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Continual Repentance
- 09/26/10
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Yeah, I know that I posted a prayer yesterday. But this is another great one I came across (one drawn from The Valley of Vision but which I stumbled across while reading some other web sites). It is titled “Continual Repentance.” I think these lines are particularly good: “I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness.”
O God of Grace,
You have imputed my sin to my substitute, and have imputed his righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for you always justify the ungodly; I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, “Father, forgive me,” and you are always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (4)
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.
Those lines hit me the hardest. This is the prayer I need to keep repeating. These foundational truths provide the needed motivation for me to serve Him. They also enhance my zeal, to know that God works the way He has among His people, of whom I am included.
www.studyyourbibleonline.com
“Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.”
I love these above as well as the ones you highlighted…As well as, “even my prayers are stained with sin.” I’ve talked with friends lately about how even my worship is tainted by sin…Through the awareness of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, I am able to see the exceeding beauty of grace and Christ’s righteousness and it often leaves me speechless.
These great prayers express such penetrating truths!
I am quite sure you read it, but Cornelius Plantinga’s book, “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be” is one of the best books on the intricate pervasiveness of sin. I was captured by his recommendation that even in our repentance there is perhaps something to repent over: How we commend ourselves for being so repentant. His use of the vandalism of shalom as a primary description is worth the book.
Lloyd-Jones’ observation continues to stand: “I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin.”
Plantinga closes his book saying: “”In short, for the Christian church (even in its recently popular seeker services) to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel. For the sober truth is that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting.” (Not the Way Its Supposed To Be, Cornelius Plantinga Jr., p. 199.)Consider:
Schadenfreude- clear evidence of human depravity
http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/schadenfreude-and-it’s-close-cousin-envy/
Tim
How do you define repentance? How does the new testament define it?
Although this prayer sounds exceedingly pious I am sorry but it doesn’t capture the essence of the gift of repentance which is received as the gift of faith.
Asking for forgiveness for sins is not the same as continual flagellating oneself of one’s hopeless acts of repentance which somehow need repenting of.
“”I need to repent of my repentance” Why? Is it not a gift?
” I need my tears to be washed; ” I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness.”
Yes we have Christ’s glorious robes.
Tim a beseech you for your readers sake do a further review on what is the gift of repentance.