[The instrumental cause is the Word of God.]
[The instrumental cause is the Word of God.]
§ 39. The instrumental cause2 of repentance is the Word of God, because the Holy Spirit works the salutary conversion of a sinner to God not immediately but mediately: through the word of Law, so that in this way He may reveal sin, announce God’s wrath, and strike terror into consciences; but through the Gospel He lifts up terrified minds by showing them Christ the Mediator and by kindling faith in Him. The two parts of repentance—contrition and faith—arise in this way. Therefore the proper and particular instrument of contrition is the preaching of the Law, to which pertain public and private calamities, which are, so to speak, “sermons in action” [reales conciones] about the hatefulness of sins and God’s wrath against them; so also meditation on Christ’s sufferings and death, which has the function of a very clear mirror from which we can recognize the gravity of God’s wrath against sins. The proper instrument to kindle faith is the Gospel, which is the preaching of the free promise of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ, who is the Mediator, who died on the altar of the cross for our sins. This faith is followed by an intent for a better life and by a new obedience which produces fruits worthy of repentance [Acts 26:20], about which more will be said in the specific explanation of all this [§§ 118–36].
1 On “principal cause,” see above, p. 36 n. 3. On “contributory cause,” see above, p. 38 n. 5.
2 See above, p. 8 n. 4.