Week Seventeen-Day Four: Knowing Human Beings - Our Response

“Repentance that renews precious fellowship with our incomparably wonderful God ultimately furthers our joy.  Just as we cannot enter into true repentance without sorrow for our guilt, we cannot emerge from true repentance without joy for our release from shame.” Bryan Chapell

“The Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing.” A.W. Pink

So we began to talk about our response to sin yesterday. We talked about brokenness and that’s where it begins to be sure.

Before we add anything to this discussion, let’s acknowledge that we are in danger of putting the cart before the horse here. We really need to be mindful of what God has done for us in our sin before we deal with our own response to what He’s done because the initiative is all His. Having said that, since we have been discussing sin, let’s look at the cart and next week we will look at the horse.

We have to begin this discussion by reminding ourselves that sorrow over our sin is simply not enough of a response. When we talked about “brokenness” you may have been tempted to think “sorrow” but that’s not good enough. Sorrow alone does not repair the damage and it does not get us to freedom. In fact, it may move us in the opposite direction.

2 Corinthians 7 provides a fascinating commentary on exactly this dynamic. Paul is writingto a group of his students in 2 Corinthians 7 who have been hurt by him. He directed some pretty heavy teaching at them and lobbed some serious concerns toward them based on things he had heard about their behavior. They have responded and this section gives his response back to them.

2 Corinthians 7:9-11

⁹ Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. ¹⁰ Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. ¹¹ 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. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 

Notice that Paul has introduced the ingredient missing from the sorrow we talked about above. Sorrow has to be accompanied by repentance; and Godly sorrow always is. Repentance is a settled posture of sorrow over my sin, recognition that it is all on me, a deep desire to change combined with a determination to effect the change that I desire.

Unfortunately, while Godly sorrow always gives way to repentance there is a kind of sorrow that leads to “death”. In my life that death usually takes the form of self-pity and shame. Listen very carefully to this: feeling badly about ourselves does not equal Biblical humility. It does not lead to life or to change. Feeling badly about ourselves is not God’s goal for us. In fact, He made us to be “crowned with glory and honor” (remember Psalm 8). Why would He want us to wallow in shame and guilt?

No, God’s goal for us is to be becoming more and more like Him!!!!!! And since we are a screwed up mess, there is some necessary reconstruction that must take place. We are like a fixer-upper. God moves in, recognizes the glory and beauty of the original design, and sees the potential for absolute greatness. So, He begins His work – shoring up the foundation, fixing some walls and windows, exposing some gorgeous woodwork that has been painted over, removing tacky wallpaper, changing the kitchen counters and appliances, laying tile in the bathroom and removing one wall and door that were not part of the original design. Then he adds paint and … glory and honor.

That reconstruction is always – I repeat always – fueled by the “sin-confronted-feel broken-repent” cycle. Sometimes the confrontation comes from our own hearts as they are convicted by the life of the Holy Spirit stirring within us and sometimes the confrontation comes from outside ourselves. Neither is very fun! Both are profoundly freeing.

Think back to a time when you might have been confronted by someone you love about a wrong you have done. Repeat: you were guilty. How did it feel? Probably not great. But after you got beyond all the dodging and self-justification and self-protection (we’re assuming you got beyond it – you ought to ask them – and I’m quite serious about that) how did you feel? I bet it produced a deep sense of need and desire for change. I bet you felt a clear and definite sorrow over your sin. I bet you had a decided recognition that it was all on you. I bet you had a deep desire to change combined with a determination to effect the change that you desired.

That is exactly the natural process of repentance. By the way, that is a significant part of how our lives with the Spirit actually work. That is also one of the many reasons why life in community is so important.

Look at this interesting passage from Hebrews 12. (I am using the English Standard Version translation here.)

¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Could the “bitter root” the author talks about be related to the lack of repentance? Notice Esau’s sorrow was deep enough to produce weeping, but he never got to a place of repentance. Notice also this condition was referred to as “unholy”.

BEFORE YOU START YOUR DAY

1.  Spend a moment this morning opening yourself up to God.  Is there some need
     for repentance in your life?  Is there some secret habit you cling to?  Is
     there some relationship in disrepair?  Is there some need to be right you
     are gripping?
         a.  I gave you a definition in the exercise today.  Let me give you
              another one here. “Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a
              renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in
              obedience to Christ.”
         b.  Do some repentance work right now!  Offer your sorrow and your
              commitment to Him right now.
         c.  Why do it now?  “Though repentance is never too late, yet late
              repentance is seldom true.”  Thomas Brooks
         d.  If you need some help refer back to Psalm 51.
2.  I realize that this is a tall order.  Plan a time when you will devote some
     more energy to this.