Repentance Brings Eternal Healing

Paul warned his apprentice pastor, Timothy, of a day like ours.

“For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears” (2 Tim. 4:3)

Can unashamed proclamation of biblical standards of holiness convict and soften hearts of stone? Can preachers with hearts aflame and a clarion call of the true gospel on their lips bring reprobates and rebels to their knees at a tear-stained altar of repentance? Oh, yes. It’s not only possible; it’s probable for those petitioning God’s throne for revival.

As Peter concluded his revival-igniting sermon at Pentecost, the crowd’s first impulse was to cry: “What shall we do?” The apostle had a ready answer: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.… Be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:37–38, 40). Open, heartrending confession of sin remains the consistent prescription for what ails us. Both James and John, the sons of thunder, agree:

Confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. James 5:16

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8–9

Jeremiah could rightly ask and answer concerning this generation, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? They were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush” (Jer. 6:15a). The most flagrant of sins festering in plain sight no longer even make us blush. We hold no sorrow for them, nor are we even surprised. Perhaps many have seen the open flaunting of such flagrant sin performed and displayed for their entertainment and enjoyment on television, theater, computer and cell phone screens so many times that we do not recoil when we see them in our fellowships. Or homes. Or hearts. May God have mercy on our souls, and may He send a revival to our lives and our land.