Sorrow to Repentance

Can sorrow and repentance be separated? If I believe what I'm doing is right, then why should I feel sorry about it or repent? Conversely, if I TRUELY repent, then am I not showing that I'm sorry about what I was doing?

To put it another way, how can I not be sorry I was doing something and still truly repent of it? If I feel what I was doing was justified, then what would be the point of repenting?

 

The bible says to REPENT, believe, and be baptized. Repentance is NECESSARY to SALVATION! If you never become sorry for the sinful life you live, you can't be saved. Apostle Paul spoke on more than one occassion about the sorrowfullness he had for persecuting the church. He said he did it through his own ignorance. So if you never become "sorry" for ALL the wrong you have done, you will die in your sins. Not pointing this towards anyone in particular, just thinking out loud. Love.

Willis Fletcher, Jr.

 

2Cr 7:9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to {the point of} repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to {the will of} God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
2Cr 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to {the will} {of} God produces a repentance without regret, {leading} to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

I don't understand the difficulty in understanding this passage.

You won't repent if don't feel sorrow for sinning against God. In order to feel sorrow, you must accept the fact that you have sinned.

Worldly sorrow is not the same as feeling sorrow for sinning against God, and is useless toward salvation.

1. Godly sorrow

2. Repentance (because of your sorrow)

3. Salvation

 

Aside from that just being common sense, the Bible says so. That should be enough.

 

It contradicts Bob's OP.
The passage quoted in 2Cor.7:9ff has nothing to do with salvation. It was written to believers.
The OP, was talking about salvation. Bob was relating his own salvation experience. He said that when he was saved he felt sorry for his sins. Where does the Bible say that one has to be sorry for their sins in order to be saved? It doesn't.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

 

I think you're oversimplifying it.

To "believe" you must believe/accept that you are a sinner, that you have sinned against God. When you realize this, you will be sorry for sinning and now see the need and have the desire to change/turn from your sins and turn to God.

This is what believing is.

You can't ignore the scripture;

Godly sorrow produces repentance.

 

Amy, your the one ignoring Scripture.
An unsaved person cannot have Godly sorrow. The 2Cor.7 passage was written to believers about sin that they had committed after they were saved. The Bible says nothing about being sorry for your sins in order to be saved. Repentance (with respect to salvation) does not involve being sorry for your sins. One does not repent of their sins in order to be saved.

 

How do you explain this verse?

2Cr 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

 

Here is how Ray Steadman puts it:

http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/3689.html

I think he says it well.

 

DHK, you may be right, but IMO it seems as if Paul is speaking of eternal salvation because of the last part of the verse:

2Cr 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

It seems to me that Paul is comparing Godly sorrow-life

to worldly sorrow-death

I'm not saying that he wasn't speaking to Christians, but rather making a point about what true repentance is and that it comes from sorrow and leads to salvation. But just a general observation and not saying that those people weren't saved.

 

1. I read Wesley quickly but as far as I can tell he didn't use the word "salvation" which was the question being asked.
2. Wesley was not only the founder of the Methodists, but also of the holiness movement.
3. From the holiness movement invariably sprang the tongues movement--a movement thinking that some "spiritual gift" like tongues would help make one more "holy."
4. I don't see what Wesley has to say has much bearing on the subject.

Again where does the Bible say that one has to be sorry for their sins in order to be saved? It doesn't.

 

I think what we're trying to say is that only when a person realizes their sinful state and that they have sinned against God will they even come to God. Anyone who is content in their sinful state and doesn't feel any sorrow isn't even going to seek God's forgiveness or acceptance.
I think this is where the Holy Spirit draws us and reveals our sin so that we are even able to be sorry.

 

Indeed he does. This passage has been read at many Christian funerals as a passage of comfort. We dont sorrow as the world sorrows. Our sorrow is a Godly sorrow. Compared to the world's sorrow; they who have nothing to look forward to except death itself.

Their sorrow wrought a change in their lives, but it was a change for service for the Lord, not a change for salvation:

2 Corinthians 7:11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

 

But repentance isn't sorrow and sorrow doesn't save.