Godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10)

c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians 15.2

Still when it is after a godly sort, it is better than the joy in the world. For this indeed ends in nothing; but that “worketh repentance unto salvation, a salvation that bringeth no regret.” For what is admirable in it is this that one who had thus sorrowed would never repent, whilst this is an especial characteristic of worldly sorrow.

c. 390 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 15.4

For whereas all think that they who rejoice are enviable, those in dejection, poverty, and mourning, wretched, He calls these blessed rather than those; saying thus, “Blessed are they that mourn.” Yet surely all men call them miserable. For therefore He wrought the miracles beforehand, that in such enactments as these He might be entitled to credit. And here too again he designated not simply all that mourn, but all that do so for sins: since surely that other kind of mourning is forbidden, and that earnestly, which relates to anything of this life. This Paul also clearly declared, when he said, “The sorrow of the world worketh death, but godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of.” These then He too Himself calls blessed, whose sorrow is of that kind; yet not simply them that sorrow did He designate, but them that sorrow intensely. Therefore He did not say, “they that sorrow,” but “they that mourn.”

c. 420–424 · John Cassian, Institutes (De institutis coenobiorum) 9.10

And so we must see that dejection is only useful to us in one case, when we yield to it either in penitence for sin, or through being inflamed with the desire of perfection, or the contemplation of future blessedness. And of this the blessed Apostle says: “The sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance steadfast unto salvation: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

1605–1610 · Johann Arndt, True Christianity 1.40

2 Cor. 7:10. As worldly sorrow begetteth death, so godly sorrow begetteth life, and lays up an eternal treasure! Worldly sorrow springs from avarice and envy; from excessive care; from unbelief and impatience; and other temporal sources. Godly sorrow proceeds from a knowledge of thy sins, and those eternal punishments which follow them. This sorrow produces many salutary effects in a penitent soul, and “worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of;” being attended with spiritual joy, and solid peace or tranquillity of mind.

1608 · Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 4.12

S. PAUL says that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” So we see that sorrow may be good or bad according to the several results it produces in us. And indeed there are more bad than good results arising from it, for the only good ones are mercy and repentance; whereas there are six evil results, namely, anguish, sloth, indignation, jealousy, envy and impatience.

1653 · Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment 10

If Israel had only pored upon their sting, and not looked up to the brazen serpent, they had never been healed. That sorrow for sin which drives us away from God, is not without sin, for there is more despair in it than remorse; the soul hath so many tears in its eyes, that it cannot see Christ. Sorrow, as sorrow, doth not save, that were to make Christ of our tears, but is useful, as it is preparatory in the soul, making sin vile, and Christ precious.

c. 1714 · Daniel Mayo, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 7.5-11

The antecedent of true repentance is godly sorrow; this worketh repentance. It is not repentance itself, but it is a good preparative to repentance, and in some sense the cause that produces repentance. The offender had great sorrow, he was in danger of being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow; and the society was greatly sorrowful which before was puffed up: and this sorrow of theirs was after a godly manner, or according to God (as it is in the original), that is, it was according to the will of God, tended to the glory of God, and was wrought by the Spirit of God. It was a godly sorrow, because a sorrow for sin, as an offence against God, an instance of ingratitude, and a forfeiture of God's favour. There is a great difference between this sorrow of a godly sort and the sorrow of this world. Godly sorrow produces repentance and reformation, and will end in salvation; but worldly sorrow worketh death. The sorrows of worldly men for worldly things will bring down gray hairs the sooner to the grave, and such a sorrow even for sin as Judas had will have fatal consequences, as his had, which wrought death. Note, (1.) Repentance will be attended with salvation. Therefore, (2.) True penitents will never repent that they have repented, nor of any thing that was conducive thereto. (3.) Humiliation and godly sorrow are previously necessary in order to repentance, and both of them are from God, the giver of all grace.

