Part 11
The Apostle noted this benefit when he commanded the Corinthians to banish from their fellowship the man who had committed incest:
"A little leaven leavens the whole lump." —1 Corinthians 5:6
Indeed, the holy Apostle perceived so great a danger here that he forbade the good from maintaining fellowship and familiarity with the wicked:
"If anyone among you who is called a brother is sexually immoral, covetous, an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or an extortioner, I do not permit you even to eat with such a person." —1 Corinthians 5:11
The third benefit is that those disciplined by excommunication, being ashamed of their disgrace, may repent and through such repentance come to amendment of life.
Thus, even for their salvation, it is expedient that their wickedness should be punished, so that, being warned by the rod of the Church, they may recognize the faults in which they indulge and become hardened when treated too gently.
Those separated from the flock of the Church are therefore not excluded from the hope of salvation. Rather, they are punished with temporary correction until they turn away from their wicked manner of life and begin to live holily and honorably.
This is what the Apostle means when he says:
"If anyone does not obey our teaching, mark that person and do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed." —2 Thessalonians 3:14
Likewise, in another passage, when he says:
"I have delivered the incestuous man of Corinth to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." —1 Corinthians 5:5
he means, in my judgment, that he disciplined him with a temporary condemnation so that his spirit might be eternally saved.
Some understand this as referring to a particular bodily torment inflicted by the devil, but that appears to me very uncertain. Rather, it should be understood as I have explained it.
We must not, therefore, erase the excommunicated from the number of the elect or despair of them as though they were already lost. It is permissible to judge them strangers to the Church according to the rule I established above, but only for the duration of their separation.
Even if we perceive in them more pride and obstinacy than humility, we must still commit them to God's hand and commend them to his goodness, hoping for something better in the future than what we presently see.
To speak more briefly, we must not condemn to eternal death a person who is in the hand of God alone. Rather, we must judge each person's works according to the law of God. When we follow this rule, we adhere to the judgment God has revealed instead of advancing our own.
We must not assume greater liberty in judging unless we wish to limit the power of God and subject his mercy to our imagination. Whenever it pleases him, by that mercy the most wicked are
transformed into upright persons and strangers are received into the Church.
God does this so that human opinion may be frustrated and human audacity restrained, since, unless corrected, it always dares to claim more authority than belongs to it.
As to Christ's declaration that whatever the ministers of his word bind or loose on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven, it does not follow that we are able to discern who belongs to his Church and who does not.
For since this promise is repeated twice, it possesses a different meaning in each passage.
In the first passage, the Lord does not intend to give some visible mark by which those who are bound or absolved may be recognized by sight. He simply testifies that those who on earth—that is, in this life—receive by faith the doctrine of the Gospel, in which Christ is offered to us for redemption and deliverance, shall truly be loosed and absolved in heaven—that is, before God upon his heavenly throne.
On the contrary, those who despise and reject that doctrine possess in it a testimony that they remain bound in heaven and before God, and are even more tightly confined in their bonds.
In the second passage, which treats of excommunication, the power of binding and loosing is placed within ecclesiastical discipline. Those who are excommunicated are not cast into eternal ruin and
despair. Rather, through the condemnation of their conduct, they are warned that eternal condemnation awaits them unless they repent.
This is the difference between excommunication and the curse that the ecclesiastical teachers call anathema. In anathematizing a man, all hope of pardon is taken from him and he is delivered to the devil. In excommunicating him, it is chiefly his conduct that is punished.
Although his person is also punished, this is done in such a way that, by warning him of his future condemnation, he is called back to the way of salvation. If he obeys, the Church stands ready to receive him again in friendship and restore him to her communion.
Therefore, although we cannot properly observe ecclesiastical discipline while associating privately and maintaining close familiarity with the excommunicated, we must nevertheless endeavor, as far as lies within us, to restore them to the right path— whether through exhortation and instruction, clemency and kindness, or our prayers to God—so that, being restored, they may return to the communion of the Church.
The Apostle also teaches us this:
"Do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." —2 Thessalonians 3:15
He likewise requires the whole Church to display such gentleness in receiving those who show some sign of amendment. For he does not wish her to exercise excessively rigorous severity, proceed strictly to the very end, and remain inexorable. Rather, he wishes her to come
forward willingly to receive the offender so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow:
"You ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest he be swallowed up by excessive sorrow." —2 Corinthians 2:7
If this moderation is not carefully maintained, there is danger that discipline may become a kind of Gehenna and that, instead of being correctors, we may become executioners.
It has already been explained what importance the ministry of God's word and the sacraments ought to possess among us, and how greatly we must honor it as the sign and mark of the Church.
First, wherever this ministry remains intact, no moral faults can prevent a Church from existing there.
Second, even if there are some minor faults in doctrine or the sacraments, these do not prevent the ministry and sacraments from retaining their efficacy.
Moreover, it has been shown that the errors to be pardoned in this manner are those that do not touch the principal doctrine of our religion or contradict the articles of faith in which all believers must agree. As to the sacraments, tolerable faults are those that neither abolish nor overthrow the Lord's institution.
But if falsehood arises to destroy the first principles of Christian doctrine and overthrow what must necessarily be known, and if the proper use of the sacraments is abolished, then the ruin of the
Church follows, just as human life ends when the throat is cut or the heart is pierced.
Since this is the condition of the Pope's kingdom, one may judge what remains there of the Church. In place of the ministry of the word, there is a perverse priesthood fabricated from falsehood. In place of our Lord's Supper, there is an abominable sacrilege. The worship of God is obscured and contaminated by countless superstitions. Almost the whole doctrine without which Christianity cannot exist is buried and trampled underfoot. The public assemblies are like schools of idolatry and impiety.
Therefore, in withdrawing from participation in so many abominations and sacrileges, there is no danger that we are separating ourselves from the Church of Christ. For the communion of the Church was not instituted to become a bond uniting us in idolatry, impiety, ignorance of God, or any other wickedness, but rather to preserve us in the fear of God and obedience to his truth.
It will appear more clearly how we ought to regard the churches oppressed by the tyranny of that Roman idol if we compare them with the ancient Church of Israel as it is portrayed to us by the Prophets.
While God's covenant was preserved in purity in Judah and Israel, the true Church existed there because the things upon which the Church is founded were present. They possessed the doctrine of truth in the law, and its administration was entrusted to the priests and Prophets. They were received among the people of God through the sacrament of circumcision, and they possessed the other sacraments as exercises by which they might be strengthened in faith.
There can therefore be no doubt that the testimonies and titles with which our Lord honored his Church belonged to them at that time.
After they abandoned God's law and degenerated into idolatry and superstition, they began partly to lose this privilege. For who would dare take away or deny the title of Church to those to whom our Lord has given the preaching of his word and the use of his sacraments?
On the other hand, who would dare regard simply and without qualification as the Church an assembly in which the word of God is openly trampled underfoot and its ministry—which is, as it were, the strength and very soul of the Church—is destroyed?
Someone may ask, then, whether no form of the Church remained among the Jews after they had declined into idolatry. The answer is easy.
If we consider the Church in the sense in which we are now speaking —an assembly whose judgment must be reverenced, whose authority must be esteemed, whose admonitions must be received, whose corrections and discipline must not be despised, and whose communion must not be abandoned—the Prophets cry aloud that such fellowships were not to be regarded as churches but as profane and polluted synagogues.
For if they had been churches, Elijah, Micah, and the other servants of God would have been banished from the Church, since the Prophets, priests, and people held them in greater abhorrence than the uncircumcised.
If they had been churches, it would follow that the Church was not the pillar of truth but the pillar of falsehood, and not the tabernacle of the living God but a refuge for idols.
Nevertheless, there remained among them certain prerogatives and privileges belonging particularly to the Church, chiefly the covenant of God. That covenant was maintained by its own steadfastness in opposition to the people's impiety rather than being confirmed by them.
Therefore, because of the certainty and constancy God maintains in his grace and goodness, the divine covenant remained firm there, and its truth could not be abolished by the people's unfaithfulness.
Circumcision likewise could not be so polluted by their impure and defiled hands that it ceased to be the sign and sacrament of that covenant. For this reason our Lord said that the children born to that people were his:
"You took your sons and daughters, whom you had borne to me." —Ezekiel 16:20
For the same reason, anyone today who acknowledges the assemblies under the Pope as Churches of God, although we see them filled with idolatry, superstitions, and wicked doctrines, and therefore thinks it necessary to remain completely within their communion—even to the point of consenting to their doctrine—will be grievously deceived.
For if they are Churches, the power of the keys has been entrusted to them. But the keys are inseparably joined to the word of God, and
that word has been excluded and driven from them.
Moreover, if they are Churches, Christ's promise applies to them:
"Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." —Matthew 18:18
Yet all who openly profess themselves servants of Jesus Christ are cast out and excommunicated by them. It follows, therefore, either that the promise of Jesus Christ is frivolous and vain or that they are not Churches—at least in this respect.
Finally, instead of the ministry of the word, there are only schools of impiety and every kind of error. Therefore, either they are not Churches according to the present consideration, or no mark will remain by which we may distinguish between the assemblies of believers and the synagogues of the Turks.
Nevertheless, we leave to them the remnants and appearances of the Church that our Lord has preserved there since they were scattered.
First, there is the covenant of God, which is inviolable, and baptism, which is its sacrament. Having been consecrated by the mouth of the Lord, baptism retains its power despite human impiety.
In short, we neither deny altogether that the Church exists there nor grant it without qualification. They are Churches insofar as our Lord preserves there remnants of his people, although miserably scattered, and insofar as certain marks of the Church still remain—
especially those whose efficacy can be destroyed neither by the cunning of the devil nor by the wickedness of men.
On the other hand, because the marks required in the Church, as we are presently considering it, have been effaced there, I say that if we seek a properly ordered Church, no legitimate form of the Church exists there.
Antichrist has so disturbed and overturned everything that it more closely resembles Babylon than the holy city of God.
Now, if it is evident that Antichrist reigns there, we must infer from this that they are Churches of God, since Scripture foretells:
"He shall sit in the temple of God." —2 Thessalonians 2:4
But we must understand that they are Churches contaminated and polluted by his abominations.
The forgiveness of sins.
The forgiveness of sins is appropriately joined to the Church, since it can be obtained only by those who are members of the Church, as the Prophet says:
"The people who dwell there shall have their iniquity forgiven." —Isaiah 33:24
This heavenly Jerusalem must therefore first be built, and then this grace has its place within her: that the iniquity of all her citizens shall
be blotted out.
I say that she must first be built, not because the Church can ever exist without the forgiveness of sins, but because the Lord has promised his mercy only within the communion of saints.
The forgiveness of sins, therefore, is our first entrance into the Church and the kingdom of God, for without it we possess no covenant or fellowship with God, as the Prophet Hosea shows:
"On that day, says the Lord, I will make a covenant with the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven. I will break the bow and the sword and cause all warfare to cease from the earth, and I will make them lie down without fear. I will make an everlasting covenant with them in righteousness, judgment, mercy, and compassion." —Hosea 2:18–19
We see how our Lord reconciles us to himself through his mercy.
Likewise, in another passage, when he foretells that he will gather the people whom he had scattered in his wrath, he says:
"I will cleanse them from all the iniquity by which they have sinned against me." —Jeremiah 33:8
Therefore, at our first entrance we are received into the fellowship of the Church through the sign of washing. By this we are shown that we possess no access to God's household unless our defilements are first cleansed by his goodness.
What this forgiveness of sins is and how it is accomplished will be explained more carefully elsewhere. Nevertheless, we must note here what is shown by the order of the Creed: forgiveness is not given to us because of our merit, but solely through God's grace.
For it has first been declared that through the righteousness of Christ God is made gracious toward us and wills to be our good Father. The Holy Spirit has also been treated, through whom we are sanctified so that we may have communion with Christ. Finally, the Church has been considered, which is brought forth through these things.
The forgiveness of sins is then mentioned, through which we are made members of the Church. By this order it is signified that such forgiveness depends upon and consists in nothing other than Christ alone, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Nor should we understand that through this forgiveness our Lord merely receives us into his Church once, but also that by it he maintains and preserves us there.
For what benefit would there be if our Lord granted us a pardon that brought us no lasting advantage? God's mercy would be vain and ineffectual if it were granted to us only once.
Every believer can bear witness to this, for there is no one who does not feel himself guilty throughout his life of many infirmities requiring the mercy of God.
Therefore, since we remain burdened with the remnants of sin for as long as we live, it is certain that we could not remain in the Church
for a single moment unless God's grace continually came to our aid by forgiving our faults.
On the other hand, the Lord has called his people to eternal salvation. They must therefore believe that his grace is always ready to show mercy toward their offenses.
We are therefore admonished here to believe that, through God's clemency, by the merit of Jesus Christ and the sanctification of his Spirit, the forgiveness of our sins has been granted to us and is granted to us daily insofar as we are united to the body of the Church.
Since there are some who endeavor to deprive the Church of this sole refuge of salvation, we must further strengthen consciences against so pestilent an error.
The Novatians troubled the ancient Church with this false doctrine, and in our present age there are certain Anabaptists who closely resemble them in this fantasy. For they imagine that through baptism God's people are regenerated into a pure and angelic life that must never be contaminated by the stains of the flesh. If they fall after baptism, these teachers leave them no expectation except the inexorable severity of God.
