How can we distinguish between true repentance and false repentance – the “pretense” of verse 10? In the moment when the words are spoken, we don’t really know.
The only way to distinguish between returning with a “whole heart” and returning “in pretense” is by looking at the actions that come after the words.
True repentance bears two sorts of fruits:
- the first is ethical – truth, justice, and righteousness (4:2);
- the second is missional – when God’s people repent, the nations glory in the Lord (4:2).
Our Shorter Catechism says it well: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it, unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.”
The Catechism captures very well the central point of Jeremiah 3: Repentance is a saving grace whereby a sinner turns from sin unto God. Repentance is a turning. The word translated “return” is simply the Hebrew word “shub – which means “to turn.” It is sometimes translated “turn” – sometimes “return” – and sometimes “repent.”
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