Second Corinthians is usually referred to as Paul’s “painful letter.” Context tells us there was an unnamed particular person within the Corinthian church who dedicated a severe, although unspecified, offense. Involved that the sin challenge can be handled, Paul urged the believers to observe church self-discipline and restore the one in error following his repentance (2 Cor. 2:1–11).
Clearly, this case had burdened the congregation, which is why Paul wrote as he did in chapter 7:
Even when I made you grieve with my letter, I don’t remorse it—although I did remorse it, for I see that that letter grieved you, although just for some time. As it’s, I rejoice, not since you have been grieved, however since you have been grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you simply suffered no loss via us.
For godly grief produces a repentance that results in salvation with out remorse, whereas world grief produces dying. (2 Cor. 7:8–10)
With these phrases, Paul urged the Corinthians to not run from the expertise of sorrow however to embrace it. God’s speedy plan for these believers was that they might be not glad however grieved—albeit grieved unto a extra steady, lasting happiness ultimately.
The apostle anticipated that their grief would cause them to repentance and pleasure in Christ. J. B. Phillips captures this dimension of sorrow in his paraphrase of verse 10: “The sorrow which God makes use of means a change of coronary heart that results in salvation—it’s the world’s sorrow that’s such a lethal factor.”
This raises an necessary query for us in the present day: What’s godly sorrow, and why does it matter a lot within the lifetime of the believer and for the well being of the church?
Godly Sorrow Outlined
In these verses, Paul distinguishes between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. There’s a sort of grief over sin that believers should welcome and encourage quite than keep away from. On the similar time, Paul is cautious to acknowledge that not all sorrow for sin is godly. Not all of the tears of regret that folks shed culminate in repentance that results in life.
We are able to be taught to acknowledge godly sorrow—the nice sort of grief—by figuring out its traits.
First, as Paul suggests, godly sorrow begins with God and His glory, not with man and his want. In different phrases, this sorrow comes by searching and unto God, not inside and to ourselves. There may be all of the distinction on this planet between individuals feeling sorry for themselves and other people experiencing grief over their sin in opposition to God.
Subsequent, godly sorrow is neither insincere nor superficial. This isn’t “disaster sorrow”—a short lived grief that comes about when individuals encounter hardship: For a time, they’re unsettled, even perhaps turning to God for consolation, however as quickly because the storm subsides, they’re again to easy crusing as if the trial hadn’t occurred in any respect. In these situations, their grief is a response to disaster, to not the endemic nature of sin.
There may be all of the distinction on this planet between individuals feeling sorry for themselves and other people experiencing grief over their sin.
Godly sorrow is completely different, in that its fruit is lasting change. After we perceive the doctrine of God in His holiness—and ourselves within the gentle of His holiness—we’re introduced low and reworked. This was true for the Corinthians, who, having been grieved for a short while, emerged on the opposite aspect stuffed with earnestness towards Christ and one another (2 Cor. 7:11).
George Whitefield, the eighteenth-century evangelist, wrote on quite a few events about how women and men responded to his preaching with grief. Their hearts have been damaged beneath the burden of God’s legislation learn and God’s grace provided. And this grief issued in sensible, observable, behavioral change.
Godly sorrow, lastly, at all times is an applicable response to actual guilt. A lot of recent psychology dismisses the sort of sorrow Paul commends in 2 Corinthians—a way of core, gut-level alienation from God due to sin that leads women and men to repentance. “That’s simply damaging self-talk,” many counselors will say. “We have to get you considering extra positively about your self.” However rightly experiencing godly grief truly begins by acknowledging that we’re responsible in God’s sight due to sin.
Other than turning to Christ in religion and repentance, there isn’t any treatment. Each different supposed resolution to godly grief falls quick. Because of this in Gospel proclamation, we should constantly emphasize the unhealthy information of our situation and the excellent news of God’s provision in Christ.
Godly Sorrow Displayed
Paul’s pleasure over the Corinthians’ sorrow wasn’t misplaced; it was deeply theological. Their grief led them to see themselves and Christ extra clearly (v. 9). It produced repentance. If the church is to extensively recuperate this idea of godly sorrow, then we, too, should be in regards to the enterprise proclaiming these truths from the Bible.
Isaiah is maybe the traditional instance of what occurs when sinful humanity comes face-to-face with the holy God. In his imaginative and prescient of the Lord enthroned, Isaiah witnessed the seraphim worshipping, crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” (6:3). The imaginative and prescient continues with the prophet confessing, “Woe is me! For I’m misplaced; for I’m a person of unclean lips, and I dwell within the midst of a individuals of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (v. 5).
The fruit of godly sorrow is lasting change.
Isaiah acknowledged he was each desolate and excluded. The prophet’s glimpse of God in His holiness produced grief over his sinfulness. The difficulty was not merely that Isaiah was finite and God is infinite; it was that God is completely pure and can’t have a look at sin, and Isaiah was besmirched and filthy in His sight. And it was solely after the seraph touched his lips with the burning coal—an emblem of God’s cleaning work—that Isaiah may expertise pleasure in God’s presence (v. 6).
Neither Isaiah nor Paul downplayed the expertise of sorrow when confronted with the realities of man’s sinfulness and God’s holiness. They understood that godly sorrow has a spot within the believer’s life. The query for us is straightforward: Will we?
Recovering Godly Sorrow At the moment
At a time when media methods and therapeutic preaching prevail in lots of church buildings, there could be little room for women and men to expertise heartfelt grief over their sin. If church buildings aren’t proclaiming it, why ought to we count on individuals to expertise it? In these poor contexts, our pals could develop into just a little extra fulfilled, extra non secular—however godly sorrow resulting in repentance and actual transformation would be the exception, not the norm.
So what’s the way in which ahead? A deeper understanding of sin and holiness within the preaching and discipleship. Pastors should be prepared to talk plainly in regards to the human situation and the holiness of God. Church buildings should domesticate environments the place conviction will not be prevented however embraced as a present from God. And believers should be taught to welcome sorrow, not as an finish in itself however as a method to deeper pleasure and communion in Christ.
Might our church buildings be stuffed once more with true biblical proclamation—the type that teaches sin, repentance, and holiness. And should those that sit underneath that sort of proclamation be “grieved into repenting” (2 Cor. 7:9), turning to Christ for consolation.
This text was tailored from the sermon “The Assault on Sin” by Alistair Begg.