1770 · John Gill, A Body of Practical Divinity Chapter 4. Of Repentance Towards God

There may be a sense of sin and an acknowledgment of it, and yet no true repentance for it, as in the cases of Pharaoh and of Judas, who both said, “I have sinned” (Ex. 9:27; Matthew 27:4), yet they had no true sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, nor godly sorrow for it. There may be a kind of sorrow for it, not for the evil of fault that is in sin, but on account of the evil of punishment for it, as appears in some cases, and in Cain’s (Gen. 4:13). There may be a great deal of terror of mind because of sin, a great outcry about it, a fearful looking for of judgment for it, abundance of tears shed on the account of it, as were by Esau for the blessing, without success; the devils believe and tremble, but do not repent; there are weeping and wailing in hell, but no repentance. Such a repentance, if no more than a mere legal one, issues in despair, as in Cain, whose words may be rendered, “My sin is greater than that it may be forgiven”; it is a repentance that may be repented of and is not unto life, but ends in death, as it did in Judas; it is “the sorrow of the world which worketh death” (2 Cor. 7:10).

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 7 160

Second place, to inquire into the reasons and grounds of our sorrow for sin; and they, as I have already hinted, are these two—the intrinsical, or the consequent evil of sin; either the evil of sin in itself, or the mischiefs and inconveniences which it will bring upon us. For every one that is sorry for any fault he is guilty of, he is so upon one of these two accounts; either upon the score of ingenuity, or of interest; either because he hath done a thing which is unworthy in itself, or because he hath done some thing which may prove prejudicial to himself; either out of a principle of love and gratitude to God, or from a principle of self-love. And though the former of these be the better, the more generous principle of sorrow; yet the latter is usually the first: because it is the more sensible, and toucheth us more nearly. For sin is a base and ill-natured thing, and renders a man not so apt to be affected with the injuries he hath offered to God, as with the mischief which is likely to fall upon himself.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 7.10

But the sorrow of the world - All sorrow which is not toward God, and which does not arise from just views of sin as committed against God, or lead to God. Probably Paul refers here to the sorrow which arises from worldly causes and which does not lead to God for consolation.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 2 Corinthians 7.10

"Sorrow" is not repentance, but, where it is "godly," "worketh" it; that is, contributes or tends to it (the same Greek word is in Ro 13:10). The "sorrow of the world" (that is, such as is felt by the worldly) "worketh out," as its result at last, (eternal) death (the same Greek verb is in 2Co 4:17; also see on 2Co 4:17). repentance … not to be repented of—There is not in the Greek this play on words, so that the word qualified is not "repentance" merely, but "repentance unto salvation"; this, he says, none will ever regret, however attended with "sorrow" at the time. "Repentance" implies a coming to a right mind; "regret" implies merely uneasiness of feeling at the past or present, and is applied even to the remorse of Judas (Mt 27:3; Greek, "stricken with remorse," not as English Version, "repented himself"); so that, though always accompanying repentance, it is not always accompanied by repentance. "Repentance" removes the impediments in the way of "salvation" (to which "death," namely, of the soul, is opposed). "The sorrow of the world" is not at the sin itself, but at its penal consequences: so that the tears of pain are no sooner dried up, than the pleasures of ungodliness are renewed.

1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1362

The repentance of ungodly men is a horror at their punishment, an alarm at the dire result of their transgressions. They repent like Esau, not of eating the pottage, but of losing the birthright. They see sin only in reference to themselves and their fellow men—its higher bearings in reference to the Lord they quite ignore. The ungodly, at times, and especially in the hour of death, feel remorse, but it has nothing to do with God unless it is that they tremble at His justice and fear the punishment which He executes. It is, after all, pure selfishness! They are sorry because they are about to suffer the consequences of their rebellion.

1894 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians XIX. Repentance Unto Life

The sorrow according to God is that in which the sinner is conscious of his sin in relation to the Holy One, and feels that its inmost soul of pain and guilt is this, that he has fallen away from the grace and friendship of God. He has wounded a love to which he is dearer than he is to himself: to know this is really to grieve, and that not with a self-consuming, but with a healing, hopeful sorrow. It was such a sorrow to which Paul's letter gave rise at Corinth: it is such a sorrow which issues in repentance, that complete change of spiritual attitude which ends in salvation, and need never be regretted. Anything else—the sorrow, e.g., which is bounded by the selfish interests of the sinner, and is not due to his sinful act, but only to its painful consequences—is the sorrow of the world. It is such as men feel in that realm of life in which no account is taken of God; it is such as weakens and breaks the spirit, or embitters and hardens it, turning it now to defiance and now to despair, but never to God, and penitent hope in Him. It is in this way that it works death. If death is to be defined at all, it must be by contrast with salvation: the grief which has not God as its rule can only exhaust the soul, wither up its faculties, blight its hopes, extinguish and deaden all.

