It is an evangelical grace. In other words, it is connected with the gospel. It goes alongside faith in Christ who is presented in the gospel. It is a result of the gospel’s work in the life of the Christian. So, to state this negatively, it is not simply a case of “trying harder" or "turning over a new leaf" in life. It is a gift (a "grace") which is worked into us.
It goes alongside faith, but the WCF also shows us that it has to be preached alongside faith too. So, just as we call people to faith in Christ, we also call people to repentance from sin.
What does repentance look like? This is in 25.2. The sinner sees two things
- the danger caused by sin - this is a reference to the judgement and wrath of God upon sin.
- but also the “filthiness and odiousness of his sins". This is a much deeper, visceral response to sin.
It strikes me that often the response of people in regard to sin is that they will see the first, but not see the second. That would make for a situation where one secretly longs for sins, but realises they are endangering so seeks to avoid them. However, the longing is still there. There is a clinging on to something in love that is offensive to God. It is a kind of spiritual adultery.
Notice that this is a recognition of the filthiness of specific sins, not a recognition of my general filthiness. Otherwise we would embrace the danger in 25.5 of “general repentance".
The measure of the odiousness is God himself and his law. This is the first use of the law. It acts as a mirror to enable us to see the disfiguring effects of sin.
Interestingly, the response is not only the hatred and grief of the sin, but it is seen in connection with the apprehension of mercy in Christ. So we see how the two must go together and why it is an evangelical grace. Without apprehension of mercy, there can be no faith in Christ, and repentance cannot stand alone apart from Christ.
The result is to cause a person to want to turn away from the sins and to walk in all God’s ways. This is specifically connected to the 10 commandments which then dive direction to this new walking with God. The verbs are “purpose" and “endeavour". So there has to be firm intention and effort.
The WCF states unequivocally that such response is in itself no ground for confidence before God that sins have been dealt with ("satisfaction"), nor is it a reason for God to pardon sin i.e. because he sees the response of repentance. Nonetheless, without it there can be no pardon. So repentance is necessary for pardon, but it in itself does not bring pardon.
Particular attention is to be paid to particular sins. 25.5 warns against a “general repentance". This is a warning against vague appreciation of how sinful one is, to being able to name the sin and then repent of it particularly. It is hard to hate something you are not specific about. We are good at generalising both love of good and hate of evil. We can claim love of humanity but have difficulty loving our neighbours (C S Lewis?). In the same way we can hate sin generally, but have difficulty hating specific sins.
25.6 makes clear that the private confession of sin to God, in which a person can find mercy, must also be accompanied by a confession and repentance before anyone who has been offend by the sin.