True and False Repentance

Psalm li. 3. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever

before me. And Matthew xxvii. 3. Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he

saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the

thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have

sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.

I HAVE thrown these two passages together, because, thus considered, they furnish a clear exemphfication, both of a true and false repentance. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, exhorted the multitude of the Jews to forsake their errors and sins, and turn to God, he gave them this summary direction: “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.” When our Lord himself would declare, in the briefest manner, the revealed condition of eternal life, he told the people who heard him, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” His forerunner also, “came preaching the baptism of repentance, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Li the Old Testament, also, we find the same comprehensive injunction; for the prophet thus exhorts ancient Israel: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.” Thus, when the ministers of the everlasting Gospel, under either dispensation, have fulfilled their commission, “they

TRUE AND FALSE REPENTANCE. ggl

have gone forth everywhere preaching that men should repent.”

A duty so solemnly and frequently enjoined, deserves our serious attention, and we are interested to know in what it consists. It is implicitly recognized as a compend of the Christian graces, while the joys of heaven, and the sorrows of hell, are suspended upon the performance or neglect of it.

Yet all repentance is not true repentance. An apostle declares, that ‘’godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” There is, therefore, a repentance that needs to be repented of, and which is not unto salvation. Instances of both these we may expect to find in our acquaintance with men, and especially in Scripture history. Accordingly, we are furnished with specimens of both in the word of God. We shall occupy ourselves, in this discourse, in placing two of these side by side, and as we proceed with the comparison, we may hope to discern and fix in our minds some characteristics of evangelical repentance, that shall distinguish it from all counterfeit and spurious similitudes. The instances selected are those of David and Judas, both of which are strongly marked, and in our exposition of which, we place ourselves under the guidance of an infallible interpreter of the actions, and expositor of the spirits of men. We propose to show wherein their repentance was alike, and wherein it differed.

I. We shall show wherein the repentance of David and Judas was alike.

It appeared alike, and was alike in many particulars.

1. In the first place, we remark that both David and

Judas were sorry for their sin. They both indulged sincere grief on account of their iniquity. They had deep impressions of its turpitude and heinousness; they saw its evil consequences to themselves and others, and truly regretted what they had done. Though the sorrow of the one was godly sorrow, and that of the other the sorrow which worketh death; yet they were both sorry. In view of their base conduct, the emotions of both, though from causes radically and essentially diverse, were, in their outward expression, alike. No one who reads David’s penitent acknowledgment of his sin in the 51st Psalm, can doubt the sincerity or depth of his regret; and as little question can exist in the other case, since the inspired historian declares, “Then Judas, which betrayed Christ, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself.” Nor is this mere form of expression all. His convictions of his sin, and his grief, were so intense and overwhelming, that he preferred death by his own hand, with all its attendant horrors, and all its fearful issues, to the sorrow and agony which consumed him. He could not live in such distress; and if this be not evidence of the reality and depth of his grief, then we know not where to look in any case, for proof of this frame of mind.

2. In the second place, both David and Judas confessed their sin. Hear the Psalmist: “I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest.” He prays to be delivered from “blood guiltiness,” and professes to offer the sacrifice of a “broken and contrite heart.” Equally explicit is the confession of Judas. “/ have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” Many a sinner is so thoughtless and unconcerned, as rarely to admit the conviction of his guilt; and multitudes, who are convinced of it, satisfy themselves with the acknowledgment of their offences to God only. But these offenders confessed their sins to men. David did to Nathan, and to God’s Israel; and left his confession on the public records of his nation, for the benefit of the church, and the instruction of men in every age. And we have seen how public and open was the acknowledgment of Judas. In both cases, there was a frankness of confession that puts those who make it above the suspicion of artifice, or concealment. They seek for no extenuation of their guilt. They hide no circumstance that exhibits its aggravation. All is open and candid, like the plain dealing of men who felt the stings of conscience, and were willing to be confounded before God and man.

3. In the third place, both David and Judas endeavored to 7nake some recompense for the wrong they had done. After the shameful fall of the King of Israel, and his acknowledgment to Nathan of his transgression, he renounced his guilty course of conduct, and repaired the injury as far as was in his power. He raised the deluded partner of his crime to the highest rank in his kingdom, and Solomon, her son, became, by the express appointment of the king, the heir of his possessions and crown.