In short, they give no hope of pardon or mercy to a sinner who falls after receiving God's grace, for they acknowledge no forgiveness of sins except that by which we are first regenerated.
Although no falsehood is more clearly refuted in Scripture than this one, nevertheless, because such people find simple persons to
deceive—as Novatus anciently gained many followers—let us show briefly how dangerous their error is both to themselves and to others.
First, since all the saints, by God's command, daily make this request:
"Forgive us our debts," —Matthew 6:12
they thereby confess that they are sinners.
Nor do they ask in vain, for the Lord Jesus did not command us to ask for something he is unwilling to give. Indeed, having promised generally that the whole prayer he gave us would be heard by the Father, he attached a particular promise to this request.
What more do we desire? The Lord wills that all his saints confess themselves sinners every day throughout their lives, and he promises them pardon. What audacity is it, then, either to deny that they are sinners or, when they have fallen, to exclude them from every grace?
Moreover, whom does he command us to forgive seventy times seven —that is, as often as necessary? Is it not our brothers?
"I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven." —Matthew 18:22
And why does he command this except that we should imitate his clemency?
He therefore forgives not merely once or twice, but whenever a poor sinner, cast down and wounded by the recognition of his faults, sighs
after him.
To begin at the very origin of the Church, the Patriarchs were circumcised and received into God's covenant. There is no doubt that they had also been taught by their father to pursue righteousness and integrity. Yet they conspired to kill their brother—a crime abominable even among the most desperate criminals in the world.
Eventually, being softened by Judah's admonition, they sold him. But this was still intolerable cruelty.
Simeon and Levi murdered the entire population of Shechem to avenge their sister, although they had no right to do so. Indeed, their action was condemned by their father.
Reuben committed execrable incest with his father's wife. Judah, intending to commit fornication, violated even natural decency by having relations with his daughter-in-law.
Yet so far were they from being erased from among the elect people that they were instead appointed its heads.
What shall we say of David? As the one responsible for administering justice, how grievously did he offend when he attempted to satisfy his adultery by shedding innocent blood? He had already been regenerated and had received an exceptional testimony above the other children of God. Nevertheless, he committed a wickedness from which even the Gentiles would have recoiled in horror. Yet this did not prevent him from obtaining mercy.
And so that we do not spend too long upon particular examples, how many promises do we possess concerning God's mercy toward the Israelites? How frequently is it shown that the Lord was always gracious toward them?
For what does Moses promise the people when, after declining into idolatry and forsaking the living God, they return to him?
"The Lord will bring you back from captivity and have compassion upon you. He will gather you from among the peoples where you have been scattered. Even if you were dispersed to the ends of the world, he will gather you from there." —Deuteronomy 30:3–4
But I do not wish to begin a recital that would have no end. For the Prophets are filled with such promises, in which they offer mercy to a people who had committed countless crimes.
What iniquity is more grievous than rebellion? For this reason, it is called a divorce between God and his Church. Nevertheless, even this is pardoned through God's goodness.
Through the mouth of Jeremiah he says:
"What man, if his wife abandoned herself to adultery, would afterward receive her again? Yet all your ways are polluted by your adulteries, people of Judah, and the whole land is filled with them. Nevertheless, return to me, and I will receive you. Return to me, rebellious and obstinate people. I will not turn my face from you, for I am holy, and my wrath
shall not endure forever." —Jeremiah 3:1, 12
Certainly, no other disposition could exist in the one who says that he does not desire the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn and live:
"I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live." —Ezekiel 33:11
Therefore, when Solomon dedicated the temple, he appointed it for this purpose: that prayers made there for the forgiveness of sins should be heard:
"When your children sin—for there is no man who does not sin—and in your wrath you deliver them to their enemies, and afterward they repent in their hearts and turn to you, praying in their captivity and saying, 'Lord, we have sinned and lived wickedly,' and when in their supplication they look toward the land you gave their fathers and toward your holy temple, then you shall hear their prayers from heaven, be gracious to your people who have offended you, and forgive all the transgressions they have committed against you." —1 Kings 8:46–50
Nor was it in vain that God ordained sacrifices for sins among his people in his law. If he had not known that his servants would continually be stained by vices, he would not have given them this remedy.
I ask, then, whether the coming of Christ, in which the whole fullness of grace was displayed, has deprived believers of the right to pray for the forgiveness of their faults and left them without mercy whenever they offend God.
What else would this mean except that Christ came for the ruin of his people rather than for their salvation, if God's goodness—which was always ready for the saints under the Old Testament—has now been taken away entirely?
But if we believe Scripture, which proclaims loudly and clearly that God's grace and love toward men have fully appeared in Christ, that the riches of his mercy have been displayed in him, and that reconciliation with men has been accomplished, we must not doubt that his clemency is now set forth more abundantly rather than shortened or diminished.
We also possess visible examples of this. Saint Peter had heard from the mouth of Jesus Christ that whoever refused to confess his name before men would not be acknowledged by him before the angels of heaven. Yet Peter denied him three times, even with curses. Nevertheless, he was not excluded from grace.
Those among the Thessalonians who lived disorderly lives were disciplined by Saint Paul in such a manner that he still invited them to repentance.
Saint Peter did not drive Simon Magus to despair, but instead gave him good hope by counseling him:
"Repent of this wickedness and pray to God that the thought of your heart may be forgiven." —Acts 8:22
Indeed, have not grievous faults sometimes overtaken an entire Church? What did Saint Paul do in such cases except endeavor to restore the whole people to the right path rather than abandon them under a final curse?
The Galatians' revolt from the Gospel was no minor fault. The Corinthians were still less excusable, since their vices were both more numerous and equally enormous.
Nevertheless, neither the Galatians nor the Corinthians were excluded from God's goodness. On the contrary, those who had offended more grievously than others through fornication, impurity, and every kind of shamefulness were expressly called to repentance.
For the covenant our Lord made with Christ and all his members remains and shall always remain inviolable:
"If his children forsake my law and do not walk in my commandments, if they profane my statutes and do not keep my ordinances, then I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their sins with chastisements. Nevertheless, my mercy shall not depart from them." —Psalm 89:30–33
Finally, the order of the Creed shows us that this grace and clemency always remain and reside within the Church, because after the Church is established, the forgiveness of sins is immediately added.
It must therefore have its place among those who belong to the Church.
Some who are a little more subtle, seeing the doctrine of the Novatians so clearly refuted by Scripture, do not make every sin unpardonable, but only deliberate transgressions into which a man falls knowingly and willingly. In speaking this way, they suppose that no sin is forgiven except one committed through ignorance.
