IV. The Author, and cause, and means of repentance.
1. The Author and efficient cause of it is not man himself, but God; “then hath God also granted repentance to the Gentiles”, <441118>Acts 11:18 it is not in the power of man to repent of himself, for he is by nature blind, and has no sight and sense of sin; his understanding is darkened with respect unto it, and he is darkness itself till made light in the Lord; and until he has a sight and sense of sin he can never truly repent of it; his heart is hard and obdurate, his heart is an heart of stone, and he cannot really repent of sin until that stony heart is taken away, and an heart of flesh is given; and whenever he becomes sensible of his need of repentance, he prays to God for it, saying, “Turn thou me, and I shall be turned”: nor do exhortations to repentance suppose it in the power of man to repent of himself; since these are only designed to bring him to a sense of his need of it, and of his obligation to it, and of his impotence to it of himself through the hardness of his heart, and to direct him to seek it of God, who only can give it; for,
2. Though God may give men space to repent, yet if he does not give the grace of repentance, they never will repent. Thus he gave space to the old world, threatened with a flood, which some think is meant by the one hundred and twenty years allowed them, when the longsuffering of God waited in the times of Noah, while the ark was preparing, but without effect; so Jezebel, or Antichrist, is said to have “space” given her “to repent of her fornication, and she repented not”, <660221>Revelation 2:21 and this God sometimes gives to the children of men to show his sovereignty, that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and give repentance to whom he pleases; and for the sake of his elect, not willing that any of them should perish, but that they should all come to repentance, and therefore his longsuffering towards them is salvation; and this also he sometimes gives to show his forbearance of the vessels of wrath, and to leave them inexcusable. Nay,
3. Though some men have the means of repentance, yet grace not being given them of God they repent not; the word, unless attended with power, is ineffectual; the most severe judgments inflicted on men are insufficient, as the plagues on Pharaoh, whose heart was the worse and more hardened under them, <021110>Exodus 11:10 and though the children of Israel were smitten with famine, with the pestilence, and with the sword, yet they repented not, nor returned unto the Lord, <300406>Amos 4:6-11 so the fourth and fifth vials poured forth on men, which will scorch and fill them with pains and sores, instead of repenting of their deeds they will blaspheme the God of heaven and his name, <661608>Revelation 16:8-11. And on the other hand, the greatest instances of mercy and goodness to men, and singular deliverances wrought for them, which should, and one would think would, lead men to repentance, and yet they do not, <450204>Romans 2:4,5
<660920>Revelation 9:20,21 yea the most powerful and awakening ministry that a man can sit under, has no influence on the minds of men to bring them to repentance, without the power and grace of God; such as was the ministry of John the Baptist, who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preaching in a loud, vehement, and powerful manner, the baptism of repentance; and yet though some publicans and harlots believed, the Pharisees repented not afterwards that they might believe, <402132>Matthew 21:32 our Lord spake as one having authority, yet few believed; and many cities where he preached, and mighty works were done by him, yet repented not; and if one was to rise from the dead, and describe all the happiness of the blissful state of the saints in heaven he was capable of, or paint all the horrors of the damned in hell, it would have no effect, neither to allure nor frighten to repentance, or bring men to it, without the exertion of powerful and efficacious grace, <421631>Luke 16:31.
4. The sole efficient cause and author of repentance is God, Father, Son, and Spirit. God the Father, “if God peradventure will give them repentance”, <550225>2 Timothy 2:25. Christ, the Son of God, as mediator, is exalted “to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins”, <440531>Acts 5:31 and the Spirit of God reproves for sin, convinces of it, and works repentance for it, <431608>John 16:8.
5. The moving cause of it is the free grace of God; it is a grant and favour from him, a gift of Christ, which he, as a prince and a saviour bestows,
<441118>Acts 11:18 5:31 and an operation of the power and grace of the Spirit of God, and entirely flows from the sovereign will and mercy of God, “who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth”, <450918>Romans 9:18 not giving grace to repent.
6. The usual means and instruments of repentance are the word, and the ministers of it; as faith, so repentance, comes by hearing the word; the three thousand were pricked to the heart, and were brought to repentance, through the ministry of the apostle Peter; and as all the apostles were ordered by Christ to preach repentance in his name among all nations, so they went forth everywhere, and God in and by their ministry commanded all men everywhere to repent; and when and where the command was attended with power it produced the effect; and so the apostle Paul declared to Jews and Gentiles, that “they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance”; and the hand of the Lord being with him, great numbers everywhere believed and turned to the Lord, <422447>Luke 24:47 <441730>Acts 17:30 26:20.
John Gill, Body of Divinity, n.d.