Scarcely less explicit is the proof that Judas was actuated by a desire to make some recompense for the wrong of which he had been the guilty perpetrator. When he saw that Christ was actually condemned, he was seized with consternation, and* hastened to the chief priests, accusing himself, and declaring the innocence of the man he had delivered into their hands. He was eager to exculpate the condemned Saviour, though in doing so he accused himself And he tested the sincerity of his renunciation, by bringing the price of his treachery, and casting it down before those who had corrupted him. Though his ruling passion was the love of money, another affection now became stronger and predominant. He made restitution of his ill-gotten gain, and as far as might be, labored to counteract the tendency of his sin.

In these three particulars, there was a similarity between the repentance of David and Judas. They resembled each other externally, and in a degree, also, in their spirit and temper. The conduct of both was, to a certain extent, the conduct of true penitents; and but for subsequent events, and the light which inspiration has shed upon their character and doom, men might have inferred that there was no real difference in their repentance. And yet we know that the repentance of the one was true, and the other false. Let us then,

II. In the second place, attend to some particulars in which their repentance differed.

In some of their features, they were certainly alike. But if to the eye of man there was a resemblance, God saw a difference. One he blessed with a sweet sense of his pardoning mercy; the other he abandoned to the horrors of despair; and when the measure of his iniquity was full, consigned him “to his own place.” There was a point where they began to diverge, and because they separated here, the barrier which divides the friends of God from his enemies, is placed between

them forever. In noticing some of the points in which they differed, we may remark,

1. In the first place, the repentance of these two transgressors differed in the motives from which it originated. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” The difference in their repentance lies in the heart and spirit, which gave rise to it. David’s arose from his love and fear of God. Repentance that flows not from the love of God, is always spurious; and though while a man is destitute of love to God, he may be sorry that he has provoked his displeasure, he cannot be at heart grieved that he has disobeyed and dishonored a Being whom he hates. True repentance consists in that self-loathing and self-abasement for sin, which arises from an affectionate regard to the excellence and goodness of the divine character. “I have heard of thee, says Job, by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee;” wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

David’s heart was tender, as well as filled with anguish. He had lost his enmity and opposition to God, and was deeply affected and humbled, because he had dishonored the Holy One of Israel. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight I” He was not insensible to the injury he had done to others; but in his view, the chief aggravation of his offence was, that it was committed against God. In this aspect of it, every other feature was well-nigh forgotten. He could not help repenting, with such views and feelings as he had toward God. It was his affectionate regard for God that led him to hate his sins, and to say, “Because I have done this evil in thy sight, thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest.” There is not a single selfish and mercenary motive suggested throughout the whole of the Psalm which records his humble confession. Does he speak of the divine judgments; he says he deserves them. Does he speak of Zion, whose interests he had put in jeopardy, his request is, that God “would do good to Zion, and build the walls of Jerusalem.” Does he ask to be restored to the joys of God’s salvation; it is that he may “teach transgressors his ways, and that sinners may be converted unto him.” Does he beg that God would remove his frown, and once more open his lips; it is that “his mouth may show forth his praise.” This is a repentance altogether above the horrors of a guilty conscience, and those inward restraints, and checks, and agitations, which force a man to confess his sins, and simply convince and cover him with shame.

But not one thought of all this is to be found in the repentance of Judas. It sprung from no such motives. However bitterly he grieved, it was wholly on his own account. He was agitated; he trembled; he cast about him for some relief; conscience made him honest; but he had not one truly humble emotion. In the very act of confessing his sin, and seeking some relief from the terrible reproaches of his own mind, he endeavored, by a deed of desperation, to break away from the government of the Most High. The motives of his repentance were all corrupt.

2. In the second place, the repentance of David was accompanied with saving faith; while that of Judas was an unbelieving repentance. The offending Psalmist knew that a Saviour had been promised for lost men; and that the guilty, however odious and ill-deserving, might find pardon and peace through him. Though but obscurely revealed, yet was this way of salvation by the Messiah to come, indicated by the worship and ceremonial observances of the Jewish religion. None under the ancient economy had a more clear and lively view of the Redeemei’’s character and worth than David; and none more certainly trusted in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and appropriated by faith the benefits of that blood that was expiatory and not ceremonial, and that was designed to “take away sin.” After confessing and bewailing his transgression, he says, “Purge me with hysop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” God required the Hebrews, when they came out of Egypt, to take a bunch of hysop, to dip it in the blood of the paschal lamb, and with it to sprinkle the lintel and the two side -posts of their doors-It was in allusion to this rite, and other emblematical uses of the hysop in sacrifices, that this penitent sought for pardon in the words we have just recited; and, while uttering them, looked away from the sign to the thing signified, and exercised saving faith in him whom these types and shadows prefigured. That such were his views is farther manifest, when he says, “For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt offering.” He knew there was but one sacrifice that could meet the claims of offended justice. The faith of his broken and contrite heart, rested on the great sacrifice of God’s appointment. His contrition was associated with a saving faith in him who is David’s Lord and Son. He had acknowledged the justice of the law; and with that acknowledgment, confided in the grace of the Gospel. He felt his need of the Saviour, because he felt that he was lost and justly condemned. His heart was prepared to depend on Christ alone for pardon and acceptance in the sight of God; and his conduct was such as to show that the repentance that is unto life, is the repentance of a believing mind.

No such faith accompanied the repentance of Judas. He had better opportunities than were enjoyed by David, of a perfect acquaintance with the character and work of Christ. He was a member of the Apostolic family, and in frequent attendance upon the person of Christ in his progress through Judea. He heard him preach, and saw his miracles. He was with him at the last Passover, and enjoyed the best opportunity of testing his claims, and knowing the value of his redemption. He had seen multitudes believe in him, and rejoice to the saving of their souls. And now, when his sins were set in order before him, and he was bowed down under the burden, and knew that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; and was under stronger inducements than ever to cast himself, as his poor, guilty, wretched betrayer, at his feet, and trust in him who could pray even for his murderers; his suspicious heart, the more suspicious and distrustful because so guilty, turned away from him in cold and sullen unbelief Though trembling on the threshold of eternity, he could not trust and live. His repentance was the repentance of a mind that had no confidence in this friend of miserable sinners. Had there been superadded to his deep convictions and anguish, the least degree of believing confidence in that atoning sacrifice about to be offered up, he had never gone into eternity with hands stained with the Redeemer’s blood and his own. Had he but the faith to cry with the dying thief on the cross, “Lord, remember me,” notwithstanding all I have done, “remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,” it never would have been said of him, “It were better for that man if he had never been born.”

3. In the third place, an essential element in the repentance of David was /io/)e; while the repentance of Judas was the repentance of despair. Hope is a sweet exercise of Christian piety, and delightfully honorable to God and the riches of his grace, through his Son. All the exercises of David in this Psalm, are full of hope. He could not despair of mercy from God, so excellent is his loving kindness, and so great his mercy toward them that fear him. Love, penitence, faith, and hope, are graces that belong to one and the same family, and fruits of the Spirit that grow on the same parent stock. Where one is found, the other is not far distant; and if hope does not always bloom and flourish amid the tears of repentance, it is watered by them, and its bud of promise cherished by every contrite sigh. Where faith looks to God’s adorable Son, hope is sure to rest on him, if not at once, ultimately, and with triumph. Hence, in this very Psalm of deepest penitence, we read of looked for ‘’joy and gladness” — of “lips that show forth God’s praise” — and of “sacrifices of righteousness, with which God is well pleased.” Though the hope of pardon is not a bribe to godly sorrow, it is sooner, or later, the fruit of it. No man can long be the subject of the one, without being the subject of the other. There is that healing influence in the blood of Christ, which, when it binds up the broken heart, bids the mourner rejoice. Welcome as is the light of the morning after a night of apprehension and distress, — welcome as a secure haven to the worn-out and tempest-driven mariner, — welcome as a full pardon sent from the throne of royal mercy to cheer the dungeon of the condemned criminal looking forward to the hour of his execution, — so welcome are the tidings of salvation to the breast that is burdened with sin, and whose gushing sorrows flow at the cross. The mercy of God, in Christ, is never estimated but by the true penitent. Nor is there any true penitent that will not embrace the divine mercy, and give God the praise. The sorrow that “worketh repentance to salvation,^’ is a compound of fear and hope, of agitation and tranquillity, of distress and mourning for sin, and confidence in the promise of peace. From darkness it emerges into light; from groaning under bondage, it rejoices in the liberty of the sons of God; from lamentations and mourning, it -” sings aloud of God’s righteousness.”