But since the Lord ordained in the law some sacrifices to blot out his people's deliberate sins and others to purge sins of ignorance, what recklessness it is to leave no hope of pardon for a deliberate sin.
I maintain that nothing is clearer than this: the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ possesses power to forgive the deliberate sins of believers, since God testified to this through the fleshly sacrifices that prefigured it.
Moreover, who will excuse David under the pretext of ignorance, seeing that it is evident he was thoroughly instructed in the law? Did he not know the criminality of adultery and murder, when he punished these offenses daily among his subjects?
Did the Patriarchs imagine that murdering their brother was good and honorable? Had the Corinthians profited so little that they considered incontinence, fornication, hatred, and contention pleasing to God? After being so carefully warned, was Saint Peter ignorant of the sinfulness of denying his Master?
Let us not, therefore, through our inhumanity close the door to God's mercy, which so freely presents itself to us.
I am not unaware that some ancient teachers interpreted the sins forgiven daily to mean the lighter faults arising from the weakness of the flesh. Moreover, they thought that the solemn repentance then required for serious offenses ought no more to be repeated than baptism.
This opinion must not be understood as though they intended to cast into despair anyone who fell again after once being received to repentance, or as though they wished to diminish daily faults by regarding them as insignificant before God.
For they well knew that the saints frequently stumble through some failure of faith; that they sometimes swear rashly, become excessively angry, even proceed at times to open insults, and fall into other vices that our Lord holds in no small abhorrence.
Rather, they spoke in this manner to distinguish between private faults and public crimes that caused great scandals within the Church.
Moreover, the great difficulty with which they pardoned those who had committed some offense worthy of ecclesiastical correction did not arise because they thought sinners obtained pardon from God only with difficulty. By such severity, they wished to deter others from falling into offenses for which they would deserve excommunication from the Church.
Nevertheless, the word of God, which alone must serve as our rule here, requires greater moderation and compassion. For it teaches that the rigor of ecclesiastical discipline must not proceed so far that
the person whose welfare ought to be sought is overwhelmed by sorrow.
Nevertheless, those who are so harsh and inexorable toward deliberate sins appeal to the authority of the Apostle, who appears to remove every hope of pardon in this matter. For he says:
"It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and received into the grace of heaven, who were made partakers of the Holy Spirit and tasted the word of God and the powers of the life to come, if they fall away again, to be restored to repentance, since this would be to crucify the Son of God a second time and expose him to mockery." —Hebrews 6:4–6
Again, in another place he says:
"If we sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice remains for us, but only a dreadful expectation of judgment." —Hebrews 10:26–27
These are the passages through whose misinterpretation the Novatians formerly troubled the Church.
Because they appear severe at first sight, some good men have judged this Epistle to be spurious. Nevertheless, it everywhere displays a truly apostolic spirit.
Since we dispute only with those who receive it, it is easy to show that these declarations do nothing to confirm their error.
First, the Apostle must agree with his Master, who declares:
"Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Spirit, which shall not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come." —Matthew 12:31–32
It is certain that the Apostle accepted this exception, unless we wish to make him an adversary of Christ's grace. It follows that what he says in both passages must be understood solely of the sin against the Holy Spirit.
If this deduction is not sufficient for them, I will show further how his words apply here. To explain this properly, we must know what this abominable crime is for which there shall be no forgiveness.
Saint Augustine defines it in one place as hardness and obstinacy continuing until death, together with despair of obtaining grace. But this does not agree with Christ's declaration that it shall not be forgiven in this age. Either that statement would be made in vain, or the sin can be committed in this world. Yet according to Saint Augustine's definition, it is not committed unless a person persists in it until death.
As to what others say—that envying the graces of one's neighbor is to sin against the Holy Spirit—I do not know upon what foundation it rests.
We must therefore provide the true definition, which, when established by sound testimonies, will easily overthrow the others.
I say, then, that a person sins against the Holy Spirit when he has been so touched by the light of God's truth that he cannot plead ignorance, yet nevertheless resists it through deliberate malice merely for the sake of resisting it.
For the Lord Jesus, wishing to explain what he had said, immediately adds:
"Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man shall obtain pardon, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit shall receive no grace." —Matthew 12:32
Saint Matthew, instead of speaking merely of blasphemy against the Spirit, refers to a spirit of blasphemy.
How can someone dishonor the Son of God without that dishonor also extending to his Spirit? This occurs when a man ignorantly contradicts the truth of God that he has not known and ignorantly speaks against Christ, while nevertheless possessing such a disposition that he would never wish to extinguish God's truth if it were revealed to him or speak one evil word against someone whom he knew to be Christ.
Such persons sin against the Father and the Son. There are many today who hate and reject the doctrine of the Gospel, yet would greatly honor it and reverence it with all their hearts if they believed it truly to be the Gospel.
But those who are convicted in their consciences that the doctrine they oppose comes from God, yet nevertheless continue to resist it
and endeavor to destroy it, blaspheme against the Spirit. For they fight against the light presented to them through the power of the Holy Spirit.
There were such persons among the Jews. Although they could not withstand the Spirit speaking through the mouth of Saint Stephen, they nevertheless endeavored to resist him:
"They were unable to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke." —Acts 6:10
There is no doubt that some were moved by an inconsiderate zeal for the law. But it is evident that there were others who, from deliberate malice and impiety, raged against God—that is, against the doctrine they could not be ignorant had proceeded from God.
Such were the Pharisees whom Jesus Christ rebuked. In order to overthrow the power of the Holy Spirit, they slandered it as though it came from Beelzebub:
"He casts out devils only through Beelzebub, the prince of devils." —Matthew 12:24
This, then, is the spirit of blasphemy: when human audacity deliberately endeavors to annihilate the glory of God.
Saint Paul signifies this when he says that he obtained mercy because he had acted unbelievingly through inadvertence and ignorance:
"I obtained mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief." —1 Timothy 1:13
If ignorance joined with unbelief caused him to obtain pardon, it follows that there is no mercy when unbelief proceeds from knowledge and deliberate malice.
It will be evident that the Apostle speaks in this sense if his meaning is carefully considered. For he directs his words against those who imagined that they could return to Christianity after having once renounced it.
To draw them away from this fantasy and pernicious opinion, he declares something entirely true: those who have once knowingly and willingly renounced Jesus Christ can never again have any part in him.
Christ is not renounced by those who merely transgress his word through a disordered life, but by those who deliberately reject it altogether.
The Novatians and their followers therefore misunderstand the words fall away. They suppose that a person falls away when, although taught by God's law not to steal, he nevertheless fails to abstain from theft.
