The work of repentance is similar to the work of the law that we have discussed in the last few messages. God's purpose is that man would receive His grace. But man has sinned. He has no light concerning himself. He does not know what kind of person he is. He does not know that he is condemned before God, that he is absolutely useless, and that he is, therefore, unable to receive God's grace. Let us suppose that you are very sick, and your two lungs are completely diseased. You may say that you still have a fair complexion and that there is color in your face. You may not think that some good medicine or a good doctor is necessary. Now suppose you go to have an X-ray. After you see the result of your own X-ray, you will admit that you are a sick man and that you need rest and treatment. Hence, repentance is God's goal in giving the law. Through repentance, we see by the enlightening of God, the shining of the Holy Spirit, and God's Word, that our past deeds were all wrong and that our lifestyle was improper. God has diagnosed our illness, and we have to admit that we are wrong. This is repentance.

There was a brother who always carried others' heavy luggage when he traveled together with them. He volunteered because he thought that others were not healthy, but that he was in good health. Once, after he had completed a heavy task, I suggested that he should go to the hospital and have an X-ray taken. At the beginning he refused. We argued that it would do him no harm, even if he was not sick. So, he went. He found out that he had tuberculosis. From that point on, his behavior completely changed. He dared not do anything anymore. When we asked him to do anything, he would do his best to decline. His change was so drastic that it was as if he were two different persons on the same day. At one moment he thought that he was so healthy and had such good lungs. At another moment his evaluation of himself changed completely. He had a different view and a different evaluation of himself. This is called repentance. Repentance is necessary. It is the goal which God wants to attain through the law.

If we misunderstand repentance to think that it is a change of our future behavior, we are absolutely ignorant of God's salvation. God's salvation never attempts to improve the Adamic nature. If repentance referred to the future, it would mean that old Adam and the fleshly man still have the possibility of improvement and advancement. But the Lord Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). The flesh will never advance to become the spirit. Only that which is begotten of the Spirit is spirit. If repentance refers to the future, then the foundation of God's salvation is completely torn down. Not only are we not able to improve ourselves, on the contrary, we need to be removed. God's salvation leaves no room for the fleshly man. It removes the man completely. When the Lord Jesus was crucified, all men were crucified with Him. Our old man has been crucified on the cross.

Thank God that the Lord Jesus is a tailor who makes clothes. He is not a mender who mends clothes. It is not that our clothing is torn and the Lord Jesus comes to mend it for us. The Lord Jesus only makes new clothes; He does not mend old clothes. Perhaps we are poor, and we are willing to wear old clothes. But in the house of God, no one wears a mended garment. There is no such thing in God's salvation. God said that the first Adam is finished and that all behavior in the first Adam is also finished. Now, we are in the last Adam. Today everything has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus; He wants to be the new life within us. Therefore, repentance in the Bible does not refer to future behavior. Rather, it refers to a change in concept concerning our past. Biblical repentance is a view concerning past deeds rather than future behavior.