Lent - A Time to Repent

The late Scottish theologian, James Torrance, notes the nature of "evangelical repentance" in his book Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace.

Few distinctions in theology are more important for our understanding of worship than that discussed by Calvin in book 3 of the Institutes, between what he calls “legal repentance” and “evangelical repentance” in his critique of the medieval sacrament of penance. Legal repentance says: “Repent, and if you repent you will be forgiven!” as though God our Father has to be conditioned into being gracious. It makes the imperatives of obedience prior to the indicatives of grace, and regards God’s love and forgiveness and acceptance as conditional upon what we do—upon our meritorious acts of repentance. Calvin argued that this inverted the evangelical order of grace, and made repentance prior to forgiveness, whereas in the New Testament forgiveness is logically prior to repentance. Evangelical repentance, on the other hand, takes the form: “Christ has borne your sins on the cross; therefore, repent! Receive his forgiveness in repentance!” That is, repentance is our response to grace, not a condition of grace. The goodness of God leads us to repentance. The good news of the gospel is that “there is forgiveness with God that he might be feared,” and that he has spoken that word of forgiveness in Christ on the cross. That word summons from us an unconditional response of faith and repentance (54).

As we approach the season of Lent, it is imperative that we keep this right ordering of repentance firmly in mind as we engage in the ascetic and penitential practices of the season. We do not arrive at the grace of Easter by way of the merits of our Lenten penances. Our Lenten penance is the very acknowledgment that we have been forgiven. As Torrance goes on to explain, the grace of God's forgiveness to us is itself our guilty verdict. If we are not guilty, then what need is there for grace? Our repentance, therefore, is necessarily the response to God's prior gracious act of forgiveness - it is a gift freely given, unaffected by any act of ours.

God in Christ has spoken to us his word of forgiveness, his word of love which is at the same time the word of judgment and condemnation, the word of the cross. But implicit in our receiving of the word of grace and forgiveness, the word of the Father's love, there must be on our part, a humble submission to the verdict of guilty. It was for our sins that Christ died (55).

So when we receive the the imposition of the ashes next Wednesday, when we rend our hearts in the great litany of repentance, we are humbly responding, by repentance, to the forgiveness that goes before us. This is the good news, God has forgiven us while we were still sinners - no manipulation needed.