God Loves… Himself

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

The repentance which precedes faith, consists chiefly of a sense of danger and a fear of punishment; but when we come to have a lively apprehension of pardoning love, and our adoption in Christ, it is a genuine filial sorrow for having offended God. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion, International Outreach)

We have looked at the repentance which precedes faith in the last couple of posts, but there is also a repentance that comes with faith. While the repentance that precedes faith “consists chiefly of a sense of danger and a fear of punishment” and involves fleeing from sin because of the danger, real repentance occurs in the inward man and happens because of love and a true sorrow (filial) for sin as against God. This is a profound statement by Thomas Adam. It really gets at the issue between a legal or outward repentance and a true or real repentance.

Instead of men repenting from outward things in an outward way from self-love, true repentance is when men repent of outward and inward things from a love for God. Instead of men repenting of outward things in an outward way from a fear of punishment, real repentance is when men repent of outward and inward things from a love for God and a sorrow for offending God. Outward repentance is from self-love and real repentance is from love for God. Outward repentance, being from love of self, can be repented of when love for self changes its perspective. Real repentance, being from love for God, cannot be repented of since it is God who works in the soul to persevere. There is a profound difference between the two.

Men who have a fierce self-love and a strong self-will can become very religious and externally moral and be quite deceived from their external repentance and morality. But they have not repented from their chief sin which is an unbelieving heart that loves self and does all for self in reality. These men can become ministers and professors at colleges and seminaries, but that does not mean that they have really repented and have Christ. The Pharisees had a strong pride and a strong self-love and they had a strong external form of holiness, but they did not have a real repentance and a real faith in Christ. A man that has a fierce self-love and a strong self-will is really a person that loves self and lives for self, which is to say that all of that man’s religion is idolatry and is from unbelief.

We are given many examples of men who believed (they say) and have had great transformations in their moral lives, but later on they fell away. These are given as illustrations or examples of men who have lost their salvation, of men who are now professing atheists, and of why religion does not work. They are simply illustrations and examples of men who were satisfied or deceived with an external repentance instead of seeking the Lord for a real repentance. These men are classic examples of why we must make the distinctions between outward repentance and real repentance clear to the people. When we take the first sign of repentance as a sign of salvation, we are setting ourselves and others up for a great deception.

It is interesting that professing churches that want to be careful about those they let into membership (which is a noble and good goal) set out standards, but usually those standards are for an outward repentance. Let us also remember that an outward repentance that is only from self-love also has an accompanying deception. Since Scripture tells us that people love those who love themselves, the deceived person that thinks that s/he has repented will think that s/he loves God and will tell many of their love for God. But that love for God is not the true love from God but instead is only fueled by self-love. When the fuel of self-love runs out because they think God fails them, that person will spin off to another way to love self.

Real repentance is fueled by love for God and that love only comes from God. So true love never fails, though indeed it can wax and wane according to the sovereign hand of God. Real repentance is to repent of self-love, so the turns from God that self-love will work are avoided to some degree. A real repentance is also the work of God so a real repenter is one that continues to repent as grace and love are worked into the soul by God. Real repentance means that Christ is now the life of the soul and that the soul lives by grace. Real repentance now has real faith which means that the soul receives and lives by grace whereas false faith lives by trust in self and love for self. The difference is simply profound, yet in the modern day this difference appears to be lost and so many who repent of external things only are truly lost. This is one reasons why the modern professing Church is so much like the world, and that is because without real repentance it is the world.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

The repentance which precedes faith, consists chiefly of a sense of danger and a fear of punishment; but when we come to have a lively apprehension of pardoning love, and our adoption in Christ, it is a genuine filial sorrow for having offended God. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion, International Outreach)

The evangelism of the modern day does not realize or recognize that there are two kinds types of repentance taught in Scripture. There is the repentance that men have that they repent of, then there is the godly sorrow that brings a repentance that is not to be repented of (II Cor 7). We also know that Esau repented in an outward way and yet he sought repentance with tears and was still rejected. He was not granted true repentance. But modern evangelists, not recognizing the inward nature of true repentance, settle for the outward repentance as a sign that a person has prayed a prayer or will pray a prayer. Sadly, it appears that few even look for any kind of repentance at all.

