The apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were specially charged to preach
"repentance and remission of sins" (Luke 24:47). Some of us are apt to overlook the
first part of this commission in our eagerness to get to the second. This is a most
serious mistake. It is our truest wisdom to keep close to the actual terms in which our
blessed Lord delivered His charge to His earliest heralds. Do we give sufficient
prominence to the first part of the commission? Do we preach repentance?

Our Lord preached repentance (Mark 1:14-15) and He commanded His apostles to
preach it; and they did so constantly (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30,31; 20:21; 26:20). With
the example of our Lord and His apostles before us, may we not ask whether there is
not a serious defect in much of our modern preaching? Do we preach repentance as we
ought? No doubt it is very important to preach the gospel of the grace of God in all its
fulness, clearness, and power. But if we do not preach repentance, we will seriously
damage our testimony and the souls of our hearers. What would we say if we saw a
farmer scattering seed on a hard road? We would pronounce him out of his mind. The
plow must do its work. The ground must be broken up before the seed is sown; and we
may rest assured that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom of grace_the
plowing must precede the sowing. The ground must be duly prepared for the seed, or
the operation will prove altogether defective. Let the gospel be preached as God has
given it to us in His Word.

What is this repentance which occupies such a prominent place in the preaching of our
Lord and His apostles? We are not aware of any formal definition of the subject
furnished by the Holy Spirit. However, the more we study the Word in reference to
this great question, the more deeply we feel convinced that true repentance involves the
solemn judgment of ourselves, our condition, and our ways in the presence of God;
and, further, that this judgment is not a transient feeling, but an abiding condition, not
an exercise to be gone through as a sort of title to the remission of sins, but the deep
and settled habit of the soul, giving seriousness, tenderness, and profound humility
which shall characterize our entire lives.

We greatly deplore the light, superficial style of much of our modern preaching. It
sometimes seems as if the sinner were led to suppose that he is conferring a great honor
upon God in accepting salvation at His hands. This type of preaching produces levity,
self-indulgence, worldliness, and foolishness. Sin is not felt to be the dreadful thing it is
in the sight of God. Self is not judged. The world is not given up. The gospel that is
preached is what may be called "salvation made easy" to the flesh. People are offered a
salvation which leaves self and the world unjudged and those who profess to be saved
by this gospel often exhibit a great lack of seriousness in their Christian lives.*

(* Perhaps this reminds us of some modern evangelism which says, in effect, "Accept
Christ and enjoy good fellowship"; "accept Christ and play better football"; or "accept
Christ and solve all your problems."_Ed.)

Man must take his true place before God, and that is the place of self-judgment,
contrition of heart, real sorrow for sin, and true confession. It is here the gospel meets
him. The fulness of God ever waits on an empty vessel, and a truly repentant soul is
the empty vessel into which all the fulness and grace of God can flow in saving power.
The Holy Spirit will make the sinner feel and own his real condition. It is He alone who
can do so; but He uses preaching to this end. By preaching, He brings the Word of God
to bear upon the conscience. The Word is His hammer wherewith He breaks the rock
in pieces; it is His plowshare wherewith He breaks up the fallow ground. He makes the
furrow and then casts in the incorruptible seed to germinate and bear fruit to the glory
of God.

Let us be careful that we do not draw from these remarks that there is anything
meritorious in the sinner’s repentance. This would be to miss the point completely.
Repentance is not a good work whereby the sinner merits the favor of God. True
repentance is the discovery and hearty confession of our utter ruin and guilt. It is the
finding out that my whole life has been a lie, and I myself am a liar. This is serious
work. There is no flippancy or levity when a soul is brought to this. A repentant soul in
the presence of God is a solemn reality.

May we more solemnly, earnestly, and constantly call upon men "to repent and turn to
God." Let us preach "repentance" as well as "remission of sins."

(From “The Great Commission” in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 4.)