The Perseverance of the Saints, Part 2: Our Response to the Spirit’s Sanctifying Work, (2 Thess. 2:13-15)

INTRODUCTION – The world has a definition of freedom and happiness that is divorced from holiness in the Lord. Since the Fall of us all in our first parents, the human race has worshipped and served the creation instead of the Creator (Rom. 1:25). At salvation, we become new creatures with new desires. We were changed from worshippers of the creation, to worshippers of the Creator. As a result, salvation is sanctification. For sanctification means that the believer is set apart for God. The Christian is set apart for God, and set apart from the world to be a worshipper of God (1 Cor. 6:13-20).

Therefore salvation entails a new relationship with God and a new relationship toward the world. As the reality of our salvation relationships is lived out, we areprogressively sanctified by God’s Spirit. To the degree that the believer cooperates with God’s purposes in sanctification, he will experience joy, peace, assurance, growth in grace and perseverance.

A Christian’s devotion to God’s purpose in sanctification is referred to in Romans 12:1 as his “reasonable” or “rational” service of worship. It is “rational” to devote oneself to sanctification because we were saved for the purpose of enjoying God. And it is impossible to enjoy God without holiness!

At our justification, we received the perfect status of adoption before God. Every barrier that blocked the reception of God’s love was removed at justification. We ought to regard sanctification as taking our justification seriously, for sanctification prepares us to live with God forever.

Application – Discuss the reasons why holiness in the Lord is the only true happiness. Note the following connections between holiness and happiness.

1.) Humans were made for God. Salvation restores that created purpose. An idol or “false integration point” cannot bring joyful unity to the soul of man.

2.) It is unspeakable joy, pleasure and peace to possess a conscience that is clear enough to reflect the face of the Creator. It is only the clear conscience that possesses a boundless capacity for the reception of God’s love.

3.) Truth and beauty are joined. The highest beauty is God’s holiness. When the 

 creature is holy, he is able to look upon God’s holiness and be ravished by it.

4.) Holiness is to be lifted out of self-consciousness, self-concern and selfishness.

 To be perfected in holiness is to possess a limitless for passion for God’s glory.

5.) The Lord is the habitation of righteousness. Gospel holiness brought to full

fruition involves being an eternal partaker in the righteousness of God.

Holiness rejoices that God shares His own righteousness with His redeemed

creatures.

6.) It is the holy individual who becomes an unhindered channel of God’s love.

The “wine” of heaven is to endlessly experience God’s love passing through

one’s soul as it is expressed to others.

SALVATION IS A COMPREHENSIVE WORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13, all Scripture citations from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

In modern Christianity, the term “salvation” is often used only to mean deliverance from eternal judgment. By contrast, Scripture emphasizes the completeness and comprehensiveness of salvation. God saves us from sin, misery, guilt, pollution, wrath, death and corruption. In the Bible, the person who is “being saved” manifests a liberty from the dominion of sin. Eternal life is the OUTCOME of a life of overcoming sin and serving righteousness through Christ (Rom. 6:22,23).

As with every true believer, the Thessalonians were CHOSEN by God for salvation. The decree of election connects the ends (salvation), with the means (sanctification). The saints are elected unto holiness. God has chosen us that we might be holy. Those who are truly the elect of God will not fail to achieve that end by God’s grace (Eph. 1:4).

Believers are “beloved by the Lord.” They owe their preservation to Christ’s effectual love in shepherding and preserving their souls. They owe their stability in persevering to the election of grace.

Application – God will not forsake the work of His hands! Where He has begun a work, He will perfect unto the day of salvation (Phil. 1:6). Those who are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit will persevere to the end.

GOD BRINGS ABOUT OUR SALVATION BY MEANS OF SANCTIFICATION BY THE SPIRIT AND FAITH IN THE TRUTH.

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

Those chosen for salvation as the end and goal are prepared for it by sanctification. Sanctification is the necessary means to obtain that end. This salvation which becomes our possession, is THROUGH sanctification by the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is a process. It causes the believer to be increasingly detached from the world and increasingly devoted to Christ.

Application – Sanctification is never offered as an option. Sanctification is the will of God for all Christians (1 Thess. 4:3-8).

SANCTIFICATION IS A GIFT BY CHRIST AND HIS WORK ON OUR BEHALF.

BUT THIS GIFT PLACES A HEAVY OBLIGATION UPON US AS BELIEVERS.

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

Christians are under obligation to be active in the power of God (Rom. 8:12-17). They are to put to death the deeds of the flesh and reckon themselves alive to God and dead to the misdeeds of the flesh (Rom. 6:11-13). This obligation is in total agreement with our new nature. For God has quickened our reason, wills and affections that they may be put to work in sanctification.

The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He communicates the benefits of Christ and His death to us. The power of the cross is active in both justification and sanctification. Faith accepts Christ’s work as the ground of both (See Romans 6, 1 Cor. 1:30, Heb. 2:11; 12:2).

Application – We are dependent upon Christ for our sanctification. We are to cry to Him as our merciful High Priest. He willingly gives us new measures of mercy and sanctifying grace (Heb. 4:15,16). Jesus told His disciples, “apart from Me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).

Sanctification is born out of union with Christ. Sanctification is so related to Christ that one cannot receive it but by communion with Him. (When we exercise faith in the truth of Christ we are communing with Him.)

THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS UPON US SO THAT OUR WILLS, OUR MINDS AND OUR AFFECTIONS GIVE VITAL, ACTIVE CONSENT TO THE TRUTH REVEALED IN CHRIST.

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

Just as we received justification by faith in Christ, so also we receive sanctification’s progress by faith in Christ. It is ongoing faith in the truth of God’s Word that sanctifies us (Jn. 17:17). When the truth is believed and loved, it dominates exceptionally in all areas of one’s life.

The believer’s relationship to God’s truth goes far beyond assent and admiration. The true Christian loves the truth so as to be transformed by it. The truth becomes central in his thoughts, meditations, affections and decisions.

Application – The saints are commanded to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12,13). But this is not to suggest that our activity in sanctification is a legal or law work. Actually, our progress is purely evangelical. That is, it is gospel based. All of our advancement in holiness flows from the cross.

The “fear and trembling” has to do with the awesome proposition that the God of the universe is intimately at work in our thinking, desiring and willing. It is a fearful and wonderful thing to recognize that He is constantly willing to animate our obedience. It is also as cause for fear and self-watch to consider that our flesh may resist the operations of the Spirit. We are warned not to place ourselves in peril by neglecting the means of grace (Heb. 2:3; 10:22-25). Review the duties commanded of all believers (attention to the Word, prayer, the Lord’s Supper and fellowship).

THE EFFECTUAL CALL OF THE GOSPEL IS UNTO HONOR, HAPPINESS AND THE GLORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:14).

It is the gracious will of our Savior that the glory He possesses and the glory He has purchased be communicated to those believe in Him and obey His gospel. Those who believe and repent shall be with Christ to behold His glory and they shall be glorified with Christ and partake of His glory. The everlasting life we possess now will have its fulfillment in the redemption of our bodies. God calls us to heaven. He expects us to run the race set before us with endurance.

Application – Consider the relationship between our progress in holiness and the level of our desire to be with the Lord (see 2 Cor. 4:16-5:10; Rom. 8:23-25; Phil. 3:20,21; 1 Pet. 1:3-9; 1 Jn. 2:28-3:3).

THE LORD EXHORTS US TO “STAND FAST” AND NOT TO WAVER. MANY OBSTACLES STAND IN THE WAY OF OUR SANCTIFICATION.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

We must lean heavily upon the Lord in order to lay aside our doubts and fears and stand fast (Rom. 14:4; 1 Cor. 16:13). God’s election is NOT a ground for inaction on our part. God’s choice of us is the strongest incentive to action and perseverance. Scripture always joins privilege and duty. (You have an anointing, nowabide in Him, 1 John 2:27,28.) Since life and favor are assured to us in Christ, then we are to live for Him, depending upon His promised installments of future grace. (Review the privileges of 2 Thess. 2:13-15.)

Application – The Christian is justified that he might be sanctified. Now that he possesses righteousness in Christ and is assured of immutable love and favor, he can pursue sanctification with complete abandon. There is no cause for fear of failure.

Unlike the believer, the unregenerate man possesses no such position or status before God. He or she is yet in a state of moral paralysis. Their sins remind them of their liability to judgment before God. Their moral failures stir up their enmity toward God. Their guilt presses a sense of God’s disfavor upon their consciences. As a result, they have no incentive or power to pursue holiness. They need to see the beauty and preciousness of Christ, the Friend of sinners. Every unbeliever is a stranger to grace. Therefore the pursuit of God’s holiness sounds to him like trying to build a ladder to the moon.

A SUMMARY OF REASONS WHY THE SCRIPTURES CALL FOR PERSEVERANCE.

1.) Perseverance is necessary because the Christian life is a fight (James 1:12; Heb. 3:6; Acts 14:21,22). We are called to be overcomers. We are to live out Christ’s victory in our life and walk (1 Pet. 2:21).

2.) Perseverance is a necessity because it is a vital safeguard against presumption. Those who profess Christ are warned against the prospect of self-deception (Eph. 5:1-6).