Jonathan Edwards spoke of a legal repentance and an evangelical repentance. This is a vital distinction for those who wish to be physicians of sick souls or those who think they are converted when they are not. There is a turning from outward sin or having some distress over outward sin and yet it is not a godly sorrow and as such is not a real repentance because it is the outward man alone and the inward man remains unchanged. As the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the text above supposed, they had Abraham for their father and they were very religious. But as Jesus said later, they were like whitewashed tombs full of dead bones.

Despite all the negative things that have been said and should be said about outward repentance, this can still be an important part of the soul as Christ leads that soul to Himself. This is seen below in the answer to Westminster Shorter Catechism question 31, what is effectual calling?

A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

According to this question and answer, part of the effectual calling is when God’s Spirit convinces men of their sin and misery. It is at this point (and others) that modern evangelism falls far short. Men must know of their sin and misery before they can understand the true nature of what Christ has done in the Gospel. If men are not convinced of their sin and misery, they will not be convinced of Christ and His glory. During the time that men are being convinced of sin and misery, they will try to repent and they will have several efforts at a legal repentance. They will try to repent of outward sin and yet they will keep falling into it. Until the Spirit enables them to embrace Christ by His renewing work of regeneration, these people will continue to make efforts at legal repentance. It is vital, therefore, for men to understand that there is a repentance before faith and it is not a repentance that necessarily comes with conversion.

As with all religious men who have not been truly converted to Christ, they will make many efforts at achieving repentance, faith, and salvation in their own strength. When Christ awakens men to their danger of damnation, their first thought and first action is to try to escape that damnation by exerting themselves in their own strength and power. If the Spirit does not regenerate these religious men or they never see beyond what they can do in their own strength and power, they may (many do) put forth a great effort in the thing of religion. They can become pastors, elders, and missionaries and yet be in the service of self and pride rather than Christ and His grace. They can become scholars and professors at seminaries and yet have nothing but an outward repentance. The failure to understand that men will try to repent and actually have an external repentance without true faith and regeneration is a colossal deception by which many souls are deceived. True regeneration precedes true repentance.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

The law is not satisfied by an outward observation of it, but by the inward disposition of the heart; we break it as much by a bare outward keeping of it only, as by living in an avowed neglect of it. Perhaps the best of men may find, upon consideration, that they never performed one act of true and pure obedience in all their lives. What conviction is here and what a terrible blow is this to our pride! (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion, International Outreach)

It is vital for people to understand the true nature of sin in order to understand the true nature of repentance. If one thinks of sin as simply external actions, then repentance is nothing more than to refrain from an external action. But once one begins to understand the spiritual nature of the law, things begin to change. If the law has a spiritual nature and reaches the depths of our souls, then real repentance must be spiritual and reach the depths of our souls as well. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about how much they misunderstood the real intent of the Law when they did not take it to the inner man. They thought of adultery as the external actions, but Jesus instructed them and us that if we lust in our hearts we have committed adultery.

This is simply shattering to the person who thinks of sin as in the external actions alone. A person can be very chaste and outwardly moral and yet commit adultery with thousands and thousands of people in his or her heart. A person can be very moral and even religious and not realize that minute after minute his heart is committing spiritual adultery against God over and over again. The law is far more concerned with the inward disposition of the heart than it is just the external actions. When the soul of a person comes to the realization of this, it can be quite the shattering experience. But even more, when the person begins to deeply understand that this is the very nature of his or her heart, this person will be crushed and see that s/he has no righteousness in self.

The inward devastation reaches far and wide to those who begin to understand the spiritual nature of the Law and then to understand how it speaks to the very condition of his or her heart. These people will begin to see that the spiritual nature of the Law speaks to the sins that are actually carried out and committed, but they will then have their heart opened to them and they will see their sins of omission as well. They will see that they have sinned by not loving God with all of their being and all of the things that they have not done. When the eyes of the soul are opened by God and He shines His holy light in the soul and a man or woman sees with great horror that s/he has never performed one act of true obedience or true holiness, that person is utterly devastated. Their righteousness unravels like that of Isaiah in the presence of a thrice holy God.

