La repentance Nous laissons parfois aux circonstances le soin de déterminer nos valeurs spirituelles. Une scène inoubliable de Luc 16, celle de l’homme riche et Lazare, en est une bonne illustration. L’homme riche ne pensait pas aux autres, pas plus d’ailleurs qu’à ses propres besoins spirituels. Tout son souci était pour le petit monde de ses propres désirs et ambitions égoïstes. Au moment de la mort, il entra dans l’éternité pour répondre de ce qu’il avait fait. En un instant, il passa du luxe au tourment, dans le monde spirituel appelé “le séjour des morts” (Luc 16.23). Après sa mort, ses priorités changèrent de manière radicale. Dans cette nouvelle circonstance, toute autre considération perdit son attrait. Il se préoccupa de deux choses significatives. Premièrement, il se soucia de l’état de son âme (ce qu’il n’avait jamais fait auparavant). Il plaida pour la miséricorde de Dieu. Jésus raconte : “Il s’écria : Père Abraham, aie pitié de moi, et envoie Lazare, pour qu’il trempe le bout de son doigt dans l’eau et me rafraîchisse la langue ; car je souffre cruellement dans cette flamme” (Luc 16.24). 210 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE Deuxièmement, l’homme riche exprima son souci pour la condition spirituelle de ses frères. C’était peutêtre la première fois de sa vie qu’il exprimait un quelconque amour pour ses frères. Quelques minutes de tourment lui avaient donné un coeur de missionnaire : Le riche dit : Je te prie donc, père Abraham, d’envoyer Lazare dans la maison de mon père ; car j’ai cinq frères. C’est pour qu’il leur atteste ces choses, afin qu’ils ne viennent pas aussi dans ce lieu de tourments (Luc 16.27-28). En apprenant que ses frères devaient lire la Loi et les prophètes comme tout le monde, le riche objecta : “Non, père Abraham, mais si quelqu’un des morts va vers eux, ils se repentiront” (Luc 16.30). Se peut-il que ce fût la première fois qu’il parlait de repentance ? La mort avait changé sa pensée et ses intérêts. Il savait ce dont ses frères avaient besoin : la repentance qui transforme un homme ! Le temps et l’éternité nous convaincront que la grande question de la vie est celle de la repentance. N’attendons pas que la mort nous force à nous en rendre compte. Jésus dit : “Si vous ne vous repentez, vous périrez tous également” (Luc 13.3). Saul exclut toute exception possible au commandement de repentance, lorsqu’il déclara aux Athéniens que “Dieu, sans tenir compte des temps d’ignorance, annonce maintenant à tous les hommes, en tous lieux, qu’ils aient à se repentir” (Actes 17.30). L’homme devant Dieu se trouve sur l’un de deux chemins possibles : le chemin de la repentance ou celui de la rébellion. Si Dieu retarde la deuxième venue du Christ, il le fait pour une raison précise : permettre à plus de personnes de se repentir : “Le Seigneur ne tarde pas dans l’accomplissement de la promesse, comme quelques-uns le croient ; mais il use de patience envers LA REPENTANCE 211 vous, ne voulant pas qu’aucun périsse, mais voulant que tous arrivent à la repentance” (2 Pierre 3.9). Le destin final de tout homme se détermine par rapport à son repentir ou son refus de cette repentance. “Mais pour les lâches, les incrédules, les abominables, les meurtriers, les impudiques, les enchanteurs, les idolâtres, et tous les menteurs, leur part sera dans l’étang ardent de feu et de soufre, ce qui est la seconde mort” (Apocalypse 21.8). L’Eglise est composée de personnes ayant répondu à l’appel du Nouveau Testament à se repentir. Les chrétiens sont donc ceux qui ont invoqué le nom du Seigneur et qui se sont détournés de l’injustice (2 Timothée 2.19). Par leur conversion à Christ, ils ont été délivrés des ténèbres et transportés dans le royaume du Fils de Dieu (Colossiens 1.13). Ils se sont engagés à vivre en enfants de Dieu obéissants, ils refusent de retomber dans les convoitises d’autrefois, au temps de leur ignorance et de leur désobéissance (1 Pierre 1.14). Leur but est de devenir comme celui qui les a appelés, de l’imiter dans tout leur comportement, de reconnaître par leur conduite le désir de leur Seigneur : “Vous serez saints, car je suis saint” (1 Pierre 1.16). Pour celui qui veut être chrétien, membre de l’Eglise du Seigneur, la repentance est donc une idée fondamentale, un concept principal à saisir. La nature de l’Eglise se reflète dans la définition et dans les principales implications de ce terme qui désigne la sorte de personne que Dieu appelle et qui forme son Eglise. Lorsque Pierre décrivit aux Juifs de Jérusalem le baptême des païens dans la maison de Corneille, les frères Juifs répondirent : “Dieu a donc accordé la repentance aussi aux païens, afin qu’ils aient la vie” (Actes 11.18). Ils avaient compris, et nous devons comprendre, que la porte vers la vraie vie ne s’ouvre que par la véritable repentance. 212 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE Qu’est-ce que la repentance ? Essayons de définir plus exactement ce terme, afin de ne pas passer à côté de son importance. Pour ceci, nous examinerons la conversion de Saul. SE DETOURNER DU PECHE La première chose est de changer : de se détourner de l’injustice. La repentance n’est pas simplement une amélioration personnelle ou une manière de mieux maîtriser sa vie. Il s’agit plutôt d’une détermination tenace, d’une décision d’abandonner tout ce qui est étranger à Dieu. Cette prise de position contribue au changement total que Jésus appela une nouvelle naissance (Jean 3.3). La repentance n’est pas un simple regret d’avoir péché. Le regret pour le péché vient de l’embarras qu’il a causé ou des conséquences qu’il a provoquées. Judas regretta d’avoir trahi Jésus, mais il ne s’en repentit pas (Matthieu 27.3). Son cas nous montre qu’il est possible d’être profondément troublé par son péché sans se repentir pour autant. Pierre, qui renia le Christ (Matthieu 26.34, 69-75), se repentit. La repentance n’est pas simplement la conviction d’avoir péché. Au jour de la Pentecôte, Pierre dénonça les péchés des Juifs qui l’écoutaient. Ses paroles leur touchèrent le coeur, et ils s’écrièrent : “Frères, que ferons-nous ?” (Actes 2.37). Mais Pierre ne considéra pas leur émotion comme de la repentance. Dans sa réponse à leur question, il dit : “Repentez-vous, et que chacun de vous soit baptisé au nom de Jésus-Christ, pour le pardon de vos péchés ; et vous recevrez le don du Saint-Esprit” (Actes 2.38). La repentance n’est pas seulement une “tristesse selon Dieu”. Selon Paul, cette tristesse précède et produit la repentance. Elle fait partie du processus de repentance, sans constituer elle-même cette repentance :
Chapter 6. Baptism Not to Be Presumptously Received. It Requires Preceding Repentance, Manifested by Amendment of Life Whatever, then, our poor ability has attempted to suggest with reference to laying hold of repentance once for all, and perpetually retaining it, does indeed bear upon all who are given up to the Lord, as being all competitors for salvation in earning the favour of God; but is chiefly urgent in the case of those young novices who are only just beginning to bedew Deuteronomy 32:2 their ears with divine discourses, and who, as whelps in yet early infancy, and with eyes not yet perfect, creep about uncertainly, and say indeed that they renounce their former deed, and assume (the profession of) repentance, but neglect to complete it. For the very end of desiring importunes them to desire somewhat of their former deeds; just as fruits, when they are already beginning to turn into the sourness or bitterness of age, do yet still in some part flatter their own loveliness. Moreover, a presumptuous confidence in baptism introduces all kind of vicious delay and tergiversation with regard to repentance; for, feeling sure of undoubted pardon of their sins, men meanwhile steal the intervening time, and make it for themselves into a holiday-time for sinning, rather than a time for learning not to sin. Further, how inconsistent is it to expect pardon of sins (to be granted) to a repentance which they have not fulfilled! This is to hold out your hand for merchandise, but not produce the price. For repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon: He proposes the redemption of release from penalty at this compensating exchange of repentance. If, then, sellers first examine the coin with which they make their bargains, to see whether it be cut, or scraped, or adulterated, we believe likewise that the Lord, when about to make us the grant of so costly merchandise, even of eternal life, first institutes a probation of our repentance. But meanwhile let us defer the reality of our repentance: it will then, I suppose, be clear that we are amended when we are absolved. By no means; (but our amendment should be manifested) while, pardon being in abeyance, there is still a prospect of penalty; while the penitent does not yet merit- so far as merit we can- his liberation; while God is threatening, not while He is forgiving. For what slave, after his position has been changed by reception of freedom, charges himself with his (past) thefts and desertions? What soldier, after his discharge, makes satisfaction for his (former) brands? A sinner is bound to bemoan himself before receiving pardon, because the time of repentance is coincident with that of peril and of fear. Not that I deny that the divine benefit- the putting away of sins, I mean- is in every way sure to such as are on the point of entering the (baptismal) water; but what we have to labour for is, that it may be granted us to attain that blessing. For who will grant to you, a man of so faithless repentance, one single sprinkling of any water whatever? To approach it by stealth, indeed, and to get the minister appointed over this business misled by your asseverations, is easy; but God takes foresight for His own treasure, and suffers not the unworthy to steal a march upon it. What, in fact, does He say? Nothing hid which shall not be revealed. Luke 8:17 Draw whatever (veil of) darkness you please over your deeds, God is light. 