For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
Godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation and eternal life and never needs to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world produces death. Godly sorrow grieves over sin itself as committed against God, while worldly sorrow grieves only over discovery and unpleasant consequences and leaves the heart unchanged and ready to sin again. The repentance God accepts is a radical change of mind and heart that can never originate with man but proceeds only from Christ and is produced by the Holy Spirit convincing of sin. It is an inward new birth and entire turning from sin that never needs to be repeated or taken back, proved not by feeling or mere confession but by reform carried into action. Its unfailing marks are carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and setting the wrong right in humility, confession, forsaking of sin, and restoration of what was taken.
Two Sorrows Compared
Godly sorrow produces genuine repentance that leads to salvation and eternal life and never needs to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world does not repent and works death. That true sorrow is to be sought in prayer as part of turning from sin and receiving saving grace. Where it is present the life is transformed and sin, when viewed in the light of God and its true character realized, is put away from heart and life; where it is absent conversions are superficial and no reformation is made. Its unfailing marks are carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge against wrong, approving oneself pure and setting the wrong right. Genuine repentance bears fruit in reformation, including restoring what was taken, confessing sin, and loving God and others.
Distress tied to selfishness, anger, resistance to counsel and failure to confess, which quiets conscience while cherishing sin, is not godly repentance. True repentance requires recognizing the seriousness of sin, confessing without reserve, forsaking it, and making a thorough work of correcting past wrongs. Sorrow that leaves the heart unchanged is not genuine, but temporary regret and outward efforts that soon fade and lead back to sin rather than salvation. Brief remorse followed by return to fault-finding, whispering and backbiting shows the sorrow was not godly, for true repentance includes sorrow for sin, confession and turning, which are necessary for pardon and peace with God. There is a repentance that needs to be repented of, coming from superficial faith and resulting in a superficial experience, unlike all genuine religious experience which bears the impress of Jehovah.
There are two kinds of sorrow, one that works change and reform and one that leaves warnings unheeded and the life unchanged. Plain dealing with responsible men should aim to produce the sorrow that leads to change and reform, and should be withheld except when silence is impossible if it will only create sorrow without change and reform. Godly sorrow grieves over sin itself as committed against God, while worldly sorrow grieves only over discovery and unpleasant consequences. Grief caused only by consequences, as with Esau and Pharaoh, is not repentance and leaves the heart ready to sin again, quieting the conscience while the person would repeat the sin if able. Such sorrow produces no genuine confession beyond admitting what cannot be denied, with concealment, evasion and excuses instead of thorough turning from sin.
True conviction brings sorrow for ingratitude toward and wounding the compassionate Saviour, and this sorrow binds the penitent to God, restores lost graces, and bears the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It is not weakness but the beginning of holiness and lasting joy, bringing thorough reform that is not regretted. True sorrow is inward and contrite with a softened heart, reaching the heart with a true sense of sin and producing repentance that does not need to be regretted. It softens and subdues the heart, enlightens the understanding, changes the stony heart, subdues rebellion, and brings the will into harmony with God's will in seeking pardon and grace to overcome. False sorrow is only outward display, rending garments and expressing remorse without inward sorrow or a softened contrite heart, leaving conversion superficial and leaving people repeating failures in the Christian life.
A scourged and tortured conscience is not itself the sorrow that leads to repentance. When Christ was condemned, Caiaphas stood under God's condemnation and his tortured conscience scourged him, yet he did not feel the sorrow that leads to repentance. The needed sorrow is not death-producing sorrow but sorrow whose fruit is life and whose end is joy. Grieving for sin belongs to the Christian life and to piety, and denying the need to grieve for sin lowers the standard of piety and conflicts with the teachings of Christ and His disciples.
Character of Godly Sorrow
Godly sorrow is sorrow directed toward God, arising from His grace and shaped by divine influence in the heart, and it produces repentance that leads to salvation and is never regretted. This repentance enables Christ's professed followers to appreciate His words and is shown in obedience to His commands, especially in loving one another. It is proved by practical fruit in confession and forsaking of sin, care to do right, carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against wrongdoing, fear, earnest desire, vehement desire, zeal, revenge against wrong, a changed life, reformation, restoring what was taken, and loving God and others.
When sin is viewed in the light of God and of His law its true character and seriousness are realized, and it is put away from the heart and life. This is sorrow for having sinned against God, not merely regret that sin has been discovered, and it leads to seeing the seriousness of sinful practices, confessing them to God without reserve, and forsaking them in thorough reform that transforms the life instead of leaving a superficial conversion. The Spirit of God enlightens the person to see his true character and real deficiencies, giving such a sense of sinful neglect and an unimproved life that it strikes terror to the soul. There the sinner is brought to Jesus to seek pardon and receive grace to overcome, where understanding is enlightened, the stony heart is changed, rebellion is subdued, and the will is brought into harmony with God's will.
True conviction brings grief for ingratitude toward the compassionate Saviour, for having slighted, wronged, wounded and grieved Him, in contrast to grief caused only by sin's unpleasant consequences. This sorrow binds the penitent to God, restores graces lost through hardness of heart and transgression, and bears the peaceable and peaceful fruits of righteousness. The truly penitent have self subdued and Christ magnified, seek fresh grace and strength and the Holy Spirit's power, grow in holiness while remaining humble and contrite, and enter peace and joy, for confessing and grieving errors shows a character able to recognize and correct them, and such sorrow is not weakness but precedes holiness and lasting joy and eternal life.
God's promises do not lead believers to go carelessly on in sin but inspire an intense, earnest desire to make thorough repentance that does not need to be repeated, because in the day of trial no surface work will stand and only faith which works by love and purifies the soul even as Christ is pure is acceptable to God. Godly sorrow has the fear of God in view and leads to obedience, to persevering effort under difficulties, to earnest seeking of the Lord, to great fear and dread of repeating mistakes God has condemned, to forsaking every false way, and to building upon the sure foundation Jesus Christ. Natural worldly sorrow by contrast has respect to the creature and tends to inaction, complaining, murmuring, unreconciliation, and disregard of a Thus saith the Lord.
Distress tied to selfishness, anger, resistance to counsel, and failure to confess wrongs and to make a thorough work of correcting past wrongs, as in Harriet's distress, is not godly repentance but worldly sorrow that works death. Worldly sorrow is regret that sin has been discovered without a true sense of sin's seriousness; it can quiet the conscience while the person continues to cherish the sin and would repeat it if able. It produces no genuine confession beyond admitting what cannot be denied.
Giver and Means of Repentance
The repentance God accepts is a radical change of mind and heart that brings the heart into subjection to Christ, and it leads to salvation without ever needing to be regretted or taken back. It can never originate with man, nor can sinners produce it by themselves or earn it as a qualification for justification, but it proceeds only from Christ when He is lifted up, given by the Lord Jesus Christ who draws and strengthens them to experience it. Lived out, it shows itself in loving Jesus, in making the happiness of father and mother one's own happiness, and in showing love to them by respecting self and by making their hearts glad.
