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Repentance: The First Word of the Gospel
It is a serious problem when society misunderstands or disregards sin and repentance. But when the church neglects these doctrines, the impact is profound. This book unfolds the nature and necessity of biblical repentance, but for the church in particular. Roberts' in-depth study heavily references both he Old and New Testaments, and includes chapters on the myths, maxims, marks, models, and motives of repentance, as well as the graces and fruits that accompany it. There is also wise warning about the dangers of delayed repentance.
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 25, 2018
I read this for a paper I'm writing on the topic of corporate repentance. For that specific topic there were a handful of sections that were helpful, but the larger portion is a fairly comprehensive (though often redundant) treatment of the concept of repentance. The overall perspective is that repentance is not pursued consistently, thoroughly or seriously enough.
It was hard to tell to whom this book is written. The author peppers his writing with frequent rhetorical questions like:
"Have you been presumptuous concerning God's forbearance?"
"Do you think God's patience will last forever?"
"Please do not disregard God's goodness any longer."
"Are you enjoying a reliable assurance of sins forgiven?"
"Have you ever seriously considered what it means to be under the wrath of God to the utmost?"
Many of his descriptions and admonitions seemed to be directed toward unbelievers, or, more specifically, perhaps toward people who are in the church but are possibly not really saved (it's hard to imagine someone picking up this book who isn't at least somehow already showing interest in spiritual matters). At the same time, a lot of the material seeks to motivate from a perspective that would be more consistent with someone who has already made that decision. Honestly (and I know this is going to sound bad), I got weary of 350 pages of why I should repent, what repentance looks like, what it doesn't look like, what its fruits are, what its graces are, that its examples are and so on. Granted, I sort of rushed through this in four days as my paper deadline is quickly approaching, but I felt like the majority of the material was either repetitive or geared toward unbelievers. I don't know a lot of unbelievers who would read such a lengthy book on repentance, though, so I'm curious as to the motivation for this volume. One thing I did appreciate was the author's desire for the reader to understand the priority of being right with God. To that end, the nuanced material just might hit a variety of readers in different, beneficial ways.
For Christians reading the book, I thought the author failed to give enough priority to God's work in someone's life to draw them to himself. I don't call myself a Calvinist, but I do believe that the Bible teaches predestination and God's irresistible grace toward those whom he calls and I had a hard time with the language that Roberts uses to motivate the reader toward his idea of complete repentance. When speaking of pride, Roberts writes, "Just how much pride does it take to blind a person seriously enough so that they cannot repent? Very little indeed! Be warned, whatever level of pride you tolerate is sufficient to keep your soul under the eternal curse of God's wrath." Technically, no one can repent unto salvation unless God draws him (prideful or not). Warning people that their pride will keep them from being saved is missing the point as God, for example, miraculously saved Saul when he was far from humble (or concerned in the least about his pride). If a "very little" pride could really, effectively keep people from repenting, no one would ever repent. God is much more gracious than that. Just a few pages later Roberts writes, "Because both repentance and faith are gifts of God, should you assume that there is nothing for you to do unless or until these gifts are given to you? Absolutely not. Christ has already died for you. Everything necessary to your exercise of repentance, faith, and entrance into eternal salvation is already provided. You must rouse yourself from your apathy and do what you can." I thank God that my salvation did not depend on my "rousing myself from my apathy." Again, if that were truly the case, no one would be saved as there is "none who seek God." There were many other passages in this book that made me uncomfortable about the balance being struck between our repentance and God's work in our life.
In addition to being at odds regarding the issue above, I thought the author made several bold statements and claims that weren't supported with Scripture or other sources. There were a variety of subjects that seemed off to me. In fact, the last two chapters of the book, in particular, left a bad taste in my mouth. Roberts provides an extended discussion on Job and his repentance. He spends a great deal of time in outlining the symbolism and usage of repentance with dust, ashes and sackcloth, but seems to force scripture to fit into this understanding in order to tie dozens of mentions of these three things into his discussion on repentance. The whole thing felt really weird to me and I couldn't understand why he spend to much time on this (to the point of actually recommending that we try putting dust or ashes on our head and wearing sackcloth if other attempts at being repentant and humiliated weren't effective enough). It can be hard when reading a book about a particular topic to sort out what really fits and what feels forced to fit for the sake of the discussion. I dealt with that difficulty several times when reading this book, but can't claim that it is all the fault of the author.
