Spurgeon
This one is from Spurgeon's sermons, Volume II.
Turn Or Burn
I.In the first place, my hearers, let me endeavor to explain to you the nature of the turning here meant.....
Ah! My hearer, it is not thy promise of repentance that can save thee; it is not thy vow, it is not thy solemn declaration, it is not the tear that is dried more easily than the dew-drop by the sun; it is not the transient emotion of the heart, which constitues a real turning to God. There must be a true and actual abandonment of sin, and a turning unto righteousness in real act and deed in every day life. Do you say you are sorry, and repent, and yet go on from day to day, just as you always went? Will you now boy your heads, and say, "Lord, I Repent," and in a little while commit the same deeds again? If you do, your repentance is worse than nothing, and shall but make your destruction yet more sure; for he that voweth to his Maker, and doth not pay, hath committed another sin, in that he hath attempted to deceive the Almighty, and lie against God that made him. Repentance, to be true, to be evangelical, must be a repentance which really affects our outward conduct.
In the next place, repentance must be entire. How many will say, "Sir, I will renounce this sin and the other; but there are certain darling lusts which I must keep and hold." O sirs, in God's name let me tell you, it is not the giving up of one sin, nor fifty sins which is true repentance; it is the solemn renunciation of every sin. If thou dost harbor one of these accursed vipers in thy heart, they repentance is but a sham. If thou dost indulge in but one lust, and dost give up every other, that one lust, like one leak in a ship, will sink thy soul.
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George Whitefield : Repentance.
(Since that was such a long post up there, I will select small excepts to show that Whitefield also taught repentance to mean a forsaking of sin.)
" You, therefore, who have been sweaeres and cursers; you, who have been harlots and drunkards; you, who have been thieves and robbers; you, who have hitherto followed the sinful pleasures and diversions of life, let me beseech you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, that you would no longer continue therein, but that you would forsake your evil ways, and turn unto the Lord. For he waits to be grascious to you, he is ready, he is willing to pardon you of all your sins: But do not expect Christ to pardon you of sin when you rin to it, and will not abstain from coplying with the temptations. But if you will be persuaded to absstain from evil and choose the good, to return to the Lord and repent of your wickedness, he has promised he will abundantly pardon you, he will heal your backslidings, and will love you freely. Resolve now this day to have done with your sins FOREVER; let your old ways and you be separated; you must resolve against it, for there can be no true repentance without a resolution to forsake it.... But then take that you do not ground your resolutions on your own strength, but in the strenght of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life; without his assistance, you can do nothing, but through his grace strengthening thee, thou wilt be enabled to do all things.
John Wesley's therapeutic understanding of salvation
Encounter, Summer 2002 by Ayers, Jeremy
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.In "On Working Out Our Own Salvation," Wesley expands the meaning of repentance to include a host of attitudes and activities (e.g., restitution, seeking forgiveness, and almsgiving).68 This illustrates, I think, that repentance serves as the threshold, or turning point, from sinfulness to godliness. Accordingly, it involves much more than a single act - it involves a transformative process of time. Of course, any "piercing sense of our guilt" originates from God and is indicative of the priority of grace. And certainly, the conviction of our state will grow as we respond. But toward what does this conviction lead?
In terms of the ordo salutis, the answer is justification. "`But must not we put off the filthy rags of our own righteousness before we can put on the spotless righteousness of Christ?' Certainly we must; that is, in plain terms, we must 'repent' before we can `believe the gospel."69 Undoubtedly, problems arise in describing justifying faith as a free gift while at the same time making repen-tance a prerequisite to that faith. Wesley solves this issue by declaring faith the only immediate necessity to justification, with repentance serving as a remote necessity. "Therefore both repentance and fruits meet for repentance are in some sense necessary to justification."70 As Outler's annotation to this line explains, "Else-where, Wesley stresses repentance as the normal prepatory state for the reception of justifying faith and, in that sense, `necessary."'71 We can avoid some of the potential theological impasses associated with this concept of repentance preceding faith by remembering that repentance is essentially knowledge, a gracious epistemological reve-lation of one's condition which orients one toward acceptance (belief and trust) of God's justifying provision in Christ. And in this light, repentance logically belongs before faith because one must first be convicted of sin before receiving the remedy for it.
Westminster Confession of Faith
What is repentance? Let me read to you from the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document that comes to us from the seventeenth century: "By [repentance] a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments. . . yet [repentance] is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it. As there is no sin so small that it deserves damnation; so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins, particularly" (Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter XV, sections II, III, IV).
Okay, I doubt if Clinton sees it as a sin (or if he does, cares about it), and that illustrates my other point: If you don't recognize what you are doing is sin and hate it, you won't ever find out that you need Jesus.