3.) Perseverance is necessary because hypocrites walk for a time, become careless, then fall away (Matt. 13:18-23). God uses exhortations to perseverance to admonish and awaken diligence and holy fear in the saints. It is God’s way of instilling sober-mindedness.

4.) Perseverance is necessary because it such a revealer of your relationship with God’s truth (Col. 1:9-14).

5.) Perseverance is necessary because it is genuine faith in action. Perseverance is the opposite of a mystical, privitized religion that remains locked in the corner of one’s soul. When Christ returns, He will find His people pressing along the path of duty and using the means of grace (1 Pet. 4:7).

The Violence Needed to Enter the Kingdom of God

Adapted from Heaven Taken by Storm, by Thomas Watson

Watson’s book is intended to show the holy violence a Christian is to put forth in the pursuit after glory. “We must offer violence to heaven in regard to the difficulty of the work – taking a kingdom. Our own hearts oppose us. This is a strange paradox; Man naturally desires happiness, yet opposes it; he desires to be saved, yet hates that holy violence which would save him” (Thomas Watson).

Luke 16:16, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”(NASB).

Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force” (NASB).

Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until the present moment the kingdom of heaven has been continuously taken by storm, and those who take it by storm are seizing it as a precious prize” (Williams Translation).

Part and parcel of the holy violence necessary to enter the Kingdom of God is to take up our cross daily in true discipleship (Luke 9:23). Too much leniency emboldens sin. “Leniency shaves the head (of sin) that should be cut off.” The saved should be always ready to have their hearts searched as the Psalmist was – Ps 139 (Watson, p. 3).

The reason people are tricked into error is because they do not adequately love the truth (2 Thess 2:10). We can never say enough in the honor of the truth (Watson, p. 6).

“Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His Name” (Mal 3:16).

Holy violence entails: the resolution of the will; the vigor of the affections, thestrength of endeavor. The affections are “violent” things (Ps 42:2) (Note the relationship between the mind, the affections, and the will – the mind explains what is precious to the affections and the affections instruct the will to pursue that which it regards to be its treasure.)

The Christian offers violence to HIMSELF.

Pampering of the flesh is the quenching of God’s Spirit (the flesh lusteth against the Spirit – Gal 5:17). The flesh, Trojan horse within, does all the mischief – when the flesh has its way, we won’t believe or pray. We must offer violence to fleshly desires or we cannot be saved (Col 3:5; 1 Pet 2:11, Rom 8:12-14). The true believer keeps mortifying sin his entire Christian life.

Paul beat down his body by prayer, fasting, and watching (1 Cor 9:27). We offer violence by mortification; the opposite of gratification and indulgence (Watson, pp. 9-10).

All the exercises of worship are contrary to nature. We do violence by awakening ourselves that our exercises might be done with intensity of spirit and without distraction. It is holy labor (violence) to stir ourselves to be centered upon God and raised above self-interest (Watson, p. 11).

Violence by the reading of the Word.

The Word teaches us how to please God. It fills the heart with grace. They who are vessels of grace shall be vessels of glory. The Word gives us weapons against sin to cut asunder the lusts of our heart (Watson, p. 13).

On the Last Day, there are two books God will go by: the book of conscience and the book of Scripture. One shall be a witness and one shall be a judge. How we must provoke ourselves to read His Word with care and devotion. Those who dishonor the Word now by neglect shall bow to it as judge on that day (Jn 12:47-50) (Watson, p. 15).

In this life, it is a profound mercy to have our consciences washed by the Redeemer’s blood, educated by the Word of God, and sensitized by the Spirit’s ministry.

Violence by prayer. The names of prayer imply violence: wrestling, pouring out the heart, fervency (Gen 32:24: 1 Sam 1:15).

Stir the soul to take hold of God. A good way to quicken yourself in prayer is to review your wants. Do you want the light of God’s presence? Do you want a spiritual, humble frame of heart? Pray feelingly in order to pray fervently (Watson, pp. 19-22).

Violence by meditation. Meditation is opposed to flesh and blood – how hard it is to fix our minds and thought on God. Our flesh quarrels with this duty. Hearing begets knowledge, but meditation begets devotion. Only by meditation do wefeed our affections (Watson, p. 23). Do you get your spiritual insights by personal meditation upon the Word of God, or are all of your insights “second hand” from your pastors and teachers?

Meditation gives ballast to the heart and makes it serious. Meditation on eternal life makes us labor for a spiritual life. It has the effect of comforting and reinforcing in us the shortness of natural life. Death comes on us by degrees (see the metaphors for aging in Ecclesiastes 12).

Where do we find a meditating Christian? Most people live in a hurry, enveloped by distractions. This is UNLIKE the saints in former ages (p. 27). Consider the paramount truths that are ready subjects for meditation: meditate upon the corruption of your nature and what it means to pull down our pride. Meditate upon the death and passion of Christ and how He was bearing the Father’s wrath against our sins. Consider how dearly our sins cost Christ. See how this evokes love for Him in our hearts. Meditate upon your evidences for heaven: (Was your heart ever thoroughly convinced of sin? Did you ever see yourself lost without Christ? Has God ever made you willing to take Christ on His terms as your Priest and King? Are you willing to renounce the sins to which the bias of your heart does naturally incline? Are you willing to take Christ for better or worse; to take Him with His cross? Do you have the indwelling presence of the Spirit? What has the Spirit done in you? Has He made you meek, merciful, humble? Has He left the impress of holiness upon you?). Meditate upon the uncertainty of all earthly comforts (Ps 49:11). Meditate upon God’s severity against sin. Sin kindles hell and stirs up God’s wrath. Meditate upon eternal life (Watson, pp. 24-27).

Meditation – “The clean animal chews the cud – the regenerate person chews truth.” Meditation makes the Word preached to profit. Meditation quickens the affections (assimilation of spiritual nutrition into the innermost being). Meditation has transforming power (note the principle of transformation – we become like that which fills the heart). Meditation produces reformation.

The only way to consistently meditate is to get a love for spiritual things. We naturally meditate on the things we love. If we loved heavenly things, we would meditate on them more (pp. 28-29). Through meditation, our affections are conformed to God’s truth. If our affections are not continually conformed to the truth we will manifest some combination of the following sins against God’s truth: suppress the truth, neglect the truth, distort the truth, or deny the truth.

Violence of self-examination.

The good and wise Christian begins as if it were the Day of Judgment in his own soul. We must be aware of the impediments: self love works against objectivity.You would give yourself no rest if you bounced a check until the account was made right with the merchant, yet so opposed is our flesh to examination, that denial and self-deception reign; we’re too willing to live with outstanding accounts of conscience (pp. 30, 31).

How the flesh resists self-examination – though we know that a lust is having its way in our soul like a raiding burglar, we do not even stir ourselves to turn on a light, instead we allow sin as a thief to steal our spiritual comfort, our boldness, our peace, and our sense of God’s presence. (Regarding self-examination, see Paul Zahl’s helpful chapter on self-criticism in his work, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 79-82 .)

Your salvation depends upon you taking pains in self-examination. The “harlot-professor” is seldom home, but always out spying on the faults of others. By contrast, the true believer does violence by self-examination (pp. 32, 33).

If we will not try ourselves and we belong to the Lord, God will try us by scourging! (Note the promise in 1 Corinthians 11:31 – “If we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.”) “Lord show me my heart, lest I perish through mistake, or go to hell with hope of heaven” (Ps 139). The warning is “do not come short” (Heb 4:1).

Today we see believers visiting each other without giving their souls a visit. By way of example; a traveler talks about the home and country to which he is traveling, so also when we meet together, we should talk about our heavenly country (Heb 11:16). We ought to provoke ourselves to good discourse (this is only possible with some kind of violence – without it our conversations will remain light and airy, void of any eternal good).

Discourse reveals the contents of the heart. “While they communed together and reasoned, Jesus drew near” (Luke 24:15). Those with kingdom values cannot help but make those kingdom values the content of their discourse.

Violence in overcoming the world – Christ gave Himself to redeem us from this present evil world (Gal 1:4). If we are to be saved, we must swim against the world like a fish against the current (p. 44). This world is deceitful, defiling, perishing (biblical adjectives that modify world). The world is always attempting to seduce us, inviting us to lodge in its false refuges by promising comfort, security, fulfillment, and supply.

Violence in our pursuit of heaven. Consider the categories or metaphors that clearly imply violence: striving (Lu 13:24); wrestling (Eph 6:12); running (1 Cor 9:24); pressing towards the mark (Phil 3:14); fighting, laboring, warring (1 Tim 6:12); praying fervently (James 5:16); make calling and election sure by diligence(2 Pet 1:10); go from faith to faith (Rom 1:17); overcome (Rev 2 & 3) (Watson, pp. 45, 46).

Without violent AFFECTIONS, we shall never be able to resist violent TEMPTATIONS. Consider what we shall gain – a kingdom! So many fancy an easy way to heaven – that it can be gained with an idle wish, a feather pillow of grace without means, a death-bed tear, BUT Scripture tells us that we must offer violence. Heart affections must be regularly “wound up” by prayer and meditation – this is essential if we are to be spurred on to holy violence (p. 47).

