REPENTANCE LEADS TO LIFE

Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was so direct and challenged them in a significant way in the sexualized culture they lived in -- full of God's GRACE and God's TRUTH. As he writes the second letter to the Corinthians, he comes to a point halfway through where he addresses how direct and challenging his first letter was.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 (NLT)
8 I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. 9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

What an interesting perspective that is! Have you ever read something in the Bible or heard a message preached and thought, "Ow! That one hurt me!" In our Christian life, there will be times when we are cut to the heart and convicted because of God's truth. Paul's point here is that the conviction and pain caused by God's truth is very good because that "pain caused you to repent and change your ways."

If you've ever worked hard for something and failed, competed at a high degree, and lost, you know the pain that comes with that. But any good coach will tell you something like, "You may have failed, but you're not a failure. Don't waste this pain. Sometimes, you win, and sometimes, you learn. If you learn from it and get better, this is not all a loss." That is what Paul is telling us here.

The pain has a purpose. Repentance had a reward. When you have Godly sorrow from your sin that causes you to change your ways, the pain that comes from that is not wasted. God desires for you to have the type of sorrow for sin that when you fall, you get convicted that God’s called you to be different, stand back up, and run after Jesus. That kind of repentance leads to lead, and no regret comes with it.