1900 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 46 (1900) 2691

Some persons seem to think that mere sorrow of mind in reference to sin is repentance, but it is not. Read the text, and you will at once see that it is not. "Godly sorrow works repentance." Therefore, it is not, itself, repentance. It is an agent employed in producing repentance, but it is not, itself, repentance. There is, in the world, a great deal of sorrow on account of sin which is certainly not repentance and never leads to it. Some transgressors are sorry for sin for a time— they are convicted of guilt with a transitory conviction which soon passes away. Many are sorry for sin because of its temporal consequences—and many more because of its eternal consequences.

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Corinthians (chapters 7 to 12) 7.10

Then notice that this change of purpose and breaking off from sin is produced by the sorrow for sin, of which I have been speaking; and that the production of this repentance is the main characteristic difference between the godly sorrow and the sorrow of the world. A man may have his paroxysms of regret, but the question is: Does it make any difference in his attitude? Is he standing, after the tempest of sorrow has swept over him, with his face in the same direction as before; or has it whirled him clean round, and set him in the other direction?

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Corinthians (chapters 7 to 12) 7.10

Do not seek to have the wound skinned over. Take care that you do not let it all pass in idle sorrow or impotent regret. If you do, you will be hardened, and the worse for it, and come nearer to that condition which the sorrow of the world worketh, the awful death of the soul. Do not wince from the knife before the roots of the cancer are cut out. The pain is merciful.

1907 · Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Chapter II. The Reconciliation Of Man To God, Or The Application Of Redemption Through

We must distinguish sorrow for sin from shame on account of it and fear of its consequences. These last are selfish, while godly sorrow is disinterested.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 7.10

Worketh repentance unto salvation a repentance without regret (μετανοιαν εις σωτηριαν αμεταμελητον εργαζεται). This clause alone should have prevented the confusion between mere "sorrow" (λυπη) as indicated in μεταμελομαι, to regret (to be sorry again) and "change of mind and life" as shown by μετανοιαν (μετανοεω) and wrongly translated "repentance." The sorrow according to God does work this "change of mind and life" unto salvation, a change "not to be regretted" (αμεταμελητον, an old verbal adjective of μεταμελομαι and α privative, but here alone in N.T.). It agrees with μετανοιαν, not σωτηριαν. But the sorrow of the world (η δε του κοσμου λυπη). In contrast, the kind of sorrow that the world has, grief "for failure, not for sin" (Bernard), for the results as seen in Cain, Esau (his tears!), and Judas (remorse, μετεμεληθη). Works out (perfective use of κατ-) death in the end.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: Matthew 27.3

Repented himself (μεταμεληθεις). Probably Judas saw Jesus led away to Pilate and thus knew that the condemnation had taken place. This verb (first aorist passive participle of μεταμελομα) really means to be sorry afterwards like the English word repent from the Latin repoenitet, to have pain again or afterwards. See the same verb μεταμεληθεις in Mt 21:30 of the boy who became sorry and changed to obedience. The word does not have an evil sense in itself. Paul uses it of his sorrow for his sharp letter to the Corinthians, a sorrow that ceased when good came of the letter (2Co 7:8 ). But mere sorrow avails nothing unless it leads to change of mind and life (μετανοια), the sorrow according to God (2Co 7:9 ). This sorrow Peter had when he wept bitterly. It led Peter back to Christ. But Judas had only remorse that led to suicide.

1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 7.10

God by way of free favor pardons our sins, but only when we renounce them. Nay more, God accomplishes in us at one and the same time two things: being renewed by repentance, we are delivered from the bondage of our sins; and, being justified by faith, we are delivered also from the curse of our sins. They are, therefore, inseparable fruits of grace, and, in consequence of their invariable connection, repentance may with fitness and propriety be represented as an introduction to salvation, but in this way of speaking of it, it is represented as an effect rather than as a cause. These are not refinements for the purpose of evasion, but a true and simple solution, for, while Scripture teaches us that we never obtain forgiveness of sins without repentance, it represents at the same time, in a variety of passages, the mercy of God alone as the ground of our obtaining it.

