10. Repentance makes joy in heaven
knowledge: "When their heart turns to the Lord, the veil will be taken away" (2Cor 3.16). The veil of ignorance which was drawn over the Jews' eyes will by be taken away repentance. Repentance inflames love. Weeping Mary Magdalene loved much (Luk 7.47). God preserves these springs of sorrow in the soul to water the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22).
8. Repentance ushers in temporal blessings The prophet Joel, persuading the people to repentance, brings in the promise of secular good things: "rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord ... the Lord will answer and say to his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil" (Joe 2.13,
19). When we put water into the pump, it fetches up only water, but when we put the water of tears into God's bottle, this fetches up wine: "I will send you wine, and oil." Sin blasts the fruits of the earth:
"You have sown much, and bring in little" (Hag 1.6). But repentance makes the pomegranate bud and the vine flourish with full clusters.
Fill God's bottle and he will fill your basket. "If you return to the Almighty, you will lay up gold like dust" (Job 22.23-24). Repenting is returning to God, and this brings a golden harvest.
9. Repentance staves off judgments from a land When God is going to destroy a nation, the penitent sinner stays his hand, as the angel did Abraham's (Gen 22.12). The Ninevites' repentance caused God to repent: "God saw that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the disaster he said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it" (Jon. 3.10). An outward repentance has adjourned and kept off wrath. Ahab sold himself to work wickedness; yet upon fasting and rending his garments, God said to Elijah, "I will not bring the evil in his days" (1Kng 21.29). If rending the clothes kept off judgment from the nation, what will rending the heart do?
10. Repentance makes joy in heaven The angels, as it were, keep a holy day: "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents" (Luk 15.10). As praise is the music of heaven, so repentance is the joy of heaven.
When men neglect the offer of salvation and freeze in sin, this delights the devils. But when a soul is brought home to Christ by repentance, this makes joy among the angels.