This godly sorrow over sin that leads to repentance and salvation is produced by the Holy Spirit and is to be received through the Spirit and God's saving grace. The Spirit holds before the mind God's moral standard of righteousness, convinces of sin, creates sorrow for sin that leads to repentance without regret, and inspires faith in Jesus Christ as the only one who can save from all sin. Working with the human mind, He turns the affections away from temporal perishable things toward the imperishable eternal inheritance, recreating, refining and sanctifying people to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. So received, it leads people to take solemn warnings personally, to turn from wrong ways, and to heed counsel rather than continue into greater darkness.
No one can originate this repentance or bring about his own conversion by waiting until excited feeling or depth of sorrow seems sufficient to merit forgiveness. It is received by coming to Christ just as one is, and it is born in the heart by beholding His love and holiness, as the Holy Spirit draws and attracts by that love until the hard heart is broken and every barrier is broken down. Contemplating His love melts hearts by the love of God, shows sinners how they have wounded Christ who died to save them and grieved His heart, and leads them to break the snare, confess their sins, and seek God's forgiveness so they will not remain under His displeasure. Its sincerity and genuineness come from virtue going forth from Jesus that strengthens the purpose to turn from sin and cleave to truth, while repentance originating from self does not commend the sinner to Christ.
Past and present experience must be tried by the Word, the living oracles of God, for if the mistakes of the past are discerned, sorrow after a godly manner is possible, working repentance to salvation and giving a genuine experience in vital piety in the things of God, not resting on a supposed hope. Faithful reproof that exposes wrongdoing and points to a remedy, though it costs pain to giver and receiver, is friendship and love whose aim is not to grieve but to lead to repentance, and words spoken at God's command and plain speaking of the truth as it is help produce that sorrow that leads a person to repentance. There is a repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and it must actually be made or the sinner will not be saved, for sin is a disease, a cancer eating away all prospect of a future holy, happy, sinless life in the heavenly family above, and the impulsive, passionate heart must take itself seriously in hand and move steadily onward step by step to be an overcomer. That right-kind sorrow works a change that proves itself in earnest care, clearing of self, indignation against the wrong, fear, longing, zeal, and setting the wrong right, so that those reproved approve themselves pure in the matter.
God sends correction, searching discipline, enlightenment of true character, promises, mercy, and accepted reproof to change principles, turn the heart, and prepare it to receive the Word. His promises do not lead believers to go carelessly on in sin but inspire an intense, earnest desire to make thorough repentance that does not need to be repeated, because in the day of trial no surface work will stand and only faith which works by love and purifies the soul even as Christ is pure is acceptable to God. The needed repentance is like breaking and tilling hard soil, for God's searching discipline can be severe and may continue until resistance is broken, preparing the heart to receive the Word. It comes when the Spirit enlightens a person to see his true character and real deficiencies, giving such a sense of sinful neglect and an unimproved life that it strikes terror to the soul, and it follows when the heart, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, humbly responds to God's mercy, recognizes sin, accepts God's reproof, and maintains a continuing penitent attitude to make right the past.
Godly sorrow and thorough repentance that never needs to be taken back and does not need to be repeated are to be sought in prayer, earnestly every day with prayer for a clean heart and a renewed right spirit. Sought as part of turning from sin and receiving God's saving grace, it is the needed response to admonitions that expose wrongdoing and point to a remedy. So sought, true repentance turns the life from crooked works, keeps all crookedness out of every business transaction, refuses to let Satan mark the character, makes a person honest and in harmony with the principles of God's law, and works for eternity with care because personal conduct blesses or injures many souls in view of judgment according to works.
Meaning of Lasting Repentance
True repentance is the new birth beginning in the heart and working outward, learned from God alone and wrought by yielding mind and heart in perfect obedience and cooperating with the Holy Spirit rather than attempting it by human effort. It makes the soul God's property by creation and by redemption, subduing the stubborn heart, making it contrite and humbled before God and not lifted up in vanity. It shows itself in an entire change of character, a turning from idols to the living and true God, bringing every power of mind and soul and body into obedience to Christ and changing unrighteousness to righteousness. It is a living, working, transforming grace that reveals itself in the life and in work for Christ, proving the sincerity of prayer by endeavor to serve God. Where a person is clothed in pretentious light and terrible deception, self-knowledge that produces such genuine repentance comes when the Lord anoints the eyes to see self as one really is.
It is thorough conversion of soul, not mere regret, a complete turning from greed, worldliness, unbelief and rebellion and from acting as the Gentiles act. Without that conversion God will not spare the sinner from punishment for iniquity nor have mercy, and He will not accept his money. Those who have received abundant light and great light yet live in unbelief, greed, worldliness and rebellion remain accountable for their sins and face judgment, punished as the Gentiles are punished but with greater severity because their sin against God is greater.
It is lasting repentance that never needs to be regretted, repeated, undone or taken back, turning from deception and seeking Christ wholeheartedly and accepted by the Lord when people respond to the evidence given by the Holy Spirit. It must be kept and held fast by boldly taking a stand under the banner of Jesus Christ, yielding to the Holy Spirit's guidance and surrendering one's own will, way and control, instead of cherishing stubborn determination to carry out one's own plans, devising one plan after another and working against the Lord's plans. Keeping it would have led to a firm stand under Christ's banner, and those who spread false reports and accusations are urged to confess their sins and turn from them into this changed course rather than regret having repented. After hopelessness and feeling forsaken by God and man, a fresh start must include thorough reformation of conduct in a repentance that does not have to be done over again, bringing a clear conscience about present deportment, and with proper habits and a cheerful mind it can turn defeat into victory even when the best years of health and vigor are past, leaving no time to lose, with the help of a wife sanctified through the truth to be a blessing in the home and to the cause of God by social converse with others in the harvest field. For Frank Belden, whose talents for usefulness were tarnished by the influence and principles of men in positions of trust, this lasting repentance that comes through a sense of eternal realities is needed now while he is separated from the Office, walking in humility and learning a lesson he might otherwise never have learned.
It requires conviction and a true sense of sin, sensing its enormity and genuinely feeling and recognizing one's sins as God sees them and that one's conduct is sinful; without that conviction there is no such repentance or real reform, and where spiritual sensibilities are almost completely benumbed and sin is not sensed, that work is left undone. God must help the sinner see it, as with a man in darkness and self-deception about himself who has wronged his wife and wronged the church and broken his marriage promise to love, respect and be faithful to his wife until death. It requires breaking up the fallow ground of the heart and summoning the will to the conflict so that the good seed can find lodgment and spring up and bear fruit, with radical change in life, habits and practices; temptation itself is not sin, and circumstances cannot weaken or defile a person who refuses to yield and keeps integrity. It requires laying aside pride and self-righteousness, ceasing to excuse or justify wrongdoing, and making a thorough surrender to God, since future good resolutions cannot repair past wrongs without this change. Sorrow over the consequences of sin is not the same as godly sorrow, and repentance that need not be repented of requires a thorough turning from sin, not concealment, evasion or excuses.