1645 · Thomas Shepard, The Sound Believer Chapter I

"Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded" men, saith the apostle James, (chap. iv. 8). But how should this be done? He answers, (ver. 9), "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; turn your laughter into mourning." So Joel ii. 12. The prophet calls upon his hearers to turn from their sin unto the Lord; but how? "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." Not that they were able to do this, but by what sorrow he requires of all in general; he thereby effectually works in the hearts of all the elect in particular; for every man naturally takes pleasure, nay, all his delight and pleasure is in nothing else but sin; for God he hath none, but that. Now, so long as he takes pleasure in sin, and finds contentment by sin, he can not but cleave inseparably to it. O, it is sweet, and it only is sweet; for so long as the soul is dead in sin, "pleasure in sin is death in sin." (1 Tim. v. 6). So long as it is dead in sin, it is impossible it should part with sin; no more than a dead man can break the bonds of death. And therefore it undeniably follows, that the Lord must first put gall and wormwood to these dugs, before the soul will cease sucking, or be weaned from them; the Lord must first make sin bitter, before it will part with it; load it with sin, before it will sit down and desire ease. And look, as the pleasure in sin is exceeding sweet to a sinner, so the sorrow for it must be exceeding bitter, before the soul will part from it.

1656 · John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers 13

When God comes home to speak peace in a sure covenant of it, it fills the soul with shame for all the ways whereby it hath been alienated from him. And one of the things that the apostle mentions as attending that godly sorrow which is accompanied with repentance unto salvation, never to be repented of, is revenge: “Yea, what revenge!” 2 Cor. vii. 11. They reflected on their miscarriages with indignation and revenge, for their folly in them.

1695 · John Owen, Gospel Grounds and Evidences of the Faith of God's Elect 4

Hereon godly sorrow will ensue: this, indeed, is the very life and soul of repentance; so the apostle declares it, 2 Cor. vii. 9–11. And it comprises all that is spoken in the Scripture about a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which expresses itself by sighs, tears, mourning, yea, watering our beds with tears, and the like. David gives so great an instance in himself hereof, and that so frequently repeated, as that we need no other exemplification of it.

1737 · Jonathan Edwards, Hope and Comfort Usually Follow Genuine Humiliation and Repentance 1

“What carefulness it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what fear, yea what earnest desire.” There was a more than ordinary fear and dread of the like sin for the future, and more carefulness to shun it, and a more earnest desire of the contrary. The work of God in the heart of a saint after declension oftentimes, in many respects, resembles the work of God in a sinner at his conversion; though it is not in all respects like it, because of the great difference in the subject.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 7 160

And then we must take this caution along with us, that if we would judge aright of the truth of our sorrow for sin, we must not measure it so much by the degrees of sensible trouble and affliction, as by the rational effects of it, which are hatred of sin, and a fixed purpose and resolution against it for the future: for he is most truly sorry for his miscarriage, who looks upon what he hath done amiss with abhorrence and detestation of the thing, and wisheth he had not done it, and censures himself severely for it, and thereupon resolves not to do the like again. And this is the character which St. Paul gives of a godly sorrow, (2 Cor. vii. 10.) that it “worketh repentance,” μετάνοιαν, it produceth a real change in our minds, and makes us to alter our purpose and resolution: and though such a person may not be so passionately and sensibly afflicted for sin, yet it appears, by the effect, that he hath a deeper and more rational resentment of the evil of it, than that man who is sad and melancholy, and drooping for never so long a time, and after all returns to his former sinful course; the degree of his sorrow may appear greater, but the effect of it is really less.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 7.11

The object of Paul is to illustrate the effects of godly sorrow, to which he had referred in 2Co 7:10. He appeals, therefore, to their own case, and says that it was beautifully illustrated among themselves. What carefulness - (σπουδήν spoudēn). This word properly denotes "speed, haste;" then diligence, earnest effort, forwardness. Here it is evidently used to denote the diligence and the great anxiety which they manifested to remove the evils which existed among them. They went to work to remove them. They did not sit down to mourn over them merely, nor did they wait for God to remove them, nor did they plead that they could do nothing, but they set about the work as though they believed it might be done. When people are thoroughly convinced of sin, they will set about removing it with the utmost diligence. They will feel that this can be done, and must be done, or that the soul will be lost.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 7.11

