Theological term
Repentance unto Life
3 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 15 - Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation
Repentance unto life is not a work that precedes salvation but an evangelical grace sovereignly given by God in the covenant of grace, inseparable from faith as two sides of the same coin. Working through 2LCF Chapter 15, this study examines the nature, necessity, and elements of saving repentance, tracing the confession's teaching that remaining corruption and the prevalency of temptation make ongoing repentance a permanent feature of the Christian life, not merely its entry point. The session also challenges the assumption that a crisis conversion is more credible than a non-crisis one, arguing that the same effectual power of God works in the child catechized from infancy as in the most notorious convert. Hearers are urged to hate sin, apprehend the mercy of God in Christ, and avoid both antinomianism and the error of treating repentance as a meritorious condition for acceptance with God.
2LCF Chapter 15 - Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation
1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 15 treats repentance not as a meritorious work but as an evangelical grace — a gift sovereignly granted by God through the Holy Spirit, inseparable from saving faith. This study walks through all five paragraphs of the chapter, distinguishing the Greek definition of repentance as a change of mind from its fruits, exposing the danger of collapsing that distinction into a salvation-by-works scheme. The covenant of grace is shown to be the practical ground by which God provides and sustains both faith and repentance for the elect throughout their lives, including ongoing repentance for remaining sin.
The Rebellion of Moab
Matthew 27:1–5 exposes two devastating portraits set in immediate sequence: the murderous resolution of the Sanhedrin and the miserable end of Judas Iscariot. The sermon presses a distinction the text itself demands — that remorse, however acute, is not repentance, because genuine repentance moves God-ward and Christ-ward, apprehending the mercy of God in Christ, whereas Judas's guilt drove him only to self-destruction. Listeners are urged to see in Judas the bitter end of undealt-with sin, and to flee instead to the one who is altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand, trusting that saving faith and repentance are themselves gifts granted by sovereign grace.