What can a person do when the Lord in His great kindness shows us our sin like that? A person can only cry out to the Lord for mercy and grace because that person has no way of turning from sin since sin is the nature of the regenerate and that person has no real ability to do anything but sin. There is no way to pay for sin with sin and there is no way to turn from sin by turning from one sin to another. Oh how the soul feels its conviction at this point and sees itself with horror and anguish. The pride of a person is crushed by this but certainly not eradicated. What can I do cries the person who has his or her eyes opened? How can I stand before God on that day?

Yes, the soul must have a true repentance but that can only happen from the heart and by grace. The heart must be changed from a proud heart that loves self and lives for self to a person that loves God and lives for His glory. The heart must have a new fountain, source, and object of its love and desires. Real repentance is when God turns the heart from it being a throne of self to being a throne of God. Real repentance is when the soul is turned from exalting self in its own eyes and turned to exalting God. Real repentance is when the soul is turned from pride as the chief motive in the heart to God being the chief motive in the heart. Real repentance can only come when Christ is the teacher in the soul and the soul learns from Him more about the Father and what true humility and meekness is. Real repentance is when the soul mourns for the presence of self and pride when before it mourned that it could not have the desires of self and pride. Real repentance requires all, but grace must do the work.

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

The law is not satisfied by an outward observation of it, but by the inward disposition of the heart; we break it as much by a bare outward keeping of it only, as by living in an avowed neglect of it. Perhaps the best of men may find, upon consideration, that they never performed one act of true and pure obedience in all their lives. What conviction is here and what a terrible blow is this to our pride! (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion, International Outreach)

We live in a day where repentance is thought of (when at all) as a person simply stopping an external action. It is as easy to do as an act of the will, they say. Faith, which is grossly misunderstood as a simple act of the will or choice as well, is also so easy to do in the modern world. The Pharisees seemed to think the same thing as well, that is, that religion consisted in the external actions. They could hardly be more wrong. While the external actions can be a reflection of the fact that a heart has not been changed and so a true repentance has not occurred, the simple matter of an external change does not reflect that an inward change has occurred.

John the Baptist referred to the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the most religious groups of his day) as a “brood of vipers.” Surely, they thought, he does not know what he is talking about. But John told them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, which is to say that they had not truly repented from the heart. The Pharisees were so concerned about the small things of the law and keeping the legal requirements of it, but they were blind to the true nature of the law and the true nature of holiness. It would appear that their blindness continues in religious institutions across the land (and world). The external focus on repentance and external behavior continues to this day. The nature of inward and spiritual Christianity seems to have been lost. The commands of God reach the inner man, Christ dwells in the inner man, and the Holy Spirit works His fruit in the inner man.

The Pharisees were so stringent about the outer man keeping the commandments, yet John called them a brood of vipers. He told them that they could not look to Abraham, but instead they were to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. But of course they thought that they had nothing to repent of. But are we any different (essentially) in the modern day? For some the issue is praying a prayer, walking an aisle, or something like that and having the slightest bit of moral change (if at all) and all is thought to be good. For others, it seems to consist in ascribing to a creed, doing the sacraments, and living a moral life. But the real issue is that for both the religious actions are nothing but external issues.

What a person must come to the realization of is that not only MUST there be a repentance of external things; it is the heart that MUST repent as well. It is the inward part of a person that must be turned from love of sin and of the world. It is the inward part of a person that must be turned from love of self and pride. It is the inward parts of a person that must love God and seek His face with some earnest desire. It is not enough to refrain from the outward actions when the inward person is violating the whole law each moment of his or her existence. It is not enough to put a piece of gauze over a gaping bullet wound to the abdomen, but there must be work done to repair the damage that the bullet did to the inside of the person. The main damage that a bullet does is to the inward parts, but so is sin. Unless sin is dealt with on the inside, there is no real dealing with it at all.

