The difference between besetting sins and rebellion is faithful repentance of our various sins. We ought to repent of our various sins, because we have offended a holy God. We would do well to repent of our sins in knowing that God is offended. It is contrite repentance that we ought to be concerned about. That we have offended a just God is a serious matter. The difference between false teachers and good teachers is a heart issue. False teachers do not repent of sin but act in rebellion against God. Good teachers repent of their sins but struggle with besetting sins. We ought to repent of besetting sins or sins we struggle with and God forgives those sins.
John Calvin author of Institutes said,
Can true repentance exist without faith? By no means. But although they cannot be separated, they ought to be distinguished.
Mark Dever author of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church states,
And what is the prescribed response? Is it to walk down an aisle? Is it to fill out a card, or to lift up a hand? Is it to make an appointment with a preacher, or to decide to be baptized and join the church? While any of those things may be involved, none of them necessarily is. The response of the Good News – the message that Paul preached and other Christians preached throughout the New Testament – is to repent and believe. Once we’ve heard the truth about our own sin and God’s holiness, about His love in sending Christ, and about Christ’s death and resurrection for our justification, then, as instructed by the first words of Jesus recorded in Mark’s gospel, our response is to “Repent and believe the good news!” (1:15).
C.H. Spurgeon said,
Repentance is the inseparable companion of faith. All the while that we walk by faith and not by sight, the fear of repentance glitters in the eye of faith. That is not true repentance which does not come of faith in Jesus; and that is not true faith in Jesus which is not tinctured with repentance. Faith and repentance, like the Siamese twins, are vitally joined together. Faith and repentance are but two spokes in the same wheel, two handles of the same plow. Repentance has been well described as a heart broken for sin and from sin, and it may equally well be spoken of as turning and returning. It is a change of mind of the most thorough and radical sort, and it is attended with sorrow for the past and a resolve of amendment in the future. Repentance of sin and faith in divine pardon are the ways and woof of the fabric of real conversion.