The gates of hell are like the doors of an immense iron gate that open at their own accord. The way to its entrance is all downhill; nothing in our nature resists it easy and broad path (p. 48). Nothing is easier than to slide into hell. There is no harder work than repentance, and there is no labor more daunting than attempting repentance when it has long been delayed.

Heaven involves sweat to get to the top of the hill. This cannot be done without violence. To get to heaven, we must force our way, besieging it with sighing and tears, holding fast to the scaling ladder of faith in order to storm it. We must work and fight; use the sword and trowel (Neh 4:17).

We must charge against the whole army of lusts – each one as strong as Goliath. A Christian can never take a vacation from the fight of faith. He is either watching or praying at all times. While not under trial, the believer watches; he is suspicious of the apparent calm, knowing that the enemy waits for negligence as an ideal time to spring his next ambush.

Countless souls sit in self-deception, imagining that they are on their way to heaven though they offer no holy violence. They content themselves that their soul’s estate is well -- they sit under preaching, though they never look at their hearts (p. 49).

(How many churches are filled with folks who imagine that the precision of their creed and the eloquence of their pastor shall in the end save them.)

Compartmentalization of religion is proof that so many professing believers are trapped in a soul-endangering pattern of moderation. Moderation in the world’s sense is to not be too zealous, too violent for heaven, too fierce to enter glory. Moderation is not to venture further in religion than may coexist with self-preservation (p. 50).

Moderation in the world’s sense is NEUTRALITY – a “happy medium” between strictness and profaneness (neither debauchery, nor purity). Here is the warning:moderation is lukewarm-ness. Be zealous and repent (Rev 3:19). A moderate pace will never win the prize – it has made many miss heaven just as the foolish virgins did.

No man is saved by chance, he must know how he came by it – by offering violence (note all the warnings in the book of Hebrews alone) (p. 51).

Take heed when the desire for heaven is not as strong as it once was. This is a shrewd sign of lukewarm-ness. RECOVERY from losing one’s first love begins with diagnosis: 1.) The more violence, the more peace you will have (2 Pet 1:10, 11). 2.) Walking in the fear of God issues forth in the comfort of the Spirit (Acts 9:31). 3.) Deadness in service and duties opens us up to serious, dangerous temptations. The more violent we are; the less violent Satan is. 4.) The more lazy a Christian is in his desires, the more lively his corruptions. Oh pray for quickening grace (Ps 143:11). 5.) A pet lust given haven in the heart can destroy our violence for religion. Only sowing the seed of repentance will keep us on track in offering violence (see pp. 56-59 Watson).

Examining whether we are offering violence.

Do you strive with your heart to get into a holy frame? Do you thirst for the living God? Do you desire the holiness that is heaven? Do you desire to be like Christ as much as to be with Christ? Are you skilled in self-denial? Can we cross our wills to fulfill God’s? Can we “behead” our beloved sin? Do we love God more than fear hell? Do we keep a spiritual watch? (pp. 63-64). Are these disciplines and spiritual postures of soul increasingly your practice? Plead for more grace to do violence at these junctures.

God makes the way hard that we might raise the price of heavenly things. If entrance into the kingdom of glory were easy, would we value its worth? (p. 66). The more we sacrifice for heaven, the higher premium we place upon glory; the better able we are to reckon where our true treasure resides.

The narrow way is hard by design; it makes us choose over and over again. In every step of progress toward heaven, we leave something behind down here. Every pinched place on our journey, every thorn, every tear shed helps the saint consolidate all of his hopes and affections upon glory. Difficulties in the Way steel and solidify our determination to have a united heart before the Lord.

If a man is so drunk with the cares of the world that he cannot find time for the needs of his soul, he is not offering violence in seeking to take heaven. If he does not repent, will not God say to him, “Why did you not take pains for heaven?” “Why did you eschew the cross?” (p. 70).

This violence for heaven is the grand business of our lives. Why else did we come into the world? It is the main errand of our living here – shall we go through life and avoid the errand? All of life is preparation to live with God. Our journey’s end is the knowledge of God that we might come into the presence of the Holy One whom we know and love. God does not intend to make His eternal abode with strangers who loved the Egypt of this world and who have not set across the wilderness to enter Zion (p. 72).

Holy violence has much delight mingled with it (Prov 3:17). The joys and comforts of the new covenant are experienced by us when we are violent, not when we are double-minded. Think about how violent Christ was about our salvation: Sleepness nights in prayer, fastings, weeping, violent death (pp. 73-75). Holy violence brings rest (Heb 4:9). Holy violence prevents much sin and blocks the devil’s designs. Holy violence is always energized by the Spirit’s working (Phil 2:12, 13) (pp. 73-75).

The damned in hell would gladly serve a thousand year apprenticeship in hell if they could by it be given another opportunity to do violence for heaven. Do violence now while God’s terms are easy! (p. 82).

A little violence would ease our fear of death and make the believer willing to die to be with his Lord. Those who profess Christ but fear death are bothered by a conscience that correctly tells them that they have taken none, or too few pains for heaven (pp. 85, 86). (The conscience will not generate peace and comfort if bogged down with the rust and baggage of this world. By contrast, the heavenly citizen is unwilling to endure the hardships of travel on the narrow way.)

The time is coming to every man wherein he will wish with all his might that he had been more violent for heaven. (Christ and free grace is the cause of us inheriting heaven. But we shall not obtain the kingdom of heaven without violence.)

God’s will is that we should pray and repent, making our calling and election sure (2 Pet 1:10). He has from the beginning chosen us for salvation through sanctification (2 Thess 2:13). According to Romans 6:22, eternal life is the outcome of a life set apart to God (pp. 89, 90).

Take heed who you bring into your intimate company. Those who are unacquainted with the spirituality and sweetness of religion judge all zeal to be frenzy, therefore they will lay hold upon us to hinder us in this sacred violence. When we are earnest suitors to piety, our carnal friends will raise some ill report of it and endeavor to break the match (p. 93).

Labor to grow in sanctity/holiness – for the more grace, the more strength, the more strength, the more violence. If you would be violent for heaven, convince yourself that offering violence is a laborious work. If you think that heaven may be had without much in the way of violence, you will be apt to slacken your pace. This work is not easy – “Strive as in agony.” It is a work above nature and against it – it is as great a wonder for a soul to be saved as it is to see a millstone lifted up into the upper atmosphere (p. 94). Kingdom values are utterly realistic – strive for realism (the reality of God’s Kingdom will someday fill the universe.)

A man will be violent for nothing but what he loves. Are you constrained by the love of Christ? (2 Cor 5:14). Are your most precious hours of the day those spent with God? If you would be violent for heaven, make sure that going to heaven is your business. To the degree that you are indifferent, you will not be violent. When it is your business, you will be industrious about it. One thing is needful; to get Christ and heaven (Lu 10:42). To lose the prospect of heaven is to slacken the pace – certainty is therefore your duty (2 Cor 5: 1-10). If you would be violent, be sure heaven is your consuming goal (Heb 12:1-3).

Find companions that fear God! (Ps 119:63) (pp. 96, 97). Godly companions will sharpen you. Their company will energize your conscience – holy dialogue will heighten your awareness of areas where you have been slack and repentance is needed.

Prepare your affections for God by contemplating the excellencies of God. Study your own wants – consider how much you need God – you cannot be happy without Him (pp. 111, 112). Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb 10:22). If God be the treasure delighted in, our hearts will be drawn to Him. Make it your vocation to match your depravity with Christ’s sufficiency and righteousness. Endeavor to see how perfectly Christ’s Saviorhood fits your ruin and ill-desert. Meditate upon your completeness in Him. Think upon His suitability for your every need. Dwell upon all that God is toward you in Christ, and all that He will be to you throughout eternity.

Some folks in this world perish for not having the Scriptures, and other perish for not improving their possession of the Scriptures (Heb 4:1, 2). That God should pass by millions and yet set His electing love upon you move you to holy ecstasy and wonder. Like God manifesting Himself in the pillar of cloud and the blazing mountain, think that God should show His dark side to others, yet a light side to you. That to others the Word is a dead letter, but to you, it is the savor of life. Marvel that Christ is not only revealed to you, but in you (Gal 1:16). Are these infinite riches not a cause for offering violence?

When our holy affections are inflamed, we will find ample motivation to do violence. When our affections for the Lord burn bright; our taste for the “cistern water” of this world will be dulled. Our longing will be for the “Fountain of Living Water” (Jer 2:13).

Have you walked with the Lord for many years? Consider just how much those around you are in need of your ministry in their lives. Let this sink in next time you are reluctant to do holy violence – “Those around me need my holiness; for it is only by holiness that I shall be a clean vessel available to the Lord for their spiritual welfare” (2 Tim 2:21).

Conclusion on doing holy violence (taken from Prophetic Ministry, by T. Austin-Sparks).

The spirit of citizenship in the Kingdom is “by force” (Matt 11:12). The reason why encompasses the immeasurable loss that will be suffered by those who do not take the Kingdom seriously. The Lord Jesus preached the Kingdom of God amidst constant opposition. The whole organized religious system expressed tremendous prejudice; they blocked the way into the Kingdom for as many as they could (Matt 23:13).