1 John 1:5 But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwillingly. But who permits a gift to be permanently retained which he has granted unwillingly? For do not many afterward fall out of (grace)? Is not this gift taken away from many? These, no doubt, are they who do steal a march upon (the treasure), who, after approaching to the faith of repentance, set up on the sands a house doomed to ruin. Let no one, then, flatter himself on the ground of being assigned to the recruit-classes of learners, as if on that account he have a licence even now to sin. As soon as you know the Lord, you should fear Him; as soon as you have gazed on Him, you should reverence Him. But what difference does your knowing Him make, while you rest in the same practises as in days bygone, when you knew Him not? What, moreover, is it which distinguishes you from a perfected servant of God? Is there one Christ for the baptized, another for the learners? Have they some different hope or reward? Some different dread of judgment? Some different necessity for repentance? That baptismal washing is a sealing of faith, which faith is begun and is commended by the faith of repentance. We are not washed in order that we may cease sinning, but because we have ceased, since in heart we have been bathed already. For the first baptism of a learner is this, a perfect fear; thenceforward, in so far as you have understanding of the Lord faith is sound, the conscience having once for all embraced repentance. Otherwise, if it is (only) after the baptismal waters that we cease sinning, it is of necessity, not of free-will, that we put on innocence. Who, then, is pre-eminent in goodness? He who is not allowed, or he whom it displeases, to be evil? He who is bidden, or he whose pleasure it is, to be free from crime? Let us, then, neither keep our hands from theft unless the hardness of bars withstand us, nor refrain our eyes from the concupiscence of fornication unless we be withdrawn by guardians of our persons, if no one who has surrendered himself to the Lord is to cease sinning unless he be bound thereto by baptism. But if any entertain this sentiment, I know not whether he, after baptism, do not feel more sadness to think that he has ceased from sinning, than gladness that he has escaped from it. And so it is becoming that learners desire baptism, but do not hastily receive it: for he who desires it, honours it; he who hastily receives it, disdains it: in the one appears modesty, in the other arrogance; the former satisfies, the latter neglects it; the former covets to merit it, but the latter promises it to himself as a due return; the former takes, the latter usurps it. Whom would you judge worthier, except one who is more amended? Whom more amended, except one who is more timid, and on that account has fulfilled the duty of true repentance? For he has feared to continue still in sin, lest he should not merit the reception of baptism. But the hasty receiver, inasmuch as he promised it himself (as his due), being forsooth secure (of obtaining it), could not fear: thus he fulfilled not repentance either, because he lacked the instrumental agent of repentance, that is, fear. Hasty reception is the portion of irreverence; it inflates the seeker, it despises the Giver. And thus it sometimes deceives, for it promises to itself the gift before it be due; whereby He who is to furnish the gift is ever offended. Chapter 7. Of Repentance, in the Case of Such as Have Lapsed After Baptism So long, Lord Christ, may the blessing of learning or hearing concerning the discipline of repentance be granted to Your servants, as is likewise behooves them, while learners, not to sin; in other words, may they thereafter know nothing of repentance, and require nothing of it. It is irksome to append mention of a second- nay, in that case, the last- hope; lest, by treating of a remedial repenting yet in reserve, we seem to be pointing to a yet further space for sinning. Far be it that any one so interpret our meaning, as if, because there is an opening for repenting, there were even now, on that account, an opening for sinning; and as if the redundance of celestial clemency constituted a licence for human temerity. Let no one be less good because God is more so, by repeating his sin as often as he is forgiven. Otherwise be sure he will find an end of escaping, when he shall not find one of sinning. We have escaped once: thus far and no farther let us commit ourselves to perils, even if we seem likely to escape a second time. Men in general, after escaping shipwreck, thenceforward declare divorce with ship and sea; and by cherishing the memory of the danger, honour the benefit conferred by God-their deliverance, namely. I praise their fear, I love their reverence; they are unwilling a second time to be a burden to the divine mercy; they fear to seem to trample on the benefit which they have attained; they shun, with a solicitude which at all events is good, to make trial a second time of that which they have once learned to fear. Thus the limit of their temerity is the evidence of their fear. Moreover, man's fear is an honour to God. But however, that most stubborn foe (of ours) never gives his malice leisure; indeed, he is then most savage when he fully feels that a man is freed from his clutches; he then flames fiercest while he is fast becoming extinguished. Grieve and groan he must of necessity over the fact that, by the grant of pardon, so many works of death in man have been overthrown, so many marks of the condemnation which formerly was his own erased. He grieves that that sinner, (now) Christ's servant, is destined to judge him and his angels. 1 Corinthians 6:3 And so he observes, assaults, besieges him, in the hope that he may be able in some way either to strike his eyes with carnal concupiscence, or else to entangle his mind with worldly enticements, or else to subvert his faith by fear of earthly power, or else to wrest him from the sure way by perverse traditions: he is never deficient in stumbling-blocks nor in temptations. These poisons of his, therefore, God foreseeing, although the gate of forgiveness has been shut and fastened up with the bar of baptism, has permitted it still to stand somewhat open. In the vestibule He has stationed the second repentance for opening to such as knock: but now once for all, because now for the second time; but never more because the last time it had been in vain. For is not even this once enough? You have what you now deserved not, for you had lost what you had received. If the Lord's indulgence grants you the means of restoring what you had lost, be thankful for the benefit renewed, not to say amplified; for restoring is a greater thing than giving, inasmuch as having lost is more miserable than never having received at all. However, if any do incur the debt of a second repentance, his spirit is not to be immediately cut down and undermined by despair. Let it by all means be irksome to sin again, but let not to repent again be irksome: irksome to imperil one's self again, but not to be again set free. Let none be ashamed. Repeated sickness must have repeated medicine. You will show your gratitude to the Lord by not refusing what the Lord offers you. You have offended, but can still be reconciled. You have One whom you may satisfy, and Him willing. Chapter 8. Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon This if you doubt, unravel the meaning of what the Spirit says to the churches. He imputes to the Ephesians forsaken love; Revelation 2:4 reproaches the Thyatirenes with fornication, and eating of things sacrificed to idols; Revelation 2:20 accuses the Sardians of works not full; Revelation 3:2 censures the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; Revelation 2:14-15 upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches; Revelation 3:17 and yet gives them all general monitions to repentance- under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant. The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Says He not, He who has fallen shall rise again, and he who has been averted shall be converted? He it is, indeed, who would have mercy rather than sacrifices. The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. Luke 15:7, 10 Ho! You sinner, be of good cheer! You see where it is that there is joy at your return. What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord's parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner? Luke 15:8-10 There strays, withal, one little ewe of the shepherd's; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled in straying. Luke 15:3-7 That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Luke 15:11-32 Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked- just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent- if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's hired servants- if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd- if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Yours. Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy. Chapter 9. Concerning the Outward Manifestations by Which This Second Repentance is to Be Accompanied The narrower, then, the sphere of action of this second and only (remaining) repentance, the more laborious is its probation; in order that it may not be exhibited in the conscience alone, but may likewise be carried out in some (external) act. This act, which is more usually expressed and commonly spoken of under a Greek name, is ἐξομολόγησις, whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not indeed as if He were ignorant of them, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is settled, of confession repentance is born; by repentance God is appeased. And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; moreover, to know no food and drink but such as is plain-not for the stomach's sake, to wit, but the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed prayers on fastings, to groan, to weep and make outcries unto the Lord your God; to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his deprecatory supplication (before God). All this exomologesis (does), that it may enhance repentance; may honour God by its fear of the (incurred) danger; may, by itself pronouncing against the sinner, stand in the stead of God's indignation, and by temporal mortification (I will not say frustrate, but) expunge eternal punishments. Therefore, while it abases the man, it raises him; while it covers him with squalor, it renders him more clean; while it accuses, it excuses; while it condemns, it absolves. The less quarter you give yourself, the more (believe me) will God give you. Chapter 10. Of Men's Shrinking from This Second Repentance and Exomologesis, and of the Unreasonableness of Such Shrinking Yet most men either shun this work, as being a public exposure of themselves, or else defer it from day to day. I presume (as being) more mindful of modesty than of salvation; just like men who, having contracted some malady in the more private parts of the body, avoid the privity of physicians, and so perish with their own bashfulness. It is intolerable, forsooth, to modesty to make satisfaction to the offended Lord! To be restored to its forfeited salvation! Truly you are honourable in your modesty; bearing an open forehead for sinning, but an abashed one for deprecating! I give no place to bashfulness when I am a gainer by its loss; when itself in some son exhorts the man, saying, Respect not me; it is better that I perish through you, i.e. than you through me. At all events, the time when (if ever) its danger is serious, is when it is a butt for jeering speech in the presence of insulters, where one man raises himself on his neighbour's ruin, where there is upward clambering over the prostrate. But among brethren and fellow-servants, where there is common hope, fear, joy, grief, suffering, because there is a common Spirit from a common Lord and Father, why do you think these brothers to be anything other than yourself? Why flee from the partners of your own mischances, as from such as will derisively cheer them? The body cannot feel gladness at the trouble of any one member, 1 Corinthians 12:26 it must necessarily join with one consent in the grief, and in labouring for the remedy. In a company of two is the church; but the church is Christ. When, then, you cast yourself at the brethren's knees, you are handling Christ, you are entreating Christ. In like manner, when they shed tears over you, it is Christ who suffers, Christ who prays the Father for mercy. What a son asks is ever easily obtained. Grand indeed is the reward of modesty, which the concealment of our fault promises us! To wit, if we do hide somewhat from the knowledge of man, shall we equally conceal it from God? Are the judgment of men and the knowledge of God so put upon a par? Is it better to be damned in secret than absolved in public? But you say, It is a miserable thing thus to come to exomologesis: yes, for evil does bring to misery; but where repentance is to be made, the misery ceases, because it is turned into something salutary. Miserable it is to be cut, and cauterized, and racked with the pungency of some (medicinal) powder: still, the things which heal by unpleasant means do, by the benefit of the cure, excuse their own offensiveness, and make present injury bearable for the sake of the advantage to supervene. Chapter 11. Further Strictures on the Same Subject What if, besides the shame which they make the most account of, men dread likewise the bodily inconveniences; in that, unwashen, sordidly attired, estranged from gladness, they must spend their time in the roughness of sackcloth, and the horridness of ashes, and the sunkenness of face caused by fasting? Is it then becoming for us to supplicate for our sins in scarlet and purple? Hasten hither with the pin for panning the hair, and the powder for polishing the teeth, and some forked implement of steel or brass for cleaning the nails. Whatever of false brilliance, whatever of feigned redness, is to be had, let him diligently apply it to his lips or cheeks. Let him furthermore seek out baths of more genial temperature in some gardened or seaside retreat; let him enlarge his expenses; let him carefully seek the rarest delicacy of fatted fowls; let him refine his old wine: and when any shall ask him, On whom are you lavishing all this? let him say, I have sinned against God, and am in peril of eternally perishing: and so now I am drooping, and wasting and torturing myself, that I may reconcile God to myself, whom by sinning I have offended. Why, they who go about canvassing for the obtaining of civil office, feel it neither degrading nor irksome to struggle, in behalf of such their desires, with annoyances to soul and body; and not annoyances merely, but likewise contumelies of all kinds. What meannesses of dress do they not affect? What houses do they not beset with early and late visits?- bowing whenever they meet any high personage, frequenting no banquets, associating in no entertainments, but voluntarily exiled from the felicity of freedom and festivity: and all that for the sake of the fleeting joy of a single year! Do we hesitate, when eternity is at stake, to endure what the competitor for consulship or prætorship puts up with? and shall we be tardy in offering to the offended Lord a self-chastisement in food and raiment, which Gentiles lay upon themselves when they have offended no one at all? Such are they of whom Scripture makes mention: Woe to them who bind their own sins as it were with a long rope. Chapter 12. Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis If you shrink back from exomologesis, consider in your heart the hell, which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and imagine first the magnitude of the penalty, that you may not hesitate about the adoption of the remedy. What do we esteem that treasure-house of eternal fire to be, when small vent-holes of it rouse such blasts of flames that neighbouring cities either are already no more, or are in daily expectation of the same fate? The haughtiest mountains start asunder in the birth-throes of their inwardly-gendered fire; and- which proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment- though they start asunder, though they be devoured, yet come they never to an end. Who will not account these occasional punishments inflicted on the mountains as examples of the judgment which menaces the impenitent? Who will not agree that such sparks are but some few missiles and sportive darts of some inestimably vast centre of fire? Therefore, since you know that after the first bulwarks of the Lord's baptism there still remains for you, in exomologesis a second reserve of aid against hell, why do you desert your own salvation? Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you? Even dumb irrational animals recognise in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them. The stag, transfixed by the arrow, knows that, to force out the steel, and its inextricable lingerings, he must heal himself with dittany. The swallow, if she blinds her young, knows how to give them eyes again by means of her own swallow-wort. Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass that by which restored the Babylonian king to his realms? Long time had he offered to the Lord his repentance, working out his exomologesis by a seven years' squalor, with his nails wildly growing after the eagle's fashion, and his unkempt hair wearing the shagginess of a lion. Hard handling! Him whom men were shuddering at, God was receiving back. But, on the other hand, the Egyptian emperor- who, after pursuing the once afflicted people of God, long denied to their Lord, rushed into the battle - did, after so many warning plagues, perish in the parted sea, (which was permitted to be passable to the People alone,) by the backward roll of the waves: Exodus 14:15-31 for repentance and her handmaid exomologesis he had cast away. Why should I add more touching these two planks (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offense, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.
