Since writing our paper for January, we have been much interested in the way in which repentance is presented in those inimitable parables in Luke 15 There we learn, in a manner the most touching and convincing, not only the abiding and universal necessity—the moral fitness, in every case, of true repentance; but also that it is grateful to the heart of God. Our Lord, in His marvelous reply to the scribes and Pharisees, declares that " there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." And, again, " Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
Now this gives us a very elevated view of the subject. It is one thing to see that repentance is binding upon man; and another and very much higher thing to see that it is grateful to God. " Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." A broken heart, a contrite spirit, a repentant mind, gives joy to God.
Let us ponder this fact. The scribes and Pharisees murmured because Jesus received sinners. How little they understood Him! How little they knew of the object that brought Him down into this dark and sinful world! How little they knew of themselves! It was the "lost" that Jesus came to seek. But scribes and Pharisees did not think themselves lost. They thought they were all right. They did not want a Savior. They were thoroughly unbroken, unrepentant, self-confident; and hence they had never afforded one atom «of joy in heaven. All the learning of the scribes, and all the righteousness of the Pharisees could not waken up a single note of joy in the presence of the angels of God. They were like the elder son in the parable who said, " Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and jet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends."
Here we have a true specimen of an unbroken heart and an unrepentant spirit—a man thoroughly satisfied with himself. Miserable object! He had never touched a chord in the Father's heart—never drawn out the Father's love—never felt the Father's embrace—never received the Father's welcome. How could he? He had never felt himself lost. He was full of himself, and therefore had no room for the Father's love. He did not feel that he owed anything and hence he had nothing to be forgiven. It rather seemed to him that the father was his debtor. "Lo, these many years do I serve thee; and yet thou never gavest me a kid." He had not received his wages.
What egregious folly! And yet it is just the same with every unrepentant soul—everyone who is building upon his own righteousness. He really makes God his debtor. " I have served thee; but I have never gotten what I earned." Miserable notion! The man who talks of his duties, his doings, his sayings, his givings, is really insulting God. But on the other hand, the man who comes with a broken heart, a contrite spirit, repentant, self-judged, that is the man who gives joy to the heart of God.
And why? Simply because such an one feels his need of God. Here lies the grand moral secret of the whole matter. To apprehend this is to grasp the full truth on the great question of repentance. A God of love desires to make His way to the sinner's heart, but there is no room for Him so long as that heart is hard and impenitent. But when the sinner is brought to the end of himself, when he sees himself a helpless hopeless wreck, when he sees the utter emptiness, hollowness, and vanity of all earthly things, when like the prodigal he comes to himself and feels the depth and reality of his need, then there is room in the heart for God, and—marvelous truth!—God delights to come and fill it. " To this man will I look." To whom? To the man who does his duty, keeps the law, does his best, lives up to his light? Nay; but "To him who is of a contrite spirit."
It will, perhaps, be said that the words just quoted apply to Israel. Primarily, they do; but morally, they apply to every contrite heart on the face of the earth. And, further, it cannot be said that Luke 15 applies specially to Israel. It applies to all. " There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that"—what? Does his duty? Nay, it does not even say, "that believeth?" No doubt believing is essential in every case; but the interesting point here is that a truly repentant sinner causes joy in heaven. A person may say, "I fear I do not believe." Well, but do you repent? Have your eyes been opened to see your true condition before God? Have you taken your true place before God as utterly lost? If so, you are one of those over whom there is joy in heaven. What gave joy to the shepherd's heart? Was it the ninety and nine sheep that went not astray? Nay, it was finding the lost sheep. What gave joy to the woman's heart? Was it the nine pieces safe in her possession? Nay, it was finding the one lost piece. What gave joy to the father's heart? Was it the service and the obedience of the elder son? Nay, it was getting back his lost son. A repentant, brokenhearted, returning sinner wakens up heaven's joy. "Let us eat and be merry." Why? Because the elder son has been working in the fields and doing his duty? No; but, " This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
All this is perfectly wonderful. Indeed it is so wonderful that if we had it not from the lips of Him who is the Truth, and on the eternal page of divine inspiration, we could not believe it. But, blessed be God, there it stands, and none can gainsay it. There shines the glorious truth that a poor, broken-hearted, penitent, worthless, self-destroyed, hell-deserving sinner gives joy to the heart of God. Let people talk as they will about keeping the law and doing their duty. It may go for what it is worth; but be it remembered that there is no such clause within the covers of the volume of God—no such sentence ever dropped from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ as, " There is joy in heaven over one sinner that docs his duty."
A sinner's duty! What is it? "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." "What is it that can really define our duty? Surely the divine command. Well, here it is, and there is no getting over it. God's command to all men, in every place, is to repent. His commandment binds them to it; His goodness leads them to it; His judgment warns them to it; and, above all, and most marvelous of all, He assures us that our repentance gives joy to His heart. A penitent heart is an object of profoundest interest to the mind of God, because that heart is morally prepared to receive what God delights to bestow, namely, "remission of sins"—yea, all the fullness of divine love. A man might spend millions in the cause of religion and philanthropy, and not afford one atom of joy in heaven. What are millions of money to God? A single penitential tear is more precious to Him than all the wealth of the universe. All the offerings of an unbroken heart are a positive insult to God; but a single sigh from the depths of a contrite spirit goes up as fragrant incense to His throne and to His heart.
