James Haldane on two types of repentance

Exerpt from James Haldane's commentary on Galatians:

In Luke, we read, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The Gospel gives to those who believe, knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins, and, with this knowledge, repentance unto life is inseparably connected. There are two words rendered repentance in our version; one denotes sorrow or concern for what has been done; the other, a change of heart or mind. The latter is that repentance which Jesus is exalted a Prince and Saviour to bestow; and He bestows it by manifesting himself to his people, as He doth not to the world.

We have an example of the former kind of repentance in Judas, and in Saul the king of Israel. When Judas saw that the Lord was condemned, he repented of what he had done, and proved the sincerity of his repentance by restoring the money and hanging himself. Such repentance is felt by the criminal at the foot of the gallows; he is sorry for having committed the crime for which he is about to suffer. Such was the repentance of the rich man, when in hell he lifted up his eyes in torment. He bitterly lamented his folly; but such repentance is entirely different from the repentance which Christ commanded his Apostles to preach. The latter is inseparably connected with hope, the former with despair.

David was guilty of adultery and murder, and appears to have been for a time insensible of his accumulated wickedness. From this state he was aroused by the prophet, who, in a parable, gave a faint shadow of the enormity of his transgression. He unwittingly pronounced sentence of death on himself; but when he heard the words, "Thou art the man," he acknowledged his transgression, and the Lord assured him of his forgiveness. Under a deep impression of the love and compassion of his covenant God, the sweet psalmist of Israel penned the fifty-first psalm, which is a model of genuine repentance, and its inseparable attendant confidence in God.

The same view of repentance is given in the parable of the prodigal; he endured much poverty and misery, and he might have endured much more, and been driven to despair; but the recollection of his father's kindness even to his hired servants, while he, the son of such a father, was perishing with hunger, determined him to return.

The case of Peter also illustrates the nature of repentance. The Lord warned him, that before the cock crowed twice he should thrice deny him. This took place; the cock crowed the second time, and Jesus, who was in a distant part of the hall, turned and looked on Peter; it was not a look of anger, intimating that the Lord had rejected him; it was a look of pity and compassion, and it melted Peter's heart; he went out and wept bitterly.

Repentance is beautifully described in <a href="http://www.crossbooks.com/verse.asp?ref=Eze+16">Ezekiel 16</a>. The Lord, by his prophet, describes the wickedness of Israel; it exceeded the sin of Sodom. But, instead of the denunciation of that vengeance which might have been expected, the Lord concludes with an assurance, that He would establish his covenant with them, and that they should know that He is the Lord, "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." This is that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of, in opposition to the sorrow of the world which worketh death.

We have also a beautiful description of repentance in <a href="http://www.crossbooks.com/verse.asp?ref=Zec+12">Zechariah 12</a>. "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." This is applied by the Apostle to Israel's returning to the Lord.

Hence we see the propriety of repentance and remission of sins being connected. We may preach repentance to sinners in connexion with the terrors of the law, and thus drive them to despair; but the only effectual way of preaching repentance unto life, is in connexion with the still small voice, in which peace is preached to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh; and eternal life proclaimed as the gift of God through faith in Him who was delivered for the offences of his people, and raised again for their justification.

An Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians.