Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

cious reviving followed the godly sorrow! 340 “For godly sorrow works repentance
to salvation not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world works
death. For behold this selfsame thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort,
what carefulness it wrought in you, yes, what clearing of yourselves, yes,
what indignation, yes, what fear, yes, what vehement desire, yes, what zeal,
yes, what revenge! In all things you have proved yourselves to be clear in this
matter” (2 Cor. 7:10-11).
It should be abundantly clear by now that every effort to wiggle off
James’ multi-pronged hook by seeking refuge in the multitude of biblical passages
that mandate joy, sometimes with an injunction against grief, is pernicious.
The complementarity of truth never fails to soar above man’s puny excuses
of this sort. Cheers and tears are the two sides of the one Christian coin.
Why would one not be filled with cheerful praise in the presence of God,
when He calls upon us to worship him? We better leave all types of grief behind.
And why would we not be filled with tears of self-condemnation (1
John 3:19-20), when God calls for this? We better leave all types of cheap fun
behind!
In short, joy in God spells sorrow over sin. Vice versa, sorrow over sin
spells joy in God. Immediately after Nehemiah forbids grief in one context
(Neh. 8:9), Israel turns to grief in a second, and frankly awesome, context
(Neh. 9:1-10:39). The joy about the presence of God and his Law is replaced
by sorrow over sin against God and his law. The joy of the Lord drives out
sin through repentance, just as the sorrow over sin turns into joy through repentance.
Joy is strong as well as fragile. It is strong. It breaks the back of sin.
It is fragile. Unrepentant sin breaks it. In Nehemiah 9-10 the joy of the Lord
breaks the sin of intermarriage, of the non-payment of tithes, and of Sabbath
desecration. On the other hand, in Nehemiah 13 the sin of collaboration with
the enemy and the recurring sin of intermarriage break the joy of Nehemiah
upon his return from the royal Babylonian court.
In conclusion, the two options are self-explanatory. One either opts for a
life of the world’s carnal joy and all that this entails with the inevitable result
of eternal sorrow (Prov. 1:20; Ps. 37:12-15; Lk. 6:25). Or one opts for a life of
James’ godly sorrow, in which the “saddest (divine) duties are experienced as
sweeter than the greatest (secular) triumphs” (Manton, 376) with the inevitable
consequence of eternal joy. There is no other alternative, no middle road.
Something similar comes into view in the parable of the Pharisee and the
Tax collector (Lk. 18:9-14). The problem with the members of the covenant
community is often that while by no stretch of the imagination they wish to
340 See Is. 57:15!
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