"True repentance has a distinct and constant reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you repent of sin without looking to Christ, away with your repentance. If you are so lamenting your sin as to forget the Savior, you have a need to begin all this work over again. Whenever we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross; or, better still, let us have both eyes upon Christ, seeing our sin punished in him, and by no means let us look at sin except as we look at Jesus. A man may hate sin just as a murderer hates the gallows but this does not prove repentance if I hate sin because of the punishment, I have not repented of sin; I merely regret that God is just.But if I can see sin as an offense against Jesus Christ, and loathe myself because I have wounded him, then I have a true brokenness of heart. If I see the Savior and believe that those thorns upon his head were put there by my sinful words; if I believe that those wounds in his heart were pierced by my heart-sins; if I believe that those wounds in his feet were made by my wandering steps, and that the wounds in his hands were made by my sinful deeds, then I repent after a right fashion. Only under the cross can you repent. Repentance elsewhere is remorse, which clings to the sin and only dreads the punishment. Let us then seek, under God, to have a hatred of sin caused by a site of Christ's love." Charles Spurgeon
_________________TJ
I keep coming back and re-reading this thread every day! It has been blessing me all week! Thanks for posting this TJ! :-)Matthew 3:8 (NASB),[b]8 "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;[/b]!!!
_________________Adam
A few lines from Charles Wesley:[i]Come O my guilty brethren, come,Groaning beneath your load of sin!His bleeding heart shall make you room,His open side shall take you in...[/i]
This post is very true. I believe that many times Christians repent of sin because of the consequences of our sin. The Lord does indeed chasten His own children. I have found that there are two main elements that are included in true repentance. One is a godly sorrow for sin, and that does include the realization that it was not the Roman soldiers or the Jews that crucified Jesus, but it was our sins that nailed our savior to the cross. Then there is the turning away from sin. The salvation of Jesus Christ not only includes forgiveness of sins, but it includes deliverance from sinning. God wants to do such a work in our hearts through the Holy Spirit and His Word that we no longer desire the sin that so easily besets us. The Lord wants to so work in us that we love what He loves (righeousness and holiness), and hate what He hates (all sin and iniquity). Mike
_________________Mike
I agree with Y'all, see the thread [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=29906&forum=36&7]HERE[/url]Thanx for the thread.
