The importance of Repentance (Part 5)

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By Charles E. Wigg

Repentance is man's responsibility: It may be rightly said that there can never be any experience of forgiveness and salvation, without repentance. However repentance is not salvation. It is possible to repent, without being saved. This is the meaning of that difficult passage in Heb. 6:4-6. There we are told that it is impossible to renew those that fall away to repentance. It does not say that it is impossible to renew them to salvation, because they were never truly saved. Once one is genuinely saved, that salvation is God's work, and it never needs to be repeated. But this passage shows us that it is possible to react to the presence and power of God, presented through His word, to truly repent, yet not to be saved. Repentance then is but the first step, but it must be followed by "faith in our Lord Jesus Christ". It is not repentance that saves, it is faith that saves, but only after the guilty sinner first repents.

It is plain that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance Rom. 2:4, but repentance is man's responsibility. It was clear that it was the goodness of God that brought about the circumstances surrounding the repentance of the prodigal son, but it was that son himself who repented. It was the goodness of God that caused the famine to arise. It was the goodness of God that caused employment prospects to disappear, but it was the son that said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father".

There is a saying in English, that 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. I used to work on a farm during my boyhood days, and I have proved those words to be true. The goodness of God may lead us to the point of repentance, but He will never compel any to repent, hence the command given to all men to repent. Acts 17:30.

There are those that contend that because man is "Dead in offences and sins", then none are able to repent. If this reasoning is correct, then God is unrighteous, because He commands men to do what they cannot do. It is interesting to note what the father said of his prodigal son. That he "was dead, but is alive again, was lost but is found", While ever that son was in the far country, and living in sin, he was dead as far as his father was concerned. But though dead, yet he did repent and return to the father against whom he had sinned.

When Saul fell to the ground outside the walls of Damascus, he was "dead in offences and sins", But he did repent, and confess his willingness to obey the command of the Lord Jesus, whatever He wished Saul to do. While he lay there upon the road, he was "dead in his offences and sins". But after he repented of his wickedness, he was quickened from the dead. He then rose up in the power of the new life that he had received, and though led by the hand, he went into the city, there to begin the most wonderful life of service for Christ that any servant of His ever lived. Thus as we have been emphasizing we see first repentance, then the exercise of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.