But I say that we must understand here a comparison of contrary things. When the Apostle speaks of those who fall away after being enlightened, tasting the word of God, his heavenly grace, and the powers of the life to come, and being illuminated by the Holy Spirit, he means those who through deliberate malice extinguish the Spirit's
light, reject God's word and the taste of his grace, and alienate themselves from his Spirit.
Indeed, to express still more clearly that he was speaking of malicious and deliberate impiety, in one passage he expressly adds the word willingly:
"If we sin willingly after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains." —Hebrews 10:26
He does not deny that Christ is a perpetual sacrifice for blotting out the iniquities of believers. He had treated this truth throughout almost the whole Epistle when explaining Christ's priesthood.
Rather, he means that no other sacrifice remains when this one is rejected. And it is rejected when someone deliberately tramples underfoot the truth of the Gospel.
Some object that it is excessively cruel and incompatible with God's clemency to exclude any sinner from the forgiveness of sins when he seeks mercy. The answer is easy.
The Apostle does not say that God will deny them pardon if they turn to him. Rather, he expressly says that they will never return to repentance, because God in his righteous judgment will strike them with eternal blindness on account of their ingratitude.
The example of Esau, which the Apostle applies to this matter, does not contradict this:
"He found no place for repentance, although he sought it carefully with tears." —Hebrews 12:17
For Esau attempted in vain, with tears and cries, to recover the birthright he had lost.
Nor does the Prophet's declaration contradict it:
"Then they shall cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them." —Micah 3:4
By such expressions, Scripture does not signify true repentance or a sincere calling upon God. Rather, it signifies the distress by which the wicked, when pressed by extreme calamity, are compelled to acknowledge what they had previously regarded as mockery and fable: that their entire good rests in God's help.
Yet they cannot sincerely invoke or seek that help. They merely groan because it has been taken from them.
Therefore, by the word crying, the Prophet, and by the word tears, the Apostle, signify nothing other than the horrible torment by which the wicked are agitated in despair and anguish when they see that they possess no remedy for their misery except the goodness of God, in which they are altogether unable to trust.
The Resurrection of the Flesh;
Everlasting Life
Here we have the goal and fulfilment of our blessedness. First, the resurrection of the flesh is assured to us, by which we enter into possession of everlasting life, since our flesh and blood cannot possess the Kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. This is not merely difficult to believe, but altogether incredible if we judge it according to human reason. Thus, although many philosophers were not wholly ignorant of the immortality of the soul, not one of them ever entertained the slightest thought of the resurrection of the flesh. For who could imagine that the bodies we now possess—some of which rot in the earth, some are eaten by worms, others by birds or beasts, and still others are reduced to ashes by fire—shall one day be fully restored?
Yet the Lord has admirably provided against this difficulty, not only by bearing certain testimony in words to this future resurrection, but also by giving us visible assurance of it in Jesus Christ. Thus what would otherwise seem incredible has been shown before our eyes. Therefore, if we wish rightly to understand what this resurrection will be, we must always look to Jesus Christ, who is both its mirror and its substance. The Apostle likewise admonishes us of this when he describes the restoration of our body as conformity to the glorious body of the Lord Jesus.
Just as he was raised in the same body in which he had suffered, though after the resurrection it possessed a glory altogether different from what it had before, so we also shall rise in the same flesh that
we now bear, and yet after the resurrection we shall be otherwise than we are now. Saint Paul explains this difference by several comparisons. The flesh of men and that of beasts share the same substance, yet their quality differs. The stars are of the same essence, but not of the same quality. In the same way, we shall retain the substance of our body, but its quality will be changed. Therefore, this body which is now corruptible shall not perish in our resurrection, but, putting off corruption, shall be made incorruptible; and, putting off mortality, shall be made immortal.
There will therefore be no difficulty preventing the Lord from restoring from corruption all those who have been consumed by death before the day of judgment, by the same power which he displayed in raising his Son. For those who are then alive shall pass into immortality by a sudden transformation rather than by the ordinary course of death.
And because the prophecy that death shall be swallowed up in victory will then be fully accomplished, everlasting life is mentioned together with the resurrection. Were every human tongue to express all that it could concerning the excellence of this life, scarcely the smallest part of it would be touched. For although Scripture teaches that the Kingdom of God is full of glory, joy, and blessedness, everything it says remains far beyond our understanding and is, as it were, veiled beneath figures, until the day comes when the Lord shall reveal himself to us face to face. Therefore, because the Prophets could not express this spiritual blessedness in its true substance, they described it and portrayed it, as it were, under bodily figures. Nevertheless, because our hearts must be kindled with love for it and with expectation of it, we must chiefly dwell upon this thought.
Namely, that since God, as our living fountain, contains in himself the fullness of every good, those who aspire to the supreme good and to every part of blessedness can desire nothing beyond him. Saint Peter declares that believers are called to become partakers of the divine nature. How is this so? It is because the Lord will be glorified in his saints and exalted in those who have believed his Gospel. If the Lord is to impart his glory, power, and righteousness to his elect— indeed, to communicate himself to them—we must understand that every good is comprehended under this grace. And even when we have made great progress in meditating upon it, we must still understand that we remain at the very bottom, standing only at the threshold, and that during this life we shall never approach the greatness of this mystery.
It is no wonder that no mention is made here either of the resurrection of the wicked or of the everlasting death prepared for them. For only those things are set forth here by which the believer's conscience ought to be consoled, nourished, and strengthened in confidence of salvation. Nevertheless, curious minds must not therefore imagine that the wicked will not rise merely because the Creed contains no testimony concerning their resurrection. The condition of the wicked after this life is sufficiently revealed elsewhere, and everything that ought to make them tremble is clearly declared. We must not therefore look for such things in the Creed, which contains only the matter necessary to establish and build up our faith.
Does not the Lord Jesus testify clearly enough to the universal resurrection when he says that he will gather all nations before him
and separate them, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats? Likewise, in another place:
"Those who have done good will enter into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation."
—John 5:29
What could we ask for that is clearer than Saint Paul's confession before Felix, governor of Judea, that he awaited the future resurrection both of the wicked and of the righteous? Since, therefore, the universal resurrection is so firmly established by so many testimonies, a host of frivolous minds ought not to call it into doubt. Indeed, the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked are so closely joined that the one necessarily carries the other with it. Therefore, whoever testifies that the one will take place presupposes the other at the same time. The Lord clearly indicates this through the Prophet:
"The day of vengeance is in my heart, and the time of redemption has come."
—Isaiah 63:4
Likewise, in another place:
"You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies."
—Isaiah 66:14
Because this occurs only obscurely in this world and is never fully accomplished here, it properly belongs to the final day of recompense, when the judgment and righteousness of God will be revealed.