It is more than admissions and confessions; it is reform carried into action by exercising oneself into change with decided, determined effort to break up old habits and the disposition to follow inclination and a course of one's own choosing, instead of idling away precious time while unconscious of wrong. Brother Howard's confession had not yet reached this repentance, for it requires continuing the work until the wrong is made right, dying to self, and recognizing the sin committed against God's cause. Its depth is not shown by feeling, momentary liberality, and confession at a meeting, nor by prayer and confession alone, but when zeal in doing matches zeal in praying and confessing and when works testify to the character of a good tree; the Lord gives this enduring repentance when His people bear that fruit.
It humbles the sinner before God when corrected, turning from crooked ways that are not justice and righteousness and being converted so that sins registered in the books of heaven are blotted out. God in mercy sends correction, reproof and warning to change principles, turn the heart, bring realization of sin so that evil is corrected, and to save erring men and preserve their usefulness. The one who refuses the correction and goes on in deception, falsehood, and unjust and underhand dealing remains in wickedness and deceit. It strikes at the root by cleansing self-conceit from soul and life, because self-conceit is a snare, and the sooner it is put away the clearer spiritual eyesight becomes. It comes when a person heeds the light God has given, humbles the heart, denounces Satan, and turns unto the Lord, holding ground against Satan's temptation as Christ held ground in the wilderness; the Lord gives victory in that turning, bringing confession from the lips and repentance from the heart, a complete change in business management, and making the Lord God of heaven superior in the life. It is required not only of the wrongdoer but of all who knowingly built him up in his crooked, unjust, unrighteous course and who justify and vindicate him and destroy the influence of the correction; unless they humble themselves before God and show this true repentance they will suffer with the transgressor.
Fruits Proving Repentance
Genuine repentance unfailingly proves itself by carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin and wrongdoing, fear, vehement desire and longing, zeal, and revenge against the wrong, so that the penitent approves himself pure in the matter and sets the wrong right. This is care to do right with confession and forsaking of sin, not a superficial conversion that leaves the life unreformed but a transforming change wrought by divine grace. Where this true sorrow is absent there is no reformation, for seeing sin in the light of God reveals its true character and puts it away from heart and life.
It shows itself in humility, distrust of self, heartfelt grief and abhorrence of sin, and seeking the Lord's help for forgiveness and peace with God. Confession flowing from it is freely and sincerely expressed from a softened, broken heart, never forced, careless, or merely to escape punishment, and it is joined to forsaking sin and thorough reform. Such deep heart-searching lets the Holy Spirit kindle the love of God in the heart, and every sin must be so confessed and blotted out before the judgment when fate is eternally sealed.
Its fruit is reformation in deed: restoring what was taken, even fourfold, confessing sins, loving God and others, and obeying His commands, especially loving one another. Godliness so produced is profitable, and its worth is shown by good works and true reform through a life guided by holy principles. Hearty, thorough repentance makes a clean record by purifying, cleansing work that wipes out the disgraceful blot, refuses to multiply robbery or call the past course justifiable, and acts in forgiveness toward the erring brother.
In the truly penitent self is subdued and Christ is magnified. They keep offering earnest, continual petitions for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask in faith, and they grow in holiness, peace and joy while remaining humble and contrite before God.
This repentance brings full and free pardon when wrongs are made right with God by confession, with compassion, cleansing, light, peace, joy, rest, assurance, and escape from the enemy who seeks to destroy the life. It comes when the sinner stops trusting feelings and trusts the immutable word of God, accepts God's estimate of sin as heavy and crushing, opens the soul heavenward and closes it earthward, and receives eternal life as God's gift through the provision He has made. A sinless One takes the sinner's place and undeservingly bears guilt, so the sinner stands free in the Substitute's merits, turns from sin with hatred and grief, earnestly corrects the past while probation lasts, cooperates with the Redeemer, lays hold of the hand mighty to save and never lets go, and does what is known to be right whether or not the expected feeling is present.
Those made conscious of error by such sorrow must be treated so as not to destroy self-respect. Confidence, sympathy, thankfulness, joy and assurance must be continued toward men and women not yet perfect in character but striving against temptation and in danger of falling, pointing them to God to make them perfect in every good work to do His will. Repentance must not be discouraged by indifference or distrust, nor confidence withheld until they prove whether they will hold out, for such distrust itself often causes the tempted one to stumble.
Examples in Scripture History
Sorrow arising from godly influence leads to repentance that brings salvation and does not end in regret, and this repentance produced by divine grace in the heart leads people to confess and forsake sin. Paul's letter exposed the wrongdoing of the Corinthians so that they could repent and act against those disgracing the church. Their repentance was shown by putting away the evil, and it bore fruit in care, self-clearing, indignation, fear, earnest desire, and zeal. Those who proved truly penitent could then be received again with love and kindness.
Ezra and his associates grieved over evil in God's work, and many of the people wept as they began to recognize, though only partly, the seriousness of sin and God's abhorrence of it. The law given at Sinai came clearly before their minds, and they trembled at their transgressions. Solomon's bitter experience, God's judgments, and stern rebuke awakened him to the true nature of his sin, and the discipline of suffering accomplished its work so that he returned to the fountain of life. His sorrow was shown in recognizing the emptiness of seeking his highest good in earthly things and the vanity of the rest promised by heathen gods. When God grants probation, the repentance that need not be repented of is manifested in seeing and sensing the real nature of sin, in abhorring oneself because of sin and having abhorrence likewise of the sin itself, and in gracious pitying tenderness and lovingkindness the Lord spares those who manifest it as He spared Nineveh.
The history of the children of Israel was written for admonition upon those on whom the ends of the world are come, so that those who have been unreasonably provoked and have acted as unwisely as Israel must learn from that history, see their wrong, and manifest lasting repentance, as urged in the case of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The Advent message moved people to repentance and salvation. In modern times this same godly sorrow that leads to repentance that does not need to be regretted brought a French brother to conversion and thorough transformation, in which he put off his former way of life and was renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator.
Repentance that does not need to be repented of comes when the Spirit of God comes into the midst of the church. It is seen when believers make God alone their trust rather than man or reliance on a minister, work in harmony with Him, talk to one another in faith and humility, dwell on and learn the lessons of Christ, set things in order in the church, and let God speak to human hearts. In Fresno this genuine repentance produced by God's Spirit would so come as the church trusted God and followed Christ's lessons. If they do not trust the Lord, the blessing already received becomes their condemnation.
Present Calls to Repentance
The church that has left its first love must answer Christ's warning not with indifference but with watchfulness, humility, confession and doing the first works, returning to love for Jesus in a repentance that never needs to be taken back, while probation still lasts before the candlestick is removed. This godly repentance is sincere and lasting, prompted by godly sorrow that does not have to be regretted.
Those who have knowingly built up a transgressor in an unjust, deceitful, crooked course, justified him and destroyed the influence of correction, must humble themselves before God, acknowledge their part, turn from ways that are not justice and righteousness, and be converted so that sins registered in heaven are blotted out, or they will suffer with him. The same thorough repentance is required for guilt in confirming another in a wrong course, encouraging resistance to light, trusting own judgment above light, misjudging spiritual danger and standing, and being worked by the same wrong spirit, leading to becoming humble as a little child, without which the soul will be lost.