Everything from devil and men works to obstruct one’s entrance into the Kingdom, therefore to enter requires violence. If you are willing to be hindered; you will fail to enter in. If you are easy-going, you will tend to give in to antagonistic forces. To enter requires violence.

To gain the Kingdom is not a once-for-all entering in; it is a continuous entering.You have to make it a desperate matter because everything will be there to stop you. Violence must characterize us – we must desperately mean business (T. Austin-Sparks, p. 93).

How easy it is for lives to become side-tracked, simply because they are not desperate enough. The only way to get past all obstacles that oppose our progress is to be men of violence, to be men who are desperate; to be men who say, “By God’s grace, nothing and no one, however good, is going to stand in my way; I am going on with God.”

If the above describes your heart’s posture, God will meet you on that ground. God will be toward you what you are toward Him. He will mean business if you mean business (p. 94).

In order to get in, the Kingdom calls for violence. Are you ready to do violence to everything that stands in the way of God’s full purpose as revealed in Christ? You will never know what God’s purpose is unless He finds that you are one after His kind – entering violently. Are you like that? If you are passive, everything will be lost. If you mean business, everything will be gained (p. 96).

Thoughts on Church Renewal

The Need for a Grace Awakening

So many churches need a “grace awakening.” They are stuck in maintenance mode—the congregation is coasting along on the pastor’s energy. Here is a typical way a church gets into this religious rut: A church calls a new pastor. Both the congregation and the pastor enter into the relationship with excitement and hope for the future. The new pastor experiences an initial “honeymoon” in which his faults are overlooked. The congregation enthusiastically pledges their loyalty to him. They then settle back and bask in his radiant heat as he burns himself up for them.

The new pastor may find it superficially rewarding to operate as a “source person” who brokers the glory of God to the people. If he is not careful, his ego receives a power boost by the way the church looks to him as the professional answer-man who doles out the revelation of God. If he is a man of vision, he enjoys the newfound influence he has to lead the church. But after the first year, his happy delusions melt away as he discovers the spiritual deadness of the people. Instead of unleashing the congregation, he finds that they are operating in a parasitic fashion of dependency upon Him. They are draining him dry. He’s an unwilling “pope” to them—a vicar of Christ, a figurehead in whom they take pride. He knows something is not right, but he can’t put his finger on it.

Without a grace awakening, they will be unable to give back to God, their pastor, or one another. They are operating upon reflected glory, similar to those who gazed at Moses’ glowing face after he descended the holy mountain with the law of God (Ex 34:29-35). But they themselves are not in the habit of regularly beholding the glory of Christ in the gospel. They are not daily drawing their spiritual life directly from Christ in personal communion with Him.

In a grace awakening the congregation will begin to fix their sight on Christ and what He has done for them in redeeming them by grace. As they grow in their personal knowledge of the Son of God by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, they will be eager to follow Christ in discipleship and ministry. They will become team players alongside the pastor rather than being mere spectators sitting on the sidelines watching the ministry of the pastor. They will no longer be content to accept the ministry of their pastor as a substitute for their own ministry within and through the body.

The Lost Spiritual Discipline of Meditation

The majority of church members today have not learned to go to their Savior directly by meditation, worship, and adoration. Lest we forget, meditation is a godly discipline that is resisted by our natural faculties. Our cognitive faculties are dialed into sensual stimuli. As our media-saturated culture becomes more and more visually stimulated by man-made fantasies, it becomes increasingly difficult to tune our hearts into the invisible truths of the gospel. It is work to have the eyes of the heart opened fully wide to behold by faith unseen spiritual certainties. But the labor of meditation is necessary if our souls are to be ravished by the sight of our wealth in the Son of God.

The eyes of our hearts must be enlightened in order for us to be constrained and animated by God’s love in Christ. In considering the concentration and labor necessary to meditate on the Word of God, an illustration may be helpful. By way of example, consider the fact that 37 tons of metal, crew, fuel, and payload in the shape of a Tomcat fighter jet can only remain airborne at mach 2.0 if multiple physical laws are strictly obeyed. Friction, gravity, and heat all seek to bring the craft back to earth in a jumble of disorder. So also, nature fights against our attempts to meditate upon invisible spiritual realities. The Word, the Spirit, and the mind must all come together in order to gaze continually with the eyes of faith upon invisible spiritual realities. We must individually and collectively as the people of God discipline ourselves to meditate upon the Word of God as a crucial step toward church renewal.

It takes meditation in order for spiritual truth to come alive so as to renew the mind and transform the life. But teaching biblical meditation will of necessity require detailed, step by step instruction and examples. This is because our media culture is characterized by a mind numbing busy-ness, but paradoxically, also by a mental laziness. Most people slow down by entering a “veg-out” mode of passively watching television. The enemy, however, has virtually complete control over television programming which has become a conduit for postmodern thought (i.e., no absolute truth, moral relativism, erroneous view of tolerance, moral and intellectual autonomy, etc.) Viewers who attempt to “relax, refresh, and recharge” by hours of television are unwittingly imbibing postmodern values in the process of devoting themselves to mindless amusement.

Believers need to be “unplugged” from the deadening effects of postmodern culture. If Christians refuse to stir themselves so as to dedicate their minds to love God’s truth, they will of necessity find themselves conformed to the world (Rom 12:1-2). They will be unable to mourn and grieve over the sins of this generation. Their zeal for soul-winning will fade into apathy toward the lost as their attention turns to maintaining their personal comfort and entertainment.

By contrast, biblical meditation requires mental discipline and concentration, and even self-confrontation. It’s impossible to be passive and meditate on Scripture at the same time. Sadly, even religious broadcasting has adapted itself to the passive, spectator mentality. (Note how programs on TBN hold the interest of their viewers by stirring up enthusiasm and anticipation over what is going to “happen” next. The promise of a victorious life, physical healing, and spiritual revival “just around the corner” misrepresents the way of the cross. Religious amusement takes the place of the daily disciplines of grace.)

Recognizing that Christ is our Life

Such is human nature that mankind lusts for a visible “king” while rejecting the invisible rule of God (1 Sam 8:7). Every pastor ought to be conversant with this human tendency that longs to elevate a man to the position of mediator and professional. If a pastor permits his congregation to cast him in a position of one who brokers the glory of God to the people, he will come short of leading his flock to Christ as sole source of life and sustenance. So much of today’s sectarian, partisan spirit within local churches (“I am of Paul, I am of Apollos”) is a symptom of longing for a visible “king.”

The pastor who has harnessed himself to a church that is stuck in maintenance mode must be willing to refuse to be a “source person” to his congregation. He must not allow his people to conduct personal spiritual audits based upon the successes of the pastor or the church as a whole. Personal spiritual accounting must be done by the individual believer in relation to the person of Christ. Each believer must be challenged to daily go to Christ with his sins and receive from Him forgiveness, cleansing, and imputed righteousness.

Often a new pastor majors in biblical principles. He faithfully teaches his people the precepts of the Bible, but he has not learned to display Christ so that his people have the regular revelation of their Savior. The pastor himself needs to return to Christ as first love. When that takes place, his ministry will experience renewal. As the man of God cultivates the habit of drawing near to Christ, he no longer speaks about Christ as if He were a topic; he begins ministering the Person of Christ. He is an anointed man who is displaying the beauty, sufficiency, and preeminence of Christ.

The more church members see the heart of God in the Gospel (in the Father’s plan to give us Christ), the more they will come to comprehend their right to Christ. We must preach the relational aspects of grace. The grace-awakened believer finds a new passion and hunger to draw near to the Lord and cultivate his personal love relationship with Him. What a blessed day it is when the people in the congregation begin to thirst for the Savior! When they begin to understand His approachability, His love, His fellowship. Then something wonderful happens—they realize that all of their resources are in Christ. The Lord comes to be regarded as their “Source Person.” No longer are they settling for the reflected glory in their pastor, they are drawing near to the Source—Christ Himself.

In a stagnant church, members prop up their broken, sinful personhood on carnal supports rather than Christ. Institutionalism feeds into this spiritual malaise by denying the organic nature of the church. The church is treated as a religious society, but not as the living body of Christ who owes its every spiritual breath to the life of her Savior. Maintenance mode is the result. People just “do church” but do not exalt Christ in their minds and hearts. Pastors ought to heed the counsel of George Mueller. His mindset was as follows. He made it his aim to get himself happy in Jesus every morning before he could ever attempt to be useful to others.

The Fruit of Personal Renewal

Suppose a church begins to see personal renewal taking place. How does personal spirituality translate into missions? How does the believer turn his inward renewal into outward service and evangelism? What is the connection between private intimacy with Christ and public ministry for Christ?

Jesus made it clear in John 15 when speaking of the vine and the branches that fruit bearing is a byproduct of abiding in Him. His words ought to disturb us in no small amount, for we see countless churches today in which programs have taken on a life of their own. The program “machinery” spins autonomously at high rpms with or without any abiding in Christ. The institution rules and governs itself with Christ standing just outside its Laodicean door. No wonder we need to anchor every program in the glory, preeminence, and sufficiency of Christ. Without His centrality as our constant theme, His people can quickly become blinded to their departure from Him.