But the repentance of Judas was of another sort. It was the dreadful, fiend-like repentance, of despair. It was the sorrow which worketh death — the death of the body and the death of the soul. It was guilt unrelieved by hope, and it was repentance that impelled him to perdition. It was not the melancholy of a disordered mind — it was the heavy, fixed, and obdurate gloom of a well-balanced and artful mind, and yet a mind at war with God and man — with time and eternity! It cozdd not be comforted, even by a Saviour’s love; it could not be cheered, even by the brightness of God’s countenance; it could not be obviated by a salvation adapted to its deepest woes. That salvation had enlightened the judgment, and convinced the conscience, even of this accursed traitor to his Lord; but it could not carry his heart, nor subdue it into one tender emotion, nor turn it away from its sullen despair.

We have thus seen wherein the repentance of David and Judas were alike, and wherein they were not alike. A few brief remarks will now close our discourse.

1. We learn from our subject, that the best means of grace and salvation may fail of fitting men for heaven, David enjoyed the best means of grace and salvation which were furnished to the age in which he lived; and they exerted their proper effect upon his mind and character, and fitted him for God’s right hand. But Judas enjoyed still better means, and richer instructions, while his own sinful heart grew more sinful and obdurate under them; and thus abused and perverted, they only fitted him for perdition. The tendency of the instructions he heard, the miracles he saw, and the perfect example of which he was the witness while in the family of Christ, was to make him a holy man, as they did the other eleven disciples; but the constant tendency of his own deceitful and corrupt mind, under this powerful influence, was to wax worse and worse. In the earlier part of his career, and till near the close of it, he maintained a fair external character, lived apparently like a sincere follower of Christ, and had the confidence of his fellow-disciples. But mammon was his god; and in the process of time, his selfish and corrupt heart showed itself, and broke over all the restraints and religious instructions with which he was favored. The longer he heard Christ preach, and saw his works, the more his enmity rose against him; till at length “his iniquity found him out,” and his hatred to Jesus rose to such a height, that he betrayed him with a kiss, delivered him over to his crucifiers, and thus showed that in the enjoyment of the highest privileges, he became a ‘’ vessel of wrath fitted to destruction.” And thus it often proves with the best means of grace. While they have a good effect upon some, they only serve to increase the wickedness of others. They have fitted multitudes for heaven; but they have also fitted multitudes for hell. They have this effect in every age, and in every place. “We are unto God,” saith an apostle, “a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life.”

2. Our subject presents us an affecting view of the sovereignty of God in the discriminations of his grace. In the few traits of character to which our thoughts have been directed, we see two professors of religion making the same avowal of their attachment to God and his cause. The one was a sincere friend of God, and the other a base and detestable hypocrite, and concealing a foul and malignant heart under the cloak of a fair profession. We see them both guilty of foul and abominable crimes; but we see one recovered, and restored, and penitent, and the other impenitent, and a final apostate. We see one subdued and weeping at the cross, and comforted by returning holiness, peace, and joy; and the other smitten with remorse and horror, for which the grave was the only relief. We see one influenced to lay hold of eternal life, and the other left to his own unrestricted course, and fulfilling the prediction that was made concerning him centuries before he was born. We see one the child of mercy, the other what the Saviour himself designated him, “the son of perdition.”

And in all this do we not see the sovereignty of the divine counsels, and the discriminations of that grace that maketh one to differ from another? Why was David subdued by the grace of God, and Judas left to impenitence and wrath? We see these discriminations everywhere; and as there can be no valid objection against them in the case of David and Judas, so there can be no valid objection against them in any case. Men may assail the sovereignty of God in thus making one to differ from another; but no valid objection ever has, or ever can be brought against it. It is consistent with the benevolence of God, and the freedom and accountableness of man; it is consistent with itself, and with every other doctrine of the Bible; and it is true. Judas never thought of urging it as any excuse for his crime, or for his impenitence. God did him no injustice, and never will do him any. He was gracious to David; but not unjust to Judas. He may be gracious to some, and he may leave others to their own chosen way. The former may not complain, because they are treated better than they deserve; and the latter ought not to complain, because they are treated no worse than they deserve. Let us adore the goodness and severity of God; toward the vessels of wrath severity, toward the vessels of mercy goodness. Let us feel as the Saviour felt when he said, “I thank thee. Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes!”