Brief remorse followed by return to fault-finding, whispering, backbiting, sowing doubts, murmuring, complaining, gossip, false reports and accusations is not godly sorrow, for it leaves the heart unchanged and brings no pardon and peace. True repentance that never needs to be regretted must take the place of such work right now, just now, by ceasing murmurings and faultfinding, searching the heart as with a lighted candle, seeing self as God sees it, confessing sin, forsaking evil practices and lukewarm neutrality, putting self out of sight, and placing oneself decidedly on Christ's side so that light and the Holy Spirit can work through a life thrown on the side of truth to bring others to knowledge of the Saviour, lest too late there is no room for repentance.
Repentance that need not be regretted or undone strikes at the root by cleansing self-conceit from soul and life, since self-conceit is a snare and the sooner it is put away the clearer spiritual eyesight becomes. The one who speaks unadvisedly, giving vent to hard passionate words that hurt souls, needs this repentance, and the Spirit enables workers to see jealousy, evil suspicion and discord rightly and to repent of a discordant spirit. It keeps all crookedness out of every business transaction, rejects the idea that the end justifies the means, refuses profit at another's expense, acts toward others as one would wish to be treated, turns from repeating the sins that crucified Christ, lives by Christ's principles free from impurity, refuses to let Satan mark the character, makes a person honest and in harmony with God's law, and works for eternity with care because conduct blesses or injures many souls in view of judgment according to works.
Selfish covetous managers who misused sacred resources and committed idolatry must show lasting repentance when they see what their course caused, tremble with fear before God and know the things belonging to their peace, a repentance that renews the mind and gives power to distinguish sacred from common and honor from fraud. Those who shared in oppression and robbery in the publishing work by confederacies, forcing down royalties, diverting books from their design and leavening the institution with corrupt principles, must sense the evil, separate from it, condemn all injustice, overbearing and lording over God's heritage, and seek to set things right. This hearty thorough repentance makes a clean record by purifying and cleansing work that wipes out disgrace, restores fourfold what selfishness took from the Southern field, refuses to multiply robbery or call the past justifiable, acts in forgiveness toward the erring brother, and corrects injustice and purifies the printing office, for stewards of the Lord's goods bought with a price leave wrongs unblotted and endanger having their own names blotted from the Book of Life if they fail, while every page of dark history in heaven's books will react upon the guilty, God leaving them to stumble in darkness, removing His Spirit and departing if transactions in His name born of Satan are tolerated.
Sincere repentance that does not need to be repeated is required to stand approved and walk in light, and those who betrayed brethren, reproached God's cause and trailed Christ's banner in the dust must realize what they did and sincerely repent. It is required of one who encouraged resistance to light, and it would have followed just handling of serious sin, whereas pity and concealment harmed the sinner who showed no real repentance or reform and remains in danger of ruin and lost without humbling and conversion.
Even one under Satan's control, demoralized in thought and action, wasting means, robbing others and bringing disgrace and moral corruption upon souls, has one hope by coming to Christ as a poor perishing sinner, humbling the soul before God, turning from sin and seeking pardon, and God will receive and pardon him. Recovery from entrenched sensual and vicious indulgence requires seeing the course as God sees it and becoming deeply disgusted, distressed and agonized over it in a repentance that leads to salvation and need not be regretted.
Repentance that needeth not to be repented of requires bringing health reform into the life to place the agent in best relation to life and health and make most of God-lent capabilities, no longer weakening physical, mental and moral powers by sinful eating, sinful dressing and violation of health laws, since each must render account for good that might have been done had he observed health laws rather than living self-indulgent, careless and reckless of the house he lives in.
Missionary work is to produce lasting repentance not by provoking opposition, bringing accusation or opening the way for the enemy, but by workers wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness so labor draws souls as a savor of life unto life. Ministers as Christ's ambassadors must let words and acts be such as need not be regretted, because their conduct turns souls for or against truth.
This repentance must be thorough and immediate: the church at Roosevelt must make a thorough work and manifest it before its stain disappears, Howard's confession had not yet reached it because it requires continuing until wrong is made right, dying to self and recognizing sin against God's cause, Fannie's sought repentance comes as she sees herself truthfully, Belden needs it now while separated from the Office by walking humbly and learning lessons of eternal realities after talents were tarnished by men in trust, Canright's humble confessions must become this lasting change amid constant danger of falling again, and thorough conversion must leave past questioning, criticism and judgment to redeem neglect of the Southern field.
It means affliction and mourning over inclination to sin, danger from inward corruption and outward temptation, feeble sense of sin's sinfulness and little idea of what constitutes sin, cleansing hands and purifying the double-minded heart that professes Christ while cherishing sin and trying to serve God and mammon, refusing to merely acknowledge sinfulness while intending to remain sinful, violate conscience and do evil, especially after light, and humbling self in the Lord's sight so He will lift up and purify the one who hopes in Christ.
Faithful thorough confession cleanses moral impurity and forsakes reproved sins with justice, judgment and restoration, giving a proper sense of grieving God's Spirit and putting Christ to open shame before enemies instead of self-vindication, evidencing heaven's signature upon His institutions and God presiding over His work so the soul stands acquitted humbled and repentant. Such repentance is shown after seeing wrongs that injure others, bring a disastrous spirit into God's work, dishonor God and hinder and try His servants, and remains expected even when sown seed has borne continuing fruit whose consequences must still be suffered. It includes confessing past wrongs, setting them right without self-defense, acted on while life lasts without delay, for unrepented unconfessed sin can never be blotted from God's record and every work will be revealed in judgment.
As pardon is more clearly recognized sins appear more grievous and abhorrent and pride and self-exaltation are condemned in an enduring repentance not later regretted, distinct from repeatedly returning to the same failures without discerning good from evil. When converted and seeing mistakes this lasting repentance does as well as one knows without excuse, follows Jesus fully and closely rather than afar, feels entrusted with high holy responsibilities in the vineyard, keeps aims high, fills life with holy effort to reach the noblest standard, and seeks to please and glorify Him who gave His life. Turning away from gracious warning to persist in contemplated wickedness can place one beyond conviction and therefore beyond this repentance, destroying discernment and fixing life and character.
Repentance leading to salvation begins with clear sight leading to confession for evil done to God's institution, abhorring and putting away sin, opening the soul heavenward and closing it earthward, and earnestly correcting the past while probation lasts by changing course and abandoning planned injury and lawsuit, bringing peace, rest and assurance of compassion and cleansing from grievous sins, while refusal betrays self and God's cause into enemies' hands and leaves a record for judgment. It involves humility, distrust of self, seeking the Lord, teachability, forsaking wrong ways and daily conduct bearing fitting fruit rather than light dismissal of wrongs or unfulfilled promises, with true sense of sin's seriousness rather than envy, self-justification and disregard of counsel. It is seen in reconversion and renewed commitment, in earnest concern to live rightly before God such as refusing what belongs to His treasury, and in those long in God's work carefully studying injury done to His vineyard by unwise moves, departure from principle, diversion of means and leading others into crooked paths, asking what they owe their Lord and what account they will render for misused talents and unsanctified imagination.
Godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation and eternal life and never needs to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world produces death. Godly sorrow grieves over sin itself as committed against God, while worldly sorrow grieves only over discovery and unpleasant consequences and leaves the heart unchanged and ready to sin again. The repentance God accepts is a radical change of mind and heart that can never originate with man but proceeds only from Christ and is produced by the Holy Spirit convincing of sin. It is an inward new birth and entire turning from sin that never needs to be repeated or taken back, proved not by feeling or mere confession but by reform carried into action. Its unfailing marks are carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and setting the wrong right in humility, confession, forsaking of sin, and restoration of what was taken.
Two Sorrows Compared
Godly sorrow produces genuine repentance that leads to salvation and eternal life and never needs to be regretted, while the sorrow of the world does not repent and works death. That true sorrow is to be sought in prayer as part of turning from sin and receiving saving grace. Where it is present the life is transformed and sin, when viewed in the light of God and its true character realized, is put away from heart and life; where it is absent conversions are superficial and no reformation is made. Its unfailing marks are carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge against wrong, approving oneself pure and setting the wrong right. Genuine repentance bears fruit in reformation, including restoring what was taken, confessing sin, and loving God and others.
Distress tied to selfishness, anger, resistance to counsel and failure to confess, which quiets conscience while cherishing sin, is not godly repentance. True repentance requires recognizing the seriousness of sin, confessing without reserve, forsaking it, and making a thorough work of correcting past wrongs. Sorrow that leaves the heart unchanged is not genuine, but temporary regret and outward efforts that soon fade and lead back to sin rather than salvation. Brief remorse followed by return to fault-finding, whispering and backbiting shows the sorrow was not godly, for true repentance includes sorrow for sin, confession and turning, which are necessary for pardon and peace with God. There is a repentance that needs to be repented of, coming from superficial faith and resulting in a superficial experience, unlike all genuine religious experience which bears the impress of Jehovah.
There are two kinds of sorrow, one that works change and reform and one that leaves warnings unheeded and the life unchanged. Plain dealing with responsible men should aim to produce the sorrow that leads to change and reform, and should be withheld except when silence is impossible if it will only create sorrow without change and reform. Godly sorrow grieves over sin itself as committed against God, while worldly sorrow grieves only over discovery and unpleasant consequences. Grief caused only by consequences, as with Esau and Pharaoh, is not repentance and leaves the heart ready to sin again, quieting the conscience while the person would repeat the sin if able. Such sorrow produces no genuine confession beyond admitting what cannot be denied, with concealment, evasion and excuses instead of thorough turning from sin.
True conviction brings sorrow for ingratitude toward and wounding the compassionate Saviour, and this sorrow binds the penitent to God, restores lost graces, and bears the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It is not weakness but the beginning of holiness and lasting joy, bringing thorough reform that is not regretted. True sorrow is inward and contrite with a softened heart, reaching the heart with a true sense of sin and producing repentance that does not need to be regretted. It softens and subdues the heart, enlightens the understanding, changes the stony heart, subdues rebellion, and brings the will into harmony with God's will in seeking pardon and grace to overcome. False sorrow is only outward display, rending garments and expressing remorse without inward sorrow or a softened contrite heart, leaving conversion superficial and leaving people repeating failures in the Christian life.
A scourged and tortured conscience is not itself the sorrow that leads to repentance. When Christ was condemned, Caiaphas stood under God's condemnation and his tortured conscience scourged him, yet he did not feel the sorrow that leads to repentance. The needed sorrow is not death-producing sorrow but sorrow whose fruit is life and whose end is joy. Grieving for sin belongs to the Christian life and to piety, and denying the need to grieve for sin lowers the standard of piety and conflicts with the teachings of Christ and His disciples.
Character of Godly Sorrow
Godly sorrow is sorrow directed toward God, arising from His grace and shaped by divine influence in the heart, and it produces repentance that leads to salvation and is never regretted. This repentance enables Christ's professed followers to appreciate His words and is shown in obedience to His commands, especially in loving one another. It is proved by practical fruit in confession and forsaking of sin, care to do right, carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against wrongdoing, fear, earnest desire, vehement desire, zeal, revenge against wrong, a changed life, reformation, restoring what was taken, and loving God and others.
When sin is viewed in the light of God and of His law its true character and seriousness are realized, and it is put away from the heart and life. This is sorrow for having sinned against God, not merely regret that sin has been discovered, and it leads to seeing the seriousness of sinful practices, confessing them to God without reserve, and forsaking them in thorough reform that transforms the life instead of leaving a superficial conversion. The Spirit of God enlightens the person to see his true character and real deficiencies, giving such a sense of sinful neglect and an unimproved life that it strikes terror to the soul. There the sinner is brought to Jesus to seek pardon and receive grace to overcome, where understanding is enlightened, the stony heart is changed, rebellion is subdued, and the will is brought into harmony with God's will.
True conviction brings grief for ingratitude toward the compassionate Saviour, for having slighted, wronged, wounded and grieved Him, in contrast to grief caused only by sin's unpleasant consequences. This sorrow binds the penitent to God, restores graces lost through hardness of heart and transgression, and bears the peaceable and peaceful fruits of righteousness. The truly penitent have self subdued and Christ magnified, seek fresh grace and strength and the Holy Spirit's power, grow in holiness while remaining humble and contrite, and enter peace and joy, for confessing and grieving errors shows a character able to recognize and correct them, and such sorrow is not weakness but precedes holiness and lasting joy and eternal life.
God's promises do not lead believers to go carelessly on in sin but inspire an intense, earnest desire to make thorough repentance that does not need to be repeated, because in the day of trial no surface work will stand and only faith which works by love and purifies the soul even as Christ is pure is acceptable to God. Godly sorrow has the fear of God in view and leads to obedience, to persevering effort under difficulties, to earnest seeking of the Lord, to great fear and dread of repeating mistakes God has condemned, to forsaking every false way, and to building upon the sure foundation Jesus Christ. Natural worldly sorrow by contrast has respect to the creature and tends to inaction, complaining, murmuring, unreconciliation, and disregard of a Thus saith the Lord.
Distress tied to selfishness, anger, resistance to counsel, and failure to confess wrongs and to make a thorough work of correcting past wrongs, as in Harriet's distress, is not godly repentance but worldly sorrow that works death. Worldly sorrow is regret that sin has been discovered without a true sense of sin's seriousness; it can quiet the conscience while the person continues to cherish the sin and would repeat it if able. It produces no genuine confession beyond admitting what cannot be denied.
Giver and Means of Repentance
The repentance God accepts is a radical change of mind and heart that brings the heart into subjection to Christ, and it leads to salvation without ever needing to be regretted or taken back. It can never originate with man, nor can sinners produce it by themselves or earn it as a qualification for justification, but it proceeds only from Christ when He is lifted up, given by the Lord Jesus Christ who draws and strengthens them to experience it. Lived out, it shows itself in loving Jesus, in making the happiness of father and mother one's own happiness, and in showing love to them by respecting self and by making their hearts glad.