Lest we get the impression that a renewed walk with Christ is its own end, we are to be reminded that our walk with Christ is expressed in worship, discipleship, service, and the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20). A renewed walk with Christ produces a missionary mindset. “He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).[1][1] “Then Jesus said to them. ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ ” (Mark 1:17).

Our task in church renewal is to give the Great Commission its rightful place in the priorities of the church. We do this in obedience to the command of the Lord of the church who has all authority in heaven and on earth: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19a). The Great Commission is necessarily tied to God’s purpose to display His glory in history. As John Piper has stated in his book Let the Nations be Glad, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When people from all nations are before the throne, missions ends. Missions is a temporary necessity, but worship is eternal” (paraphrased). The glory of God is preeminent. The purpose of missions is tied to the glory of God in Christ.

Our job in church renewal is to call the church back to Christ. When her focus is upon Him, we will see her hungering for missions because she longs for countless others to join her in the worship of Christ. We do not need countless motivational sermons on outreach. When men and women are ravished with Christ, outreach is a natural result. It is not that complicated to build bridges to the lost if one is constrained by the love of Christ.

Our emphasis upon renewal is a perfect springboard to missions. Our call to return to Christ is intimately tied to God’s heart for the nations. Renewed believers will be able to translate God’s heart for the nations to “God’s heart for my neighbor.”

The Glory of God in the Face of Christ

The goal of redemptive history, yes, all history is the glory of God. If one starts with the doctrine of God’s decree (God’s plan for history before creation), it leads quickly to the biblical truth that God created the world to be a stage for His glory. The whole purpose and plan of God is founded upon this.

Many churches go wrong because they lose the big picture. They forget that God’s glory is the goal of redemptive history. In the process of that forgetting, their programs within the institution begin to exist for their own perpetuation. The individual becomes subservient to the program. The institutional grid with its inherent politics is impersonally draped over the church. The “orthodox formalism” of Ephesus takes over (Rev 2:1-4), purring like the motors in a large factory. The tragedy is that Christ is knocking outside the door, but unfortunately there is no church program for answering the door when He knocks!

The stalled church and an institutional church are both mired in status quo—maintenance mode reigns. The pastor may attempt a shotgun approach of more practical principles (“how to” sermons) with more impressive power point graphics, but often he is flirting with personal burnout.

The Need for Christ’s Spirit

God’s answer is to call the church back to her heavenly King. The call to renewal is a call to radical humility in Christ. It will cost us our pride. We will have to deal violently with our craving to accrue personal credit for our ministerial labors.

The world’s way is to lean upon an arm of flesh, trusting in our own administrative abilities, our programs, our eloquence, our personalities. To be brought low is to admit to the Lord that we have sought to operate independently of Him that we might burn incense to our own talent and diligence.

God’s way has always been to “tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). God’s servant in every age is utterly dependent upon the Spirit’s empowerment for effectiveness in ministry as God measures it. By contrast, modern ministers have taken a shortcut around the Spirit’s enablement. They have trusted in their own qualifications more than the equipping from on high.

A Divine Blueprint for Renewal

In renewal a man is brought to the place of the Apostle Paul who said, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God . . .” (2 Cor 3:5). Has God given you a vision for church renewal? Renewal takes place when God’s gifted man steps out in faith and meets the people who are hungry for the ministry to which they have been called. The Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, lays out for us the model for church renewal in Ephesians 4:1-16. May the blueprint provided here guide our efforts in this most foundational and critical ministry before us—the renewal of the church of Christ.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Eph 4:1-16).

[1][1] All Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version.

