2 Corinthians 7:10 says that Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation. Here’s the question --- How many of you who have used a modern Gospel message that says that “Jesus will give you love, joy peace, fulfillment and lasting happiness” have seen genuine Godly sorrow from people you have witnessed to as you forcibly led them to say the sinner’s prayer?
I just can’t see how a “happy” message like that can induce such a needed type of sorrow that leads a person to truly repent of all his sins. Unless one sees how he has offended the One that gave him life, a person will not see the need to change. Here in the Philippines, we often hear of news of movie stars that supposedly have been born-again. Any true Christian who has a burning desire for the lost to be saved would be filled with joy with such news. Later though, they start questioning if the movie star really had a true conversion simply because the things that he was doing before are the same things he is still doing after he supposedly became a “Christian”.
True repentance that results to one being saved produces a distinct change in how a person lives his/her life. Sad to say, a lot of so-called “Christians” inside our churches today do not reflect the change we expect of a true convert. But ask them where they will spend eternity when they die, they are so confident that they’re going to heaven simply because they once said a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives. As if one such prayer can seal the deal! Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19 never said such a prayer. He just declared to Jesus his repentance by saying how he will show his decision to turn away from his sins and then Jesus said, “Today, salvation has come into this home.” Paul said in Acts 20:21 that his message was “repentance towards God and faith on Jesus Christ”. The message is still the same. We are sinners and therefore, the need to repent is essential before we can come to Jesus for the salvation that only He can give. It all starts with a realization of our sinfulness, and the Ten Commandments is a perfect tool towards achieving this.
I’ve shared this same message several times to my 5-year old son. And in almost all of these times, I’ve used the Law to convict him of his sinfulness. And each time, I never really saw change in him probably due to the fact that his young mind could not yet really fathom how his childish disobedience can offend God. But a few weeks back, after an incident where he decided to disrespect me and his mom just because of some cartoons he was watching in the television, the breakthrough I was hoping for came. I scolded him for that first and then told him that God is not pleased with children disrespecting their parents. I then asked my son if he thinks he had disrespected us, his parents, during that hour, resulting to him offending God (5th Commandment). He said “yes”. I then asked him, “If you’ve disobeyed God today, where do you think God should send you when you die, which is something that could happen anytime, even today?” It took him time to answer. I could see the struggle he was experiencing. When he was able to say “hell”, tears fell from his eyes. I then told him that I love him so much that’s why I do not want him to go to hell. I followed by saying that God does not want him to go to hell either that’s why He sacrificed himself at Calvary for him. I then told him that all he needed to do is to be truly sorry for all the times he was disobedient, first to God, and second, to us, and then ask Jesus to help him so that he will not go to hell. He then prayed on his own, without me telling him what to say. He was really in tears while he was doing all of these. The big difference between my past use of the Law in witnessing to my son with this incident was the time lapsed from the instance that my son offended one of God’s Commandments and the actual witnessing encounter. His disobedience of God was still fresh in his mind in this instance, whereas in the other times I witnessed to him, I talked about sins like lying and disrespect of parents in general.
From then on, I saw a distinct change in my son. One time, during one very hot afternoon, I asked him to take a bath because he was all sweaty and smelly already from all the play he did outside. I sensed that he wanted to continue playing. And then I said, “Son. Remember that in obeying daddy, you obey God, and that makes Him happy.” He then stood up, and I heard him ask our helper to remove his clothes because he will take a bath. There are still times that my son would show some disobedience. But every time we remind him about the need to make God happy, it was easier for him to try to obey.
A true convert who has repented realizes that its all about making God happy. He knows that although most of the time, obeying God will not be the most comfortable thing to do, he still obeys God because he knows that in the process, he would make his Creator very happy
I just can’t see how a “happy” message like that can induce such a needed type of sorrow that leads a person to truly repent of all his sins. Unless one sees how he has offended the One that gave him life, a person will not see the need to change. Here in the Philippines, we often hear of news of movie stars that supposedly have been born-again. Any true Christian who has a burning desire for the lost to be saved would be filled with joy with such news. Later though, they start questioning if the movie star really had a true conversion simply because the things that he was doing before are the same things he is still doing after he supposedly became a “Christian”.
True repentance that results to one being saved produces a distinct change in how a person lives his/her life. Sad to say, a lot of so-called “Christians” inside our churches today do not reflect the change we expect of a true convert. But ask them where they will spend eternity when they die, they are so confident that they’re going to heaven simply because they once said a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives. As if one such prayer can seal the deal! Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19 never said such a prayer. He just declared to Jesus his repentance by saying how he will show his decision to turn away from his sins and then Jesus said, “Today, salvation has come into this home.” Paul said in Acts 20:21 that his message was “repentance towards God and faith on Jesus Christ”. The message is still the same. We are sinners and therefore, the need to repent is essential before we can come to Jesus for the salvation that only He can give. It all starts with a realization of our sinfulness, and the Ten Commandments is a perfect tool towards achieving this.
I’ve shared this same message several times to my 5-year old son. And in almost all of these times, I’ve used the Law to convict him of his sinfulness. And each time, I never really saw change in him probably due to the fact that his young mind could not yet really fathom how his childish disobedience can offend God. But a few weeks back, after an incident where he decided to disrespect me and his mom just because of some cartoons he was watching in the television, the breakthrough I was hoping for came. I scolded him for that first and then told him that God is not pleased with children disrespecting their parents. I then asked my son if he thinks he had disrespected us, his parents, during that hour, resulting to him offending God (5th Commandment). He said “yes”. I then asked him, “If you’ve disobeyed God today, where do you think God should send you when you die, which is something that could happen anytime, even today?” It took him time to answer. I could see the struggle he was experiencing. When he was able to say “hell”, tears fell from his eyes. I then told him that I love him so much that’s why I do not want him to go to hell. I followed by saying that God does not want him to go to hell either that’s why He sacrificed himself at Calvary for him. I then told him that all he needed to do is to be truly sorry for all the times he was disobedient, first to God, and second, to us, and then ask Jesus to help him so that he will not go to hell. He then prayed on his own, without me telling him what to say. He was really in tears while he was doing all of these. The big difference between my past use of the Law in witnessing to my son with this incident was the time lapsed from the instance that my son offended one of God’s Commandments and the actual witnessing encounter. His disobedience of God was still fresh in his mind in this instance, whereas in the other times I witnessed to him, I talked about sins like lying and disrespect of parents in general.
From then on, I saw a distinct change in my son. One time, during one very hot afternoon, I asked him to take a bath because he was all sweaty and smelly already from all the play he did outside. I sensed that he wanted to continue playing. And then I said, “Son. Remember that in obeying daddy, you obey God, and that makes Him happy.” He then stood up, and I heard him ask our helper to remove his clothes because he will take a bath. There are still times that my son would show some disobedience. But every time we remind him about the need to make God happy, it was easier for him to try to obey.
A true convert who has repented realizes that its all about making God happy. He knows that although most of the time, obeying God will not be the most comfortable thing to do, he still obeys God because he knows that in the process, he would make his Creator very happy