The whole church was roused, and all felt, and all endeavored in the proper way to free themselves from the blame, and to remove the evil from among them. Yea, what indignation - Indignation against the sin, and perhaps against the persons who had drawn down the censure of the apostle. One effect of true repentance is to produce decided hatred of sin. It is not mere regret, or sorrow, it is positive hatred. There is a deep indignation against it as an evil and a bitter thing.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 7.9

When people are brought to repentance under the preaching of the gospel, the ministers of the gospel do not find pleasure in their grief as such. They are not desirous of making people unhappy by calling them to repentance, and they have no pleasure in the deep distress of mind which is often produced by their preaching, in itself considered. It is only because such sorrow is an indication of their return to God, and will be followed by happiness and by the fruits of good living, that they find any pleasure in it, or that they seek to produce it. But that ye sorrowed to repentance - It was not mere grief; it was not sorrow producing melancholy, gloom, or despair; it was not sorrow which led you to be angry at him who had reproved you for your errors - as is sometimes the case with the sorrow that is produced by reproof; but it was sorrow that led to a change and reformation.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 27

Let it be a season of devout mourning, of godly sorrow for sin; such a sorrow as that of the Corinthians, concerning which the Apostle saith, “I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow” — he kata Theon lype, — the sorrow which is according to God, which is a precious gift of his Spirit, lifting the soul to God from whom it flows — “worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of.” Yea, and let our sorrowing after a godly sort work in us the same inward and outward repentance; the same entire change of heart, renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; and the same change of life, till we are holy as He is holy, in all manner of conversation. Let it work in us the same carefulness to be found in him, without spot and blameless; the same clearing of ourselves, by our lives rather than words, by our abstaining from all appearance of evil; the same indignation, vehement abhorrence of every sin; the same fear of our own deceitful hearts; the same desire to be in all things conformed to the holy and acceptable will of God; the same zeal for whatever may be a means of his glory, and of our growth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the same revenge against Satan and all his works, against all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit.

1894 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians XIX. Repentance Unto Life

A popular criticism disparages repentance, and especially the sorrow which leads to repentance, as a mere waste of moral force. We have nothing to throw away, the severely practical moralist tells us, in sighs and tears and feelings: let us be up and doing, to rectify the wrongs for which we are responsible; that is the only repentance which is worth the name. This passage, and the experience which it depicts, are the answer to such precipitate criticism. The descent into our own hearts, the painful self-scrutiny and self-condemnation, the sorrowing according to God, are not waste of moral force. Rather are they the only possible way to accumulate moral force; they apply to the soul the pressure under which it manifests those potent virtues which St. Paul here ascribes to the Corinthians. All sorrow, indeed, as he is careful to tell us, is not repentance; but he who has no sorrow for his sin has not the force in him to produce earnest care, fear, longing, zeal, avenging. The fruit, of course, is that for which the tree is cultivated; but who would magnify the fruit by disparaging the sap? That is what they do who decry "godly sorrow" to exalt practical amendment.

1900 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 46 (1900) 2691

I knew a wild sort of fellow who was brought to his knees at the penitent-form and he did cry away at a fine rate—but you could never get him inside that place again. He was always ashamed of himself, for it was a repentance that needed to be repented of, and he did repent of it. There is many a dog that gets back to his vomit as soon as he can, and there is many a sow that is sorry for being washed, and glad enough to get back to wallow in the mire. But that is not the kind of change that the Apostle mentions here. True godly sorrow is that which leads to repentance never to be repented of, for the man says, "No, I left my sin, and if I wanted to go back to it, I have plenty of opportunity to do so. But I cannot go back to it, I hate it. There," he says, "I have been tempted over and over again and my feet had well-nigh slipped, but the eternal life within me, kept there by the Spirit of God, has driven me back to Christ! I could not do this great wickedness and sin against God. I have already smarted too much to put my hand again into the fire. I grieved my God too much and brought too much grief upon my own heart, for me to play the fool, again, and once more to go into the purlieus of iniquity."

1900 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 46 (1900) 2691

A repentance that does not repent at the Cross is a repentance which will have to be repented of—true sorrow for sin must be blended with a childlike submission to God and consequent confidence in Christ—otherwise it is not "godly sorrow." "Godly sorrow" is, next, known by its leading to repentance. It "works repentance"—"a change of mind" about everything and especially about sin. A man is so sorry for having done wrong that he now thinks differently of all wrongdoing. He thinks differently of his entire life and his mind is made up, God helping him, to live just the opposite way to that in which he has formerly lived. When sorrow for sin leads to that result, we may be quite sure that it is the work of the Spirit of God and that it is acceptable in His sight. It also leads on to deliverance from sin, for the text says, "Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation."