I didn't think the author balanced repentance and grace and it got to the point where it felt like if you were repenting enough for the author's satisfaction, you wouldn't have time to do anything else. I'm coming from the other side o the spectrum where I am concerned too little about keeping a close account with God, but, and this is probably my pride, it just felt too heavy handed (especially since so much of it was directed toward those who haven't come to saving faith - at least that's my assumption since I believe the believer's relationship with God looks different than how he describes what is happening in those who are unrepentant). It's hard for me to even summarize after reading this book what role repentance should play in the life of a New Testament believer except that I should be doing it more, more, MORE!
I didn't particularly like the format of the book. About half of the chapters were seven of something (seven myths of repentance, seven maxims of repentance, seven marks of repentance, motives of repentance, fruits of repentance, and models of repentance). There was a lot of overlap. Other chapters were similar in format but apparently didn't fit the "seven" model. Some of these chapters might do well as stand-alone essays, but, strung together, it didn't seem like a very effective way to cover the topic without redundancy which ultimately makes it all difficult to remember. I could see reference some of these chapters here and there, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend plowing through the entire book as a cohesive unit as you might feel waterboarded. :/
Overall, there's a lot of material here to consider and some good teaching about different aspects of repentance. My biggest complaints are a lack of clarity regarding the intended audience, unsubstantiated/bold claims, misapplication of God's role in salvation, heavy handedness and redundancy.
It was hard to tell to whom this book is written. The author peppers his writing with frequent rhetorical questions like:
"Have you been presumptuous concerning God's forbearance?"
"Do you think God's patience will last forever?"
"Please do not disregard God's goodness any longer."
"Are you enjoying a reliable assurance of sins forgiven?"
"Have you ever seriously considered what it means to be under the wrath of God to the utmost?"
Many of his descriptions and admonitions seemed to be directed toward unbelievers, or, more specifically, perhaps toward people who are in the church but are possibly not really saved (it's hard to imagine someone picking up this book who isn't at least somehow already showing interest in spiritual matters). At the same time, a lot of the material seeks to motivate from a perspective that would be more consistent with someone who has already made that decision. Honestly (and I know this is going to sound bad), I got weary of 350 pages of why I should repent, what repentance looks like, what it doesn't look like, what its fruits are, what its graces are, that its examples are and so on. Granted, I sort of rushed through this in four days as my paper deadline is quickly approaching, but I felt like the majority of the material was either repetitive or geared toward unbelievers. I don't know a lot of unbelievers who would read such a lengthy book on repentance, though, so I'm curious as to the motivation for this volume. One thing I did appreciate was the author's desire for the reader to understand the priority of being right with God. To that end, the nuanced material just might hit a variety of readers in different, beneficial ways.
For Christians reading the book, I thought the author failed to give enough priority to God's work in someone's life to draw them to himself. I don't call myself a Calvinist, but I do believe that the Bible teaches predestination and God's irresistible grace toward those whom he calls and I had a hard time with the language that Roberts uses to motivate the reader toward his idea of complete repentance. When speaking of pride, Roberts writes, "Just how much pride does it take to blind a person seriously enough so that they cannot repent? Very little indeed! Be warned, whatever level of pride you tolerate is sufficient to keep your soul under the eternal curse of God's wrath." Technically, no one can repent unto salvation unless God draws him (prideful or not). Warning people that their pride will keep them from being saved is missing the point as God, for example, miraculously saved Saul when he was far from humble (or concerned in the least about his pride). If a "very little" pride could really, effectively keep people from repenting, no one would ever repent. God is much more gracious than that. Just a few pages later Roberts writes, "Because both repentance and faith are gifts of God, should you assume that there is nothing for you to do unless or until these gifts are given to you? Absolutely not. Christ has already died for you. Everything necessary to your exercise of repentance, faith, and entrance into eternal salvation is already provided. You must rouse yourself from your apathy and do what you can." I thank God that my salvation did not depend on my "rousing myself from my apathy." Again, if that were truly the case, no one would be saved as there is "none who seek God." There were many other passages in this book that made me uncomfortable about the balance being struck between our repentance and God's work in our life.
In addition to being at odds regarding the issue above, I thought the author made several bold statements and claims that weren't supported with Scripture or other sources. There were a variety of subjects that seemed off to me. In fact, the last two chapters of the book, in particular, left a bad taste in my mouth. Roberts provides an extended discussion on Job and his repentance. He spends a great deal of time in outlining the symbolism and usage of repentance with dust, ashes and sackcloth, but seems to force scripture to fit into this understanding in order to tie dozens of mentions of these three things into his discussion on repentance. The whole thing felt really weird to me and I couldn't understand why he spend to much time on this (to the point of actually recommending that we try putting dust or ashes on our head and wearing sackcloth if other attempts at being repentant and humiliated weren't effective enough). It can be hard when reading a book about a particular topic to sort out what really fits and what feels forced to fit for the sake of the discussion. I dealt with that difficulty several times when reading this book, but can't claim that it is all the fault of the author.
