Here’s a helpful post on Kevin DeYoung’s blog about how one can go about distinguishing between godly grief and worldly grief. But first, here is how he defines the two terms, as according to 2 Corinthians 7:8-13.
Once we hate sin we are more inclined to run away from it. Grief, you notice, is not the same as repentance. Most people think grief equals repentance. They feel really bad about something, therefore they are repentant. But notice in verse 9 (2 Corinthians 7:9) that godly grief leads to repentance.
There is an eternal difference between regret and repentance. Regret feels bad about past sins. Repentance turns away from past sins. Most of us are content with regret. We just want to feel bad for awhile, have a good cry, enjoy the cathartic experience, bewail our sin and how selfish/stupid/sorry we are. But we don’t really want to change. We don’t really want to live different than we have been.
Godly grief produces true repentance, which leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). Instead of obsessing over regrets and feeling bad due to the opinions of others, godly grief mourns for sin, turns from sin, and finds forgiveness for sin in Christ.
Now, here’s a helpful description of how we can go about distinguishing godly grief from worldly grief:
Here’s one way to distinguish between worldly grief and godly grief: one mobilizes you into action and the other immobilizes you.
Godly grief is a fruitful and effective emotion. We are not meant to wallow in this grief. It is supposed to spur us to action, to change, to make right our wrongs, to be zealous for good works, to run from sin and start walking in the opposite direction.
But worldly grief makes you idle and stagnant. You don’t change. You don’t grow. You don’t fight against the deeds of the flesh. Instead you ruminate on your mistakes and obsess about what people’s opinions and ponder what might have been. If you feel sorry for your sin you will be moved to action not to wallow in it week after week, year after year. Do you want to feel bad or do you want to change?
Some of us, truth be told, would rather feel bad. It’s easier than being changed.
Perhaps one of the most important truths that Christians must cling to is a thorough understanding of what true, biblical faith and repentance means. Greg Gilbert, in his extremely practical and simple book titled What Is the Gospel? explains just that. For the next few entries, I will be sharing some excerpts from the book. Here’s the first:
Faith Is Reliance
Faith is one of those words that’s been misused for so long that most people have no idea what it really means. Ask someone on the street to describe faith, and while you might get some respectful-sounding words, the heart of the matter will most likely be that faith is belief in the ridiculous against all evidence.
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It’s a charade, a fun and comforting game that people are free to engage in if they wish, but with no real connection to the actual world. Children believe in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. Mystics believe in the power of stones and crystals. Crazy people believe in fairies. And Christians, well, they believe in Jesus.
Read the Bible, though, and you’ll find that faith is nothing like that caricature. Faith is not believing in something you can’t prove, as so many people define it. It is, biblically speaking, RELIANCE. A rock-solid, truth-grounded, promise-founded trust in the risen Jesus to save you from sin.
Paul tells us about the nature of faith in Romans 4, in his discussion about Abraham. here’s how he describes Abraham’s faith:
18In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which wasas good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21fully convinced thatGod was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:18-21)
Despite all that was working against God’s promise – Abraham’s age, his wife’s age and barrenness – Abraham believed what God had said. He trusted in God without wavering and relied on him to accomplish his promises. Abraham’s was not a perfect faith, of course; Ishmael’s birth to Hagar proves that Abrahamat first tried to RELY on his own schemes to fulfill God’s promises. But having repented of that sin, Abraham in the end put his faith in God. He RELIED on him, as Paul says, “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
The gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to do the very same thing – to put our faith in Jesus, RELY on him, and trust him to do what he has promised to do.
So this is what faith is biblically. Tomorrow, we’ll go into further detail about exactly what we are to be RELYING on Jesus for. But for the meantime, some questions to think through for yourself:
What was your understanding of faith prior to reading this? Was your “faith” in Jesus, as Gilbert puts it, like believing in the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc? If not, then what was it?
How does Gilbert’s explanation of faith as RELIANCE on something differ from this notion of faith as casually believing in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, etc.?
What or who are you practically RELYING on in your life currently? That is to say, what or who, if it was not in your life right now, would you feel as if something important was missing? (i.e. friends, money, reputation, intellect, God? Bible? Affection for Christ?)
One of the things that I have found alarming is the fact that many of us in Ekklesia521 still are unclear as to what the Gospel exactly is. Recently, I’ve heard answers vary anywhere from “The Gospel is the Bible…” to “The Gospel is free will…”
Now, I would never say that reciting the correct answer makes somebody a Christian. But, one thing I am certain of is that it is a cause of concern when I learn that somebody does not know what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is because, in the end, it is precisely faith in this Gospel of Jesus Christ alone that saves us.
So, to bring some clarity to the situation, I wanted to share this very helpful post from Jeff Louie, a council member of The Gospel Coalition and associate professor at Western Seminary that I found on Justin Buzzard’s blog. In it, Louie lists 55 things that the Gospel isn’t. Sometimes, I find it helpful to define what something is by defining what it is not.
I’ve gone ahead and selected a few misconceptions of the Gospel from the list that I find specifically in our Ekklesia521 group. Here they are:
“The center [of the Gospel] is accepting all people through love.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is separating ourselves from the sinful world.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is being a good person.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is your devotion and piety.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is obeying the 10 commandments, and obeying the moral law of God.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is finding out your generation’s needs, and give it to them in the name of Jesus.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is getting people involved in the church.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is about worshipping God.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is studying the Bible.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is having faith so that God will bless you materially and physically in this life.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is spiritual-mystical, finding God through prayer and fasting.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is finding out what God is saying to you.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is that you are loved by God. The center is a good self-image and self-worth.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is spiritual warfare.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is having faith so that miracles can be done in your life.”
“The center [of the Gospel] is faith in Jesus, but this Jesus is vague and non-specific.”
Buzzard writes that “these may, or may not be wrong concepts; [and] most have truth in them, and are good things. But they are not the “center” of the Gospel.”
What is the Center of the Gospel then?
The Gospel Center is Jesus’ person, work on the cross for forgiveness of sins, and his resurrected triumph over death. From that center we understand the fuller work of the triumphant Christ, from his perfect life to his enthronement and return. Again, some of the above statements are blatantly wrong, others have a high degree of truth in them. Most are good, but good is not the center of the Gospel. It should be the goal of the theological student to understand how the Gospel Center relates to the above statements.
Much of what is “believed” by Christians today to be Christian – in fact, has no part in Christianity, much less the Bible. Here’s an excerpt from post by Michael Kelley listing a few of these “beliefs” believed to be Christian (when in actuality, they are the furthest thing from it):
Wrong: God helps those who help themselves.
Right: God helps those who know they cannot help themselves.
Wrong: This too shall pass.
Right: This might not pass. But God is faithful to uphold the weak.
Wrong: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Right: Don’t worry so much about outward cleanliness; we’ve got bigger problems, namely the dirt of the heart.
Wrong: Jesus Christ is my personal savior.
Right: Jesus Christ has saved me, but He does not belong to me. I belong to Him. And though I am individually rescued, I’m not the only individual that has been rescued. I have been saved into a family – a community of believers.
