Christian Penance...is it biblical?

 

The following blog is to answer this question: Christian Penance...is it biblical?

I am no Bible scholar or Christian intellectual. So I have no expectation that my view will be accepted. I only offer this as something to think about. 

Christians Facebook responder: I don’t believe in penance.

I agree with you if you mean this definition:

...a sacramental rite that is practiced in Roman, Eastern, and some Anglican churches and that consists of private confession, absolution, and a penance directed by the confessor.

This is a man made teaching of man and not taught in the Bible.

However there is one place in the Bible where this definition is illustrated:

...an act of self-abasement, mortification (see mortification sense 3), or devotion performed to show sorrow or repentance for sin .

3: something (such as a hardship or penalty) resembling an act of penance (as in compensating for an offense)

This is found in 2 Corinthians 7

8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter (1 Corinthians 11:17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.), I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance (change of mind) that leads to salvation (deliverance) and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

11 See what this godly sorrow (penance) has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12 So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13 By all this we are encouraged.

This is Paul's pastoral counsel to Christian believer's...those already saved by faith because of their godly sorrow upon reading Paul's letter of rebuke for their sins...carnality, sectarianism, approval of a sinning member, abuse of spiritual gifts, dishonoring the Lord's table, ect. They changed their mind about their behavior and were delivered from the judgments mentioned in his rebukes in the previous letter.

However when I go to commentaries the scholars and teachers treat this text as applying to unregenerated sinners because they use these words "your sorrow led you to repentance" and "Godly sorrow brings repentance (change of mind) that leads to salvation (deliverance)" as referring to salvation and not to Christians correction.

Example from Mike Riccardi, assistant professor of theology at The Master’s Seminary

This verse makes clear that there is a kind of sorrow that is according to the will of God. There is a sorrow that God wants you to experience, because the sorrow that is according to the will of God “produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation” (2 Cor 7:10). Paul is teaching the Corinthians that an essential component of true repentance is genuine sorrow over having grieved God and belittled His holiness.

But sorrow is not always beneficial. While those who are genuinely repentant will experience sorrow over their sin, sorrow itself is not repentance. There is a kind of sorrow over sin that does not produce repentance, and therefore does not lead to salvation.

True repentance does not stop even with godly sorrow, but issues in a changed life. Genuine repentance bears fruit. And we see this as Paul details what the Corinthians’ repentance consisted in (2 Cor 7:11). https://blog.tms.edu/sorrow 

Another is at Got Questions: 

What is godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10)?

Godly sorrow is a kind of wretchedness that can bring the repentant sinner to tears of grief. A good example of this is Peter at the time of Jesus’ arrest and trials. When accused as being one of Jesus’ followers, Peter disowned Jesus by cursing and swearing to his accusers that he did not know the Man. Upon hearing the rooster crow three times, he remembered the words of Jesus, who had prophesied Peter’s very actions, and he went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:74–75).

James wrote, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom” (James 4:8–9). James is referencing this kind of deep sorrow with his command to “grieve, mourn, and wail.” Such words are reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets’ call for the people to repent, to grieve over their sins, and to sit in sackcloth and ashes.

https://www.gotquestions.org/godly-sorrow.html

In context "repentance" (metanoia) and "salvation" (sōtērian) in 2 Corinthians 7:10 applies not to the first tense of salvation, justification, but to the second tense of salvation, progressive sanctification. When a Christian is rebuked of their sins and warned that continuation in this sin will lead to judgment, loss of fellowship, loss of blessing and ultimately to future loss of rewards...then penance---godly sorrow is the right and biblical response "what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter."