How We Respond to Sin: The Difference Between Godly Sorrow and Worldly Grief
In life, our response to problems and situations matters. Whether we face them head-on, ignore them, or fall to the weight of them, how we respond to issues affects our lives. The same can be said for sin in the life of a believer.
Two Types of Grief
According to Paul, there are two different types of grief in response to sin. Godly sorrow and worldly grief. One produces life, one produces death. One confronts one’s own sinfulness and sees a desperate need to run to God, while the other makes no changes in their life.
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)
When someone is faced with their sin and feelings of guilt, the temptation can be to run from that feeling and neglect it, but what we so often fail to realize is that conviction and guilt for our sins is a gift from God; the death that ensues comes from how we respond to that conviction. Do we run away from it? Avoiding it in hopes that it simply deals with itself or never comes up again? Or do we run to God, knowing that He is the only solution to the problem of sin in our lives?
Like Adam and Eve, it is easy to try to hide from the Lord, hoping that He won’t see us in our nakedness and shame. However, fortunately for us, our God is not only a God who already knows our sin in His divine wisdom, but He also willingly approaches us in it. So much so, that He chose the ultimate humiliation, life in a body and death on a cross, so that you and I could be reconciled to Him in our sin.
Have you ever felt sorrow and the weight of your own sins? If you haven’t, please take time today for God to search your heart and reveal your desperate need for him.
The Danger of Lingering Shame
There can be a second issue, however, which can arise when we recognize our own sinfulness, go to God for forgiveness, and then still feel shame and guilt. What we must realize is that God’s promise is true, that when we go to Him and confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. (1 John 1:9). Because of this, once we are forgiven, guilt and shame have no place in our lives, because Jesus Christ has paid for that on our behalf.
I am not sure who this quote is from specifically, but I once heard it said from an Orthodox priest that “the Devil isn’t so much concerned with getting you to fall into lust, because God will freely forgive that through repentance, but the devil would rather you fall into despair where you stay stuck in your sinfulness and do not seek the merciful God.” How true this is for all sin!
We serve a God who lovingly welcomes us back time and time again. A God who, no matter what we’ve done, freely forgives us because He has paid the price on our behalf. Today, no matter where you’re at or what you’ve done, don’t stay in the sin that has trapped you, but run to God and experience life to the full.
