Third, “Scripture speaks doubtfully about remission.”
Third, “Scripture speaks doubtfully about remission.”
(III) “Some statements of Scripture about the grace of God promised to the repentant seem to be spoken doubtfully (Joel 2:14; Jon. 3:9; Acts 8:22).”
We respond. Those statements are speaking not about the reconciliation which God promised with certainty to all who truly repent but about the temporal punishments for sins which God imposes with good intent, even after remission of sins has been received and eternal punishment has been pardoned. Some are even forms of words not for doubting but for affirming. More will be said about this in its own place [On Justification through Faith (Commonplace XIX), §§ 82–109].