This godly sorrow over sin that leads to repentance and salvation is produced by the Holy Spirit and is to be received through the Spirit and God's saving grace. The Spirit holds before the mind God's moral standard of righteousness, convinces of sin, creates sorrow for sin that leads to repentance without regret, and inspires faith in Jesus Christ as the only one who can save from all sin. Working with the human mind, He turns the affections away from temporal perishable things toward the imperishable eternal inheritance, recreating, refining and sanctifying people to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King. So received, it leads people to take solemn warnings personally, to turn from wrong ways, and to heed counsel rather than continue into greater darkness.
No one can originate this repentance or bring about his own conversion by waiting until excited feeling or depth of sorrow seems sufficient to merit forgiveness. It is received by coming to Christ just as one is, and it is born in the heart by beholding His love and holiness, as the Holy Spirit draws and attracts by that love until the hard heart is broken and every barrier is broken down. Contemplating His love melts hearts by the love of God, shows sinners how they have wounded Christ who died to save them and grieved His heart, and leads them to break the snare, confess their sins, and seek God's forgiveness so they will not remain under His displeasure. Its sincerity and genuineness come from virtue going forth from Jesus that strengthens the purpose to turn from sin and cleave to truth, while repentance originating from self does not commend the sinner to Christ.
Past and present experience must be tried by the Word, the living oracles of God, for if the mistakes of the past are discerned, sorrow after a godly manner is possible, working repentance to salvation and giving a genuine experience in vital piety in the things of God, not resting on a supposed hope. Faithful reproof that exposes wrongdoing and points to a remedy, though it costs pain to giver and receiver, is friendship and love whose aim is not to grieve but to lead to repentance, and words spoken at God's command and plain speaking of the truth as it is help produce that sorrow that leads a person to repentance. There is a repentance that needeth not to be repented of, and it must actually be made or the sinner will not be saved, for sin is a disease, a cancer eating away all prospect of a future holy, happy, sinless life in the heavenly family above, and the impulsive, passionate heart must take itself seriously in hand and move steadily onward step by step to be an overcomer. That right-kind sorrow works a change that proves itself in earnest care, clearing of self, indignation against the wrong, fear, longing, zeal, and setting the wrong right, so that those reproved approve themselves pure in the matter.
God sends correction, searching discipline, enlightenment of true character, promises, mercy, and accepted reproof to change principles, turn the heart, and prepare it to receive the Word. His promises do not lead believers to go carelessly on in sin but inspire an intense, earnest desire to make thorough repentance that does not need to be repeated, because in the day of trial no surface work will stand and only faith which works by love and purifies the soul even as Christ is pure is acceptable to God. The needed repentance is like breaking and tilling hard soil, for God's searching discipline can be severe and may continue until resistance is broken, preparing the heart to receive the Word. It comes when the Spirit enlightens a person to see his true character and real deficiencies, giving such a sense of sinful neglect and an unimproved life that it strikes terror to the soul, and it follows when the heart, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, humbly responds to God's mercy, recognizes sin, accepts God's reproof, and maintains a continuing penitent attitude to make right the past.
Godly sorrow and thorough repentance that never needs to be taken back and does not need to be repeated are to be sought in prayer, earnestly every day with prayer for a clean heart and a renewed right spirit. Sought as part of turning from sin and receiving God's saving grace, it is the needed response to admonitions that expose wrongdoing and point to a remedy. So sought, true repentance turns the life from crooked works, keeps all crookedness out of every business transaction, refuses to let Satan mark the character, makes a person honest and in harmony with the principles of God's law, and works for eternity with care because personal conduct blesses or injures many souls in view of judgment according to works.
Meaning of Lasting Repentance
True repentance is the new birth beginning in the heart and working outward, learned from God alone and wrought by yielding mind and heart in perfect obedience and cooperating with the Holy Spirit rather than attempting it by human effort. It makes the soul God's property by creation and by redemption, subduing the stubborn heart, making it contrite and humbled before God and not lifted up in vanity. It shows itself in an entire change of character, a turning from idols to the living and true God, bringing every power of mind and soul and body into obedience to Christ and changing unrighteousness to righteousness. It is a living, working, transforming grace that reveals itself in the life and in work for Christ, proving the sincerity of prayer by endeavor to serve God. Where a person is clothed in pretentious light and terrible deception, self-knowledge that produces such genuine repentance comes when the Lord anoints the eyes to see self as one really is.
It is thorough conversion of soul, not mere regret, a complete turning from greed, worldliness, unbelief and rebellion and from acting as the Gentiles act. Without that conversion God will not spare the sinner from punishment for iniquity nor have mercy, and He will not accept his money. Those who have received abundant light and great light yet live in unbelief, greed, worldliness and rebellion remain accountable for their sins and face judgment, punished as the Gentiles are punished but with greater severity because their sin against God is greater.
It is lasting repentance that never needs to be regretted, repeated, undone or taken back, turning from deception and seeking Christ wholeheartedly and accepted by the Lord when people respond to the evidence given by the Holy Spirit. It must be kept and held fast by boldly taking a stand under the banner of Jesus Christ, yielding to the Holy Spirit's guidance and surrendering one's own will, way and control, instead of cherishing stubborn determination to carry out one's own plans, devising one plan after another and working against the Lord's plans. Keeping it would have led to a firm stand under Christ's banner, and those who spread false reports and accusations are urged to confess their sins and turn from them into this changed course rather than regret having repented. After hopelessness and feeling forsaken by God and man, a fresh start must include thorough reformation of conduct in a repentance that does not have to be done over again, bringing a clear conscience about present deportment, and with proper habits and a cheerful mind it can turn defeat into victory even when the best years of health and vigor are past, leaving no time to lose, with the help of a wife sanctified through the truth to be a blessing in the home and to the cause of God by social converse with others in the harvest field. For Frank Belden, whose talents for usefulness were tarnished by the influence and principles of men in positions of trust, this lasting repentance that comes through a sense of eternal realities is needed now while he is separated from the Office, walking in humility and learning a lesson he might otherwise never have learned.
It requires conviction and a true sense of sin, sensing its enormity and genuinely feeling and recognizing one's sins as God sees them and that one's conduct is sinful; without that conviction there is no such repentance or real reform, and where spiritual sensibilities are almost completely benumbed and sin is not sensed, that work is left undone. God must help the sinner see it, as with a man in darkness and self-deception about himself who has wronged his wife and wronged the church and broken his marriage promise to love, respect and be faithful to his wife until death. It requires breaking up the fallow ground of the heart and summoning the will to the conflict so that the good seed can find lodgment and spring up and bear fruit, with radical change in life, habits and practices; temptation itself is not sin, and circumstances cannot weaken or defile a person who refuses to yield and keeps integrity. It requires laying aside pride and self-righteousness, ceasing to excuse or justify wrongdoing, and making a thorough surrender to God, since future good resolutions cannot repair past wrongs without this change. Sorrow over the consequences of sin is not the same as godly sorrow, and repentance that need not be repented of requires a thorough turning from sin, not concealment, evasion or excuses.
