- By longing and zeal, it is meant a desire and readiness to obey God; to plunge into God’s mercy.
- By avenging it is meant a sort of self attack on sin. We declare war on our remaining corruption desiring to avenge it by good works and love to God. However, we must beware and not slip into despair during the process.
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