1900 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 46 (1900) 2691

If you have marginal notes in your Bibles, you will see that in the preceding verse, where we read, "you were made sorry after a godly manner," in the margin it reads, "you were made sorry according to God." And that rendering lets a great deal of light into the meaning of our text—"sorrow according to God." Now, mark, the true sorrow which we ought to have and which saves men instrumentally, is sorrow on account of sin because it is sin against God. That is the very pith of godly sorrow, as penitent David cried, "Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight." And as the prodigal said, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in your sight." O my dear Hearers, ask yourselves whether you have sorrowed for sin because it is sin against God—for any hypocrite is sorry for sin which injures himself, or which may damage his reputation among men—but the essential thing is to be sorry because the evil is a wrong done to God.

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Corinthians (chapters 7 to 12) 7.10

The nature of the case forbids it. It is a clear contradiction in terms, and an absolute impossibility in fact, that God should save a man with the salvation which consists in the deliverance from sin, whilst that man is holding to his sin. Unless, therefore, you have not merely sorrow, but repentance, which is turning away from sin with resolute purpose, as a man would turn from a serpent, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But you do not get salvation for your repentance. It is no case of barter, it is no case of salvation by works, that work being repentance: 'Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow, All for sin could not atone, Thou must save, and Thou alone.' What is the connection between repentance and faith? There can be no true repentance without trust in Christ. There can be no true trust in Christ without the forsaking of my sin. Repentance without faith, in so far as it is possible, is one long misery; like the pains of those poor Hindoo devotees that will go all the way from Cape Comorin to the shrine of Juggernaut, and measure every foot of the road with the length of their own bodies in the dust. Men will do anything, and willingly make any sacrifice, rather than open their eyes to see this,—that repentance, clasped hand in hand with Faith, leads the guiltiest soul into the forgiving presence of the crucified Christ, from whom peace flows into the darkest heart.

1645 · Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity Part I, Chapter III

Secondly, Though a man, before he believe God's love to him in Christ, may have a great measure of legal humiliation, compunction, sorrow, and grief, and be brought down, as it were, to the very gate of hell, and feel the very flashing of hell-fire in his conscience for his sins, yet it is not because he hath thereby offended God, but rather because he hath thereby offended himself, that is, because he hath thereby brought himself into the danger of eternal death and condemnation. But when once he believes the love of God to him in Christ in pardoning his iniquity, and passing by his transgressions, then he sorrows and grieves for the offence of God by sin; reasoning thus with himself: And is it so indeed? Hath the Lord given his own Son to death for me who have been such a vile sinful wretch? And hath Christ borne all thy sins? and was he wounded for thy transgressions? Oh then, the working of his bowels, the stirring of his affections, the melting and relenting of his repenting heart! "Then he remembers his own evil ways, and his doings that were not good, and loathes himself in his own eyes for all his abominations"; and looking upon Christ, "whom he hath pierced, he mourns bitterly for him, as one mourneth for his only son," (Eze 36:31, Zech 12:10). Thus, when faith has bathed a man's heart in the blood of Christ, it is so mollified that it quickly dissolves into tears of godly sorrow; so that if Christ do but turn and look upon him, Oh then, with Peter, he goes out and weeps bitterly! And this is true gospel-mourning; and this is right evangelical repenting.

1655–1662 · William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour Part 12. DIRECTION XI.—SECOND GENERAL PART. [How to perform the duty commanded—a

Mercy gives the greatest aggravation to sin, and therefore must needs be the most powerful instrument to break the heart for sin. With this God doth reproach sinning Israel, ‘Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?’ Deut. 32:6. They could not have been evil to such a height if God had not been so good to them. When God would break the sore of his people's sin, he compounds a poultice with his choicest mercies and lays this warm to their hearts. David had sat many months under the lectures of the law, unhumbled for his bloody complicated sin; but Nathan is sent to preach a rehearsal sermon to him of the many mercies that God had graced him with, and while these coals are pouring on his head his heart dissolves presently, II Sam. 12. The frost seldom is quite out of the earth till the sun hath got some power in the spring to dissolve its bands; but then it sets it going. Neither will the hardness of the heart be to any purpose removed until the soul be thoroughly warmed with the sense of God’s mercies. ‘And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight,’ Eze. 20:43. Where is that ‘there’ but amidst the thoughts of his mercies, as by the context is manifest? A pardon from the prince hath made some weep whom the sight of the block and axe could not move. Sight of wrath inflames the conscience, but sense of mercy kindly melts the heart and overcomes the will.

