Godly Sorrow

"Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."

2 Corinthians 7:9-10

Paul previously wrote a letter that identified and rebuked sin the Corinthian church, and it resulted in godly sorrow that lead them to repent of their sin, an eagerness to clear themselves of all wrongdoing, longing for reconciliation before God and man, and swift readiness to do justly.  From Paul's words it follows there is a sorrow that falls short of repentance, a worldly sorrow that produces death.  We see this sort of worldly sorrow in Judas after he betrayed Jesus.

During the Passover feast in Jerusalem, Judas secretly met with priests and covenanted to deliver Jesus into their hand at a convenient time and was paid 30 pieces of silver.  As promised, Judas brought the religious rulers with temple guards to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where He was arrested.  It seems Judas was not fully aware of the murderous scheme of the Pharisees and priests to deliver Jesus to the Romans who sentenced Him to be crucified.  Matthew 27:3-5 reads, "Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, ⁴ saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" ⁵ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself."  Judas experienced sorrowful pangs of guilt and acknowledged he had sinned.  Yet we do not see him repent at all for his greed, deceit and hypocrisy:  he imagined if he admitted he was wrong and returned the silver, he could off his guilt.

When the religious rulers refused to receive the silver from his hand, Judas threw it into the temple and went and hung himself--a physical demonstration of a spiritual reality.  Admitting he had sinned, his attempt to return the silver, and the experience deep sorrow did not lead to repentance because Judas did not sorrow in a godly manner.  To commit sin is to make a covenant with death we cannot escape or ignore; nothing we do can undo the evil we have done.  Because Judas only sorrowed in a worldly fashion--without faith in the goodness, grace, redemption and forgiveness freely offered by the living God--his focus was on himself, his wrongs, awful feelings and the bad situation he helped create.  Judas showed admission of sin can stop short of humbling self before God and then he played God by choosing to end his life.  When he could have fallen down before God broken for his sin with tears, he likely wept over his sorrow as he strung himself up.

Judas nursed great regret he could not escape by admitting his sin or trying to set things right by returning the silver.  It was not suicide that prevented him from entering into eternal life (for God forgives murderers who repent and trust in Him) but his refusal to humble himself by faith in repentance before God when he sorrowed for sin.  Sorrowing for sin in a godly manner that leads to repentance is something to rejoice over, for there is hope in God who imputes righteousness to humble sinners who repent.  We cannot right our wrongs by depth of sorrow, admitting our guilt or returning the proceeds of our crimes:  it is by casting our pride, sorrows and ourselves at the feet of our Saviour Jesus Christ in repentance, trusting He will forgive all by the power of the Gospel of grace.  Praise the LORD for the assurance God gives to believers in 1 John 1:9:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."