What repentance is.
What repentance is.
§ 15. Yet, as is customary for the category of heretics, the Novatians changed the state of the controversy several times. For sometimes they simply denied that there was a place for repentance after Baptism. At times they conceded that the fallen should be urged to repent but that they should not await a hope for forgiveness from the priests but from God. At times they made a distinction between more serious sins, among which the sin of denial in persecution stands out, and less important or daily sins, for they conceded forgiveness of the latter to ministers of the church but left forgiveness of the former to God alone. But these heretics were condemned in the Council of Rome, which Eusebius (6, ch. 33) says was very well-known.
The devout ancients set the following basic tenets against these heretics. (1) Through the prophets and apostles God commands people to repent. Therefore the repentant should hope for pardon for their sins. “For He would not threaten the unrepentant if He were not forgiving the sinner,” as Tertullian correctly concludes (De poenitent., p. 558). Such exhortations to repent occur very frequently. “ ‘Return to Me, rebellious Israel,’ says the Lord” (Jer. 3:12). “Repent” (Matt. 3:2). “God commands all people to return to their senses,” etc. (Acts 17:30).
(2) God testifies that He is pleased with the conversion of people and promises forgiveness of sins to those who truly repent. “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I desire not the death of the sinner,’ ” etc. (Ezek. 33:11). “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Mal. 3:7). Thus Nazianzen (Orat. 2 in Epiph.) writes: “God takes pleasure in nothing more than a man’s correction and salvation.” Macarius (Homily 4, p. 59): “With great delight and joy God takes back the person who has turned away from sin.”
(3) If the forgiveness of sins promised to the repentant is denied, then the mercy of God is also denied. “Rend your hearts and return to your God, because He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in mercy, and He repents of evil” (Joel 2:13).
(4) Examples bear witness that those who had sinned terribly at first have been taken back into grace through true and serious repentance. Here the following examples must be assigned: our first parents (Genesis 3), Aaron (Exodus 32), David (2 Kings 11), Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33), the publicans (Luke 15), Matthew (Matthew 9), Zacchaeus (Luke 19), Peter (Matthew 26), the incestuous man (1 Corinthians 5), Paul the persecutor (1 Timothy 1). Bernard (Sermon 3 in solenni Petri et Pauli): “If Peter returned to such superiority of holiness after so serious a fall, who will despair from now on if he merely wants to leave his sins?”
** Sommer counters (p. 70): “Examples of sins that were sometimes forgiven do not establish the rule that God always ought to or wants to forgive sins.” We respond. If there is no partiality with God (Rom. 2:11), then with whatever condition of mercy He embraces one or two sinners, which are mentioned in Scripture, He also pursues each and every one who returns to repentance with the same way. **
(5) Christ commands that forgiveness and repentance be preached in His name (Luke 24:47). He gave the church the loosing and binding keys, that is, the power to forgive sins for those who truly repent and to retain them for the secure and impenitent (Matt. 16:19; John 20:23). But if no repentance were left to the fallen, the function of the ecclesiastical ministry and especially of the loosing key would be taken away. Ambrose (De poen., bk. 1, ch. 2, vol. 1, p. 153): “God makes no distinction. He has promised His mercy to all, and to His priests He has promised the license to forgive without any exception.”
(6) Finally, since “the righteous man falls seven times a day” (Prov. 24:16) and since “in many things we all offend” (James 3:2), if repentance and the hope of pardon were taken away, the hope of salvation would also be taken away. Thus Epiphanius correctly says in regard to the Cathari [i.e., the “Pure”] (Haeres. 59): “We do not remove God’s love for mankind since we know the proclamation of the truth and the Master’s mercy and the condition of our nature, how easily the soul is inflamed, the weakness of the flesh, and the ever-springing weakness of many men,” etc. And later: “If someone has fallen” (after Baptism), “the holy church of God does not destroy him, for it also gives him an [opportunity to] return and, after repentance, a change of mind.” According to Socrates (bk. 6, ch. 19) and Nicephorus (bk. 12, ch. 36), when a council of bishops gave only one opportunity for repentance to those who had fallen, Chrysostom also did not hesitate to say, “Go in, repent a thousand times,” though he might incur the offense of many of his own household because of this.