Some quotes from chpt. 3, “Repentance That Sings”

If we fail to understand how we rely on God’s Grace alone to make us right with him, our Christian walk necessarily becomes a showy parade of pride…such pride and envy will also create an insatiable appetite for spiritual experiences that will prove we have met, or can gain, God’s approval.

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True repentance must include awareness of the magnitude of our spiritual destitution; therefore real repentance must begin with the recognition of God’s incomparable and unachievable holiness…True repentance requires grief and remorse that cries out, ‘How could I have done such a thing? Please, God, take the guilt and presence of this evil from my life!’

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The ‘great disproportion’ between our good works and God’s holiness never goes away in this life. Our works will never earn God’ affection, just as the will never merit his pardon.

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The repentance that enables our progressive sanctification does not come without learning to loathe the evil in our wrongdoing. This loathing becomes the true attitude of our hearts as we meditate on the holiness of our God, the reality of our sin, and even the evil of our righteousness.

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The understanding that we should desire repentance because it removes contaminants from our relationship with God and with others helps us distinguish false from true repentance.

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While contrition is necessary, the degree and duration of our remorse is not what earns our pardon…Repentance is not so much a doing as a depending.

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Repentance is not real if we have no intention of correcting our ways, but the correction is not a condition of our forgiveness.

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[God] may be angry at our rebellion, but he is never angry at our return.

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While we should not delay repentance until we have corrected our sin, we also should not think that God will accept repentance from a heart still in rebellion against him.

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The evidence of complete repentance is not the stereotypical gritted teeth and grinding resolve, or even groaning and groveling. The reverberations of repentance sound more like singing…But when we have understood, trusted, and received the freeing grace of repentance, rejoicing fills our hearts. Without this joy that is our strength, the new obedience that should be the fruit of true repentance is impossible.