No man can meet God on the ground of duty; but God can meet any man—the very chief of sinners, on the ground of repentance, for that is man's true place; and we may say with all possible confidence that when the sinner as he is, meets God as He is, the whole question is settled once and forever. " I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." The moment mat! takes his true place—the place of repentance, God meets him with a full forgiveness, a divine and everlasting righteousness. It is His joy to do so. It gratifies His heart and it glorifies His name to pardon, justify, and accept a penitent soul that simply believes in Jesus. The very moment the prophet cried, "Woe is me; for I am undone,"—" Then flew one of the seraphims with a live coal from off the altar."
Thus it is always. The fullness of God ever waits on an empty vessel. If I am full of myself, full of my own fancied goodness, my own morality, my own righteousness, I have no room for God, no room for Christ. " He filleth the hungry with good things; but the rich he hath sent empty away." A self-emptied soul can be filled with the fullness of God; but if God sends a man empty away, whither can he go to be filled? All scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, goes to prove the deep blessedness as well as the moral necessity of repentance. It is the grand turning-point in the soul's history—a great moral epoch which sheds its influence over the whole of one after life. It is not, we repeat, a transient exercise; but an abiding moral condition. We are not now speaking of how repentance is produced; we are speaking of what it is according to scripture, and of the absolute need of it for every creature under heaven. It is the sinner's true place, and when through grace he takes it, he is met by the fullness of God's salvation.
And here we see the lovely connection between the first and second clauses of " The great commission," namely, " Repentance and remission of sins." They are inseparably linked together. It is not that the most profound and genuine repentance forms the meritorious ground of remission of sins. To say or to think so, would be to set aside the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in that and in that alone have we the divine ground on which God can righteously forgive us our sins. This we shall see more fully when we come to consider the "basis" of " the great commission." We are now occupied with the commission itself; and in it we see those two divinely settled facts, repentance and remission of sins. The holy apostles of our Lord and Savior were charged to preach among all nations; to declare in the ears of every creature under heaven, " repentance and remission of sins." Every man, be he Jew or Gentile, is absolutely commanded by God to repent, and every repentant soul is privileged to receive, on the spot, the full and everlasting remission of sins. And we may add the deeper and more abiding the work of repentance, the deeper and more abiding will be the enjoyment of remission of sins. The contrite soul lives in the very atmosphere of divine forgiveness; and as it inhales that atmosphere, it shrinks, with ever-increasing horror, from sin in every shape and form.
Let us now turn for a moment to the Acts of the Apostles, and see how Christ's ambassadors carried out the second part of His blessed commission. Hear the apostle of the circumcision addressing the Jews on the day of Pentecost. We cannot attempt to quote the whole of his marvelous address; we merely give the few words of application at the close. " Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Here the preacher bears down upon the consciences of his hearers with the solemn fact that they had proved themselves to be at issue with God Himself about His Christ. What a tremendous fact! It was not merely that they had broken the law, rejected the prophets, refused the testimony of John the Baptist; but they had actually crucified the Lord of glory, the eternal Son of God. " Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men, brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts 2:36-3836Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:36‑38).
Here are the two parts of the great commission brought out in all their distinctness and power. The people are charged with the most awful sin that could be committed, namely, the murder of the Son of God; they are called upon to repent, and assured of full remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. What wondrous grace shines forth in all this! The very men that had mocked and insulted the Son of God, that had spit upon Him and crucified Him, even these, if truly repentant, were assured of the complete pardon of all their sins and of their crowning sin amongst the rest. Such is the wondrous grace of God—such the mighty efficacy of the blood of Christ—such the clear and authoritative testimony of the Holy Ghost—such the glorious terms of "the great commission."
But let us turn for a moment to Acts 3 Here the preacher, after charging his hearers with the same awful act of wickedness, enmity, and rebellion against God, even the rejection and murder of His Son, adds these remarkable words, " And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."
It is not possible to conceive anything higher or fuller than the grace that shines out here. It is a part of the divine response to the prayer of Christ, on the cross, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." This surely is royal grace. It is victorious grace—grace reigning through righteousness. It was impossible that such a prayer could fall to the ground. It was answered in part, on the day of Pentecost. It will be answered, in full, at a future day, for "All Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."
But mark particularly the words, " Those things which God before had showed.... He hath so fulfilled." Here the preacher brings in God's side of the matter; and this is salvation. To see only man's part in the cross would be eternal judgment. To see God's part and to rest in it is eternal life, full remission of sins, divine righteousness, everlasting glory.
The reader will doubtless be reminded here of the touching scene between Joseph and his brethren. There is a striking analogy between Acts 3 and Gen. 45 " Now therefore," says Joseph, " be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life.....And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God"
But when were these words uttered? Not until the guilty brethren had felt and owned their guilt. Repentance preceded the remission. " They said one to another, We arc verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us." Joseph "spake roughly" to his brethren at the first. He brought them through deep waters, and made them feel and confess their guilt. But the very moment they took the ground of repentance, he took the ground of forgiveness. The penitent brethren were met by a pardoning Joseph, and the whole house of Pharaoh was made to ring with the joy which filled the heart of Joseph on getting back to his bosom the very men that had flung him into the pit.
What an illustration of " repentance and remission of sins!" It is ever thus. It is the joy of the heart of God to forgive us our sins. He delights in causing the full tide of His pardoning love to flow into the broken and contrite heart.
Yes, beloved reader, if you have been brought to feel the burden of your guilt, then be assured it is your privilege this very moment, to receive a divine and everlasting remission of all your sins—yea, your sins will never be mentioned to you. The blood of Jesus Christ has perfectly settled the question of your guilt, and you are now invited to rejoice in the God of your salvation.
(To he continued, if the Lord will.)