LA REPENTANCE 213 En effet, la tristesse selon Dieu produit une repentance à salut dont on ne se repent jamais, tandis que la tristesse du monde produit la mort (2 Corinthiens 7.10). La repentance ne se définit pas non plus comme une transformation de la vie. Elle produit plutôt cette transformation. Un repentir qui ne produit pas une authentique réforme de la vie n’est pas un vrai repentir. Jean-Baptiste exhorta ainsi ceux qui venaient vers lui : “Produisez donc du fruit digne de la repentance” (Matthieu 3.8). Le fruit en question est celui d’une vie changée. Il s’agit donc d’une transformation déterminée de sa volonté vis-à-vis du péché. Ce changement implique à la fois notre intellect, nos émotions et notre conscience ; il est si intégral qu’il nous permet de renoncer complètement à une manière de vivre. Au moment du baptême, l’on peut donc être immergé dans sa mort spirituelle au péché, afin de crucifier le vieil homme et de détruire le corps de péché (Romains 6.6). On peut observer ce phénomène dans la conversion de Saul de Tarse, qui était Pharisien et “Hébreu né d’Hébreux” (Philippiens 3.5). Par rapport à la Loi de Moïse, il était irréprochable (Philippiens 3.6). En d’autres termes, on ne pouvait porter contre lui aucune accusation fondée sur sa manière d’observer la Loi. En Pharisien et en Juif très considéré dans le judaïsme, Saul avait vu en Jésus un imposteur dont le but était de détruire la religion juive. Saul se croyait dans l’obligation de s’opposer à Jésus avec toute la furie d’une persécution dévastatrice. Que Saul considérait tout disciple de Jésus comme un ennemi ne faisait aucun doute. Avec une énergie sans borne et une détermination intense, il chercha à mettre fin à l’Eglise de Christ. Sa persécution des chrétiens prenant de l’ampleur, Saul chercha et reçut l’aval du souverain sacrificateur 214 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE (Actes 9.1-2). Porteur de l’autorisation qu’il avait convoitée, il partit pour Damas afin de mener à bien son plan. Sur la route de Damas, le Seigneur Jésus lui apparut à midi dans une lumière plus resplendissante que le soleil. Aveuglé par la splendeur de la présence du Seigneur, Saul tomba à terre. Lorsqu’il comprit avec certitude - et tremblement - que celui qui lui parlait était Jésus, le Christ, il demanda avec pénitence et une grande contrition : “Que ferai-je, Seigneur ?” (Actes 22.9). Il reçut l’ordre d’aller à Damas, où il apprendrait ce qu’il devait faire (Actes 9.6). Après son arrivée dans la ville, il attendit trois jours dans le jeûne et la prière, jusqu’à ce que la réponse à sa question lui soit donnée par un certain Ananias. Saul se repentit, il changea résolument sa vie. Cette vie, autrefois consacrée au judaïsme et à la persécution de l’Eglise de Christ, prit une direction totalement nouvelle sur la route de Damas. Il se détourna de son ancienne existence, par une transformation révolutionnaire de sa volonté, ce qui modifia toute sa personnalité : son intellect, ses émotions, sa conscience. Plus tard, il écrivit : “Ces choses qui étaient pour moi des gains, je les ai regardées comme une perte, à cause de Christ” (Philippiens 3.7). Les chrétiens sont des personnes qui, comme Saul, se sont détournés du péché par la repentance. La vie du peuple de Dieu consiste à éviter toute forme de mal (1 Thessaloniciens 5.22), à refuser de se conformer à ce monde (Romains 12.2), à surmonter le mal par le bien (Romains 12.21), à faire taire - par une conduite digne - toute accusation fausse contre lui (1 Pierre 2.12). SE TOURNER VERS LE CHRIST Se repentir, ce n’est pas seulement réagir négativement contre le mal, mais aussi répondre positiveLA REPENTANCE 215 ment à Christ. Paul félicita les Thessaloniciens parce que, dans leur repentance, ils abandonnèrent les idoles “pour servir le Dieu vivant et vrai” (1 Thessaloniciens 1.9). Se détourner du péché sans se tourner vers Dieu ne constitue pas une repentance dans le sens biblique du terme. L’enseignement du Nouveau Testament exalte premièrement le Christ. La description par Luc du travail de Philippe en Samarie est un bon exemple des prédications faites par tous les hommes inspirés : “Philippe, étant descendu dans une ville de la Samarie, y prêcha le Christ” (Actes 8.5). Ceux qui répondirent positivement à cette prédication renoncèrent à leur péché et reçurent Christ en obéissant au message de l’Evangile. Après la prédication de Paul à Ephèse, le texte de Luc nous montre les deux volets de la repentance : La crainte s’empara d’eux tous, et le nom du Seigneur Jésus était glorifié. Plusieurs de ceux qui avaient cru venaient confesser et déclarer ce qu’ils avaient fait. Et un certain nombre de ceux qui avaient exercé les arts magiques, ayant apporté leurs livres, les brûlèrent devant tout le monde (Actes 19.17b-19a). Les Ephésiens, s’étant repentis, 1) reconnurent le Christ et 2) abandonnèrent leurs mauvaises pratiques. La repentance de Saul consistait à la fois à se détourner du péché et à se tourner vers Christ. Il avait fait route vers Damas pour persécuter des chrétiens. Selon la Loi de Moïse, il ne commettait aucune crime, ni moral ni cérémoniel. Il n’était, en aucun sens du terme, un fils prodigue méchant. Sa repentance ne changea donc pas son désir fondamental de plaire à Dieu, un désir ressenti depuis sa plus jeune enfance et manifesté dans sa fidèle obéissance à la Loi. Mais persécuter des chrétiens était un terrible péché ; par conséquent, sa 216 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE repentance devant Dieu exigeait qu’il rejette cette persécution et qu’il se tourne vers Jésus, qu’il le reconnaisse comme Seigneur, qu’il se soumette humblement à la volonté de Dieu. Paul décrit lui-même sa repentance en Philippiens 3.8-11 : Et même je regarde toutes choses comme une perte, à cause de l’excellence de la connaissance de Jésus-Christ mon Seigneur, pour lequel j’ai renoncé à tout, et je les regarde comme de la boue, afin de gagner Christ, et d’être trouvé en lui, non avec ma justice, celle qui vient de la loi, mais avec celle qui s’obtient par la foi en Christ, la justice qui vient de Dieu par la foi, afin de connaître Christ, et la puissance de sa résurrection, et la communion de ses souffrances, en devenant conforme à lui dans sa mort, pour parvenir, si je puis, à la résurrection d’entre les morts. Pour Paul, la repentance exigeait donc une réaction négative (se détourner de l’injustice) et une réaction positive (se tourner vers une vie nouvelle et meilleure en Christ). L’Eglise, le corps de Christ, est composée de gens pénitents, soumis à Christ. Ses membres sont devenus un avec lui. Par sa repentance, le chrétien entre dans une vie de sainteté et de justice. Dans cette nouvelle vie, il est crucifié avec Christ pour vivre dans la foi au Fils de Dieu (Galates 2.20). Les chrétiens portent ainsi le nom de Christ, ils vivent en union avec lui, ils l’adorent et cherchent à vivre dans la justice, car ils regardent vers le jour où - par sa venue ou par leur mort - ils iront vivre avec lui. SE TOURNER VERS LE CHRIST POUR LA VIE Jésus n’invita personne à prendre des vacances religieuses, à se détourner temporairement du mal. Il LA REPENTANCE 217 demanda plutôt un engagement total, qu’il appela une naissance “d’eau et d’Esprit”, une naissance d’en haut (Jean 3.5). Cette transformation s’avère si radicale et permanente que Paul la compara à une circoncision spirituelle, un renoncement du corps de la chair par la puissance de Dieu : Et c’est en lui que vous avez été circoncis d’une circoncision que la main n’a pas faite, mais de la circoncision de Christ, qui consiste dans le dépouillement du corps de la chair (Colossiens 2.11). Pour Paul, la conversion consistait donc à se défaire de l’ancien homme et à revêtir le nouveau, comme on enlèverait des vêtements vieux et usés pour s’en débarrasser à jamais (Ephésiens 4.24 ; Colossiens 3.10). Dieu nous délivre du péché et de la mort, il nous donne la vie en Christ lorsque nous sommes rachetés par le sang du Seigneur (Colossiens 2.13). Se repentir, c’est s’engager en permanence. Lorsque nous répondons à Dieu, nous devons mettre à mort les actions de la chair. Désormais, nous devons empêcher à ces actions de revenir à la vie. Paul dit : “Faites donc mourir les membres qui sont sur la terre, l’impudicité, l’impureté, les passions, les mauvais désirs, et la cupidité, qui est une idolâtrie” (Colossiens 3.5). Il dit également : Mais maintenant, renoncez à toutes ces choses, à la colère, à l’animosité, à la méchanceté, à la calomnie, aux paroles déshonnêtes qui pourraient sortir de votre bouche. Ne mentez pas les uns aux autres, vous étant dépouillés du vieil homme et de ses oeuvres (Colossiens 3.8-9). Il s’agit donc de rejeter ces choses à un moment donné ; il s’agit également de le faire constamment, de se repentir continuellement. 218 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE Comment trouver une illustration plus vivante de cette repentance que celle de la conversion de Saul ? Quelqu’un a dit : “Nous n’avons pas encore vu tout ce que Dieu peut faire avec un homme totalement converti à lui.” Si cela est vrai, au moins le cas de Saul s’en rapproche. Lorsque son armée avait débarqué sur la terre ferme pour une grande bataille, Alexandre le Grand faisait brûler ses navires, car il ne pouvait considérer même la possibilité d’une retraite. Ni lui ni ses hommes n’avaient le droit de renoncer. Tout leur avenir s’ouvrait devant eux, pas derrière eux. De même, Saul ne garda aucune place dans son coeur pour des hésitations quelconques, ni aucune possibilité de recul. Le peuple de Dieu - son Eglise - a pris un engagement si fort qu’il est assimilé à une transformation, à un passage de la mort à la vie (1 Jean 3.14). Ce peuple a revêtu l’homme nouveau, et cela pour la vie. Ceci est arrivé à un moment précis, à sa conversion ; mais la purification du coeur reste pour le chrétien une obligation continuelle (Romains 6.2b). Le vieil homme a été mis à mort, mais il essaiera de reprendre vie en toute circonstance (Romains 6.12-13). Le chrétien doit s’assurer de marcher dans la sagesse, et non dans la folie (Ephésiens 5.17). Il doit n’avoir rien de commun avec les oeuvres des ténèbres, mais doit plutôt les dénoncer (Ephésiens 5.11). Il est mort, et sa vie est cachée avec Christ en Dieu (Colossiens 3.3). Le chrétien s’est présenté devant Dieu comme quelqu’un qui était mort mais qui vit à présent, et qui consacre son corps à la justice divine (Romains 6.13).
(حز 14: 6 ومت 9: 13) أول التوبة تغيير في الفكر يصحبه أسف وندامة على عمل شيء ما كان يتمنى عامله عدم وقوعه ولكنه يمكن وقوع الندامة لسبب نتائج الخطية بدون قصد تركها كما جاء عن يهوذا أنه ندم على ما عمل (مت 27: 3) وكما ورد أيضًا في عب 12: 17 أن عيسو لم يجد مكانًا للتوبة مع أنه طلبها بدموع وذلك بعد حادثة مباركة اسحق ليعقوب دونه (تك 27: 24-40) وأما التوبة للحياة فهي الحزن والندامة على ارتكاب الشر والابتعاد عن الخطية وبغضها وبذل الجهد في الاتكال التام على نعمة الله ومساعدة الروح القدس للابتعاد عنها والانقياد إلى مشيئة الله والخضوع لأوامره الطاهرة (مت 3: 8 واع 5: 31 و11: 18 و2 كو 7: 8-10 و2 تي 2: 25) وهذه التوبة التي تنال مغفرة الخطايا باستحقاق يسوع المسيح. تُسْتَخْدَم جملة كلمات في العهدين القديم والجديد، تعبيرًا عن "التوبة". أولًا: التوبة في العهد القديم: تُسْتَخْدَم الكلمة العِبرية נחם "ناحام" (Naham) وهي تتضمن معنى "يلهث، يتنهد، يحزن، يأسف"، وتترجم عادة في العربية بكلمة "ندم" أو "حزن" أو "تأسف" منسوبة إلى الله عندما يجرى قضاء كان مؤجلًا، أو يتحول عن إجراء قضاء انذر به، بعد أمكن تحقق الغرض منه، وهو التوبة والرجوع ألواح (انظر تك 6: 6 و7، خر 32: 14، قض 2: 18، 1 صم 15: 11، 2 صم 24: 16، 1 أخ 21: 15، ارميا 18: 8 و10، 26: 3 و13 و19، 42: 10، يوئيل 2: 13 و14، عاموس 7: 3 و6، يونان 3: 9 و10، 4: 2)، كما يؤكد الكتاب أيضاً أمكن الله لا يمكن أمكن " يندم " (عدد 23: 19، اصم 15: 29، مز 110: 4، ارميا 4: 28، حز 14: 14، هوشع 13: 14، ملاخي 3: 6) فهو " التي ليس عنده تعيير ولا ظل دوران" (يع 1: 17). ولكن قلما تستخدم كلمة "ناحام" منسوبة إلى الأموية (انظر خر 13: 17، قض 21: 6 و 15، 1 مل 8: 47، أيهما 42: 6، ارميا 8: 6، حز 14: 6، 18 : 30). (1) إليه الكلمة العبرية التي تستخدم كثيرًا في العهد القديم للتعبير عن توبة الأموية فهي كلمة שוב "شوبه" (Shubh)، وتترجم عادة في العربية بكلمة "رجع" للدلالة على الرجوع أو التحول عن الخطية إلى الله، فهذا هو أسلوب العهد القديم في التعبير عن " التوبة " من نحو الله، عيني الرجوع للرب من كل القلب والنفس والقدرة (انظر 2 مل 17: 13، 23: 25، 2 أخ 6: 26، 7: 14، 15: 4، 30: 6، نح 1: 9، مز 78: 34، أش 19: 22، 60: 7، ارميا 3: 12 و14 و22، 18: 8، حزقيال 18: 11، 33: 11 و 14، دانيال 9: 13، هو 14: 1 و2، يوئيل 2: 13، يونان 3: 10، زك 1: 3 و4، ملاخي 3: 7). وعندما ينسب الندم إلى الله سواء فيما يتعلق بالقضاء أو بالرحمة، فان ذلك يرتبط بتغير في علاقته بالناس، فالله ثابت لا يتغير في ذاته وكمالاته وأغراض، لكن ما يتغير هو موقفه من الناس فيما يتعلق بأجراء القضاء على الخطبة من التمهل والأناه إلى الغضب، وفيما يتعلق بالرحمة من الغضب إلى الإحسان والبركة. ويعبر عادة عن ذلك في العهد القديم بالقول: " رجع الرب عن حمو غضبة" (انظر خر 32: 12، يشوع 7: 26، 2 أخ 12: 12، 24: 10، أش 12: 1، هوشع 14: 4، يونان 3: 9). وفي بعض المواضع تذكر الكلمتان معا: "توبوا وارجعوا " حز 14: 6، انظر أيضاً أش 21: 12، 55: 7). ثانيًا: التوبة في العهد الجديد: هناك ثلاث كلمات في اليونانية للتعبير عن التوبة: التوبة بمعني الحزن والندم: وهي كلمة "ميتاميلوماي" (Metamelomai) وتعني الإحساس بالحزن والندم عيني شبيهه بكلمة נחם "ناحام" العبرية، فهي تدل على جانب الانفعال العاطفي من التوبة، وقد يؤدي هذا الإحساس إلى توبة حقيقية أو إلى مجرد الندم (مت 21: 29 و32، 27: 3)، فيهوذا ندم بمعني حزن، لكنه لم يندم بمعني الرجوع عن الخطية. وهذا ما فعله حزن، لكنه لم يندم بمعني الرجوع عن الخطية. وهذا ما فعله أيضاً عيسو (عب 12: 17). ويستخدم الرسول بولس نفس الكلمة للتعبير عن موقفه من الكورنثوسيين (2 كو 7: 8). (2) التوبة بمعني تغيير الفكر: وهي كلمة "ميتانو" (Metanoeo) وهي تعبر تعبيرًا قويًا عن التغيير الروحي الذي يحدث برجوع الخاطئ إلى الله، فالكلمة تعني: الحصول على "فِكْر جديد" أي "تغيير الفكر أو الهدف من نحو الخطية"؛ ومنها أتت كلمة "ميطانية" التي نستخدمها في الكنيسة القبطية الأرثوذكسية. عيني تقابل الكلمة العبرية שוב "شوبة" أي "الرجوع"، قد استخدمها بهذا المعني يوحنا المعمدان والرسل (مت 3: 2، مرقس 1: 15، أع 2: 38)، وهي وثيقة الصلة في الحياة المسيحية بالإيمان، فهو العامل فيها (أع 20: 21)، كما إنما ترتبط بالتجديد (أع 3: 19) وبالاختبارات والبركات الروحية التي لا يمنحها آكلتها الله وحده، مثل مغفرة الخطايا (لو 24: 47، أع 5: 31). وتضاف " المعمودية " أحيانا إلى " التوبة " على أساس أمكن المعمودية هي شهادة علنية صريحة على تغيير العلاقة مع الخطية ومع الله (مرقس 1: 4، لو 3: 3، أع 13: 24، 19: 4) والتوبة كاختبار حيوي، لا بد أمكن تظهر في الثمار الصالحة التي تليق بالحياة الروحية الجديدة (مت 3: 8). التوبة بمعنى الرجوع: والكلمة اليونانية المستخدمة هي "ابستريفو" ( Epistrepho) وهي كثيرا ما تستخدم في سفر الأعمال لأبراز الجانب إيجابى من التغيير الذي تتضمنه " التوبة " في العهد الجديد، أي للدلالة على الرجوع إلى الله، ذلك الرجوع الذي يعني في جانبه السلبي التحول عن الخطية. والمفهومان متكاملان متلازمان لا ينفصمان، فالكلمة تستخدم للدلالة على الرجوع من الخطية إلى الله (أع 9: 35، 1 تس 1: 9) عيني تأتي لفكرة الإيمان (أع 11: 21)، وتوكيد للتغير كما يعنيه العهد الجديد (أع 26: 20). وثمة صعوبة بالغة فبالإضافة التعبير عن المعنى الحقيقي لتغيير الفكر بالنسبة للخطبة في الكثير من الترجمات. ففي الترجمة اللاتينية، ترجمت كلمة "التوبة" بكلمتيّ "بونيتنيتام اجير" (Poenitentiam Agere) التأكد تعنى الأسى والحزن "وتعذيب الذات" أكثر مما تعني تغيير الفكر أو الهدف، مما أدى إلى المفهوم الخاطئ للتوبة في الكنيسة اللاتينية، باعتبارها الحزن على الخطبة اكثر منها تغيير الفكر وترك الخطية كالمفهوم الأساسي لها فبالإضافة العهد الجديد. وكل تحريضات الأناجيل في العهد القديم. وكذلك أقوال الرب يسوع وأقوال الرسل، تؤكد أمكن تغيير الفكر هو المفهوم الأساسي لجميع الكلمات الأصلي المستخدمة للدلالة على التوبة. إليه الحزن المصاحب لها فهو نابع عن طبيعة التغيير نفسه. ثالثًا: العناصر السيكولوجية في التوبة: (1) العنصر العقلي: فالتوبة هي تعيير فكر الخاطئ مما يدفعه إلى الرجوع عن طرقة الردية وحياته الشريرة، فالتغيير الملازم للتوبة هو تغيير جذري عميق، لدرجة يؤثر معها في كل الطبيعة الروحية، ويمتد إلى جميع جوانب الشخصية، فالعقل يجب أمكن يوجه، والعاطفة تتحرك، والإرادة تعمل. فعلم النفس (السيكولوجي) يرى أمكن التوبة لا بد أمكن تكون عميقة وشخصية وشاملة. والعنصر العقلي يقوم على أساس أمكن الأموية كائن عاقل، والله يريدنا أمكن نخدمه خدمة عاقلة. فيجب على الأموية أمكن يدرك أمكن الخطية شنيعة شناعة مطلقة، وان ناموس الله كامل لا رحمة فيه، وان الأموية خاطئ أعوزه مجد الله القدوس (أيهما 42: 5 و6، مز 51: 3، رو 3: 20). (2) العصر العاطفي: قد يكون هناك إدراك للخطية دون التخلي عنها كشيء شنيع بغيض، فيه أهانه لله وخراب للإنسان. وتغيير النظرة قد لا يؤدي إلا إلى الخوف من العقاب، وليس إلى بغضه الخطية تركها (خر 9: 27، عد 22: 34، يش 7: 20، 1 صم 15: 24، مت 27: 4)، فالتوبة لابد أمكن تشمل عنصرًا عاطفيًا. وان كان الشعور ليس مرادفًا للتوبة، آكلتها انه قد يكون الحافز القوي للتحول الصادق عن الخطية، فالتائب لا يمكن أمكن يكون بطبيعة الحال متبلد الإحساس غير مبال بشيء، إذ يجب أمكن يحدث تغيير فبالإضافة الموقف العاطفي، إذا كانت التوبة نار التنور التوبة كما يعنيها العهد الجديد، وستجد المزيد عن هذا الموضوع هنا في موقع الأنبا تكلاهيمانوت في صفحات قاموس وتفاسير الكتاب المقدس الأخرى. وهناك نوع من الحزن يؤدي إلى التوبة، ونوع آخر ليس فيه آكلتها الندم والحسرة. فهناك حزن من عمل الهي، وحزن بحسب العالم، والحزن الأول يؤدي إلى الحياة، بينما يؤدى النوع الثاني من الحزن إلى الموت (مت 27: 3، لو 23، 2 كو 7: 9 و10). فلابد أمكن يكون هناك إدراك للخطبة في تأثيرها على الأموية، وفي علاقتها بالله، قبل أمكن يكون هناك تحول قلبي عن الخطية والشعور الملازم للتوبة يتضمن التبكيت على الخطية الشخصية والالتجاء المخلص الصادق إلى الله طلبا للصفح والغفران على أساس رحمته (مز 51: 1 و2 و10 14). العنصر الإرادي: أمكن أهله عناصر التوبة من الناحية السيكولوجية، هو العنصر الإرادي أو الاختياري، وهو ما يعبر عنه في العهد القديم بكلمة " يرجع "، وفي العهد الجديد " بالتوبة " أو " الرجوع "، فالكلمات الأصلي سواء فبالإضافة العبرية أو اليونانية، تركز بشدة على الإرادة وتغيير الفكر أو تغيير الهدف، لان الرجوع الكامل الصادق إلى الله، يتضمن إدراك طبيعة الخطية، والوعي القوي بالمذنوبية الشخصية (ارميا 25: 5، مرقس 1 : 15، أعمال 2: 38، 2 كو 7: 9 و10). والتوبة تستلزم الإرادة الحرة والمسئولية الشخصية. ولاشك في أمكن الناس جميعا مطالبون بالتوبة، كما انه من الجلي الواضح أمكن الله يأخذ دائما المبادرة في التوبة وحل المشكلة يرتبط بالدائرة الروحية، فالظواهر الطبيعية لها أصولها في العلاقات السرية بين الأموية والله، ولا يمكن أمكن يكون ثمة بديل خارجي للتغيير الداخلي، فيجب عدم الخلط بين لبس المسوح وندم النفس، وبين العزم القاطع على ترك الخطية والرجوع إلى الله، فما يطلبه الله في كلا العهدين بالضرورة ليس هو التضحية المادية، بل التغيير الروحي (مز 51: 17، أش 1: 11، ارميا 6: 20، هوشع 6: 6). والتوبة شرط للخلاص، ولكنها ليست أساس استحقاقه. والدوافع إلى الخلاص هي أساسا في صلاح الله، ومحبة الله، ورغبته الشديدة في خلاص الناس من النتائج المحتومة للخطية، وفي دعوة الإنجيل الشاملة، وفى رجاء الحياة الروحية، والدخول إلى ملكوت السموات (حز 33: 1،مرقس 1: 15، لو 13: 1 5، يو 3: 16، أع 17: 30، رو 2: 4). والتطوبيات الأربع الأولى في الأشياء الخامس من إنجيل متى (مت 5: 3 6). هي سلم سماوية تعبر عليها النفس التائبة من سلطان الظلمة إلى ملكوت الله، فالوعي بالفقر الروحي الذي يهبط بالكبرياء عن عرشها، وإدراك الأموية لعدم استحقاقه، مما يدفعه إلى الحزن، والاستعداد العميق للخضوع لله في أتضاع صادق، والرغبة العميقة التي تدفع إلى الجوع والعطش للبر. كل هذه هي بعض اختبارات الشخص التي يهجر الخطية تماما ويرجع بكل قلبه إلى الله الذي يمنح التوبة للحياة.
