You need not weep because Christ died one-tenth so much as because your sins rendered it necessary that He should die. You need not weep over the crucifixion, but weep over your transgression, for your sins nailed the Redeemer to the accursed tree. To weep over a dying Saviour is to lament the remedy; it were wiser to bewail the disease. To weep over the dying Saviour is to wet the surgeon's knife with tears; it were better to bewail the spreading polyps which that knife must cut away. To weep over the Lord Jesus as He goes to the cross is to weep over that which is the subject of the highest joy that ever heaven and earth have known; your tears are scarcely needed there; they are unnatural, but a deeper wisdom will make you brush them all away and chant with joy His victory over death and the grave. If we must continue our sad emotions, let us lament that we should have broken the law which He thus painfully vindicated; let us mourn that we should have incurred the penalty which He even to the death was made to endure ... O brethren and sisters, this is the reason why we souls weep: because we have broken the divine law and rendered it impossible that we should be saved except Jesus Christ should die.
- C.H. Spurgeon, H/T: Tim Challies
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.
4 comments:
Hi Matt,
So, this seems like a poetic reiteration of 2 Corinthians, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation...but the sorrow of the world worketh death."
My question to you is, do you believe this means that someone who is feeling sorrow for their pain, rather than the sin, is in fact committing greater sin (by omission)?
How do we overcome this natural tendency of selfishness, even in the repentance process?
I am truly amazed that you carry on this ministry, even while in the throws of school. I confess, my church service dwindled severely during my school years. You are a choice servant, brother. God bless you.
~Scarlet Pimpernel
SP, you make me laugh sometimes. "Choice servant" - I don't know about that, in fact I know that all I am is a wretched sinner, hoping only in Christ, who happens to like to write.
Maybe I'm wrong but I would never tell someone that they were sinning because they were feeling sorrow for their pain. Instead I would try to do what Paul instructed and "mourn with those who mourn," - Romans 12:15. Christ also said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted," and did not specify what kind of mourning He was talking about. As you brought up in your post though, there is a kind of sorrow which is godly and leads to repentance and there is a worldly sorrow which produces death. Obviously that is something we must be discerning about.
Have a good week!
Again a GREAT post.
Jacob M. Aho
Thanks Jacob
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