Isn’t that an amazing statement? That God wanted the Corinthians to sorrow?
God desired that the Corinthians become sorrowful because sin is so deceptive, so blinding, so hardening that the only way to free us from sin is for God to break our hearts.
You know that God is really at work when, instead of excusing our sins and defending ourselves, we acknowledge our wrong and experience heart pain and sorrow.
Question 3. According to 2 Corinthians 7:10, what does godly sorrow produce?
Godly sorrow produces repentance. And here is the value of godly sorrow and becoming broken before the Lord. It leads us to turn away from sin and turn to Jesus in earnest. Godly sorrow is a gift God gives us to help us War Against our Flesh.
There have been times in my life when God has really used the cross to break my hard heart and give me godly sorrow. I remember one time after I had sinned in impurity that God just smote me in my heart and cut it into pieces. As I looked up at the cross, I saw my sin crucifying the Son of God. I saw my sin devastating my wife and children. I saw my sin as the worst possible evil under the sun, and I felt that I was the most wretched man alive. I sorrowed from a broken heart. I began to detest myself and truly hate who I had become and what I had done.
This painful bout of sorrow led me to change my life completely. I repented in earnest, turned to the Lord in His Word and prayer, and I began to live differently. Looking back on this time, I am happy God worked so profoundly, though painfully, in my heart as it led me to genuine repentance and real change.
One of the reasons why people do not get free from pornography or sexual impurity is because they have not been made sorrowful at the cross, have not been hurt and broken over their sin. They have minimized it, excused it and tried to forget about it. They’ve claimed they were born that way, that it is a disease, that they are “addicts” that can never change, and on and on the lies go, all in an attempt to not take responsibility and have to repent. And so they remain ensnared, and they will continue to be as long as they believe lies (Isaiah 44:20).
Why not instead seek for godly sorrow at the foot of the cross? Why not instead acknowledge sin, confess it to the Lord and others, and receive the brokenness that comes by God’s grace?
For if you do experience godly sorrow, it will lead you to genuine repentance. You will begin to discover a pure hatred for your involvement in pornography and self-gratification/sexual immorality. Indeed, you will start to hate yourself for how you have crucified Christ, grieved His Holy Spirit, hurt your family (or future family) and defiled the Temple of God through impurity.
And you will change! Oh my, how you will change. It won’t be a mere external behavior change; it will be from the heart. Godly sorrow will bring genuine repentance. You will set about to put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature. You will crucify your passions. Sexual immorality - dead! Impurity and self-gratification - dead! Lust and evil desires - dead! As you do this, the joy of the Lord begins to replace sorrow over sin.
Acts 3:19 NIV Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
And for a moment, notice, if you will, that this change happens at the cross of Jesus, as we see His wounds, as we see His love being poured out along with His blood, as we see Him willingly giving up His life, being pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and dying in our place.
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).
Question 4. What would be the result of looking at the Pierced One?