But since no description is sufficient to show how horrible the punishments of the wicked will be, the torments they must endure are represented to us by bodily things: darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth, everlasting fire, and worms continually gnawing at the heart. For it is certain that by such expressions the Holy Spirit intended to signify an extreme horror that overwhelms every faculty. Thus he says that a deep Gehenna has been prepared for them from all eternity, burning with fire, with wood always ready to sustain it, and that the breath of God is like sulfur kindling it.
Although such expressions ought to instruct us to conceive something of the miserable condition of the wicked, we must chiefly fix our thoughts upon this: what wretchedness it is to be separated from all fellowship with God. And not only this, but also to feel his majesty opposed to us—a majesty from which we cannot flee, but which continually pursues us. For first, his indignation is like a blazing fire which, by its mere touch, devours and swallows up all things. Then all creatures so serve his indignation in executing its severity that all those to whom God has revealed his wrath feel heaven, earth, sea, every beast, and all other things armed for their ruin and destruction.
The Apostle therefore spoke of no small matter when he said that unbelievers will be punished everlastingly by the presence of the
Lord and the glory of his power. For if the poor conscience, seeing itself in the presence of God and feeling his wrath, is so torn, pierced, crushed, anguished, transfixed, shattered, and broken that it would be sweeter to be swallowed up in a thousand abysses than to endure this torment for a single moment, how grievous must it be to remain shut up forever and without ceasing beneath the wrath of God?
As for the error of the Chiliasts, who have limited the Kingdom of Christ and the overthrow of the Devil and his members to a thousand years, it is so frivolous and childish that it scarcely needs, and is not even worthy, to be refuted. All Scripture loudly and clearly proclaims that neither the blessedness of the elect nor the torment of the wicked will ever end. Either we must derive from the Word of God our certainty concerning things that are invisible to the eye and cannot be comprehended by human reason, or we must believe nothing about them at all.
Those who assign the children of God only a thousand years for the blessedness of the life to come do not see what injury they do both to Christ and to his Kingdom. For if believers were not to be clothed with immortality, it would follow that Christ—to whose glory they shall be conformed—has not been received into immortal glory. If their blessedness has an end, it follows that the Kingdom of Christ, in which they dwell, is temporal. In short, either such people are utterly ignorant of divine things, or else with great malice they endeavor to overthrow all the grace of God and the power of Christ, whose accomplishment cannot be complete unless sin is abolished, death swallowed up, and everlasting life fully restored.
As for their fear of attributing excessive cruelty to God by saying that the wicked will be punished with everlasting torment, even the blind can see what folly this is—as though the Lord committed a great injustice by excluding from his Kingdom those who, through their ingratitude, have made themselves unworthy of it. "But their sins," they say, "are temporal." I grant them this; but the majesty of God, which they have offended, is eternal. It is therefore right that the memory of their iniquity should never perish. "But if this is so," they say, "the punishment will exceed the measure of the sin." I answer that this is an intolerable blasphemy: to esteem the majesty of God so lightly that contempt for it should be considered less serious than the destruction of a soul. Let us therefore leave such babblers aside, lest by answering them we should appear to judge them worthy of a response, contrary to what we said at the outset.
Wherever this living faith exists, it is impossible for it not always to carry with it the hope of everlasting salvation—or rather, not to beget and produce it. For if this hope is not in us, then however eloquently we may speak of faith, and however adorned our words may be, it is certain that we possess nothing of it. For if faith, as has been said, is a sure persuasion of the truth of God—that this truth cannot lie, deceive, or disappoint—then whoever has conceived this certainty likewise expects the Lord to fulfil his promises, which he holds to be true. Thus, in sum, hope is nothing other than the expectation of those good things which faith has believed to be truly promised by God.
Faith believes that God is true; hope expects that in due time he will reveal his truth. Faith believes that he is our Father; hope expects that he will show himself to be such toward us. Faith believes that
everlasting life has been given to us; hope expects that one day we shall possess it. Faith is the foundation upon which hope rests; hope nourishes and sustains faith. For just as no one can expect anything from God unless he has first believed his promises, so in turn the weakness of our faith must be sustained by patient expectation and hope, lest it fail.
Saint Paul therefore speaks most fittingly when he declares that our salvation is in hope. By waiting silently for God, hope restrains faith, lest it stumble through excessive haste. It strengthens faith, lest it waver concerning God's promises or entertain any doubt about them. It refreshes and comforts faith, lest it grow weary. It conducts faith to its final goal, lest it fail midway or even at the outset. Finally, by renewing and restoring faith from day to day, hope continually gives it strength to persevere.
We shall see still more clearly how many ways faith needs to be strengthened by hope if we consider how many kinds of temptation assail those who have once received the Word of God. First, by delaying the fulfilment of his promises, the Lord often keeps us waiting longer than we would wish. Here it is the office of faith to do what the Prophet says:
"Though the promise delays, continue to wait for it."
—Habakkuk 2:3
At times God not only leaves us languishing, but even gives the appearance of being angry with us. Here faith must come to our aid, so that, according to the words of another Prophet, we may wait for the Lord even though he has hidden his face from us.
Mockers also arise, as Saint Peter says, asking:
"Where is the promise of his coming? For since the creation of the world, all things continue in the same course."
—2 Peter 3:4
Indeed, the flesh and the world themselves suggest this thought to our minds. Here faith, sustained and supported by hope, must remain firmly fixed upon the eternity of God's Kingdom, so that it may regard a thousand years as one day.
Because of this affinity and resemblance, Scripture sometimes uses the two words faith and hope almost interchangeably. Thus, when Saint Peter says that the power of God preserves us through faith until the revelation of salvation, he attributes to faith what would seem more properly to belong to hope. Yet this is not without reason, since we have shown that hope is nothing other than the firmness and perseverance of faith.
It is now easy to see how grossly the Master of the Sentences errs when he gives hope a twofold foundation: the grace of God and the merit of works. Hope can have no other object than faith has. But we have clearly shown that faith has the mercy of God as its sole object, rests entirely upon it, and looks nowhere else.
Yet it is worth hearing the fine argument he advances:
"If you dare to hope for anything without having merited it, this is not hope, but presumption."
Tell me, my friends, who could refrain from cursing such beasts, who think it rash and presumptuous to believe with certainty that God is true? For although God commands us to expect all things from his goodness, they call it presumption to rest and repose in that goodness. But such a master is worthy of the disciples he has produced in the schools of the Sophists—that is, the Sorbonists.
We, on the contrary, since we see that God openly commands sinners to possess a sure hope of salvation, confidently presume so much upon his truth that, relying upon his mercy and rejecting all confidence in our works, we hope without any doubt for what he has promised us.