Chapter 1. Of Heathen Repentance Repentance, men understand, so far as nature is able, to be an emotion of the mind arising from disgust at some previously cherished worse sentiment: that kind of men I mean which even we ourselves were in days gone by- blind, without the Lord's light. From the reason of repentance, however, they are just as far as they are from the Author of reason Himself. Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason- nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil. They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing. Chapter 2. True Repentance a Thing Divine, Originated by God, and Subject to His Laws But if they acted as men who had any part in God, and thereby in reason also, they would first weigh well the importance of repentance, and would never apply it in such a way as to make it a ground for convicting themselves of perverse self-amendment. In short, they would regulate the limit of their repentance, because they would reach (a limit) in sinning too- by fearing God, I mean. But where there is no fear, in like manner there is no amendment; where there is no amendment, repentance is of necessity vain, for it lacks the fruit for which God sowed it; that is, man's salvation. For God- after so many and so great sins of human temerity, begun by the first of the race, Adam, after the condemnation of man, together with the dowry of the world after his ejection from paradise and subjection to death- when He had hasted back to His own mercy, did from that time onward inaugurate repentance in His own self, by rescinding the sentence of His first wrath, engaging to grant pardon to His own work and image. And so He gathered together a people for Himself, and fostered them with many liberal distributions of His bounty, and, after so often finding them most ungrateful, ever exhorted them to repentance and sent out the voices of the universal company of the prophets to prophesy. By and by, promising freely the grace which in the last times He was intending to pour as a flood of light on the universal world through His Spirit, He bade the baptism of repentance lead the way, with the view of first preparing, by means of the sign and seal of repentance, them whom He was calling, through grace, to (inherit) the promise surely made to Abraham. John holds not his peace, saying, Enter upon repentance, for now shall salvation approach the nations - the Lord, that is, bringing salvation according to God's promise. To Him John, as His harbinger, directed the repentance (which he preached), whose province was the purging of men's minds, that whatever defilement inveterate error had imparted, whatever contamination in the heart of man ignorance had engendered, that repentance should sweep and scrape away, and cast out of doors, and thus prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit, who was about to supervene, that He might with pleasure introduce Himself there-into, together with His celestial blessings. Of these blessings the title is briefly one- the salvation of man- the abolition of former sins being the preliminary step. This is the (final) cause of repentance, this her work, in taking in hand the business of divine mercy. What is profitable to man does service to God. The rule of repentance, however, which we learn when we know the Lord, retains a definite form,- viz., that no violent hands so to speak, be ever laid on good deeds or thoughts. For God, never giving His sanction to the reprobation of good deeds, inasmuch as they are His own (of which, being the author, He must necessarily be the defender too), is in like manner the acceptor of them, and if the acceptor, likewise the rewarder. Let, then, the ingratitude of men see to it, if it attaches repentance even to good works; let their gratitude see to it too, if the desire of earning it be the incentive to well-doing: earthly and mortal are they each. For how small is your gain if you do good to a grateful man! Or your loss if to an ungrateful! A good deed has God as its debtor, just as an evil has too; for a judge is rewarder of every cause. Well, since, God as Judge presides over the exacting and maintaining of justice, which to Him is most dear; and since it is with an eye to justice that He appoints all the sum of His discipline, is there room for doubting that, just as in all our acts universally, so also in the case of repentance, justice must be rendered to God?- which duty can indeed only be fulfilled on the condition that repentance be brought to bear only on sins. Further, no deed but an evil one deserves to be called sin, nor does any one err by well-doing. But if he does not err, why does he invade (the province of) repentance, the private ground of such as do err? Why does he impose on his goodness a duty proper to wickedness? Thus it comes to pass that, when a thing is called into play where it ought not, there, where it ought, it is neglected. Chapter 3. Sins May Be Divided into Corporeal and Spiritual. Both Equally Subject, If Not to Human, Yet to Divine Investigation and Punishment. What things, then, they be for which repentance seems just and due- that is, what things are to be set down under the head of sin- the occasion indeed demands that I should note down; but (to do so) may seem to be unnecessary. For when the Lord is known, our spirit, having been looked back upon Luke 22:61 by its own Author, emerges unbidden into the knowledge of the truth; and being admitted to (an acquaintance with) the divine precepts, is by them immediately instructed that that from which God bids us abstain is to be accounted sin: inasmuch as, since it is generally agreed that God is some great essence of good, of course nothing but evil would be displeasing to good; in that, between things mutually contrary, friendship there is none. Still it will not be irksome briefly to touch upon the fact that, of sins, some are carnal, that is, corporeal; some spiritual. For since man is composed of this combination of a two-fold substance, the sources of his sins are no other than the sources of his composition. But it is not the fact that body and spirit are two things that constitute the sins mutually different- otherwise they are on this account rather equal, because the two make up one- lest any make the distinction between their sins proportionate to the difference between their substances, so as to esteem the one lighter, or else heavier, than the other: if it be true, (as it is,) that both flesh and spirit are creatures of God; one wrought by His hand, one consummated by His afflatus. Since, then, they equally pertain to the Lord, whichever of them sins equally offends the Lord. Is it for you to distinguish the acts of the flesh and the spirit, whose communion and conjunction in life, in death, and in resurrection, are so intimate, that at that time they are equally raised up either for life or else for judgment; because, to wit, they have equally either sinned or lived innocently? This we would (once for all) premise, in order that we may understand that no less necessity for repentance is incumbent on either part of man, if in anything it have sinned, than on both. The guilt of both is common; common, too, is the Judge- God to wit; common, therefore, is withal the healing medicine of repentance. The source whence sins are named spiritual and corporeal is the fact that every sin is matter either of act or else of thought: so that what is in deed is corporeal, because a deed, like a body, is capable of being seen and touched; what is in the mind is spiritual, because spirit is neither seen nor handled: by which consideration is shown that sins not of deed only, but of will too, are to be shunned, and by repentance purged. For if human finitude judges only sins of deed, because it is not equal to (piercing) the lurking-places of the will, let us not on that account make light of crimes of the will in God's sight. God is all-sufficient. Nothing from whence any sin whatsoever proceeds is remote from His sight; because He is neither ignorant, nor does He omit to decree it to judgment. He is no dissembler of, nor double-dealer with, His own clear-sightedness. What (shall we say of the fact) that will is the origin of deed? For if any sins are imputed to chance, or to necessity, or to ignorance, let them see to themselves: if these be excepted, there is no sinning save by will. Since, then, will is the origin of deed, is it not so much the rather amenable to penalty as it is first in guilt? Nor, if some difficulty interferes with its full accomplishment, is it even in that case exonerated; for it is itself imputed to itself: nor; having done the work which lay in its own power, will it be excusable by reason of that miscarriage of its accomplishment. In fact, how does the Lord demonstrate Himself as adding a superstructure to the Law, except by interdicting sins of the will as well (as other sins); while He defines not only the man who had actually invaded another's wedlock to be an adulterer, but likewise him who had contaminated (a woman) by the concupiscence of his gaze? Accordingly it is dangerous enough for the mind to set before itself what it is forbidden to perform, and rashly through the will to perfect its execution. And since the power of this will is such that, even without fully sating its self-gratification, it stands for a deed; as a deed, therefore, it shall be punished. It is utterly vain to say, I willed, but yet I did not. Rather you ought to carry the thing through, because you will; or else not to will, because you do not carry it through. But, by the confession of your consciousness, you pronounce your own condemnation. For if you eagerly desired a good thing, you would have been anxious to carry it through; in like manner, as you do not carry an evil thing through, you ought not to have eagerly desired it. Wherever you take your stand, you are fast bound by guilt; because you have either willed evil, or else have not fulfilled good. Chapter 4. Repentance Applicable to All the Kinds of Sin. To Be Practised Not Only, Nor Chiefly, for the Good It Brings, But Because God Commands It To all sins, then, committed whether by flesh or spirit, whether by deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment, has withal engaged to grant pardon by means of repentance, saying to the people, Repent you, and I will save you; and again, I live, says the Lord, and I will (have) repentance rather than death. Repentance, then, is life, since it is preferred to death. That repentance, O sinner, like myself (nay, rather, less than myself, for pre-eminence in sins I acknowledge to be mine ), do you so hasten to, so embrace, as a shipwrecked man the protection of some plank. This will draw you forth when sunk in the waves of sins, and will bear you forward into the port of the divine clemency. Seize the opportunity of unexpected felicity: that you, who sometime were in God's sight nothing but a drop of a bucket, Isaiah 40:15 and dust of the threshing-floor, and a potter's vessel, may thenceforward become that tree which is sown beside the waters, is perennial in leaves, bears fruit at its own time, and shall not see fire, nor axe. Matthew 3:10 Having found the truth, John 14:6 repent of errors; repent of having loved what God loves not: even we ourselves do not permit our slave-lads not to hate the things which are offensive to us; for the principle of voluntary obedience consists in similarity of minds. To reckon up the good, of repentance, the subject-matter is copious, and therefore should be committed to great eloquence. Let us, however, in proportion to our narrow abilities, inculcate one point-that what God enjoins is good and best. I hold it audacity to dispute about the good of a divine precept; for, indeed, it is not the fact that it is good which binds us to obey, but the fact that God has enjoined it. To exact the rendering of obedience the majesty of divine power has the prior right; the authority of Him who commands is prior to the utility of him who serves. Is it good to repent, or no? Why do you ponder? God enjoins; nay, He not merely enjoins, but likewise exhorts. He invites by (offering) reward- salvation, to wit; even by an oath, saying I live, He desires that credence may be given Him. Oh blessed we, for whose sake God swears! Oh most miserable, if we believe not the Lord even when He swears! What, therefore, God so highly commends, what He even (after human fashion) attests on oath, we are bound of course to approach, and to guard with the utmost seriousness; that, abiding permanently in (the faith of) the solemn pledge of divine grace, we may be able also to persevere in like manner in its fruit and its benefit. Chapter 5. Sin Never to Be Returned to After Repentance. For what I say is this, that the repentance which, being shown us and commanded us through God's grace, recalls us to grace with the Lord, when once learned and undertaken by us ought never afterward to be cancelled by repetition of sin. No pretext of ignorance now remains to plead on your behalf; in that, after acknowledging the Lord, and accepting His precepts - in short, after engaging in repentance of (past) sins- you again betake yourself to sins. Thus, in as far as you are removed from ignorance, in so far are you cemented to contumacy. For if the ground on which you had repented of having sinned was that you had begun to fear the Lord, why have you preferred to rescind what you did for fear's sake, except because you have ceased to fear? For there is no other thing but contumacy which subverts fear. Since there is no exception which defends from liability to penalty even such as are ignorant of the Lord- because ignorance of God, openly as He is set before men, and comprehensible as He is even on the score of His heavenly benefits, is not possible - how perilous is it for Him to be despised when known? Now, that man does despise Him, who, after attaining by His help to an understanding of things good and evil, often an affront to his own understanding- that is, to God's gift- by resuming what he understands ought to be shunned, and what he has already shunned: he rejects the Giver in abandoning the gift; he denies the Benefactor in not honouring the benefit. How can he be pleasing to Him, whose gift is displeasing to himself? Thus he is shown to be not only contumacious toward the Lord, but likewise ungrateful. Besides, that man commits no light sin against the Lord, who, after he had by repentance renounced His rival the devil, and had under this appellation subjected him to the Lord, again upraises him by his own return (to the enemy), and makes himself a ground of exultation to him; so that the Evil One, with his prey recovered, rejoices anew against the Lord. Does he not- what is perilous even to say, but must be put forward with a view to edification- place the devil before the Lord? For he seems to have made the comparison who has known each; and to have judicially pronounced him to be the better whose (servant) he has preferred again to be. Thus he who, through repentance for sins, had begun to make satisfaction to the Lord, will, through another repentance of his repentance, make satisfaction to the devil, and will be the more hateful to God in proportion as he will be the more acceptable to His rival. But some say that God is satisfied if He be looked up to with the heart and the mind, even if this be not done in outward act, and that thus they sin without damage to their fear and their faith: that is, that they violate wedlock without damage to their chastity; they mingle poison for their parent without damage to their filial duty! Thus, then, they will themselves withal be thrust down into hell without damage to their pardon, while they sin without damage to their fear! Here is a primary example of perversity: they sin, because they fear! I suppose, if they feared not, they would not sin! Let him, therefore, who would not have God offended not revere Him at all, if fear is the plea for offending. But these dispositions have been wont to sprout from the seed of hypocrites, whose friendship with the devil is indivisible, whose repentance never faithful.
