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.

A Statement on the Christian View of Knowledge

Not only do we only know God through Jesus Christ, but we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ; we only know life and death through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ we cannot know the meaning of our life or our death, of God or ourselves. Thus without Scripture, whose only object is Christ, we know nothing, and can see nothing but obscurity and confusion in the nature of God and in nature itself." Blaise Pascal from his book Pensées.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Our infinite personal Creator called into existence the time, space, mass continuum that we refer to as the universe. Within that universe innumerable phenomena take place. Man is witness to the tiniest fraction of these phenomena, for the vast majority of them are beyond his observation.

Man’s knowledge of himself and his planet appears much more comprehensive than his knowledge of the rest of the universe. But, even man’s knowledge of himself and his immediate environment is limited and prone to error. For man’s knowledge involves interpretation. Since facts are related to one another, man is forced to answer the question, "how is a particular fact related to other facts?" "What correlation or relationship do they bear toward one another?"

As soon as that interpretive process begins, man quickly reaches the boundaries and limitations of observation and empirical science. For human origin, meaning and destiny are beyond the reach of the human senses. Apart from God, all of man’s speculations concerning these ultimates are folly and irrationality. It ought to be clear that the nature of reality and the nature of knowledge are necessarily joined. If they are not joined, knowledge has no rational basis. Ontology has everything to do with the nature of knowledge. For in God, what is real is rational. It is His omniscience that makes rational human knowledge possible.

The final standard of truth is the Word of God; the Bible. Human faculties of sense and reason were created by God that man might take in God’s revelation and thereby think God’s thoughts after Him. Man was created to interpret knowledge by dependence upon God’s revelation. All things in the universe must be interpreted in relation to God and his plan. The universe, its purpose and unfolding history have meaning only in relation to God’s eternal plan to glorify Himself.

If the facts of the universe are not interpreted to the glory of God, man is left with an atomistic concept of knowledge. In that system of irrationality, facts have no meaningful relation to one another, no significant contact. But knowledge is not an endless sea of unrelated facts. God’s absolute comprehensive knowledge is bound up in His purpose and plan for the universe. There is unity to knowledge. God is the ultimate reference point for all knowledge. His control of all things demands the coherence of knowledge.

Every transaction in the realm of knowledge necessarily has an ultimate reference point. God’s knowledge is the basis for all coherent thought. The coherence of God’s thought is the very foundation of human knowledge. Only the Christian can claim ultimate rationalism. The believer interprets all things by means of God’s revelation. That is his basis for unified rational thought.

Sin has had a destructive effect upon knowledge. It has darkened man’s understanding of God and of self, and it has plunged man into irrational speculations. All unregenerate men by reason of their sin, worship and serve the creature instead of their Creator. Creature worship is the height of arrogance and folly. The creation itself cannot provide its own origin, meaning, sustenance nor end. God alone upholds what He has made and gives it purpose. He also executes His plan for the work of His hands. Only He is worthy of the creature’s worship.

In the sin of Eve, there was a radical corrupting of the human thought process. Eve was tempted by Satan to think univocally. By attributing powers of autonomous reason to her mind, Eve in effect negated God’s being as self-sufficient. She usurped that place, making herself the final determiner of knowledge. She arrogated to herself what only belongs to God; the right to be the final court of appeal. By that act, she put all being on one level. She declared independence from God. The lie that sin could gain a kind of freedom or independence from God only produced death. Man’s moral separation from God did not change his metaphysical dependence upon God. Man remains a dependent creature. Adam’s sin perverted both his own thinking and that of his entire progeny.

Since the fall, man’s approach to knowledge has consistently shown adherence to the lie sown in Eden. The epistemology of Eve is practiced by every unregenerate sinner. The Scriptures attest to the fact that man uses his God-given faculties of reason to suppress the truth of God in order to believe a lie.

The natural man, like Eve, thinks univocally. He assumes self-sufficiency. He interprets all he contacts without reference to God. His acknowledgment of God’s knowledge is at best correlative. He sees God’s thoughts and his own thoughts as all necessary pieces of the same pie. Like Eve, the natural man sees all being as equally ultimate. He puts himself on the same level as God. By assuming that all being is equally ultimate, sinful men conclude that knowledge is equally ultimate as well.

This view of knowledge makes God only one among many interpreters. It destroys any distinction between knowledge that is absolute (God’s) and knowledge that is derivative (that of redeemed men). All finite categories of knowledge are viewed as self-sufficient. By embracing the above, the unbeliever rejects the need for an absolute universal in order to know with certainty. He holds his own mind to be ultimate and normal. In that state, he remains blind and deceived.

It is this author’s biblical conviction that the non-Christian’s consciousness is totally incapable of accepting the truths of Christianity apart from regeneration. Without the new birth, even the most intelligent natural man will never rise above ultimate irrationalism. Men must have God’s knowledge in order to have their own knowledge. The only alternative is folly.

Man was created in God’s image in order to realize the goal of living for God’s glory. That image, if not marred by sin, assures a true, but not comprehensive knowledge of God. Those who know God by regeneration and the Scriptures will reach that end of living for His glory.

God has placed in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). It is the Christian alone who can appraise all things (1 Corinthians 2:15). He has the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians. 2:16). As such, he is enabled to think God’s thoughts after Him. Though the Christian’s knowledge is finite, his epistemology is that of ultimate rationalism.

In the final analysis there are really only two epistemologies, that of Eve and that of Christ. Man’s great need is for regeneration, for without it there is no knowledge of God and thus no rationality.

The Christian’s mind is renewed by Scripture. It is his wise caution to steer clear of every philosophy that has its origin in this world (Colossians 2:8). Christ alone is God’s light, and Christ alone is the saved man’s epistemology (Psalm 36:9, John 8:12).