All tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith – Thomas Brooks

“They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and shall mourn.” Zechariah 12:10

All godly sorrow is the fruit and effect of evangelical faith. Godly sorrow flows from faith as the stream from the fountain, the branch from the root, and the effect from the cause. All gracious mourning flows from looking, from believing. Nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like a look of faith. All tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith. Godly sorrow rises and falls as faith rises and falls. The more a man is able by faith to look upon a pierced Christ the more his heart will mourn over all the dishonors which he has done to Christ. The more deep and wide the wounds are, which faith shows me in the heart and sides of Christ the more my heart will be wounded for sinning against Christ.

The free love and favor of God, and His unspeakable goodness and mercy manifested in Jesus Christ to poor sinners is the very spring and fountain of all evangelical sorrow. Nothing breaks the heart of a poor sinner like the sight of God’s free love in Christ, the Redeemer. A man cannot seriously look upon the firstness, the freeness, the greatness, the unchangeableness, the everlastingness, and the matchlessness of God’s free favor and love in Christ with a hard heart, or with dry eyes! It is only such a love as this, which sets the soul a-mourning and a-lamenting over a crucified Christ.

The fears of wrath, of hell, and of condemnation works unsound hearts to mourn. But it is the sight of a bleeding, dying Savior which sets sincere, gracious souls a-mourning.