Triangulating Church, School, and Home

Pursuing a Philosophy of Ministry which unites the three            At a recent conference on reaching ‘neo-pagans’ with the Gospel, I was chairing a break out session on apologetics when a Christian leader in the room said the following: “We [the Evangelical church at large] do not triangulate very well between church, school, and home.”             I haven’t been able to ‘shake’ his statement.  In fact, it has been stewing inside of me since the day I heard it—even functioning as a catalyst that keeps generating tough questions about the way we ‘do church’. This has forced me to ask the question, “Do the prevailing views of ecclesiology and philosophy of ministry held and practiced by Evangelical churches conform to Scripture?”             While discussing these topics over dinner with my friend Jesse; my dear brother in Christ made the following observation, “Without really questioning her methodology, the church has settled into a Western consumer model wherein she ‘packages’ her message for each age group—and in so doing inadvertently feeds into the disconnect between church and home.”             The simplicity of his statement rocked me.  He was right; the church has assumed the child-training role by default.  The sad state of affairs in the Christian home has been ‘normalized’—and the church has taken up the mantle that should belong to the parents.              I practically blanched white as I penned the following words—I see a remote comparison between America’s welfare system and the church—both attempt to function as a surrogate parent to the broken family without really re-building the family.             Paul David Tripp has written a book which does much to help us recover an understanding of just how strategic God intends the home to be.  In his book, “Age of Opportunity,” Tripp indicates that the Christian home ought to function as a seminary.              The Lord has not altered His plan—as the fathers’ hearts are moved in love for God so also the children’s hearts are moved, and then trained up in the Lord by their parents.  It’s tragic when parents are so quick to abdicate this precious privilege—passing it off to the church without a sense of loss.             If we are to ‘measure’ our effectiveness by Scripture, then we will have to align ourselves fully with what God’s Word says about the home.  What takes place at church must be designed to help equip parents to make the home a training center.  Anything less is to pull in another direction—and to sow to the current disconnect that exists between church and home.             All of our Christian education efforts—whether in Sunday school, or Christian school, or home school must dovetail back into God’s redemptive purpose for His people—to present every man complete in Christ (Col 1:28-29).             The local church should embrace a full congruency of purpose with the home so that the home is viewed as the training ground for young people.  Church, school, and home ought to operate in harmony and synchrony like cylinders firing in perfectly timed sequence.             Each part of this triad (church, home, and school) should support and strengthen the other two.  Each has a role that it can do better than the other two.  In Scripture we see a division of labor; but a unity of purpose between the three.               The church occupies a role which defines true community.  Believers are bound together in a covenant community of regenerate, baptized members.  She is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Tim 3:15b).  She is to instruct her members and build them up in the faith.  She brings believers together in corporate worship.  In her meetings, the Word of God is proclaimed that Christians might learn to know the Lord, love the Lord, and learn to do His will.              The church exists to know Christ, to worship Christ, and to make Him known.  She exists to be conformed to Christ and to fulfill The Great Commission.  The church fulfills her divine mandate ONLY if her individual members are moving toward maturity in Christ.              The role of the home and the role of Christian education are vital to the process of Christian maturity (of presenting every man complete in Christ).  Though one in purpose; each of the three parts of the triad occupy a unique niche.  For instance, grounding people in biblical worldview probably takes place best in the school and in the home rather than being accomplished by preaching in church.             Now regarding the mandate to bring its members to maturity; we cannot say in truth that a local church has ‘kingdom values’ unless she is utterly committed to the task of presenting every member complete in Christ.  Only if she is animated by this purpose of presenting every member complete in Christ is she fulfilling her N.T. function.              It is precisely at this point that so many Evangelical churches prove that they have imbibed neutralizing influences from our culture.  The loss of focus needed to bring individual Christians to maturity is tied to the loss of the church’s sense of purpose as set forth in Scripture.              The phenomenon of apathy concerning the maturity mandate of Colossians 1:28-29 is not an isolated malady.  It is symptomatic of blindness as to WHY the church exists in the first place.  At salvation the regenerated person is united to Christ—that union is to be realized and lived out in a vital vertical dimension and in a dynamic corporate dimension (Gal 2:20).  This is not an experience reserved for pastors and missionaries—this is the normal Christian life!  Our problem is that we have normalized nominal Christianity to such a degree that N.T. Christianity looks like fanaticism.                Local churches have, by N.T. standards, experienced a very unnatural process of numerical growth. Rather than growing by conversion; they have swelled their ranks by transfer membership.  By means of preaching engaging sermons and providing interesting programs, churches have attracted professing believers.              An honest profiling of this growth reveals that many Evangelical churches are full of uncommitted folks who like things that way—they wish to remain in attendance; but uncommitted.  We as church leaders have acquiesced to this status quo arrangement.  It is our silence and passivity that have normalizedspectatorship, non-commitment, and anonymity.  Doing church has been ‘dumbed down’ so to speak to mesh with the lowest common denominator desires of the uncommitted.             Now here is where things get serious.  The core values of the uncommitted, i.e. spectatorship and relative anonymity, are antithetical to true discipleship.  Please let this sink in—man’s sin nature which eschews self-denial and self-sacrifice is ethically opposed to the most fundamental elements of true discipleship—death to the self-life.             The question is will you let core values of the nominal Christian set the standard for the church? Having adapted ourselves to the member-transfer model of church growth; we have inadvertently established a détente with flocks of sick, emaciated, and stagnant professors of Christianity.              If members of a 1st Century N.T. congregation were to witness the way we do church they would no doubt be intrigued by the excellence we pursue in our rituals; but wonder where mutual edification took place.  If they stayed long enough; they would see our local churches today as strange hybrids; as deformed creatures that have mutated away from the church pattern set by the Apostles.              In N.T. churches, meetings revolved around mutual edification.  Members practiced mutual admonishment for the purpose of preparing their brothers and sisters for another week of spiritual warfare and ministry (Rom 15:14; Heb 10:23-25).  Compared to the mutual edification practiced by the N.T. church; our ‘fellowship’ is merely Christianized socializing and visiting with no real aim.              If things are to be turned around; we will have to discover afresh that discipleship is absolutely essential to maturity.  Through discipleship truth becomes life.  Through discipleship truth becomes exceedingly relevant; then self-confrontational; then incarnational.  Through discipleship spiritual multiplication takes place.  How can churches justify the absence of true discipleship?             In my own Evangelical circles an expository pulpit is one of the highest values that we embrace in church life.  In fact it is regarded so highly that at times it becomes an excuse for our failure at triangulatingbetween church, home, and school.              In essence, like Israel of old—we have said, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” (Jer 7:4).  As if—because we have an expository pulpit—we may pronounce the whole church in a state of relative wellness.             Such is not the case.  There are undeniable symptoms of spiritual debilitation in our midst: a secular view of marriage and family; an absence of true community among believers; a failure to commit ourselves to The Great Commission—with an equal failure in both evangelism and discipleship (2% of Evangelicals practice personal evangelism, barna.org).              Sermons alone do not produce mature members.  Richard Baxter (The Reformed Pastor) imbues this point upon his readers—that there must be vital points of contact and confrontation between biblical truth and the members of the flock if genuine growth is to take place.  Pastor Baxter sought to complete a yearly circuit to each member’s home in order to build up flock and bring them to maturity.  He attributed his success in no small part to this willingness to individually disciple the members of the flock.             Church members will not move to maturity by listening to sermons alone.  Believers must learn to study for themselves; apply what they learn; meditate upon the truth; love the truth; and instruct others in the truth.              It is but a pipe dream to imagine that by some mysterious kind of spiritual osmosis these things can be learned by hearing great preaching.  To move from a hearer of the Word to an effectual doer of the Word involves great singleness of mind and intentionality (James 1:25).                If we are to recapture the vision of bringing each member to maturity; the vision to do so will have to be constantly articulated and modeled by the leaders of the church.  Every leader, whether home fellowship leader; elder; associate pastor; or senior pastor should be able to articulate the vision of bringing every member to spiritual maturity.  He should be able to do this with great specificity and personal application—explaining precisely how it is to be implemented; the specific opportunities available; as well as why it is our very purpose for meeting.             Church leaders must keep casting the vision for spiritual maturity until it is understood and embraced by church members.  Central to this articulation will be a clear explanation of the working relationship between church, home, and school.  The church must reiterate the function of her own role along with the the role of home and school in presenting every man complete in Christ.  Our philosophy of ministry must reflect nothing less than God’s plan for His church.              “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph 4:15-16).             God’s plan for the maturity of the Christian involves every believer fulfilling his individual part; there is no room for detached spectatorship.  Of course this flies in the face of the common practice of so many professing Christians who prefer to operate in an insular bubble; an ‘obese’ comfort zone that detests accountability, transparency, and accessibility to other believers.                Ephesians 4:25 states that we are ‘members of one another’.  This has huge ramifications for maturity.  Being members of one another has implications that are inseparable from the very purpose why church exists—for the union we have with Christ is the basis for our union with other believers—this is the very fabric of true community.  The church cannot reach its goal of maturing the individual without a sacrificial commitment to mutual edification.               Doesn’t it make you want to ask uncommitted church-attenders the following question, “Is it your purpose in attending this church to strive to reach maturity and to exert yourself in order to bring others to maturity—the very individuals who will be joined with you for all eternity?”             Pop culture has shaped how professing Christians relate to one another in church.  The vision to function as a supernatural community is completely missing in most Evangelical churches (Jn 17:21-23). It is all too common for professing believers to be completely ignorant of the truth that we are members one of another.              I fear that churches have been overly accommodating to the member-transfer model of growth.  Pews are filled with professing Christians in a state of arrested development.  The seriousness of the problem cannot be overstated.              All one has to do to slide into hell is to live a life of spiritual neglect (Heb 2:1-3).  The opposite destiny requires a much different course of action; in order to finish the Christian life well; it will take person’s entire resolve (2 Tim 1:8).             Certainly pastors who have coddled and pampered the rebellious will have to give an account of that action before the Lord.  Do we fear that some of the uncommitted would vacate their pews if we preached the full burden of the text—preaching in such a way as to drive home the application—leaving no room for escaping the consequences of disobedience?              After Jesus performed signs in Jerusalem; the number of His followers greatly increased.  Jesus never colluded with the numbers game.  The Scripture says, “But Jesus, on His part was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men” (Jn 2:24).  Have we forgotten the biblical doctrine of man?              Let us remember that uncommitted professors loathe accountability; they refuse to take up their cross and deny themselves. Those who refuse to follow Christ by denying themselves will ultimately refuse to willingly suffer for Christ (Rom 8:17).  Consider the price that pastors and churches are paying in order to keep their pews filled with uncommitted professors of Christianity.              Do we really understand what is at stake?  As Christianity is increasingly marginalized in our nation persecution in some form will be unavoidable.  With the passing of each year it will be more difficult to practice true Christianity in a nation that views the Faith with suspicion; or worse as mindless prejudice.   If Christ tarries; the church will suffer.  Are we preparing the Bride of Christ to suffer for the sake of her Head? (Col 1:24).  I think not.             It is shameful that we are not preparing the church of Christ for suffering.  Deepening one’s faith; devotion; love; and sacrifice in preparation for suffering is the very last thing on peoples’ minds.               By contrast, the N.T. Church functioned as a war room; a pentagon; a boot camp—a place of accelerated learning in which what was gained would be immediately put to use.  Believers exhorted one another in preparation for another week in the ‘trenches’ of spiritual warfare and ministry; and in many cases persecution.  They continually spoke to one another about their common hope in Christ and the coming Day of the Lord.  They came to church to encourage; to edify; to build up; and to admonish their brethren.

True Repentance

God’s gift of salvation includes the gift of repentance.

The Word of God employs a number of words to describe the many facets of salvation. Many of these words describe God’s sovereign work in man’s salvation. Other terms are used to set forth the conditions of salvation. Faith and repentance are conditions of salvation. Scripture asserts that even the ability to lay hold of salvation is a gift of divine grace. Faith is granted by God to the elect (John 6:65, Ephesians 2:8,9, Philippians 1:29). Repentance also is granted by God’s grace (2 Timothy 2:25, Acts 11:18).

Faith and repentance have their counterfeits.

It is a sobering truth that both faith and repentance have their counterfeits. Many profess to have believed savingly when no change in their nature has taken place. They may assent to the historical facts of the gospel, but do not exercise moral trust in Christ for righteousness. Where true repentance is absent, salvation in Christ is also missing. Scripture reserves some of its strongest warnings for hypocrites.

True repentance has imitations. So subtle are the machinations of pseudo-repentance, that God alone is able to determine the genuineness of each case. The pastor, counselor and Christian worker ought to apply certain biblical tests of true repentance to the professions of those counseled and discipled. Certain traits of false repentance will be obvious. Others will be more difficult to detect.

The marks of false repentance.

Evangelical Christians sometimes refer to false repentance as “penance” or “legal repentance.” Those two designations acknowledge that both true and false repentance share many of the same attributes. Jonathan Dickinson, first president of Princeton College notes some of the similarities that exist between the two.[i][1] Both may exhibit a distress connected to a sense of divine displeasure. Both may have strong impressions of the danger of outward sin. Both may involve a course of personal reformation.[ii][2] Both may be gripped with anguish and remorse over past sin.[iii][3]

False repentance is man-centered, not God-centered.

Jim Elliff in his article on The Unrepenting Repenter describes the substitutes for true repentance. Actions may undergo change while the heart remains unchanged. The great deception issues from the self-congratulation a man may embrace for his outward change while his unchanged heart is still in love with his sin (Mark 7:1-23). Those who fail to repent may confess the words of a true repenter and yet be lost (1 John 2:4, 4:20). Saul gave a model confession in 1 Samuel 15:24-26, but showed no fruits of genuine repentance.[iv][4]

Elliff cites other substitutes as well. Many assume that emotions of fear and/or sorrow guarantee that their repentance was genuine. King Saul’s tears and confession looked genuine, but soon after he resumed his attempts to murder David (1 Samuel 24:16-22). Saul’s second confession to David is equally articulate but also false (1 Samuel 26:21).[v][5]

Some offer an imitation repentance for the love of friends, family or religious leaders. Love to God is absent as a motive. Many temporarily turn from sin because of urging of loved ones. Lot’s wife left the city of Sodom at the urging of her husband. She left for the love of her family, but her heart had never turned (Genesis 19:12-26; Luke 17:32).[vi][6]

A counterfeit repentance may also show itself in tirades against finished acts of sin while continuing to make provision for the flesh. Though King Ahab appeared to repent of his great wickedness, be continued to make provision for sin by keeping false prophets in his court. He eventually preferred their lying words to the Word of God (1 Kings 22:14-23).[vii][7]

The hatred of sin is a missing element in false repentance.

Puritan Thomas Manton gives a poignant commentary on the motives that often accompany false repentance. “If an unregenerate man should leave off sin under fear of death or hell, it would not be out of hatred of sin, but out of the fear of the punishment, as the bird is kept from the bait by the scarecrow.”[viii][8]

How is it that a man may sorrow, confess, reform, fear and mourn, and yet fail at true repentance? The following observations are aimed at the above question. It is this author’s intent to elucidate the reasons why penance falls short of true repentance. G.W. Bromiley remarks that the Reformers cut through the whole falsification of repentance by insisting that Scripture requires penitence, not penance.[ix][9]

Penance is the religious counterfeit of true repentance.

Penance flows from an aversion to God’s commandments. The natural man dreams of a land where every thought and deed would be beyond the scrutiny of God’s law. Penance does not attain to the love of God’s law. There is an unchanged disposition that resents that there is a divine standard that calls for the punishment of cherished sins.[x][10]

True repentance is inseparably joined to faith. Penance exists apart from faith. It flows from unbelief. Faith’s object is the person and work of Christ. Penance has for its object of trust its own duties and reforms. Therefore it is preoccupied with self.[xi][11]

The individual who exercises penance trusts in his own efforts, but distrusts God. Amidst his sorrow is a legal, slavish, craven fear that can be easily eclipsed by despair and despondency. At the prospect of Christ’s return and the immediate destruction of the earth, men of all classes will cry out for annihilation by rocks and mountains rather than face God (Revelation 6:12-17).[xii][12]

Penance is an attempt to pacify the conscience.

Penance is ultimately aimed not toward God, but toward the conscience. The man who exercises penance seeks to manage the accusations of conscience by sorrow, duties and reform. His duties are not driven by gospel gratitude and trust, but by fear and discouragement. He does his accounting not by the gospel, but by works of penance designed to bribe and quiet his conscience. These “dead works” are legal and temporary. When conscience is temporarily pacified, the man may assure himself that he has attained mercy. In this state of false comfort, the man is careless and secure. Cold formality characterizes his religious duties.[xiii][13]

Dead works by definition are legal works divorced from faith in the gospel. Penance seeks to parade a change in behavior before the eyes of conscience. This is done in order to quiet its accusations. The workings of penance are performed without any concern about the power of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5). Penance like Adam’s fig leaves is an attempt to cover the nakedness of moral deformity. Adam attempted to avert judgment by covering his nakedness. Every sinner’s natural response is self-vindication. By penance the sinner works to vindicate himself and reduce his judgment.[xiv][14]

Penance avoids the cross of Christ.

Penance competes with the atonement by seeking to become an atonement itself.[xv][15] Penance is but a band-aid placed upon a corpse. Nothing short of a resurrection can effect the needed change (Ephesians 2:1-5).

The legal repenter works at self-vindication through sorrow, duties and self-reformation. But, he has never given glory to God by fully embracing his moral ill desert. Achan before his execution glorified God by exalting God’s justice in his confession of sin. In so doing, Achan cleared God of all suspicion and, he affirmed the divine justice meted out in the execution of the death penalty (Joshua 7:19-21).

Gardiner Spring’s remarks on this topic are appropriate, “No man, indeed, ever arrived to any just view of his sins by the mere process of human reasoning, or by anything short of the illuminating and convincing power of God’s Spirit.”[xvi][16] As interested parties men are not fit to judge their own cases. There is far too much of a conflict of interest.[xvii][17] Nature alone cannot comprehend the level of ill desert that sin against God demands. An unawakened man might as well be asked to build a stone courthouse in which he will be found guilty. And then to construct an iron cell to incarcerate him, and finally to construct the gallows upon which he will be hung.

The “sorrow” accompanying penance is not true repentance.

The natural man secretly quarrels with the verdict of the law and with God’s right to judge him. In that self-vindicating state, he will not accept the gospel.[xviii][18] A man convinced that he may patch himself up and placate God thereby will not abandon his case to Christ. The legal repenter never repents of unbelief.[xix][19]

Penance has a kind of sorrow. Paul refers to it as “the sorrow of the world,” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Worldly sorrow is self-centered. Godly sorrow is centered in God and His immutable holiness. The truly repentant are afflicted by reason of their sin and its offense to God. Not only are they broken over particular deeds of sin, but also over the very nature that produces it.[xx][20]

Esau and Judas plumbed the depths of regret but did not find repentance because their concerns were not in harmony with what God requires in godly sorrow.[xxi][21]

A pastor whose messages contained little of Christ, the gospel or divine enablement asked one of his deacons what he thought of the preaching. The courageous deacon answered that the congregation by listening to such browbeating sermons had little motivation to change. “They have done their penance by sitting through your sermons.” So also, the legal repenter attempts to atone for guilt by carrying guilt. He never has cast a believing look in Christ’s direction (John 3:14, 15).

True repentance is inseparable from faith in Christ.

By contrast, the true penitent takes all the blame for his sin, and then looks to Christ. He resolves to leave off all sin and he expects to find mercy. He condemns himself, vindicates God, and looks in reliance upon free grace. Such hearty approval of God’s law and such clear apprehension of God’s mercy presupposes regeneration.[xxii][22]

The true repenter knows God is ready and willing to forgive. His repentance is joined to this confidence.[xxiii][23] God’s calls to repentance are annexed to His offers of mercy. The fully awakened individual is driven into the arms of Christ by his sense of sin. Such a turning to God in Christ involves an apprehension of God’s love. When the prodigal began his journey home, he thought upon his father’s love. Desire for his father’s love, mercy and favor was not diminished by the knowledge of his father’s ways and rules.[xxiv][24]

The Holy Spirit enables believers to practice ongoing repentance.

Thomas Watson defines repentance as a grace of God’s Spirit, which enables a sinner to be inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. Such a gracious work moves a man to recognize and consider the wickedness of sin. He is thereby humbled and is moved to sorrow for his sin. This godly sorrow is not superficial, but “is a holy agony” (Psalm 51:17, Joel 2:13). The sinner then confesses specific sins, which he has committed against God. He also confesses his sinful nature itself (Psalm 51:5). Scripture says that a truly repentant person is ashamed of his sin (Romans 6:21). And that he hates the sin he once loved and excused (Ezekiel 36:31). Such a hatred of sin is universal. The penitent has seen its cursedness and vileness. He declares war upon it and turns from it to God. He does so from the heart (Isaiah 55:7, Acts 26:20).[xxv][25]

True repentance loves God’s holiness.

True repentance is accompanied by a sight of the beauty of God’s holiness and the desirability of the life of holiness. The man enmeshed in penance never has had this view of God’s moral majesty. Therefore he has not the same aversion to sin as the penitent. He is not burdened by his failure to keep God’s law. The penitent’s self-love has been displaced by self-loathing over personal sin. Such loathing is inseparable from a genuine desire to be delivered from sin. Evangelical repentance begins a new life of striving against lust. The penitent is heavenly-minded, longing for the day he will be forever delivered from indwelling sin. Those who are heavenly-minded exhibit a present dependence upon Christ as sanctifier.[xxvi][26] Those who long for the blessed state of sinlessness (the glory to come), manifest that desire by seeking purity (1 John 3:3).

The repentance that accompanies salvation is joined to faith in Christ’s mercy.

If true repentance is absolutely essential to salvation, the question may arise concerning its relationship to saving faith. Is it necessary that the sinner exercise true repentance and be conscious of having repented in order to have a right to take Christ as Savior? The answer begins with the understanding that Scripture joins faith and repentance together. They are granted at the same point of time in regeneration (Zechariah 12:10, Mark 1:5). Repentance is not offered to God apart from believing. Should a man wonder if he has repented thoroughly enough to have a right to Christ? This is to separate repentance from faith. Though the two are distinct, they are inseparable.[xxvii][27]

A man will not repent who is yet an enemy of God under divine wrath. True repentance shows that an act of saving faith is joined to it. Those who come to God repenting come by Christ. Mourning for sin begins with Christ. Thus, true repentance is not a qualification to come to Christ. It is a capacity granted along with faith. Scripture sets forth the promises of grace and the object of faith. These are powerful motives to exercise true repentance. Faith apprehends mercy and grace in Christ and brings the soul to true repentance.[xxviii][28]

John Murray brings out this union of the two in stating that faith and repentance are interdependent. Faith is permeated with repentance, and repentance with faith. In repenting, the penitent apprehends the perfect suitability of Christ for his sinnership.[xxix][29] The glory that floods the soul of the fully awakened person is that Christ’s sufficiency as Savior is coterminous with the devastation sin has wreaked upon the man.

Seven marks of true repentance.

A changed heart always leads to a changed behavior. Arthur Pink lists seven marks of true repentance. 1.) A hatred of sin; 2.) A deep sorrow for sin; 3.) Ongoing repentance and confession of sin; 4.) Turning from sin to God; 5.) Restitution where applicable; 6.) Permanent fruits of a changed life; 7.) A realization that repentance is never perfect in this life.[xxx][30]

The necessity of preaching repentance.

