Knowledge without Repentance

Knowledge without REPENTANCE will be but a torch to light men to hell.  -Thomas Watson.

I get a lot of compliments for my ability to absorb and analyze information, and with a good enough catalyst I often become a teacher in the middle of a study session on a topic I just learned.  This is why I like books like Colossians which emphasize so much on the knowledge of God being so much a part of our salvation.  But today I received two lessons, one is the quote by Thomas Watson at the top of this post, and the second is by Paul Tripp.

"My celebration is theological in a way that's not theology driving me to the foot of this glorious God, it's theology that's driving me to theology that's driving me to theology that's driving me to theology.  Theology is never an end of itself, it's a means to an end, and the end is to take human beings that worship themselves and other things, and to make them true worshipers of God."

 I have always thought that I'm just missing something, some thing, some mental connection that is keeping me from truly experiencing the victorious Christian life.  Some little ingredient in the fertilizer is lacking so my growth is stunted.  Yet my life has never been one of repentance in light of what I already know and am learning.  If I know about God, and yet it doesn't drive me to turn from my wickedness, then my knowledge is only making me a smarter devil, on a higher echelon of sophistication among the damned.  But even knowing this does not save me.  Christ will pray to the Father and send his Spirit to grow fruit in me, and the Spirit will succeed in his work.  I have been faithless, so I must repent of this faithlessness.  I have been impatient, without hope, and without joy.  Just because I know this, does not mean I repent of it.  But now I do.  And he will forgive me and restore me to himself for the sake of his Son, who loved me first and gave himself for me.