For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
—2 Corinthians 7:10

I remember once being invited to interpret at a home group where there was a preacher from America. At that group they made a woman sit on a chair in the middle of the room and told her to confess her sins in front of everyone and repent, so that she would be saved and God would accept her. She resisted, saying: “What do you want from me? I repent before God in private endlessly as it is.” This situation shocked me a little. It turns out there is this kind of understanding of repentance. In fact, true repentance is connected with joy and laughter, not with heart-rending confession.

“But isn’t it written: ‘For godly sorrow produces repentance’? Repentance implies sorrow, not laughter and joy.” Good that you have drawn our attention to this. You just haven’t read the verse to the end. It goes on to say: “…but the sorrow of the world produces death” [2 Cor.7:10]. So we need to understand the difference between godly and worldly sorrow, and not pass off human grief as godly sorrow.

God’s sorrow is spiritual, not fleshly: “the LORD was sorry that He had made man” [Gen.6:6]. When people read this verse, the usual picture is: “The Lord went into a secret room, became sad and regretted that He had created man.” Nothing of the sort! That’s all worldly sorrow. In Hebrew the word translated “was sorry” is nacham, and it is most often translated “to be comforted” or “to be at rest”. Interestingly, the name Noah, which means rest, comes from this very word nacham [Gen.5:29]. The Lord simply breathed out deeply and relaxed, and all the cyclopes and giants were washed away by the water, while the man of rest, Noah, crossed over into a new world. That is why He said: “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh” [Gen.6:3]. In Hebrew the word din means “to strive, to fight, to contend”. The flesh always wars against the spirit [Gal.5:17].

This occasion when God relaxed is very much like when Jesus breathed out deeply and gave up His Spirit. And what happened when the Lord breathed His last? “So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth’” [Gen.6:7]. And all flesh was destroyed in the body of Jesus: “…if One died for all, then all died” [2 Cor.5:14]. And the man of rest, Christ Jesus, crossed over into a new world: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” [2 Cor.5:17]. And what is God’s attitude to the new creation that is in Christ? “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” [Gen.6:8].

So our repentance has nothing to do with worldly sorrow, which, as it is written, produces death. God’s sorrow, or God’s rest, always produces repentance that is unchanging, “not to be regretted”. David sings of the same: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul…” The word “restores” [Hebrew shuv] means “to return”, “to turn back”. In other words, the Lord returns our soul, or our thinking, to its original state. He changes our thinking, or gives us repentance. How does He do it? Through His rest. “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” [Heb.4:10] And after we receive repentance from Him, we begin to follow Him in the paths of righteousness. [Ps.23:1-3].