The doctrine of repentance is of utmost importance in preaching. Every minister should strive to gain an excellent understanding of this truth. The soil of the human heart is self-righteous to the core. Too many cry grace before the granite of the heart is broken up by a sight of sin. Preaching that ignores the doctrine of repentance may flatter sinners and imply that the duties of Christianity lie within their power. Those who crowd into churches without repenting have an unmortified pride. It never crosses their mind that they have no fear of God, that they do not serve God, and that they slight the blood of Christ.

Preaching repentance involves proclaiming the law of God.

This author renews afresh his commitment to preach repentance. It is a New Testament command (Acts 17:30). Sinners are told to turn from sin that they might have eternal life. The moral law of God ought to be brought to bear upon the consciences of sinners (1 Timothy 1:9-11). The sinner’s whole being and existence is an offense to God. The law reveals how criminal the sinner’s ways are.[xxxi][31]

No man despairs of his own righteousness and efforts without a radical vision of his sin. It is convicted sinners who see they are liable to divine wrath. They alone see they need a Savior. The law is a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ through repentance (Galatians 3:24). Self-love runs so deep, men have no sentiment whatsoever that God is worthy of infinite eternal glory. As a result, the gospel is pared down to fit the world’s tastes. Repentance is the first truth to be cut off. Repentance is seldom preached by those who hesitate to condemn man-centeredness. The sense of God’s supreme moral government is lost without the preaching of repentance. True repentance is designed to make the heart loathe sin. By design it moves a man to take a violent stand against himself. By design it moves to broken-heartedness over failure to keep God’s law.[xxxii][32]

As those who will preach Christ to this generation, it must always be remembered that salvation is not just from the consequences of sin, but also from sin itself. Those who will be saved through Christ must repent of sin if they are to be saved from it. They will be saved by way of a strong hatred of sin and an intense desire to be delivered from sin.[xxxiii][33]

Repentance issues forth in a changed mind, heart and life. True repentance renews the intellect, the affections and the will. Scripture asserts that repentance produces radical change in all three areas; the mind (Matthew 3:2, Mark1:15); the heart (Matthew 21:29,32, Hebrews 7:21); the will (Matthew 3:8; 9:13; Acts 20:21).[xxxiv][34]

The failure to preach repentance results in serious consequences.

Failure to preach repentance has contributed to the errors of “easy-believism” and “cheap grace.” Yes, God is glorifying His grace, but He is doing so by making men holy through Christ. Repentance alone keeps the subject of salvation within the context of deliverance from sin. Repentance sets a man on a course of mortifying sin. It preserves the truth that God is purifying for Himself a people (Titus 2:14).[xxxv][35] Repentance must be preached if these truths are to be understood.

The burden of evangelical preaching must be repentance toward God. There is no lasting change or conversion without it. The counselor must urge repentance as well. He will not be able to see into hearts, but he will be able to observe the fruits of repentance. Genuine change will be accompanied by. 1.) Confession of sin; 2.) Seeking forgiveness; 3.) Forsaking of sin; 4.) A new course of life with an accompanying change in thought life. The person receiving counsel must exert strength in order to rid himself of every sinful influence. He must cease making provision for sin (Romans 13:14). The faithful pastor and counselor will call for these fruits.[xxxvi][36]

Scripture gives startling accounts of how far some individuals traveled in a direction of false piety before their absence of repentance was exposed. Jeremiah 42:1-6 explains how the leaders of the Judean remnant approached the prophet requesting his intercessory prayer. They vowed to obey God’s counsel through the prophet no matter how difficult. When Jeremiah brought back the words of direction and correction, their response revealed the unrepentant condition of their hearts. Their retort to Jeremiah and to God is cited in Jeremiah 44. It is one of the most blasphemous speeches ever recorded by professing believers.

The message of repentance should always be joined to the Gospel.

Though our message of repentance must never be reduced or compromised, it must always be joined to the gospel. True repentance makes for a deep sense of the preciousness of the gospel. It prepares a man to hold fast to Jesus as Savior and sanctifier. It rejects all other foundations of trust and credits Christ with authorship of salvation. True repentance subjects the soul to Christ’s lordship (whereas a dead impenitent “faith” remains disobedient and unrenewed). Repentance joined to saving faith works love to God and to man.[xxxvii][37] “The wicked do but weep for sins past, but the godly purpose to sin no more,” Henry Smith.[xxxviii][38]

The superlative advantages of a clear conscience.

True repentance brings the priceless fruit of a clear conscience. The Apostle Paul, in his testimony before Felix, stressed the importance of a clear conscience before God and men (Acts 24:15, 16). Paul lets believers know that a clear conscience is absolutely essential to maintaining a confident hope in view of the coming resurrection.

The advantages of a clear conscience are as follows: 1.) It gives one the power to step out on the promises of God. With the clear conscience comes a deep conviction of God’s blessed intentions towards you. 2.) It gives one the power to suffer for the sake of righteousness (without fainting, murmuring, or turning to evil). 3.) It gives one the power to worship unhindered. 4.) It lifts us above defensiveness. It is joined to the power of meekness and love. 5.) It clears the way to speak of God’s holiness with boldness. It prepares us to preach Christ crucified and to call others to repentance. 6). It is essential if we are to be able to admonish others, confronting their sin. 7.) It is joined to the ability to delight in God, to enjoy God and to consent to be loved by Him. 8.) It becomes a source of unspeakable joy and peace (the Holy Spirit works through a clear conscience, convincing us of the beauty of holiness). 9.) It issues forth in love to Christ whose blood purges the conscience and floods it with joy and peace. 10.) It is the source of a united heart that is resolute, stable, and established in the pursuit of holiness.

End Notes

[i][1] Jonathan Dickinson, The Marks of True Repentance and Saving Faith,

(Pensacola: Chapel Library, n.d.) 1.

[ii][2] Ibid., 1-3.

[iii][3] Jay Adams, How to Help People Change, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan

Publishing House, 1986), 143.

[iv][4] Jim Elliff, The Unrepenting Repenter, (North Little Rock: Christian

Communicators Worldwide, 1994), 2.

[v][5] Ibid.

[vi][6] Ibid., 3.

[vii][7] Ibid., 4.

[viii][8] I.D.E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury, From “Repentance,” (Carlisle:

The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 239.

[ix][9] G.W. Bromily, “Penance,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A.

Elwell ed., (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1984), 835.

[x][10] Dickinson, The Marks of True Repentance, 7-9.

[xi][11] Ibid.

[xii][12] Charles Hodge, “Repentance,” The Way of life, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book

House, 1977), 228-235.

[xiii][13] Dickinson, 9-11.

[xiv][14] Philip E. Hughes, 2 Corinthians, The New International Commentary on

The New Testament, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1962), 273-274.

[xv][15] John Calvin, “Our Regeneration by Faith: Repentance,” Institutes of the

Christian Religion, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), 1:3:3:3, 595.

[xvi][16] Gardiner Spring, The Attraction of the Cross, “A Stumbling-Block

Removed,” Carlisle: The Banner of truth Trust, 1845), 137.

[xvii][17] John Colquhoun, “The Priority of the Acting of Saving Faith to Exercise of

Repentance,” Evangelical Repentance, (Publisher unknown, 1826), 19.

[xviii][18] Gardiner Spring, The Attraction of the Cross, 150.

[xix][19] John Colquhoun, Evangelical Repentance, 1, 13.

[xx][20] Hughes, “2 Corinthians,” 273-274.

[xxi][21] Jay Adams, How People Change, 143.

[xxii][22] Arthur W. Pink, Repentance, (Choteau, Gospel Mission, 1986), 14-18.

[xxiii][23] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Out of the Depths, (Bryntirion: Evangelical Press

of Wales, 1987), 37,43.

[xxiv][24] Samuel E. Waldron, “Of Repentance unto life and Salvation,” A Modern

Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, (Durham: Evangelical

Press, 1989), 202-203.

[xxv][25] Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, (Carlisle: The Banner of

Truth Trust, 1987 rp., first published 1668), 18-58.

[xxvi][26] Dickinson, 15-18.

[xxvii][27] Colquhoun, 1,18.

[xxviii][28] Ibid., 17, 18.

[xxix][29] John Murray, “Faith and Repentance,” Redemption Accomplished and

Applied, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955),

106, 113.

[xxx][30] Pink, Repentance, 28-30.

[xxxi][31] Walter, Chantry, “Preaching Repentance Toward God,” Today’s Gospel:

Authentic or Synthetic, (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1970), 47-

53.

[xxxii][32] Pink, Repentance, 19-24.

[xxxiii][33] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 113-115.

[xxxiv][34] Pink, 29.

[xxxv][35] Charles Hodge, The Way of Life, 242-243.

[xxxvi][36] Jay Adams, How People Change, 144-146.

[xxxvii][37] Dickinson, 16-24.

[xxxviii][38] I.D.E. Thomas, Henry Smith on “Repentance,” A Puritan Golden

Treasury, 238.

39 Samuel E. Waldron, A Modern Exposition, 199.