Contrition, or sorrow over sin, is one of the main entrees on the Lenten menu. It must never be dished up alone but always offered with a generous serving of the Gospel, which is the proclamation of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Each has its place on the menu, and each one provides its own nutritional value. Godly contrition will naturally produce a thirst for righteousness. Contrition is more than just sorrow over sin, it is what David confessed in the Psalms, "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight" (Psalm 51:4). Godly contrition involves not only sorrow over sin, but also a stinging reality of death and an understanding that we not only commit actual sins but that we are evil by nature.

Perhaps you have witnessed the hypocritical contrition of what Luther called "gallows repentance" by the criminal who is sorry, not for the sin committed, but that he got caught. Also, you may have heard the insincere apology offered by those who say they are sorry for causing offense, but who really are not sorry for what they did or said. And then there are those, like the Pharisee, who think they need no repentance. A stunning example of this was offered recently by Warren Buffet who, after giving billions of dollars to charity, said at a press conference, "I know there are many ways to get to heaven, but this is the best way I know."

It has been rightly said that those serving in the divinely instituted office of preaching the gospel are to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted," in other words, proclaim the Law of God in all its fierceness and the Gospel in all its sweetness. The Scriptures teach that, "the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). And David also said, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).

What is a genuine broken and contrite heart that leads one to thirst for the righteousness found in Christ? We need to know the difference between the contrition of Judas and that of Peter, because one ended up in hell and the other in heaven. Like Peter, Judas was remorseful and confessed, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood" (Matthew 27:3-4). But unlike Peter, he did not comfort himself with the Gospel and instead offered to God another payment for his sins, namely, he returned the money and gave his life as payment. It could never be enough payment. Sadly, Jesus says of Judas that he was a "son of perdition" and lost (John 17:12) because Judas refused to believe in God’s mercy.

The Lutheran Confessions explain it this way, "Now as to the disclosure of sin, as long as men hear only the law and hear nothing about Christ, the veil of Moses covers their eyes, as a result they fail to learn the true nature of sin from the law, and thus they become either conceited hypocrites, like the Pharisees, or they despair, as Judas did" (SA III.40). When sinners realize the enormity of their sin before God and the impossibility of paying His just sentence, then the Holy Spirit can lead them to see in Jesus and His sacrifice their only hope for rescue and forgiveness.

We must be very careful not to turn our contrition into a work that earns forgiveness. For if it were true that God forgives us because of the sorrow He sees in us, then we would be saved by what we do. Then we could boast that we were saved because we sorrowed more than those whose souls are lost in hell. Our contrition, our sorrow over sin, is not necessary to earn God's forgiveness and in some way to atone for the wrong that we have done. It could never do this. God does not forgive us because we are sorry. He forgives us only because He loves us and because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ for us.

This is not to say that contrition is of no value or importance. It is necessary that you see yourself as a lost sinner before you will be ready for the message of forgiveness and salvation that is proclaimed in the Gospel. The Pharisee has no use for a Savior from sin, for he knows of no sin from which he needs to be saved. He thinks of himself as a good man, a righteous man in the eyes of the world; and this is enough for him—but not for God.

As long as a person does not see the avenging fury of God's justice, as long as he does not realize that he is subject to eternal damnation because of his sin, he will never understand how desperately he needs the salvation which is offered in Christ. The soul that has never felt the terror of death will not thirst for the water of life. This is the value of contrition, not that it makes people better and more worthy of God's love, but that it makes them understand that they are by nature sinful and unclean, that they need a Savior from sin, death, and the devil. When contrition has taught us that, it has done all that it can do. Only the Gospel can comfort the afflicted, contrite, repentant sinner. The comfortable and proud still need to be afflicted by the Law before they can thirst for God’s righteousness in Christ.

Richard Waters is pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Carthage, Missouri.