One of the great problems with dealing with sin in the inner man, however, is that man cannot change his own sinful heart and nature. It is when men start dealing with their own hearts in truth that they will begin to see that it takes grace to change the heart and it takes grace to truly repent from the heart. Man no more has the ability to repent from the heart as he does to jump over the moon with no mechanical help. As a man cannot create himself in the first place, so he cannot make himself a new creature in Christ Jesus. When the whole law is seen as essentially internal and of the heart, it is then that man may come to the conclusion (as the quote above) that he has done nothing but sin his whole life even in the best things he has done. When men see that their sin is of the inner man and is of their nature, they see that true repentance is in the depths of the soul and must be by Divine power.
3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

The law is not satisfied by an outward observation of it, but by the inward disposition of the heart; we break it as much by a bare outward keeping of it only, as by living in an avowed neglect of it. Perhaps the best of men may find, upon consideration, that they never performed one act of true and pure obedience in all their lives. What conviction is here and what a terrible blow is this to our pride! (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion, International Outreach)

We live in a day where repentance is thought of (when at all) as a person simply stopping an external action. It is as easy to do as an act of the will, they say. Faith, which is grossly misunderstood as a simple act of the will or choice as well, is also so easy to do in the modern world. The Pharisees seemed to think the same thing as well, that is, that religion consisted in the external actions. They could hardly be more wrong. While the external actions can be a reflection of the fact that a heart has not been changed and so a true repentance has not occurred, the simple matter of an external change does not reflect that an inward change has occurred.

John the Baptist referred to the Pharisees and the Sadducees (the most religious groups of his day) as a “brood of vipers.” Surely, they thought, he does not know what he is talking about. But John told them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, which is to say that they had not truly repented from the heart. The Pharisees were so concerned about the small things of the law and keeping the legal requirements of it, but they were blind to the true nature of the law and the true nature of holiness. It would appear that their blindness continues in religious institutions across the land (and world). The external focus on repentance and external behavior continues to this day. The nature of inward and spiritual Christianity seems to have been lost. The commands of God reach the inner man, Christ dwells in the inner man, and the Holy Spirit works His fruit in the inner man.

The Pharisees were so stringent about the outer man keeping the commandments, yet John called them a brood of vipers. He told them that they could not look to Abraham, but instead they were to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. But of course they thought that they had nothing to repent of. But are we any different (essentially) in the modern day? For some the issue is praying a prayer, walking an aisle, or something like that and having the slightest bit of moral change (if at all) and all is thought to be good. For others, it seems to consist in ascribing to a creed, doing the sacraments, and living a moral life. But the real issue is that for both the religious actions are nothing but external issues.

What a person must come to the realization of is that not only MUST there be a repentance of external things; it is the heart that MUST repent as well. It is the inward part of a person that must be turned from love of sin and of the world. It is the inward part of a person that must be turned from love of self and pride. It is the inward parts of a person that must love God and seek His face with some earnest desire. It is not enough to refrain from the outward actions when the inward person is violating the whole law each moment of his or her existence. It is not enough to put a piece of gauze over a gaping bullet wound to the abdomen, but there must be work done to repair the damage that the bullet did to the inside of the person. The main damage that a bullet does is to the inward parts, but so is sin. Unless sin is dealt with on the inside, there is no real dealing with it at all.

One of the great problems with dealing with sin in the inner man, however, is that man cannot change his own sinful heart and nature. It is when men start dealing with their own hearts in truth that they will begin to see that it takes grace to change the heart and it takes grace to truly repent from the heart. Man no more has the ability to repent from the heart as he does to jump over the moon with no mechanical help. As a man cannot create himself in the first place, so he cannot make himself a new creature in Christ Jesus. When the whole law is seen as essentially internal and of the heart, it is then that man may come to the conclusion (as the quote above) that he has done nothing but sin his whole life even in the best things he has done. When men see that their sin is of the inner man and is of their nature, they see that true repentance is in the depths of the soul and must be by Divine power.