For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death (2 Corinthians 7:10, KJV)
This sorrow for sin is not superficial: it is a holy agony. It is called in scripture a breaking of the heart: 'The sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart' (Ps. 51:17); and a rending of the heart: 'Rend your heart' (Joel 2:13). The expressions of smiting on the thigh (Jer. 31:19), beating on the breast (Luke 18:13), putting on sackcloth (Isa. 22:12), plucking off the hair (Ezra 9:3), all these are but outward signs inward sorrow. This sorrow is:
1. To make Christ precious. O how desirable is a Saviour to a troubled soul! Now Christ is Christ indeed, and mercy is mercy indeed. Until the heart is full of compunction it is not fit for Christ. How welcome is a surgeon to a man who is bleeding from his wounds!
2. To drive out sin. Sin breeds sorrow, and sorrow kills sin. Holy sorrow is the rhubarb to purge out the ill humours of the soul. It is said that the tears of vine-branches are good to cure leprosy. Certainly the tears that drop from the penitent are good to cure the leprosy of sin. The salt water of tears kills the worm of conscience.
3. To make way for solid comfort: 'They that sow in tears shall reap in joy' (Psalm 126:5). The penitent has a wet seed-time but a delicious harvest. Repentance breaks the abscess of sin, and then the soul is at ease. Hannah, after weeping, went away and was no more sad (1 Sam. 1:18). God's troubling of the soul for sin is like the angel's troubling of the pool (John 5:4), which is made way for healing.
Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance
No comments:
Post a Comment