CHAPTER FIVE
Repentance
After faith, we must next speak of repentance, since it is not only joined to faith but also engendered by it. For grace and forgiveness are offered to the sinner through the preaching of the Gospel so that, being delivered from the miserable bondage of sin and death, he may be transferred into the Kingdom of God. It follows that no one can receive the grace of the Gospel by faith without turning from his wandering life into the right way and devoting his whole endeavor to the practice of true repentance.
Those who think that repentance precedes faith rather than proceeds from it are moved to say so by a very weak argument. Christ and John, they say, first exhort their hearers to repentance and then declare that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Such a command, they say, was given to the Apostles, and Saint Paul observed the same order, as Saint Luke records. But by clinging too superstitiously to the order of the syllables, they fail to consider the purpose of these statements and how they are connected. For when Jesus Christ and John the Baptist give this exhortation:
"Repent, for the Kingdom of God has drawn near."
—Matthew 3:2
do they not derive the reason for repentance from the fact that Jesus Christ presents grace and salvation to us? Their words therefore
amount to this: "Since the Kingdom of God has drawn near, therefore repent."
Indeed, after recounting this preaching of Saint John, Saint Matthew says that it fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy concerning:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight."
—Isaiah 40:3
Yet the Prophet's order is that this voice should begin with consolation and glad tidings.
Nevertheless, when we say that repentance originates from faith, we do not imagine that some interval of time is required for it to be engendered. We mean that a man cannot rightly devote himself to repentance unless he recognizes that he belongs to God. But no one can be assured that he belongs to God unless he has first recognized his grace. These matters will be explained more clearly as we proceed.
As for those who invent a new form of Christianity—namely, that before receiving baptism a person must spend a prescribed number of days exercising repentance before being admitted to partake of the grace of the Gospel—their error and folly have no appearance of reason. I speak of many Anabaptists, especially those who desire to be called spiritual. But these are the fruits produced by that spirit of frenzy: to appoint a few days for the practice of repentance, which ought to continue throughout the whole life of a Christian.
Certain learned men of earlier times, wishing to speak simply and purely of repentance according to the rule of Scripture, said that it consists of two parts: mortification and vivification. They interpret mortification as a sorrow and terror of heart conceived through the knowledge of sin and the apprehension of God's judgment. For when anyone is brought to a true knowledge of his sin, he then begins to hate and detest it. He then becomes truly displeased with himself in his heart, confesses himself miserable and confounded, and wishes that he were other than he is.
Furthermore, when he is touched by the apprehension of God's judgment—for the one immediately follows from the other—he is humbled, terrified, and cast down; he trembles, is overwhelmed with anguish, and loses all hope. This is the first part of repentance, which is called contrition.
They interpret vivification as a consolation produced by faith. It occurs when a man, confounded by the consciousness of his sin and struck with the fear of God, turns his eyes toward the goodness and mercy of God and toward the grace and salvation found in Jesus Christ. He then rises again, breathes freely, recovers his courage, and, as it were, returns from death to life.
Others, because they see that this word is used in different senses in Scripture, have distinguished two kinds of repentance. To distinguish them, they have called one legal repentance, by which the sinner, pierced by the burning wound of his sin and, as it were, crushed by terror at the wrath of God, remains bound in this anguish without being able to escape it. The other they have called evangelical repentance, by which the sinner, though grievously afflicted within
himself, nevertheless rises higher, embracing Jesus Christ as the medicine for his wound, the consolation of his terror, and the harbor of refuge in his misery.
Cain, Saul, and Judas are examples of legal repentance. When Scripture describes their repentance, it means that, after recognizing the weight of their sin, they feared the wrath of God; but because they thought only of God's vengeance and judgment, they were swallowed up in that thought. Their repentance, therefore, was nothing other than a gateway to hell. Having already entered it in this present life, they began to suffer the wrath of God's majesty.
We see evangelical repentance in all those who, after being inwardly pierced by the sting of sin, nevertheless rise up in confidence in God's mercy and return to him. Hezekiah was troubled when he received the message of death, but he wept and prayed; and, looking to God's mercy, recovered confidence. The Ninevites were terrified by the dreadful proclamation of their destruction, but, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, they prayed in the hope that the Lord might turn and withdraw the fury of his wrath.
David confessed that he had sinned grievously by numbering the people, but added:
"Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant."
—2 Samuel 24:10
When Nathan rebuked him, he acknowledged the crime of adultery and prostrated himself before God, yet at the same time expected forgiveness. Such was the repentance of those who were pierced in
their hearts by Saint Peter's preaching but, trusting in God's goodness, asked:
"Men and brothers, what shall we do?"
—Acts 2:37
Such also was Saint Peter's repentance: he wept bitterly, yet did not cease to hope.
Although all these things are true, nevertheless, so far as I can understand from Scripture, the word repentance must be understood differently. For their inclusion of faith within repentance is contrary to what Saint Paul says in Acts: that he had testified to both Jews and Gentiles of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. There he presents faith and repentance as distinct things.
What then? Can true repentance exist without faith? Certainly not. Yet although they cannot be separated, they must nevertheless be distinguished. For just as faith cannot exist without hope, and yet faith and hope are different things, so repentance and faith, though joined together by an inseparable bond, must be united rather than confused.
I am not unaware that under the word repentance the whole of conversion to God is comprehended, of which faith is one of the principal parts. But when the nature and property of repentance have been explained, it will become evident in what sense this is said. The word used by the Hebrews to signify repentance means conversion. The word used by the Greeks means a change of mind and will. The reality corresponds well enough to these words, since
the sum of repentance is that, being drawn away from ourselves, we should be converted to God and, having abandoned our former thoughts and will, should take up new ones.
Therefore, in my judgment, we may properly define repentance in this way: it is a true conversion of our life to follow God and the way he shows us, proceeding from a genuine and unfeigned fear of God, and consisting in the mortification of our flesh and our old man and in the vivification of the spirit.
In this sense we must understand all the exhortations contained in both the Prophets and the Apostles by which they admonished the people of their time to repent. For they sought to bring them to this point: that, being confounded by their sins and pierced by fear of God's judgment, they should humble and prostrate themselves before the majesty they had offended and return to the right way. Therefore, when they speak of being converted and returning to the Lord, of repenting and doing repentance, they always aim at the same end. Saint Paul and Saint John likewise command men to produce fruits worthy of repentance, meaning that they must lead a life which in all its actions displays and testifies to such an amendment.
But before proceeding further, it will be useful to explain more fully the definition given above, in which three principal points must be considered. First, when we call repentance a conversion of life to God, we require a change not only in outward works but also in the soul, so that, having put off its old nature, it may afterward produce fruits worthy of its renewal. Wishing to express this, the Prophet commands those whom he exhorts to repentance to obtain a new
heart. Thus Moses, when repeatedly showing the people of Israel what true conversion is, teaches them to turn with all their heart and all their soul—an expression frequently repeated by the Prophets.
