1 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. 2 They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”
“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”
5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
—The words of the Apostle Matthew from Matthew 27:1-5
“I am feeling very sad about what has happened.” Tears welled up in the eyes of the woman sitting across the table from me. She had asked to speak with me in my informal role of a counselor. For the previous twenty minutes, she had poured out a sad tale concerning her behavior in the workplace. She had become jealous over the attention her boss had given to a co-worker. So, she began a campaign to impune the character of her competitor for the boss’ favor.
Whenever possible, she spoke ill of her rival. She was careful to not seem overly snarky. She just dropped a negatively charged word here and there. Soon, her efforts paid dividends. Her boss seemed to pay somewhat less attention to her co-worker. Finally, she detected a definite swing. Now her boss seemed openly hostile to her competitor.
After several months of a downward slide in her boss’ attention toward her rival, he fired the co-worker. At first, the woman talking with me felt joy. But then, she learned the co-worker had a family. And, she got word that the co-worker was having trouble finding a new job. The emotional trauma of being fired, coupled with her age, seemed to thwart her efforts at finding new work.
So now, the woman sat across from me. “I feel so very sad that things have turned out like they did. I wish I could shake this feeling. But, I can’t seem to put aside my sadness.”
“That’s because you haven’t truly repented of your sin,” I told her.
A look of amazed hostility and instant anger flared aross her face. “Not repented? What do you mean by that?” she said sharply.
“You feel remorse. But, you haven’t truly repented,” I replied. “Until you confess your sin, repent of your sin, and provide restitution, you will not be able to find reconciliation.”
The Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post gives a stark example of the difference between repentance and remorse. Matthew records that when faced with the reality of the chain of events that he set in motion, Judas Iscariot felt “remorse.”
Without getting too “geeky,” let me hasten to explain that the Bible uses two distinct Greek words to denote one’s “change toward an action one has taken.” The first word denotes “change of mind or purpose from sin to holiness.” The second word denotes “regret over the sadness and distress one feels about what one has done.”
In the first case, the sinner receives the conviction supplied by the work of the Holy Spirit and runs toward the other person he or she has harmed with the intent of confessing, making a complete turn about from the sin, providing restitution for the harm done, and then joyfully finding true reconciliation.
In the second case, the sinner runs away from the situation and takes some action to relieve the pain he or she is feeling, but without actually doing anything to confess, repent, or make restitution. Thus, he or she never experiences genuine reconciliation.
As you can see, there exists a profound difference between “repentance” and “remorse.” One leads to a renewal of life—a revival. The other leads to destruction. It may well be that a person choosing the Judas Iscariot path may not actually commit suicide as Judas did. But, a recessive death of the soul can prove just as harmful in the long run.
So, if you commit a sin against a brother or sister in Christ, examine your heart. Do you genuinely regret what you have done, want to meet with the one you have harmed and confess your sin, make resititution for your sin, and receive the gift of reconciliation? Or, do you feel selfishly sorry for the pain you feel and simply want to remove that pain? I urge you to take the first course. It leads to a newness of life and to health for your soul.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
In every interaction with have with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we invite Your Holy Spirit to bring conviction if we have sinned. Then, Precious Father, please empower us to go to the one we have harmed, confess our sin, repent of our sin, and make resistitution for our sin. We do this knowing that You will provide reconciliation with the one we have harmed and with You.
Thank You for Your lovingkindness and tender mercies. Thank You for Your grace and truth. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment