Godly sorrow, in
some cases, is joined with restitution
Anyone who has wrong others by unjust
or fraudulent dealing should, in good conscience, offer repayment. There is an
express law for this: “He shall confess his sin which he has committed, and
he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it a fifth of it,
and give it ot him whom he has wronged” (Numbers 5:7). In a similar way. Zacchaeus
made restitution: “If I have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back
four times as much” (Luke 19:8). When Selymus, the great Muslim, lay upon
his deathbed, he was urged by Pyrrhus to take the wealth he had stolen from the
Persian merchants and give it to charity. But Selymus commanded instead that it
should be sent back to the rightful owners. Should a Christian creed not be
better than a Muslim’s Koran? It is a bad sign when a man on his deathbed
bequeaths his soul to God but his ill-gotten goods to his friends. I can hardly
imagine that God will receive his soul. Augustine said, “Without restitution,
no remission.” And it was said by old Latimer: “If ye restore not goods unjustly
gotten, ye shall cough in hell.”
Question 1: Suppose a person has wrong someone
financially and the wronged man is dead; what should he do?
Answer: Let him restore his ill-gotten gains to that
man’s heirs and successors. If none of them are living, let him restore them to
God; that is, let him put his unjust gain into God’s treasury by giving to the
poor.
Question 2: What if the party who did the wrong is dead?
Answer: Then they who are his heirs should make
restitution. Listen to what I say: if there are any who have inherited wealth,
and they know that the parties who passed down that wealth had defrauded others
and died with that guilt on them, then the heirs or executors who possess that wealth
are bound by conscience to make restitution. Otherwise, they bring the curse of
God upon their family.
Question 3: if a man has wrong another and is not able
to restore, what should he do?
Answer: Let him deeply humble himself before God,
promising full satisfaction to the wronged party if the Lord should make him
able, and God will accept the will for the deed. (Thomas Watson, The
Doctrine of Repentance: A Closer Look at This Essential Element of True
Christianity [1668; repr., Abbotsford, Wis.: Aneko Press, 2023], 18-19)