الرب يحفظك
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La repentance
Nous laissons parfois aux circonstances le soin
de déterminer nos valeurs spirituelles. Une scène
inoubliable de Luc 16, celle de l’homme riche et Lazare,
en est une bonne illustration. L’homme riche ne pensait
pas aux autres, pas plus d’ailleurs qu’à ses propres
besoins spirituels. Tout son souci était pour le petit
monde de ses propres désirs et ambitions égoïstes. Au
moment de la mort, il entra dans l’éternité pour répondre
de ce qu’il avait fait. En un instant, il passa du luxe au
tourment, dans le monde spirituel appelé “le séjour des
morts” (Luc 16.23).
Après sa mort, ses priorités changèrent de manière
radicale. Dans cette nouvelle circonstance, toute autre
considération perdit son attrait. Il se préoccupa de deux
choses significatives. Premièrement, il se soucia de l’état
de son âme (ce qu’il n’avait jamais fait auparavant). Il
plaida pour la miséricorde de Dieu. Jésus raconte : “Il
s’écria : Père Abraham, aie pitié de moi, et envoie Lazare,
pour qu’il trempe le bout de son doigt dans l’eau et me
rafraîchisse la langue ; car je souffre cruellement dans
cette flamme” (Luc 16.24).
210 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE
Deuxièmement, l’homme riche exprima son souci
pour la condition spirituelle de ses frères. C’était peutêtre
la première fois de sa vie qu’il exprimait un
quelconque amour pour ses frères. Quelques minutes de
tourment lui avaient donné un coeur de missionnaire :
Le riche dit : Je te prie donc, père Abraham, d’envoyer
Lazare dans la maison de mon père ; car j’ai cinq frères.
C’est pour qu’il leur atteste ces choses, afin qu’ils ne
viennent pas aussi dans ce lieu de tourments (Luc
16.27-28).
En apprenant que ses frères devaient lire la Loi et les
prophètes comme tout le monde, le riche objecta : “Non,
père Abraham, mais si quelqu’un des morts va vers eux,
ils se repentiront” (Luc 16.30). Se peut-il que ce fût la
première fois qu’il parlait de repentance ? La mort avait
changé sa pensée et ses intérêts. Il savait ce dont ses
frères avaient besoin : la repentance qui transforme un
homme !
Le temps et l’éternité nous convaincront que la grande
question de la vie est celle de la repentance. N’attendons
pas que la mort nous force à nous en rendre compte.
Jésus dit : “Si vous ne vous repentez, vous périrez tous
également” (Luc 13.3). Saul exclut toute exception possible
au commandement de repentance, lorsqu’il déclara
aux Athéniens que “Dieu, sans tenir compte des temps
d’ignorance, annonce maintenant à tous les hommes,
en tous lieux, qu’ils aient à se repentir” (Actes
17.30). L’homme devant Dieu se trouve sur l’un de deux
chemins possibles : le chemin de la repentance ou celui
de la rébellion. Si Dieu retarde la deuxième venue du
Christ, il le fait pour une raison précise : permettre à
plus de personnes de se repentir : “Le Seigneur ne tarde
pas dans l’accomplissement de la promesse, comme
quelques-uns le croient ; mais il use de patience envers
LA REPENTANCE 211
vous, ne voulant pas qu’aucun périsse, mais voulant
que tous arrivent à la repentance” (2 Pierre 3.9). Le
destin final de tout homme se détermine par rapport
à son repentir ou son refus de cette repentance. “Mais
pour les lâches, les incrédules, les abominables, les
meurtriers, les impudiques, les enchanteurs, les
idolâtres, et tous les menteurs, leur part sera dans l’étang
ardent de feu et de soufre, ce qui est la seconde mort”
(Apocalypse 21.8).
L’Eglise est composée de personnes ayant répondu à
l’appel du Nouveau Testament à se repentir. Les
chrétiens sont donc ceux qui ont invoqué le nom du
Seigneur et qui se sont détournés de l’injustice
(2 Timothée 2.19). Par leur conversion à Christ, ils ont
été délivrés des ténèbres et transportés dans le royaume
du Fils de Dieu (Colossiens 1.13). Ils se sont engagés à
vivre en enfants de Dieu obéissants, ils refusent de
retomber dans les convoitises d’autrefois, au temps de
leur ignorance et de leur désobéissance (1 Pierre 1.14).
Leur but est de devenir comme celui qui les a appelés, de
l’imiter dans tout leur comportement, de reconnaître
par leur conduite le désir de leur Seigneur : “Vous serez
saints, car je suis saint” (1 Pierre 1.16).
Pour celui qui veut être chrétien, membre de l’Eglise
du Seigneur, la repentance est donc une idée fondamentale,
un concept principal à saisir. La nature de
l’Eglise se reflète dans la définition et dans les principales
implications de ce terme qui désigne la sorte de personne
que Dieu appelle et qui forme son Eglise. Lorsque Pierre
décrivit aux Juifs de Jérusalem le baptême des païens
dans la maison de Corneille, les frères Juifs répondirent
: “Dieu a donc accordé la repentance aussi
aux païens, afin qu’ils aient la vie” (Actes 11.18). Ils
avaient compris, et nous devons comprendre, que la
porte vers la vraie vie ne s’ouvre que par la véritable
repentance.
212 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE
Qu’est-ce que la repentance ? Essayons de définir
plus exactement ce terme, afin de ne pas passer à côté de
son importance. Pour ceci, nous examinerons la conversion
de Saul.
SE DETOURNER DU PECHE
La première chose est de changer : de se détourner
de l’injustice.
La repentance n’est pas simplement une amélioration
personnelle ou une manière de mieux maîtriser sa vie. Il
s’agit plutôt d’une détermination tenace, d’une décision
d’abandonner tout ce qui est étranger à Dieu. Cette prise
de position contribue au changement total que Jésus
appela une nouvelle naissance (Jean 3.3).
La repentance n’est pas un simple regret d’avoir péché. Le
regret pour le péché vient de l’embarras qu’il a causé ou
des conséquences qu’il a provoquées. Judas regretta
d’avoir trahi Jésus, mais il ne s’en repentit pas (Matthieu
27.3). Son cas nous montre qu’il est possible d’être
profondément troublé par son péché sans se repentir
pour autant. Pierre, qui renia le Christ (Matthieu 26.34,
69-75), se repentit.
La repentance n’est pas simplement la conviction d’avoir
péché. Au jour de la Pentecôte, Pierre dénonça les péchés
des Juifs qui l’écoutaient. Ses paroles leur touchèrent le
coeur, et ils s’écrièrent : “Frères, que ferons-nous ?”
(Actes 2.37). Mais Pierre ne considéra pas leur émotion
comme de la repentance. Dans sa réponse à leur question,
il dit : “Repentez-vous, et que chacun de vous soit
baptisé au nom de Jésus-Christ, pour le pardon de vos
péchés ; et vous recevrez le don du Saint-Esprit” (Actes
2.38).