Nevertheless, there is no passage from which we may better understand the true nature of repentance than the fourth chapter of Jeremiah, where God speaks in this manner:
"Israel, if you return, return to me. Cultivate well the ground of your heart, and do not sow among thorns. Be circumcised to the Lord, and remove all uncleanness from your heart."
—Jeremiah 4:1–4
We see how he declares that, in order to begin living rightly, they can take no other starting point than to root all ungodliness out of the heart. For this reason Isaiah mocks all the endeavors of the hypocrites who in his time sought to amend their lives outwardly, yet meanwhile took no care to break the bond of ungodliness in which their hearts were entangled. In that same passage he also clearly shows what works ought to follow true repentance.
The second point was that we said repentance proceeds from a genuine fear of God. For before the sinner's conscience can be brought to repentance, it must first be touched by the judgment of God. Once this thought is firmly fixed in a man's heart—that God will one day ascend his judgment seat to require an account of every deed and word—it will not allow the poor sinner to rest or breathe for a single moment, but will continually prick and spur him to lead a new life, so that he may safely appear before that judgment.
Therefore, when Scripture exhorts us to repentance, it often reminds us that God will one day judge the world. Thus Jeremiah says:
"Lest my fury go forth like fire, and no one be able to extinguish it, because of your wickedness."
—Jeremiah 4:4
Likewise, Saint Paul said in his preaching at Athens:
"Although God allowed men to walk in ignorance, he now commands them to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness."
—Acts 17:30–31
The same is found in many other passages. At times Scripture shows by judgments already inflicted that God is Judge, so that sinners may consider that a far more grievous punishment awaits them unless they amend themselves in good time. We have an example of this in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy.
Because the beginning of our conversion to God is hatred and horror of sin, the Apostle says that godly sorrow produces repentance. By godly sorrow he means that we not only fear being punished but hate and abhor sin because we understand that it displeases God.
We must now explain the third point: that repentance consists of two parts, the mortification of the flesh and the vivification of the spirit. Although the Prophets speak simply, accommodating themselves to the rudeness of the people with whom they had to deal, they nevertheless explain this clearly enough when they say:
"Cease from evil and do good."
—Psalm 34:14
And again:
"Wash yourselves from your uncleanness; forsake your perverse life; learn to do good; devote yourselves to righteousness and mercy."
—Isaiah 1:16–17
For in calling men away from wickedness, they require that all their flesh—that is, their whole nature—be mortified, since it is full of iniquity. This is a very difficult command, because it requires us to put off ourselves and forsake our own nature. For the flesh must not be considered truly mortified unless everything we possess from ourselves has been brought to nothing and abolished. Since all the thoughts and affections of our nature are opposed to God and hostile to his righteousness, the first entrance into obedience to the Law is to renounce our nature and our entire will.
The Prophet then signifies the renewal of life by the works that follow, namely righteousness, judgment, and mercy. For it would not be enough to perform these works outwardly unless the soul were first devoted to the love and desire of them. This occurs when the Spirit of God, having transformed our souls into his holiness, so directs them to new thoughts and affections that they may be said to have become other than they were before.
Both come to us through our participation in Christ. For if we truly partake of his death, by its power our old man is crucified and the body of sin residing within us is mortified, so that the corruption of our original nature may no longer retain its vigor. If we partake of his resurrection, by it we are raised to newness of life, which corresponds to the righteousness of God.
To state it in a word, I say that repentance is a spiritual regeneration whose purpose is that the image of God, which had been obscured and almost effaced in us by Adam's transgression, should be restored. The Apostle describes it in this way:
"With unveiled face, we reflect the glory of God and are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of God."
—2 Corinthians 3:18
Likewise:
"Be renewed in your spirit, and put on the new man, who is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness."
—Ephesians 4:23–24
And in another place:
"You have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him."
—Colossians 3:10
Thus, through this regeneration, by the grace of Christ we are restored to the righteousness of God from which we fell in Adam, for God is pleased to restore fully all those whom he adopts into the inheritance of everlasting life.
It may now also be understood what the fruits of repentance are.
But because some see that the Prophets speak of repenting with weeping and fasting, clothed in sackcloth and with ashes upon the head—as is especially evident in Joel—and therefore suppose that the principal part of repentance consists in fasting and weeping, we must guard against their error.
In that passage of Joel, what is said concerning the complete conversion of our hearts to the Lord and the rending, not of our garments, but of our hearts, properly belongs to repentance:
"Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments."
—Joel 2:12–13
Weeping and fasting are not presented as perpetual consequences of repentance, but as circumstances particularly appropriate to that occasion. For because Joel had announced a dreadful vengeance of God against the Jews, he admonished them to forestall it, not only by amending their lives, but also by humbling themselves and displaying signs of sorrow.
For just as in ancient times a man accused of a crime, in order to obtain mercy from the judge, allowed his beard to grow, left his hair
uncombed, and clothed himself in mourning, so it was fitting that this people, accused before God's judgment seat, should testify by outward signs that they sought nothing but to obtain pardon from his mercy.
Although the custom of clothing oneself in sackcloth and casting ashes upon the head belonged to that time and has no application to us today, nevertheless weeping and fasting would not be inappropriate for us whenever the Lord gives us some indication of approaching calamity. For when he causes some danger to appear, he declares that he is prepared to execute vengeance and is, as it were, already armed. The Prophet therefore speaks most fittingly when he exhorts to weeping and fasting—that is, to outward testimonies of sorrow—those to whom he had declared that God's judgment was ready to destroy them.
In the same way, pastors of the Church would not act improperly today if, whenever they perceived some approaching calamity— whether war, famine, or pestilence—they admonished their people that it would be good to pray to the Lord with weeping and fasting, provided they insisted upon the principal matter, which is to rend the heart and not the garments.
It is therefore certain that fasting is not always joined with repentance, but is particularly appropriate for those who wish to testify that they recognize themselves as having deserved God's wrath, and yet seek pardon from his mercy. For this reason Jesus Christ associates fasting with anguish and tribulation. For he excuses the Apostles for not fasting while they were in his company, because
that was a time of joy, saying that they would have occasion to fast in the time of sorrow, when he had deprived them of his company.
"The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."
—Matthew 9:15
I speak here of solemn and public fasting. For the Christian life ought to be governed with such sobriety that, from beginning to end, it displays something like a perpetual fast.
Now if it is true that the whole sum of the Gospel is comprehended in these two points—repentance and the forgiveness of sins, as is plainly evident—do we not clearly see that the Lord freely justifies his servants so that he may at the same time restore them to true righteousness through the sanctification of his Spirit?