A recent commenter to this blog provided another wise quote regarding repentance:
"No plea for forgiveness could be sincere, if there was no renunciation of the sin in the heart; no cry for cleansing could have any meaning, if there was still the purpose to renew the act that brought the stain; no prayer for communion could be genuinely expressed by a sacrifice, if there was no desire to walk in harmony with God's will." -- H.H. Rowley
2 comments:
This reminded me of something Lewis writes in MERE CHRISTIANITY:
"Now what [is this] sort of 'hole' man [has] got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track, and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor--that is the only way out of a 'hole.' This process of surrender--this movement full speed astern--is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is much harder than eating humble pie....It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.
"Remember, this repentance....is a description of what going back to Him is like. [And can only happen when] God puts into us a little of Himself. He lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think. He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another."
Thanks, Stephen, for this relevant quotation from C.S. Lewis.
Doug
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