Repentance will not make you see Christ; but to see Christ will give you repentance.
Interpretation
Understanding Christ leads to true repentance, rather than seeking repentance first.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of perceiving Christ in order to genuinely experience repentance. It suggests that a deep understanding of Christ's nature and teachings naturally fosters a change in the heart, leading to true remorse for one's actions and the desire to change, rather than trying to achieve repentance in a superficial manner.
In practice
During a church sermon, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of faith in the process of repentance.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
One thousand brilliant stars punched holes in my consciousness, pricking me with longing. I could stare at the stars for hours, their infinite number and depth pulling me into a part of myself that I ignored during the day.
If you don't know where you are currently standing, you're dead.
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement.
In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
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