True repentance

In my quiet times, I've been reading Christopher Ash's wonderful explanation of Romans. The book is called, 'Teaching Romans', but it's packed full of penetrating application and insight.
Commenting on Romans 2:6-11, Christopher writes,

What does it mean for the believer to be judged, 'according to what he has done' (v.6)? This cannot mean that we will get what we deserve, for then none would be saved. Nor can it mean that our deeds need to reach a certain standard before we die... It means that our works are the public evidence of our faith. In the Last Judgment the full disclosure of our lives will accurately prove whether or not we are real believers. It will be no use in court to say that mentally I believed or verbally I professed faith in Christ. That will cut no ice. The only evidence will be a changed direction of life. Without that evidence we shall be condemned as frauds. And so we are saved entirely by God's grace, but judged entirely by our works; for true grace is always grace which works by changing the heart (cf 1 Cor. 15:10).

If this is true, then I really must repent. This is the force of Paul's argument. I, who have such well-developed strategies for avoiding repentance, really must repent.

Christopher Ash, 'Teaching Romans', Vol 1 (Christian Focus, 2009), p99, italics added.

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