This is were we must agree, The True Gospel demands Repentance not just one time but continual Repentance. This is one of the greatest evidences of salvation, you have repented and you are continuing to repent ever being conformed to the image of HIS Son. Are you continuing to be Transformed?
The True Gospel Demands Repentance
The true Gospel of the grace of God demands repentance, the laying down of your arms of rebellion before God. Here is where you learn to take the blame for your sins and lost condition. You can’t blame your mother, your wife, your husband, your sister, your children, your environment, or even your own helplessness, but you take the blame, and plead guilty before Him. You confess in specifics and not in generalities: “God, oh my God, I stole those goods; I took your name in vain; I lied; I cheated; I hate my mother; I hate my sister; I am the adulterer, the adulteress; I am to blame for my unbelief and for my evil nature.” You see? Sin is confessed, the heart is laid bare before God, and you take the blame before Him because you are to blame. Yes, you come like David did in Psalm 51:4, crying to God: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.”
“For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter” - II Corinthians 7:11
The repentance that is godly and works godly sorrow in you because of your sin against God, is described in II Corinthians 7:11. It is that repentance which produces carefulness, clearing, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge. This godly sorrow for sin produces the fruit of repentance in this way as the Holy Spirit works in you, showing to you your sin before God.
First, there is carefulness wrought in you-carefulness to confess every sin and lay bare your heart before God.
And then there is a clearing of yourself before God-a coming clean with God, confessing all, hiding nothing, and taking the blame for all your sins.
Then the word indignation is used-indignation against sin, a hatred for it, a crying out against it, and a fleeing from it.
Then we see the word fear-fear of sin, fear of sinning, and fear of adding iniquity to iniquity.
Then there is vehement desire-the desire to be through with sin and to know Christ. In other words, you want Christ and His salvation more than you want anything else in the world.
There is zeal-zeal in fighting against sin and fleeing from it. And then there is the word revenge-carefulness to acknowledge the righteousness and justice of God in sending you to hell as your just desert for sin.
Personal Application
Have you ever asked God to take vengeance against your sins? Have you ever confessed to Him that if you receive your just wages, it would be punishment in hell? In other words, you want God to be just in whatever He does with you. When you come there, taking the blame before God, you can reckon that God will have mercy upon you for Christ’s sake, for this is true repentance-that which God both requires and provides.
Now we have seen some of the reasons so many are deceived today by this false gospel of carnal Christianity. Because they do not know God’s way of grace and salvation, they are strangers to the power of the true Gospel, strangers to the power of the blood of Christ, and strangers to the reality, beauty and glory of this risen Christ. There is no vital, living union between their souls and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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