1. The first deceit of repentance is legal terror
Chapter Two
2. COUNTERFEIT REPENTANCE
To discover what true repentance is, I will first show what it is not.
There are several deceits of repentance which might occasion that saying of Augustine that "repentance damns many." He meant a false repentance: a person may delude himself with counterfeit repentance.
1. The first deceit of repentance is legal terror Say a man has gone on in sin a long time. At last God arrests him, shows him what desperate hazard he has run, and he is filled with anguish. In a while the tempest of conscience is blown over, and he is quiet again. Then he concludes that he is a true penitent because he has felt some bitterness in sin. Do not be deceived; this is not repentance. Ahab and Judas had troubled minds. It is one thing to be a terrified sinner, and another to be a repenting sinner. Sense of guilt is enough to breed terror. Infusion of grace breeds repentance. If pain and trouble were sufficient for repentance, then the damned in hell would be the most penitent, for they are most in anguish.
Repentance depends upon a change of heart. There may be terror and yet no change of heart.
2. Another deceit about repentance is resolution against sin A person may resolve and make vows, and yet not be penitent. "You said, I will not transgress" (Jer 2.20). Here was a resolution, but see what follows: "you wander under every green tree, playing the harlot." Notwithstanding her solemn engagements, she played fast and loose with God and ran after her idols. We see by experience what protestations a person will make when he is on his sickbed, if only God would allow him to recover; yet he is as bad as ever. He shows his old heart in a new temptation.
Resolutions against sin may arise, (1) from present extremity; not because sin is sinful, but because it is painful. This resolution will vanish.
(2) from fear of future evil, an apprehension of death and hell: "I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was