It is more than admissions and confessions; it is reform carried into action by exercising oneself into change with decided, determined effort to break up old habits and the disposition to follow inclination and a course of one's own choosing, instead of idling away precious time while unconscious of wrong. Brother Howard's confession had not yet reached this repentance, for it requires continuing the work until the wrong is made right, dying to self, and recognizing the sin committed against God's cause. Its depth is not shown by feeling, momentary liberality, and confession at a meeting, nor by prayer and confession alone, but when zeal in doing matches zeal in praying and confessing and when works testify to the character of a good tree; the Lord gives this enduring repentance when His people bear that fruit.
It humbles the sinner before God when corrected, turning from crooked ways that are not justice and righteousness and being converted so that sins registered in the books of heaven are blotted out. God in mercy sends correction, reproof and warning to change principles, turn the heart, bring realization of sin so that evil is corrected, and to save erring men and preserve their usefulness. The one who refuses the correction and goes on in deception, falsehood, and unjust and underhand dealing remains in wickedness and deceit. It strikes at the root by cleansing self-conceit from soul and life, because self-conceit is a snare, and the sooner it is put away the clearer spiritual eyesight becomes. It comes when a person heeds the light God has given, humbles the heart, denounces Satan, and turns unto the Lord, holding ground against Satan's temptation as Christ held ground in the wilderness; the Lord gives victory in that turning, bringing confession from the lips and repentance from the heart, a complete change in business management, and making the Lord God of heaven superior in the life. It is required not only of the wrongdoer but of all who knowingly built him up in his crooked, unjust, unrighteous course and who justify and vindicate him and destroy the influence of the correction; unless they humble themselves before God and show this true repentance they will suffer with the transgressor.
Fruits Proving Repentance
Genuine repentance unfailingly proves itself by carefulness, clearing of self, indignation against sin and wrongdoing, fear, vehement desire and longing, zeal, and revenge against the wrong, so that the penitent approves himself pure in the matter and sets the wrong right. This is care to do right with confession and forsaking of sin, not a superficial conversion that leaves the life unreformed but a transforming change wrought by divine grace. Where this true sorrow is absent there is no reformation, for seeing sin in the light of God reveals its true character and puts it away from heart and life.
It shows itself in humility, distrust of self, heartfelt grief and abhorrence of sin, and seeking the Lord's help for forgiveness and peace with God. Confession flowing from it is freely and sincerely expressed from a softened, broken heart, never forced, careless, or merely to escape punishment, and it is joined to forsaking sin and thorough reform. Such deep heart-searching lets the Holy Spirit kindle the love of God in the heart, and every sin must be so confessed and blotted out before the judgment when fate is eternally sealed.
Its fruit is reformation in deed: restoring what was taken, even fourfold, confessing sins, loving God and others, and obeying His commands, especially loving one another. Godliness so produced is profitable, and its worth is shown by good works and true reform through a life guided by holy principles. Hearty, thorough repentance makes a clean record by purifying, cleansing work that wipes out the disgraceful blot, refuses to multiply robbery or call the past course justifiable, and acts in forgiveness toward the erring brother.
In the truly penitent self is subdued and Christ is magnified. They keep offering earnest, continual petitions for fresh grace, new supplies of strength, and the efficiency and power of the Holy Spirit promised to all who ask in faith, and they grow in holiness, peace and joy while remaining humble and contrite before God.
This repentance brings full and free pardon when wrongs are made right with God by confession, with compassion, cleansing, light, peace, joy, rest, assurance, and escape from the enemy who seeks to destroy the life. It comes when the sinner stops trusting feelings and trusts the immutable word of God, accepts God's estimate of sin as heavy and crushing, opens the soul heavenward and closes it earthward, and receives eternal life as God's gift through the provision He has made. A sinless One takes the sinner's place and undeservingly bears guilt, so the sinner stands free in the Substitute's merits, turns from sin with hatred and grief, earnestly corrects the past while probation lasts, cooperates with the Redeemer, lays hold of the hand mighty to save and never lets go, and does what is known to be right whether or not the expected feeling is present.
Those made conscious of error by such sorrow must be treated so as not to destroy self-respect. Confidence, sympathy, thankfulness, joy and assurance must be continued toward men and women not yet perfect in character but striving against temptation and in danger of falling, pointing them to God to make them perfect in every good work to do His will. Repentance must not be discouraged by indifference or distrust, nor confidence withheld until they prove whether they will hold out, for such distrust itself often causes the tempted one to stumble.
Examples in Scripture History
Sorrow arising from godly influence leads to repentance that brings salvation and does not end in regret, and this repentance produced by divine grace in the heart leads people to confess and forsake sin. Paul's letter exposed the wrongdoing of the Corinthians so that they could repent and act against those disgracing the church. Their repentance was shown by putting away the evil, and it bore fruit in care, self-clearing, indignation, fear, earnest desire, and zeal. Those who proved truly penitent could then be received again with love and kindness.
Ezra and his associates grieved over evil in God's work, and many of the people wept as they began to recognize, though only partly, the seriousness of sin and God's abhorrence of it. The law given at Sinai came clearly before their minds, and they trembled at their transgressions. Solomon's bitter experience, God's judgments, and stern rebuke awakened him to the true nature of his sin, and the discipline of suffering accomplished its work so that he returned to the fountain of life. His sorrow was shown in recognizing the emptiness of seeking his highest good in earthly things and the vanity of the rest promised by heathen gods. When God grants probation, the repentance that need not be repented of is manifested in seeing and sensing the real nature of sin, in abhorring oneself because of sin and having abhorrence likewise of the sin itself, and in gracious pitying tenderness and lovingkindness the Lord spares those who manifest it as He spared Nineveh.
The history of the children of Israel was written for admonition upon those on whom the ends of the world are come, so that those who have been unreasonably provoked and have acted as unwisely as Israel must learn from that history, see their wrong, and manifest lasting repentance, as urged in the case of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. The Advent message moved people to repentance and salvation. In modern times this same godly sorrow that leads to repentance that does not need to be regretted brought a French brother to conversion and thorough transformation, in which he put off his former way of life and was renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator.
Repentance that does not need to be repented of comes when the Spirit of God comes into the midst of the church. It is seen when believers make God alone their trust rather than man or reliance on a minister, work in harmony with Him, talk to one another in faith and humility, dwell on and learn the lessons of Christ, set things in order in the church, and let God speak to human hearts. In Fresno this genuine repentance produced by God's Spirit would so come as the church trusted God and followed Christ's lessons. If they do not trust the Lord, the blessing already received becomes their condemnation.
Present Calls to Repentance
The church that has left its first love must answer Christ's warning not with indifference but with watchfulness, humility, confession and doing the first works, returning to love for Jesus in a repentance that never needs to be taken back, while probation still lasts before the candlestick is removed. This godly repentance is sincere and lasting, prompted by godly sorrow that does not have to be regretted.
Those who have knowingly built up a transgressor in an unjust, deceitful, crooked course, justified him and destroyed the influence of correction, must humble themselves before God, acknowledge their part, turn from ways that are not justice and righteousness, and be converted so that sins registered in heaven are blotted out, or they will suffer with him. The same thorough repentance is required for guilt in confirming another in a wrong course, encouraging resistance to light, trusting own judgment above light, misjudging spiritual danger and standing, and being worked by the same wrong spirit, leading to becoming humble as a little child, without which the soul will be lost.
