If they be ashamed of all that they have done.
True penitence
I. The character of true penitents. “If they be ashamed of all that they have done.” Every principle of corrupted nature lies in direct opposition to penitential shame. Ignorance, pride, deceit, hostility against God, and self-righteousness, combine their influence in hardening the heart against the humiliation of sincere repentance.
1. The shame here spoken of is the effect of a mighty, Divine influence, which entirely changes the views and dispositions of the soul.
2. The radical effect of God’s renewing grace, in this respect, consists in an abiding, gracious disposition of the heart towards penitential exercises. It discovers itself in a peculiar anguish under that darkness and hardness,--a high esteem of repentance for its own intrinsic beauty,--an ingenuity, diligence, and earnestness, in laying open the conscience to Divine light, and in imploring those breathings of the Almighty Spirit, which are effectual to thaw and dissolve the frozen heart.
3. This gracious disposition obtains its aim, and comes forth to its desired exercises, through supernatural discoveries of Divine truth, attended with a heart-melting and heart-turning power.
4. We are led by the text to fix our attention on one particular ingredient of these penitential sensations, namely, shame. This shame is a generous recoiling of the soul from itself, as having once embraced and perpetrated what it now perceives to be unspeakably vile in the sight of God and His holy creatures. It implies in it a sense of the detestable deformity of sin, in its own nature; a recollection of our former love and practice of it; a consideration of our remaining depravity, and want of the perfect beauty of our nature.
5. The text teaches us particularly to take notice of the universal extent of this gracious shame: “If they be ashamed of all,” etc. Impenitent sinners are disposed to palliate and defend the vilest enormities of their conduct. But whatever may be said of occasional slips, they suppose the general tenor of their lives to be at least harmless. It is far otherwise, when the Spirit effectually breaks in upon the conscience. The true penitent is ashamed, more or less, of his whole life, of all that he hath formerly been, thought, and done. He sees himself to have been opposite to the law of God, in every motion of his heart, in every article of his conduct.
6. This deep-felt shame renders the heart more and more soft, tender, submissive to the authority of God, and ready to receive the impression of every part of His revealed will.
II. What is comprehended in the instruction here described, by such an accumulation of expressions. “Shew them the form of the house,” etc.
1. This gracious instruction includes peculiar discoveries of the ultimate end, designed by the Author of these ordinances, and to be pursued after in the observance of them. This is the end, for which such a frame of ordinances is divinely created, and for which men are collected into a society for the observance of them; that therein Jehovah may display His own glory, communicate His love, and exalt men to a heavenly communion with Himself and with each other. The glory, importance, and certainty of this sublime end are, to true penitents, manifested in a peculiar manner. Hence they are strongly attached to Divine ordinances, and to the instituted order of God’s house. And hence their attachment to these things differs widely from the random rhapsodies of enthusiasm, superstition, or bigotry.
2. This instruction relates to the authorised methods of acquiring, cherishing, and increasing that holy inward frame of spirit which is necessary in the worshippers of God. This is a capital part of what is here spiritually signified by the goings out, and comings in, and laws of the house. The instructions and counsels of the inspired prophets and apostles, and of Jesus Christ, whose name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, will, through the grace of the Spirit, be effectual for these purposes.
3. The instruction described in the text hath a direct reference to the institutions of God, respecting the external ordinances, order, and government of His Church. (John Love, D. D.)