Gods Grant of Repentence Part II

God's Grant of Repentance

Part II

 

 

 

              There are five separate acts of repentance detailed in Scripture. We examined four in my last article. The subject of this article, and the next few, will be, repentance unto salvation in the age of grace.

              Let's begin by giving a more precise definition of repentance during the age of grace. Repentance is; that act of God whereby He causes the regenerated sinner, in his conscious life, to turn to Him in repentance and faith, in response, the regenerate sinner, through the grace of God, turns to God in repentance and faith. Louis Berkhof Systematic Theology, p. 483. Biblical repentance includes a change of mind that results in a change of the direction of the soul. The direction of the soul is entirely reversed. The innate course of the human soul is away from God and the things of God and toward sin and the things of sin. In repentance this is forever reversed. The direction of the soul of a believer is toward God and the things of God and away from sin and the things of sin.

              Paul instructs Timothy “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth...” 1 Tim. 2:25. It is God who grants repentance unto salvation.  God grants repentance unto man and man repents. The emphasis however, must be on God granting repentance. Repentance is not something we can invent. Man may generate the appearance of repentance. Preachers may elicit very emotional responses from their congregations that a have the pretense of true repentance. But this is not repentance. Repentance  is only granted by God to those who He has chosen for salvation. It is true that “... having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all men everywhere should repent...” Acts 17:30. But it is equally true that only those chosen by God will repent unto to salvation “ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined {to become} conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30.

              Repentance starts with God and ends with man. It is a work of God in the human heart and can never be produced by man. It is part of the order of salvation and the resurrection of the human soul from death to life; eternal life in Christ.