Have I Truly Repented?
“Have I truly Repented?” This is one of the most painful questions ever asked of me.
Honestly I don’t know. How could I? I can’t answer that question, but what I can answer is the question, “What is true repentance?’
When the Word of God speaks to your heart, when the Holy Spirit moves upon you and illuminates your darkened soul. When you start to understand that your sin is yours alone and that it is an abomination to a holy God, and you can say, “I alone am personally responsible for my guilt!”
When you stop blaming others.
When the realization hits you that no one is to blame but you.
When we come to the recognition that, “I am a sinner,” and when we realize the magnitude of that, when the eternal consequences of that sin before a holy and just God make us tremble.
Have you trembled before God?
Have you trembled before his impending wrath?
Have you trembled before His holiness?
When we tremble before him, when we desire to avoid that wrath of God against us, when we realize that we want God’s blessing in spite of us – then we are almost there. When we desire restoration with Him, when we hate our sin…We know something. Something is there. When we have a knowledge of God and his holiness, and how we do not measure up….It is then that we are prepared for repentance.
This knowledge is worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the Word. This knowledge of our sin and misery and guilt before an almighty, holy and just God produces sorrow and shame in our deepest being, and then that begins to move the will. It finally brings about a turning from sin and a turning to Jesus Christ, as the spirit works in the heart a new birth. And this new birth brings a willingness, desire, and a determination to abandon all those stubborn patterns of sinful disobedience that we were enslaved too, and pursue the will of God. It produces a transformed life. It is not enough to denounce sin, we must pursue holiness. It is not enough to hate Satan and sin and our old nature, we must love God and Jesus and holiness.
Charles Spurgeon said:
“Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.”
I don’t know if you have truly repented, but the fact that you are asking that question reveals that there is at least the seed of repentance.
You just need one thing.
Believe on Jesus…And you will be saved.
Read what the Heidelberg Catechism has to say about repentance with proof texts from the Bible.
| 88. | Q. | What is the true repentance or conversion of man? |
| A. | It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new. 1 |
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| 89. | Q. | What is the dying of the old nature? |
| A. | It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and more and more to hate it and flee from it. 1 |
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| 90. | Q. | What is the coming to life of the new nature? |
| A. | It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ, 1 and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works. 2 |
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| 91. | Q. | But what are good works? |
| A. | Only those which are done out of true faith, 1 in accordance with the law of God, 2 and to his glory, 3 and not those based on our own opinion or on precepts of men. 4 |
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– See more at: http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/33.html#sthash.wNby3s0E.dpuf
Great quote by Spurgeon. “Mourning” is right.
I have an excellent book covering 30 sermons on the Canons of Dort by Cornelis (Neil) Pronk. I, too, have asked the question, “Have I truly repented?”. This is what Rev. Pronk states in his book -“We often think, if only we were better than we see ourselves to be, if only we were not as sinful, if only we would repent more, and pray more, but we do not realize that while we are talking like this we are seeking some good quality in ourselves. Although we do not mean to do this, we are in fact showing that we oppose God’s free and sovereign grace. All the worthiness I need is found in Jesus alone”.
That is a great quote and so true. I am sure we all struggle with this. Thanks Margaret!