1878 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 24 (1878) 1442

The feeling of sorrow at the sight of the crucified Savior is one to be cultivated up to a certain point, especially if we take care to avoid mere sentiment and turn our grief into repentance—then it is "godly sorrow" which works after a godly sort—and it is likely to create in us an intense horror of sin and a strong determination to purge ourselves from all fellowship with the works of darkness.

1883 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 29 (1883) 1752

The multitudes of our sins cannot be thought of without a moving of the soul and a measure of heartbreak. Is it not written, "They shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him, and be in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn"? A look at Christ gives life, but it also produces the tokens of that life, among which we find godly sorrow which works true and sincere repentance. Even a sense of pardon does not exclude this holy mourning—on the contrary, it increases it.

1895 · Walter F. Adeney, The Expositor's Bible: The Song of Solomon and the Lamentations of Jeremiah The Lamentations of Jeremiah, Chapter XXI. The Debt of Guilt Extinguished (iv. 21, 22)

It is at Calvary, not at Sinai, that sin looks most black. When a man sees his guilt in the light of his Saviour's love he is in no mood to apologise for it or to minimise his ill desert. If he then contemplates the prospect of the full payment of the debt it is with a feeling of the impossibility of ever achieving so stupendous a task. The punishment from which he would revolt as an injustice if it were held over him in a threat now presents itself to him of its own accord as something quite right and reasonable. He cannot find words strong enough to characterise his guilt, as he lies at the foot of the cross in absolute self-abasement. There is no occasion to fear that such a man will become careless about sin if he is comforted by a vision of hope. This is just what he needs to enable him to rise up and accept the forgiveness in the strength of which he may begin the toilsome ascent towards a better life.

1896 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 42 (1896) 2452

How many there are in this world who have upon them a load of sorrow which is plainly and evidently the result of their own folly and iniquity! Their sin procured it for them. There is also a godly sorrow which comes after sin has been committed and which is not merely occasioned by the sin, but by the love of God and the action of the Spirit of God upon the heart. When God means to save a man, He usually begins by making him sorrow on account of his evil ways. It is the sharp steel needle of the Law of God that goes through the convicted heart and draws the silken thread of comfort and salvation after it! It is not God's way to make men alive, again, until they are really dead. I mean, that, spiritually, they must be first, slain by the Law, before they are made alive by the Gospel.

1897 · Henry Drummond, The Ideal Life Penitence

It is God looking into the sinner’s face that has introduced a Christian element into human sorrow. And Paul, in making the Christian vocabulary, had to coin a word which was strange to all the philosophies of the world then, and is so still, when he joined the conceptions of God and sorrow into one, and told us of the Godly sorrow which has the marvellous virtue of working repentance not to be repented of. And it is this new and sacred sorrow which comes to sinful men as often as the Lord turns and looks upon their life; it is this which adds the penitential incense to the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart. That was a great distinction which Luke brings out, in the prodigal’s life, between coming to himself and coming to his father. “He came to himself,” and then “he came to his father.” So we are always coming to ourselves. We are always finding out, like the prodigal, the miserable bargains we have made. But it is only when we come to our Father that we can get them undone and the real debt discharged.

1904 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 50 (1904) 2901

My subject is to be Evangelical sorrow—godly sorrow for sin—and my first remark concerning it is that WHEREVER IT EXISTS, IT IS ALWAYS A CREATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of supplications:..and they shall mourn." There was never any real godly sorrow which worked repentance acceptable to God except that which was the result of the Holy Spirit's own work within the soul. True evangelical repentance is not produced by mere conscience. However much the conscience may be awakened and instructed, the Spirit of God must operate upon the heart—otherwise the natural conscience cannot rise to the heights of true repentance.