Brief remorse followed by return to fault-finding, whispering, backbiting, sowing doubts, murmuring, complaining, gossip, false reports and accusations is not godly sorrow, for it leaves the heart unchanged and brings no pardon and peace. True repentance that never needs to be regretted must take the place of such work right now, just now, by ceasing murmurings and faultfinding, searching the heart as with a lighted candle, seeing self as God sees it, confessing sin, forsaking evil practices and lukewarm neutrality, putting self out of sight, and placing oneself decidedly on Christ's side so that light and the Holy Spirit can work through a life thrown on the side of truth to bring others to knowledge of the Saviour, lest too late there is no room for repentance.
Repentance that need not be regretted or undone strikes at the root by cleansing self-conceit from soul and life, since self-conceit is a snare and the sooner it is put away the clearer spiritual eyesight becomes. The one who speaks unadvisedly, giving vent to hard passionate words that hurt souls, needs this repentance, and the Spirit enables workers to see jealousy, evil suspicion and discord rightly and to repent of a discordant spirit. It keeps all crookedness out of every business transaction, rejects the idea that the end justifies the means, refuses profit at another's expense, acts toward others as one would wish to be treated, turns from repeating the sins that crucified Christ, lives by Christ's principles free from impurity, refuses to let Satan mark the character, makes a person honest and in harmony with God's law, and works for eternity with care because conduct blesses or injures many souls in view of judgment according to works.
Selfish covetous managers who misused sacred resources and committed idolatry must show lasting repentance when they see what their course caused, tremble with fear before God and know the things belonging to their peace, a repentance that renews the mind and gives power to distinguish sacred from common and honor from fraud. Those who shared in oppression and robbery in the publishing work by confederacies, forcing down royalties, diverting books from their design and leavening the institution with corrupt principles, must sense the evil, separate from it, condemn all injustice, overbearing and lording over God's heritage, and seek to set things right. This hearty thorough repentance makes a clean record by purifying and cleansing work that wipes out disgrace, restores fourfold what selfishness took from the Southern field, refuses to multiply robbery or call the past justifiable, acts in forgiveness toward the erring brother, and corrects injustice and purifies the printing office, for stewards of the Lord's goods bought with a price leave wrongs unblotted and endanger having their own names blotted from the Book of Life if they fail, while every page of dark history in heaven's books will react upon the guilty, God leaving them to stumble in darkness, removing His Spirit and departing if transactions in His name born of Satan are tolerated.
Sincere repentance that does not need to be repeated is required to stand approved and walk in light, and those who betrayed brethren, reproached God's cause and trailed Christ's banner in the dust must realize what they did and sincerely repent. It is required of one who encouraged resistance to light, and it would have followed just handling of serious sin, whereas pity and concealment harmed the sinner who showed no real repentance or reform and remains in danger of ruin and lost without humbling and conversion.
Even one under Satan's control, demoralized in thought and action, wasting means, robbing others and bringing disgrace and moral corruption upon souls, has one hope by coming to Christ as a poor perishing sinner, humbling the soul before God, turning from sin and seeking pardon, and God will receive and pardon him. Recovery from entrenched sensual and vicious indulgence requires seeing the course as God sees it and becoming deeply disgusted, distressed and agonized over it in a repentance that leads to salvation and need not be regretted.
Repentance that needeth not to be repented of requires bringing health reform into the life to place the agent in best relation to life and health and make most of God-lent capabilities, no longer weakening physical, mental and moral powers by sinful eating, sinful dressing and violation of health laws, since each must render account for good that might have been done had he observed health laws rather than living self-indulgent, careless and reckless of the house he lives in.
Missionary work is to produce lasting repentance not by provoking opposition, bringing accusation or opening the way for the enemy, but by workers wearing Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness so labor draws souls as a savor of life unto life. Ministers as Christ's ambassadors must let words and acts be such as need not be regretted, because their conduct turns souls for or against truth.
This repentance must be thorough and immediate: the church at Roosevelt must make a thorough work and manifest it before its stain disappears, Howard's confession had not yet reached it because it requires continuing until wrong is made right, dying to self and recognizing sin against God's cause, Fannie's sought repentance comes as she sees herself truthfully, Belden needs it now while separated from the Office by walking humbly and learning lessons of eternal realities after talents were tarnished by men in trust, Canright's humble confessions must become this lasting change amid constant danger of falling again, and thorough conversion must leave past questioning, criticism and judgment to redeem neglect of the Southern field.
It means affliction and mourning over inclination to sin, danger from inward corruption and outward temptation, feeble sense of sin's sinfulness and little idea of what constitutes sin, cleansing hands and purifying the double-minded heart that professes Christ while cherishing sin and trying to serve God and mammon, refusing to merely acknowledge sinfulness while intending to remain sinful, violate conscience and do evil, especially after light, and humbling self in the Lord's sight so He will lift up and purify the one who hopes in Christ.
Faithful thorough confession cleanses moral impurity and forsakes reproved sins with justice, judgment and restoration, giving a proper sense of grieving God's Spirit and putting Christ to open shame before enemies instead of self-vindication, evidencing heaven's signature upon His institutions and God presiding over His work so the soul stands acquitted humbled and repentant. Such repentance is shown after seeing wrongs that injure others, bring a disastrous spirit into God's work, dishonor God and hinder and try His servants, and remains expected even when sown seed has borne continuing fruit whose consequences must still be suffered. It includes confessing past wrongs, setting them right without self-defense, acted on while life lasts without delay, for unrepented unconfessed sin can never be blotted from God's record and every work will be revealed in judgment.
As pardon is more clearly recognized sins appear more grievous and abhorrent and pride and self-exaltation are condemned in an enduring repentance not later regretted, distinct from repeatedly returning to the same failures without discerning good from evil. When converted and seeing mistakes this lasting repentance does as well as one knows without excuse, follows Jesus fully and closely rather than afar, feels entrusted with high holy responsibilities in the vineyard, keeps aims high, fills life with holy effort to reach the noblest standard, and seeks to please and glorify Him who gave His life. Turning away from gracious warning to persist in contemplated wickedness can place one beyond conviction and therefore beyond this repentance, destroying discernment and fixing life and character.
Repentance leading to salvation begins with clear sight leading to confession for evil done to God's institution, abhorring and putting away sin, opening the soul heavenward and closing it earthward, and earnestly correcting the past while probation lasts by changing course and abandoning planned injury and lawsuit, bringing peace, rest and assurance of compassion and cleansing from grievous sins, while refusal betrays self and God's cause into enemies' hands and leaves a record for judgment. It involves humility, distrust of self, seeking the Lord, teachability, forsaking wrong ways and daily conduct bearing fitting fruit rather than light dismissal of wrongs or unfulfilled promises, with true sense of sin's seriousness rather than envy, self-justification and disregard of counsel. It is seen in reconversion and renewed commitment, in earnest concern to live rightly before God such as refusing what belongs to His treasury, and in those long in God's work carefully studying injury done to His vineyard by unwise moves, departure from principle, diversion of means and leading others into crooked paths, asking what they owe their Lord and what account they will render for misused talents and unsanctified imagination.