3. We are taught by our subject, that neither the outward expression, nor the inward emotion of sorrow constitutes evangelical repentance. Who can doubt the depths of Judas’s sorrow? If ever there was a heart wrung with anguish, it was his. His grief was literally intolerable; so that life itself became a burden. And as to its outward expressions, they were full. But after all, it was the sorrow of the world that worketh death, and itself needed to be repented of There was in it nothing of the nature of piety, and nothing that God could approve. Such sorrow as his often abounds. It often abounds when men are deeply convinced of their sins, and danger. Penetrated with horror at the thought of what they have done, ready to make any confession, and almost any reparation, yet they are not willing to accept of forgiveness on the terms of the Gospel. Such sorrow is often seen on the bed of death; it is very apt to be one of the characteristics of death-bed repentance, when the thoughts are thrown back upon a misspent life, and forward upon an undone eternity, and the soul trembles at meeting God in judgment. And when that dread apprehension becomes a reality, and the spirit actually stands before God its Maker, to be judged according to the deeds done in the body, no doubt its agony will be excessive; and the miserable transgressor will cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon him, and hide him from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. And what will be the outward expression, and the inward emotions of its sorrow, when at last, sinking beneath that wrath from which falling mountains cannot shield him, all its waves and billows go over him? My friends, if you have had, and have now, no other than such a sorrow, it is time to take the alarm. Without repenting of such repentance, it will one day be said of you, as it is of Judas, “It had been good for them if they had never been born.” I remark,

4. If many who are convinced of sin refuse the great salvation, how vain to wait for deeper convictions in order to become Christians. Multitudes believe that all that is wanting to make them willing to fall in with the method of salvation by Jesus Christ, is to feel the burden of sin, and their desert of punishment, more deeply than they have ever felt them. If they could feel as convinced sinners feel, or as a dying man feels, they do not doubt they should come Inimbled at the footstool of mercy, and receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel. But such persons are strangely ignorant of themselves — their hearts deceive them. It is not a sense of sin and misery alone that leads men to Christ; they are drawn by cords of love. Such persons would not love Christ any more than they now love him, if they saw themselves this moment suspended over the bottomless pit. Look at Judas. Did a sense of sin make him a Christian? Did fear, and terror, and agony that could not be endured, make him a Christian? Ah no! There is something harder, something deeper, in the heart of man, than to be thus subdued. Not a man in this little assembly but is convinced enough of his lost estate to make the Saviour welcome, if his heart were touched with love to God. This postponement of present duty for greater convictions, and more fearful terrors, is misleading you. Come they may; and they may find you imperturbable except to fear, — still dead to every grateful and tender affection, — and wrapt in gloom. They may find you like Judas. You cannot hope in God’s mercy simply by desiring to do it, and because driven to it by agony. Take your time for it noio, my friends. Take God’s time for it now; for though the day of anguish will come certainly; the day, the precious, the expected day of nope, may never come, if the present hour is lost. I add,

5. From our subject, let us learn how hopeless is the condition of those who are stupid in sin. If many who are convinced of sin, confess it, and in some sort repent, fall short of the kingdom of heaven; what shall be said of those who have not even this miserable sorrow? They have no susceptibility of conscience, and they would think it a reproach to shed tears because they are sinners. They shut out every serious thought. They seem given over to blindness and hardness of heart. O this state of mind puts a man far from the kingdom of God! If the awakened may not find a Saviour, and the anxious, and those who confess their guilt, may find a place in hell with Judas; where will your place be, who sleep on, and are never anxious, and think no more of God and eternity, and of Christ and his salvation, than though they were fables?

My dear friends, is not this spiritual insensibility characteristic of some of you? O into what a fearful slumber have you fallen! Whence is it, that the very torpor of death has thus benumbed you? Whence is it that you are not to be aroused, either by the good word of God, or the powers of the world to come? I have no wish, God knoweth, to see any of you the victims of a soul-destroying delusion, and hear any of you profess repentance while it is hid from your eyes. But I would see this apathy disturbed. I would fain see those indications of reviving sensibility, which shall be the precursors of a true repentance, — the precursors of faith and hope, and not the forerunners of despair.

Despair! — why need we speak of despair? Here in a world so full of the Saviours love — here under the Bethel Flag — here at the cross — here in the great ocean where everything assures us there is no sin too great to be forgiven? I will not speak of it any more. I will not think of it. No sinner is too far gone in iniquity to be reclaimed, and owned as the child of God. Come then, my friends, to David’s God. Come to the Son of David, whose hysop branch is fresh-dipped in the blood of the Great Atonement. Say, with a deep and true repentance, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Purge me with hysop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”