Confess and Forsake

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. PROVERBS 28:13

When Finney first sat under George Gale’s preaching at Adams, one of the questions that troubled him most was what the word repentance meant. Was it a feeling of sorrow for sin? Was it something that happened to a person, or something a person did? He could not tell, he wrote in his Memoirs, and he did not think his pastor could either. Much of his later preaching was an attempt to answer that question clearly, for sinners and for backslidden Christians alike. His answer was simple and demanding: repentance is a change of mind towards God and sin that shows itself in confessing and forsaking.

What repentance is not

Finney began, as he often did, by clearing away false ideas. In his lecture Directions to Sinners he listed several. Remorse is not repentance. “Many suppose that remorse, or a sense of guilt, is repentance. Then hell is full of repentance, for it is full of remorse, unutterable and eternal.” Regret at the consequences of sin is not repentance; a thief may regret being caught. Conviction and fear of hell are not repentance. The protests of conscience are not repentance. Even a feeling of sorrow for sin, taken by itself, is not repentance. The devil, Finney said, might have all these things and remain a devil.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 2 CORINTHIANS 7:10

What repentance is

Repentance, he said, is a change of mind regarding God and sin. Not only a change of opinion, but a change of the soul’s deepest choice, which then carries feeling and conduct with it. Everyone understands this in ordinary life. When we hear that a man has changed his mind about a great public question, we expect to see it in how he talks and votes and spends his time. So, Finney wrote, “Evangelical repentance is a change of willing, of feeling, and of life, in respect to God.”

He added two things. “Repentance always implies abhorrence of sin.” The penitent comes to feel about sin as God does. And repentance always implies forsaking sin. A person who confesses a sin and fully intends to go on doing it has not repented at all.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. ISAIAH 55:7

This, Finney noted, changes how the unconverted imagine the Christian life. They suppose that if they become religious they will spend their lives longing for the pleasures they have given up. But repentance is a change of mind about those very pleasures. The one who has truly repented does not look back on them as treasures lost.

Instantly and wholly

Finney would not allow repentance to be spread out over years. In his later lecture Growth in Grace he wrote that the command to grow in grace does not mean giving up sin gradually: “we are nowhere in the Bible commanded to give up sin gradually, we are everywhere commanded to give it up instantly and wholly.” The call is always now. Behind this lay his whole view of the will. If repentance is a choice, it can be made at once, and delay is simply continued refusal.

Making it right

Finney’s most practical contribution on repentance is his insistence on restitution. “A man does not forsake his sins till he has made all the reparation in his power,” he wrote. If he has stolen, he must return what he took. If he has cheated, he must repay. If he has slandered, he must go to the people who heard the slander and set it right. It is not enough to resolve to do better from now on. We saw in chapter four that he told his hearers to write letters, and pay the postage, to those they had wronged far away.

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. LUKE 19:8

He applied the same principle to God. Every sinner has robbed God of time, talents and service. A man who has made money while ignoring God and then leaves it to his heirs as if it were his own, Finney said, has never confessed his sin or acknowledged himself God’s steward. Real repentance hands everything back.

Repentance for Christians

Finney did not think repentance was only for the unconverted. Revival, as we have seen, begins with Christians coming under conviction of their own sins. In his lecture on the hindrances to revival he said that a revival will decline and cease unless Christians are frequently re-converted — by which he meant that believers need again and again to be convicted, humbled and broken down before God. The Christian life, for Finney, was a life of continual turning.

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. JOB 42:5–6

Where care is needed

Finney’s teaching on repentance is bracing and mostly biblical, but two points need balance.

First, he treated repentance almost entirely as a voluntary act, and dismissed sorrow as merely an involuntary feeling. He was right that sorrow alone is not enough. But Scripture does not despise godly sorrow; it says that such sorrow works repentance. The tears of Peter after his denial were not a distraction from repentance. The heart is to be broken, not only the will redirected. And Scripture also speaks of repentance as God’s gift: Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31). We are commanded to repent, and we must; yet when we do, we should thank God for granting it.

Second, Finney sometimes spoke as though a true penitent would have no remaining desire for his old sins, and that anyone who still felt the pull of them had never repented. That is too severe. Paul described a believer’s continuing struggle: the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). Finney himself, in another lecture, spoke of spiritual Christians groaning in conflict with their own corruptions. The question is not whether sin still tempts us, but which side we are on.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. ROMANS 7:24–25

Keep short accounts

The heart of Finney’s teaching is simple: do not cover sin; confess it, forsake it, and make it right. Do not settle for remorse or regret. Turn. And keep turning, as often as you find that you have wandered.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Name one sin you have regretted without forsaking. What would forsaking it actually involve this week?

2. Is there anything you have taken, damaged or said that you need to put right? Make restitution, as far as it is in your power.

3. Ask whether you treat what you own as yours or as God’s. Make one decision this week as a steward rather than an owner.

4. If you still feel the pull of an old sin, do not conclude you were never converted. Bring it to Christ and choose His side again.

5. Thank God that repentance is both your duty and His gift.

A PRAYER

Lord God, I have covered my sins and not prospered. I confess them now, and I choose to forsake them.

Give me not only regret but a change of mind — to hate what You hate, and love what You love.

Show me whom I have wronged, and give me courage to make it right.

And when I find myself wandering again, turn me again, for You abundantly pardon. Amen.