I didn't think the author balanced repentance and grace and it got to the point where it felt like if you were repenting enough for the author's satisfaction, you wouldn't have time to do anything else. I'm coming from the other side o the spectrum where I am concerned too little about keeping a close account with God, but, and this is probably my pride, it just felt too heavy handed (especially since so much of it was directed toward those who haven't come to saving faith - at least that's my assumption since I believe the believer's relationship with God looks different than how he describes what is happening in those who are unrepentant). It's hard for me to even summarize after reading this book what role repentance should play in the life of a New Testament believer except that I should be doing it more, more, MORE!
I didn't particularly like the format of the book. About half of the chapters were seven of something (seven myths of repentance, seven maxims of repentance, seven marks of repentance, motives of repentance, fruits of repentance, and models of repentance). There was a lot of overlap. Other chapters were similar in format but apparently didn't fit the "seven" model. Some of these chapters might do well as stand-alone essays, but, strung together, it didn't seem like a very effective way to cover the topic without redundancy which ultimately makes it all difficult to remember. I could see reference some of these chapters here and there, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend plowing through the entire book as a cohesive unit as you might feel waterboarded. :/
Overall, there's a lot of material here to consider and some good teaching about different aspects of repentance. My biggest complaints are a lack of clarity regarding the intended audience, unsubstantiated/bold claims, misapplication of God's role in salvation, heavy handedness and redundancy.
October 8, 2018
Not exactly a light book... As can be expected from a book on repentance. But a much needed call for our day and age. A much needed call for our nation. A much needed call for me.
If I desire to continue to grow in my relationship with Christ, then I must continue to find areas of pride and selfishness in my life and kill them through repentance.
A long book. But a good book.
If I desire to continue to grow in my relationship with Christ, then I must continue to find areas of pride and selfishness in my life and kill them through repentance.
A long book. But a good book.
March 5, 2019
Richard Owen Roberts gives a clarion call for a re-emphasis on the doctrine of repentance in the modern evangelical church. It really is the “first word of the gospel.”
This is a helpful book for soul analysis, self-reflection, and pastoral application. It is not largely a theological or exegetical work. It reads more like a compilation of sermon transcripts than anything else.
It also could have been twice as powerful if it was half as long. It also had a couple of questionable interpretations/applications. Nonetheless, an excellent read and an excellent opportunity for reflection. I am the better for having read it.
This is a helpful book for soul analysis, self-reflection, and pastoral application. It is not largely a theological or exegetical work. It reads more like a compilation of sermon transcripts than anything else.
It also could have been twice as powerful if it was half as long. It also had a couple of questionable interpretations/applications. Nonetheless, an excellent read and an excellent opportunity for reflection. I am the better for having read it.
April 22, 2019
When Henry T. Blackaby called Richard Owen Roberts "a true prophet to our generation", he wasn't kidding. Sadly underappreciated, Richard Owen Roberts' great work on repentance is biblically comprehensive and incredibly challenging and convicting. This is one of those rare books that leave you a much different person at the end than you were when you started. Highly recommended to all.
October 29, 2020
Great tool self-examine where our heart is.
Very dense book. Probably best read slowly with a pen and piece of paper. A summary of chapters would help.
Very dense book. Probably best read slowly with a pen and piece of paper. A summary of chapters would help.
February 12, 2015
We went through this book quickly, reading about a chapter a week for a church-wide book study: that is a quick read considering the weight of the book. No, it's not 1000 pages long, but it's challenging. Mr. Roberts, as per usual, is deep with a wide-ranging vocabulary. Repentance is not difficult to get through -- even if you have to look up a word every couple pages, but he is both wise and profound. This book is definitely worth a second look.
July 31, 2011
One of the first 3 books a new Christian should read. The true meaning of Repentance is not known to most professing Christian today, shocking but true. Can you answer the question “What is Repentance?”
Read this book and find out. ***WARNING*** It will Hurt!
Read this book and find out. ***WARNING*** It will Hurt!
November 16, 2007
A good book demonstrating the importance of genuine repentance for a Christian.
September 13, 2015
I would not recommend this book unless you are hankering for a beat down.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews