If it is true, as John Piper says, that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him,” how does godly sorrow fit into the Christian life?
In a sermon from 1723, titled “The Pleasantness of Religion,” Edwards addressed the question: How does the centrality of savoring the glory of God in the gospel relate to the pain of gospel-awakened contrition? Here is the key insight:
This is astonishing and true. What he is saying is that to bring people to the sorrow of repentance and contrition, you must bring them first to see the glory of God as their treasure and their delight. This is what happens in the gospel. The gospel is the revelation of “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). True sorrow over sin is shown by the gospel to be what it really is—the result of failing to savor “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). The sorrow of true contrition is sorrow for not having God as our all-satisfying treasure. But to be sorrowful over not savoring God, we must see God as our treasure, our sweetness. To grieve over not delighting in God, he must have become a delight to us.There is repentance of sin: though it be a deep sorrow for sin that God requires as necessary to salvation, yet the very nature of it necessarily implies delight. Repentance of sin is a sorrow arising from the sight of God’s excellency and mercy, but the apprehension of excellency or mercy must necessarily and unavoidably beget pleasure in the mind of the beholder. ’Tis impossible that anyone should see anything that appears to him excellent and not behold it with pleasure, and it’s impossible to be affected with the mercy and love of God, and his willingness to be merciful to us and love us, and not be affected with pleasure at the thoughts of [it];but this is the very affection that begets true repentance. How much soever of a paradox it may seem, it is true that repentance is a sweet sorrow, so that the more of this sorrow, the more pleasure. [The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (Yale University Press, 1999), 18–19.]
—John Piper, God Is the Gospel (Crossway, 2005), 107–108.
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#1 || 09·02·06··09:02 || donsands
"..it is true that repentance is a sweet sorrow"
Jesus preached, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is near." He then saw Peter and Andrew fishing. And said, "Follow Me." Matt. 4:17-20 He also called John then, and all these men left "their nets" to follow Jesus.
Jesus also took Peter out in his boat, so He could teach the people from off shore. Jesus then took Peter out to go fishing.
After all was said and done Peter fell before the Lord and said, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
Jesus said, "Fear not, from now on you shll catch men." And so Peter left everything for Jesus his Lord.
Simon is a great example of true repentnce here, and the sweetness was immediate. And yet he had a full life of repenting, and sometimes the sweetness was a season away, as when he wept bitterly denying Christ, and didn't see Jesus for three days. It's not always cut and dry is it.
Good post. Thanks.