The prophet Jeremiah, to prove the difficulty of a late repentance, has used a figure which places it in a strong light; “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.” [75b] The apostle Peter, to shew the extent of danger to the Christian, employs a simile not less striking, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” [75c] And St. Paul accumulates the most forcible expressions to convey an adequate idea of the dangerous nature of our spiritual warfare, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [75d] It is most true, that when the corruption of man’s nature has been increased in malignity by the long indulgence of its sinful appetites and passions; when his habits have become confirmed, inveterate, and almost second nature through time; and when his severe master, the devil, seeing him planning rebellion against his authority, and escape from his power, employs his subtle arts to retain his dominion over him: we have a case in which unassisted human nature must despair. Passion is not tameable at the will of man, appetite is not mortified at his bidding, habit is not overcome at his command, the devil is not vanquished by his power. On the contrary, they all reign and rule in the heart of the unconverted, who have grown old in sin: there passion is ungovernable, appetite irresistible, habit invincible, the devil dominant and triumphant.
Well may every sinner start at this appalling picture of human weakness and depravity, and well will it be for him, if, through grace, he be thence led to exclaim—“Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!” [76a] and if he be enabled to apply to his own case the answer, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “With man it is impossible” to escape from the debasing and enslaving effects of sin, “but with God all things are possible;” [76b] and “thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus.” [77a]
Through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, we shall prove more than conquerors over the great enemies of our salvation. By the transforming power of divine grace the will becomes renewed, the passions subjugated, the appetites mortified, the habits changed; and the devil vanquished by the great Captain of our salvation, loses his dominion over the sanctified soul. Such is the mighty change wrought in fallen and sinful man, when grace has done her perfect work; and “renewed in the spirit of his mind,” he both “proves what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God,” and “presents his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.” [77b]
“Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” [77c] Repent ye, who have heretofore put conviction far from you, and have refused to receive the Gospel as your standard of faith, your sole rule of life. It may be, that to you, “behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation;” it may be, that if ye will not hear His voice, but still harden your hearts, upon you may be passed the terrible and irrevocable sentence—“it is a people that do err in their hearts; for they have not known my ways; unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.” [78]
“Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee;” was the language of Felix, when he “trembled,” as Paul “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” And such is the course adopted by thousands; they do not violently repress the convictions of conscience; but endeavour to lull them by that “deceitful opiate—good resolves.” Not now, is still the cry, when conscience warns them; not now, to-morrow, next year,—and thus repentance determined upon, but still deferred, flits before them like the treacherous light which often misleads unwary travellers, and lures them on with false hopes, until they plunge into the black gulf of horrible anguish and despair.
This insane procrastination, which is so common and so fatal, that it has been said, “hell’s road is paved with good resolutions,” arises principally from man’s natural wickedness, indolence, sinfulness, and love of sin; but it is much promoted by mistaken ideas as to the nature of repentance, which, by some, is considered at all times in their own power. This fatal error—the grand cause of which is ignorance of Scripture—is much favoured by the various senses in which the term repentance is employed: it is used to express simply sorrow, sorrow and amendment, change of heart and life. Now this latter sense exactly corresponds with conversion, and the evil might, in some degree, be remedied, if there were adopted, in the case of habitual sinners, the definition of repentance given by Hammond: “A change of mind, or a conversion from sin to God; not some one bare act of change, but a lasting, durable state of new life.” For men would have a difficulty in resting satisfied with indefinitely postponing repentance, if they knew that repentance to consist not merely in sorrow for sin, not merely in external amendment, but in a change of the heart, in a renewal of the mind, wrought by the Holy Ghost, and which man possesses no inherent power to effect, but which is the gift of God through Christ.
Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out: all who have heretofore drawn your motives and rules of actions from the world, and not from the Book of Life—and as you value your immortal souls, consider no proofs of conversion to be depended upon, except faith in the Saviour, and reliance on His merits alone for salvation; love of God as a reconciled father in Christ Jesus our Lord, shed abroad in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost; constant study of the Scriptures as the rule of life; indulgence of no known sin; and dependence on divine grace for spiritual guidance, strength, and consolation. Such an entire conversion of the whole man to God is generally not only a progressive, but a slow operation: during which partial relapses into old habits, which conscience soon compels them to abandon;—unscriptural views of reconciliation with God, in which the soul cannot rest satisfied;—and artful stratagems of the great enemy of man to win them back to wear publicly their badge of servitude, or retain them in the camp of the faithful, as in reality, though unknowingly, his deluded and secret followers;—all impede, perplex, and endanger their course.
As the heart only knows its own bitterness, so each believer only knows the mode of God’s dealing with him in bringing him to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. [80] But the following sketch may be received as presenting the outlines of a sincere conversion; and may the future experience of those who are now earnestly and affectionately entreated to “turn unto God with all their hearts,” fill up the details. The conscience is first troubled through the grace of God accompanying some strong appeal; fear is excited; an examination is made into the state of life, and the awful truth flashes upon the mind, that he is in “the broad way which leadeth to destruction,” and “what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul.” [81a] He now, perhaps, attempts to appease his conscience by a compromise, by reforming, in part, his life, but retaining his darling sins; this unholy alliance between Christ and Belial may not be, and he is ill at ease. He examines, therefore, more carefully the word of life, and feels satisfied he merits only eternal condemnation at the hand of a righteous God. His alarm becomes terror, and he sets to work in good earnest to effect an entire reformation of life, but too much in dependence on his own strength. He fails, and again and again is betrayed into his old sins, through the weakness of his nature, the power of temptation, and the want of spiritual strength. The repeated failures at length convince him of his own weakness and utter helplessness, and he begins to distrust himself, and trust more and more in his Saviour. The dark prospect now begins to brighten by the dawning of a better day, and slowly the sun of righteousness rising upon his soul, dispels the mists of error, prejudice, and passion, and reveals the Saviour as “the way, the truth, and the life.” [81b] He sees his road more clearly, he better understands how God “made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” [81c] and joyfully accepts the free, unmerited, and most gracious offers of salvation made in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” [82a] He increases in faith, he rejoices in his privileges, he grows in grace, but he is still watchful and sober-minded: whilst he throws himself entirely on the mercy of God in Christ in whom we are “complete;” and relies on Him for His “grace, which is sufficient for us, for it is made perfect in weakness;” [82b] he remits not his vigilance, he relaxes not his endeavours, but “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, he presses toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” [82c] He earnestly prays and labours to be enabled to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; to perfect holiness in his faith and fear, and to have his conversation in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: “who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” [82d]
The combat which awaits the young convert is severe, but not alarming, if he take the whole armour of God; “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.”
Clad in the full panoply of the Gospel, the Christian warrior has nothing to dread: for his armour is of heavenly temper; the arm of Omnipotence sustains him; and the glorious shield of the Saviour “will cover his head in the day of battle.” But if the danger appear slight, let him not presume; if appalling, let him not despair; excessive confidence often risks, and despondence often loses, the battle won by undaunted, but cool and cautious courage: and of such a nature is Christian faith, by which the soldier of the cross is enabled to fulfil his baptismal vow, “not to be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner, against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.” [83]