Why? Because of the natural consequences of sin. Even lost people like Ol’ Blue Eyes can look back over their lives and recall their embarrassing or jerky behavior and the choices they made that hurt others or themselves, and they can wish they hadn’t done those things. Regrets are more in line with the “worldly grief” mentioned at the end of the verse, which produces death. It says “godly grief”, or “sorrow,” or “sorrow that is according to the will of God,” is what produces repentance that leads to salvation. (I think we could all say a hearty “Amen!” to that!) That’s what “salvation without regret” means- we don’t regret casting our lot with Christ.Īnother aspect of this verse and question we need to address is this: The verse doesn’t say our regrets produce repentance that leads to salvation. Even with the hardships and persecution many first century Christians faced, they never, for a single moment, regretted turning from their life of sin and following Jesus. It cut them to the heart in godly sorrow over their transgressions and they joyfully repented, never once looking back and wishing for their old way of life. Paul had written his “ severe letter” rebuking the Corinthian church for their sin. But that phrase doesn’t mean we’ll never look back at our past sins and wish we had obeyed God instead. When we look back on past sins, we should always do so with an attitude of regret for having committed them.īut doesn’t this verse say repentance leads to salvation “ without regret”? Yes. What would be bad is if you had no regrets. If your love for Christ and your growing understanding of the blackness of sin have led you to regret rebelling against Him, that’s not a bad thing. Every Christian has had incidents we feel this way about, whether they took place before or after we got saved. When we American English speakers say, Frank Sinatra-style, “Regrets….I’ve had a few….,” what we mean is that there are things we’ve done in the past that we wish we hadn’t done, and that if we had it to do over again, we would do things differently. There are several concepts at play here between your question and the verse, and we need to be sure we’re not conflating them: regret, godly sorrow or grief, shame, and guilt. The verse you’re referring to is 2 Corinthians 7:10 (which I have linked in context in your question above):įor godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. I think correct context and semantics can help us out a lot here. My question is: After repentance and salvation what do we do with regret? Is it sinful to continually experience regret? Is it just a consequence we must live with? I feel like I’m being swallowed up by it the more I read the Bible, which is not the end of the world, but I just want to handle it correctly. I know regret should lead us to repentance.
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