The right kind of sorrow for sin
Posted at Reformation Scotland:
In a world full of troubles and difficulties, our biggest problem is our own sin. Sometimes, even to think of the mercy of God only adds to our realisation of how sinful we are, because how can we explain why we continue to rebel against the Lord our God who is so full of mercies and forgiveness? (Dan. 9:9). It can from time to time be appropriate, or indeed unavoidable, to sit for a while with a sense of our sinfulness and sorrow over it. In the following updated extract, this is what the scholar-poet and Glasgow minister Zachary Boyd (c.1585–1653) invites us to do, as a salutary exercise which will help us both loathe our own sins more and have more compassion for our brothers and sisters in their afflictions. We have no reasons for self-congratulation; if the Lord saves sinners like us, it must be for His own sake (Dan. 9:17).I come now to you, brothers and sisters, and I entreat every one of you, for the Lord’s sake, to lament your own sins first, and thereafter, let us come and lament for the sins and afflictions of our brethren. As you profess yourselves to be the fellow-members of your brethren, have also a fellow-feeling for their troubles. It is not possible that someone who cannot weep for his own misery can be moved to compassion towards others. Also, the Lord will laugh at your lamentations for others, if He finds you playing with your own sins, and turning His grace into wantonness.
By mourning for our sins and for the sins and afflictions of God’s people, we shall reap this comfort, that we shall be hidden in the day when the Lord comes to judge.
Let us therefore prepare ourselves for lamentations. Let it not be grievous to us to weep today, for better is the house of mourning than the house of dancing. It is far better to be at the cross of Christ, weeping with good Mary, than dancing in King Herod’s hall with the daughter of Herodias (Matthew 14). I would rather be washing the blessed feet of Jesus with my teras in Simon’s house with the sinful woman (Luke 7), than be eating dainty meals with Dives clothed in purple and scarlet (Luke 16). I would rather be lying in the stocks with Joseph (Genesis 39) than dancing around the golden calf with idolaters (Exodus 32).
