In the communion service (Lord's Supper/Mass) we are encouraged to examine ourselves before we partake of the bread and the wine (1 Corinthians 11:28). We were talking about this the other day, and my buddy perhaps half jokingly, groaned at the thought. I guess the point is that it can be hard to face up to the reality of how often we fail, and the misery our failure brings to ourselves and others. But the Lord does not instruct in these things to in order to depress us or to make us miserable, He wants to restore fullness and joy. The title of a book I own says it all “Repentance the joy filled life”. The joy is not always immediate (but it can be especially when we are in the habit of keeping short accounts with God). In times of deep conviction there needs to be sorrow and contrition, but we should not get stuck there, we need to push through the sorrow to salvation and joy. One translation of 1 Corinthians 7:10, on which the tile of this post is based, puts it this way “Godly sorrow works repentance into salvation with no regrets; but worldly sorrow's end result is death”.
We live in an age where the trend is to emphasize rights over obligations, where we expect to be able to take a pill for every pain. This spills over into our expectation to be able to do away with guilt without repentance, to make poor choices without suffering the consequences, and we rage at the night and lay the blame fully on others when we find ourselves in pain and despair. C.S. Lewis (of Narnia fame) said one time that pain is God's megaphone to get our attention. Are we listening? I believe that God gave us consciences to alert us, when we have done wrong, to the need to change. But there are two types of sorrow that accompany guilt. There is godly sorrow and there is the worldly type. We are still talking about true guilt as opposed to shame, we will deal with this later (or see 12 July 2010 if you can't wait). We are talking about the guilt we feel when we come to the realization that something we have done is truly wrong, and that it has impacted others in a (often very) negative way.
To say something first about worldly sorrow, we are talking about the sorrow that we got caught; the sorrow of being stuck but unwilling to do anything about it; the sorrow that I can't have my cake and eat it too; disappointment that I can't have all my own way and still be happy; the sorrow that says “life sucks and then you die”, but refuses to see we are being called back to holiness; the sorrow that has no faith in God and does not see the good, but only blackness, darkness and despair; the sorrow that just wants to get rid of the pain but is not willing to do anything but take a pill (or a drink) to get rid of it. This sorrow is truly a kind of living death. I have been there have you?
I liken this sorrow to the sorrow of the man who suspects that he has cancer, but is not willing to go to the doctor to find out for sure. He might have to have an operation. This man (this woman) is not willing to do the hard work of examining himself (what I was talking about from above in the communion service). It is a serious thing for the Christian to refuse to do this, since we are inviting His judgment (1 Corinthians 11: 29 and context) rather than His mercy. Proverbs 14:12 tells us “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death”. If you ever wondered why the ways of the World leave you in such pain and emptiness, it because even here God is calling you back to Himself, back to true repentance through the sorrow and into joy. For myself at conversion, the living death I was experiencing left me desperate enough to try anything, even God. I found Him to be everything I need.
So what does this godly sorrow look like? It is first and foremost agreeing with God that what we have done is wrong. It is making amends where it is possible and will not do more harm than good. In the verse following 2 Corinthians 7:10 (see above) Paul says “See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done”. This is bearing “fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Such “fruit” is evidence that there has been true repentance, a true turning. But as with David in Psalm 51, true repentance is a humbling thing, it is accompanied by a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), and a determination to turn from our sin and walk in His ways. Some have described repentance as doing a 180 degree turn.
One part of the Wikipedia definition puts it this way repentance is “a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness". Positive change in the direction of God and His ways, is certainly what it is all about. Regret or sorrow for what we have done, an admittance that what we did was wrong. But we do not stay in this sorrow/regret forever. Look again at the first part of 1 Corinthians 7:10 “Godly sorrow works repentance into salvation with no regrets”. In true repentance, true conversion, true turning we see that this really is the way to go. We see this Jesus is indeed the way the truth and the life, and we see when we have worked through the sorrow, that our turning leaves us without regret that we have turned, no regrets that we have escaped our former way of life. In such times we see with the prodigal son that we were formerly “out of our mind” (Luke 15:17), but now we have returned to the guardian of our souls. Now we are safe in the arms of Jesus. Now we experience His ongoing joy, His peace, His healing love and acceptance. Indeed in such a place, what is there to regret?
But true repentance is not just something we need to do once. In our moments of lucidity, in true repentance, we see things as they truly are, but it is far too easy to slip back. Indeed we are told in Hebrews 2:1 “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away”. So then repentance needs to be a way of life. In many things we all fail. His refining fire will bring us back again and again when we embrace it. The first part of the Hebrews quotation is what we were talking about the other day, about hearing Him, really hearing Him. To take the words of two of my favourite hymns “trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey” and “prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”. Can you relate? If so cry out with me and the writer of the last hymn Lord “Here's my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above”. We cannot do this without Him. Amen
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