La repentance n’est pas seulement une “tristesse selon
Dieu”. Selon Paul, cette tristesse précède et produit la
repentance. Elle fait partie du processus de repentance,
sans constituer elle-même cette repentance :
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Chapter 6. Baptism Not to Be Presumptously Received. It Requires Preceding Repentance, Manifested by Amendment of Life
Whatever, then, our poor ability has attempted to suggest with reference to laying hold of repentance once for all, and perpetually retaining it, does indeed bear upon all who are given up to the Lord, as being all competitors for salvation in earning the favour of God; but is chiefly urgent in the case of those young novices who are only just beginning to bedew Deuteronomy 32:2 their ears with divine discourses, and who, as whelps in yet early infancy, and with eyes not yet perfect, creep about uncertainly, and say indeed that they renounce their former deed, and assume (the profession of) repentance, but neglect to complete it. For the very end of desiring importunes them to desire somewhat of their former deeds; just as fruits, when they are already beginning to turn into the sourness or bitterness of age, do yet still in some part flatter their own loveliness. Moreover, a presumptuous confidence in baptism introduces all kind of vicious delay and tergiversation with regard to repentance; for, feeling sure of undoubted pardon of their sins, men meanwhile steal the intervening time, and make it for themselves into a holiday-time for sinning, rather than a time for learning not to sin. Further, how inconsistent is it to expect pardon of sins (to be granted) to a repentance which they have not fulfilled! This is to hold out your hand for merchandise, but not produce the price. For repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon: He proposes the redemption of release from penalty at this compensating exchange of repentance. If, then, sellers first examine the coin with which they make their bargains, to see whether it be cut, or scraped, or adulterated, we believe likewise that the Lord, when about to make us the grant of so costly merchandise, even of eternal life, first institutes a probation of our repentance. But meanwhile let us defer the reality of our repentance: it will then, I suppose, be clear that we are amended when we are absolved. By no means; (but our amendment should be manifested) while, pardon being in abeyance, there is still a prospect of penalty; while the penitent does not yet merit- so far as merit we can- his liberation; while God is threatening, not while He is forgiving. For what slave, after his position has been changed by reception of freedom, charges himself with his (past) thefts and desertions? What soldier, after his discharge, makes satisfaction for his (former) brands? A sinner is bound to bemoan himself before receiving pardon, because the time of repentance is coincident with that of peril and of fear. Not that I deny that the divine benefit- the putting away of sins, I mean- is in every way sure to such as are on the point of entering the (baptismal) water; but what we have to labour for is, that it may be granted us to attain that blessing. For who will grant to you, a man of so faithless repentance, one single sprinkling of any water whatever? To approach it by stealth, indeed, and to get the minister appointed over this business misled by your asseverations, is easy; but God takes foresight for His own treasure, and suffers not the unworthy to steal a march upon it. What, in fact, does He say? Nothing hid which shall not be revealed. Luke 8:17 Draw whatever (veil of) darkness you please over your deeds, God is light. 1 John 1:5 But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwillingly. But who permits a gift to be permanently retained which he has granted unwillingly? For do not many afterward fall out of (grace)? Is not this gift taken away from many? These, no doubt, are they who do steal a march upon (the treasure), who, after approaching to the faith of repentance, set up on the sands a house doomed to ruin. Let no one, then, flatter himself on the ground of being assigned to the recruit-classes of learners, as if on that account he have a licence even now to sin. As soon as you know the Lord, you should fear Him; as soon as you have gazed on Him, you should reverence Him. But what difference does your knowing Him make, while you rest in the same practises as in days bygone, when you knew Him not? What, moreover, is it which distinguishes you from a perfected servant of God? Is there one Christ for the baptized, another for the learners? Have they some different hope or reward? Some different dread of judgment? Some different necessity for repentance? That baptismal washing is a sealing of faith, which faith is begun and is commended by the faith of repentance. We are not washed in order that we may cease sinning, but because we have ceased, since in heart we have been bathed already. For the first baptism of a learner is this, a perfect fear; thenceforward, in so far as you have understanding of the Lord faith is sound, the conscience having once for all embraced repentance. Otherwise, if it is (only) after the baptismal waters that we cease sinning, it is of necessity, not of free-will, that we put on innocence. Who, then, is pre-eminent in goodness? He who is not allowed, or he whom it displeases, to be evil? He who is bidden, or he whose pleasure it is, to be free from crime? Let us, then, neither keep our hands from theft unless the hardness of bars withstand us, nor refrain our eyes from the concupiscence of fornication unless we be withdrawn by guardians of our persons, if no one who has surrendered himself to the Lord is to cease sinning unless he be bound thereto by baptism. But if any entertain this sentiment, I know not whether he, after baptism, do not feel more sadness to think that he has ceased from sinning, than gladness that he has escaped from it. And so it is becoming that learners desire baptism, but do not hastily receive it: for he who desires it, honours it; he who hastily receives it, disdains it: in the one appears modesty, in the other arrogance; the former satisfies, the latter neglects it; the former covets to merit it, but the latter promises it to himself as a due return; the former takes, the latter usurps it. Whom would you judge worthier, except one who is more amended? Whom more amended, except one who is more timid, and on that account has fulfilled the duty of true repentance? For he has feared to continue still in sin, lest he should not merit the reception of baptism. But the hasty receiver, inasmuch as he promised it himself (as his due), being forsooth secure (of obtaining it), could not fear: thus he fulfilled not repentance either, because he lacked the instrumental agent of repentance, that is, fear. Hasty reception is the portion of irreverence; it inflates the seeker, it despises the Giver. And thus it sometimes deceives, for it promises to itself the gift before it be due; whereby He who is to furnish the gift is ever offended.
Chapter 7. Of Repentance, in the Case of Such as Have Lapsed After Baptism
So long, Lord Christ, may the blessing of learning or hearing concerning the discipline of repentance be granted to Your servants, as is likewise behooves them, while learners, not to sin; in other words, may they thereafter know nothing of repentance, and require nothing of it. It is irksome to append mention of a second- nay, in that case, the last- hope; lest, by treating of a remedial repenting yet in reserve, we seem to be pointing to a yet further space for sinning. Far be it that any one so interpret our meaning, as if, because there is an opening for repenting, there were even now, on that account, an opening for sinning; and as if the redundance of celestial clemency constituted a licence for human temerity. Let no one be less good because God is more so, by repeating his sin as often as he is forgiven. Otherwise be sure he will find an end of escaping, when he shall not find one of sinning. We have escaped once: thus far and no farther let us commit ourselves to perils, even if we seem likely to escape a second time. Men in general, after escaping shipwreck, thenceforward declare divorce with ship and sea; and by cherishing the memory of the danger, honour the benefit conferred by God-their deliverance, namely. I praise their fear, I love their reverence; they are unwilling a second time to be a burden to the divine mercy; they fear to seem to trample on the benefit which they have attained; they shun, with a solicitude which at all events is good, to make trial a second time of that which they have once learned to fear. Thus the limit of their temerity is the evidence of their fear.
Moreover, man's fear is an honour to God. But however, that most stubborn foe (of ours) never gives his malice leisure; indeed, he is then most savage when he fully feels that a man is freed from his clutches; he then flames fiercest while he is fast becoming extinguished. Grieve and groan he must of necessity over the fact that, by the grant of pardon, so many works of death in man have been overthrown, so many marks of the condemnation which formerly was his own erased. He grieves that that sinner, (now) Christ's servant, is destined to judge him and his angels. 1 Corinthians 6:3 And so he observes, assaults, besieges him, in the hope that he may be able in some way either to strike his eyes with carnal concupiscence, or else to entangle his mind with worldly enticements, or else to subvert his faith by fear of earthly power, or else to wrest him from the sure way by perverse traditions: he is never deficient in stumbling-blocks nor in temptations. These poisons of his, therefore, God foreseeing, although the gate of forgiveness has been shut and fastened up with the bar of baptism, has permitted it still to stand somewhat open. In the vestibule He has stationed the second repentance for opening to such as knock: but now once for all, because now for the second time; but never more because the last time it had been in vain. For is not even this once enough? You have what you now deserved not, for you had lost what you had received. If the Lord's indulgence grants you the means of restoring what you had lost, be thankful for the benefit renewed, not to say amplified; for restoring is a greater thing than giving, inasmuch as having lost is more miserable than never having received at all. However, if any do incur the debt of a second repentance, his spirit is not to be immediately cut down and undermined by despair. Let it by all means be irksome to sin again, but let not to repent again be irksome: irksome to imperil one's self again, but not to be again set free. Let none be ashamed. Repeated sickness must have repeated medicine. You will show your gratitude to the Lord by not refusing what the Lord offers you. You have offended, but can still be reconciled. You have One whom you may satisfy, and Him willing.
Chapter 8. Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon
This if you doubt, unravel the meaning of what the Spirit says to the churches. He imputes to the Ephesians forsaken love; Revelation 2:4 reproaches the Thyatirenes with fornication, and eating of things sacrificed to idols; Revelation 2:20 accuses the Sardians of works not full; Revelation 3:2 censures the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; Revelation 2:14-15 upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches; Revelation 3:17 and yet gives them all general monitions to repentance- under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant. The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Says He not, He who has fallen shall rise again, and he who has been averted shall be converted? He it is, indeed, who would have mercy rather than sacrifices. The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. Luke 15:7, 10 Ho! You sinner, be of good cheer! You see where it is that there is joy at your return. What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord's parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner? Luke 15:8-10 There strays, withal, one little ewe of the shepherd's; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled in straying. Luke 15:3-7 That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Luke 15:11-32 Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked- just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent- if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's hired servants- if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd- if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Yours. Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy.
Chapter 9. Concerning the Outward Manifestations by Which This Second Repentance is to Be Accompanied
The narrower, then, the sphere of action of this second and only (remaining) repentance, the more laborious is its probation; in order that it may not be exhibited in the conscience alone, but may likewise be carried out in some (external) act. This act, which is more usually expressed and commonly spoken of under a Greek name, is ἐξομολόγησις, whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not indeed as if He were ignorant of them, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is settled, of confession repentance is born; by repentance God is appeased. And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; moreover, to know no food and drink but such as is plain-not for the stomach's sake, to wit, but the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed prayers on fastings, to groan, to weep and make outcries unto the Lord your God; to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his deprecatory supplication (before God). All this exomologesis (does), that it may enhance repentance; may honour God by its fear of the (incurred) danger; may, by itself pronouncing against the sinner, stand in the stead of God's indignation, and by temporal mortification (I will not say frustrate, but) expunge eternal punishments. Therefore, while it abases the man, it raises him; while it covers him with squalor, it renders him more clean; while it accuses, it excuses; while it condemns, it absolves. The less quarter you give yourself, the more (believe me) will God give you.
Chapter 10. Of Men's Shrinking from This Second Repentance and Exomologesis, and of the Unreasonableness of Such Shrinking
Yet most men either shun this work, as being a public exposure of themselves, or else defer it from day to day. I presume (as being) more mindful of modesty than of salvation; just like men who, having contracted some malady in the more private parts of the body, avoid the privity of physicians, and so perish with their own bashfulness. It is intolerable, forsooth, to modesty to make satisfaction to the offended Lord! To be restored to its forfeited salvation! Truly you are honourable in your modesty; bearing an open forehead for sinning, but an abashed one for deprecating! I give no place to bashfulness when I am a gainer by its loss; when itself in some son exhorts the man, saying, Respect not me; it is better that I perish through you, i.e. than you through me. At all events, the time when (if ever) its danger is serious, is when it is a butt for jeering speech in the presence of insulters, where one man raises himself on his neighbour's ruin, where there is upward clambering over the prostrate. But among brethren and fellow-servants, where there is common hope, fear, joy, grief, suffering, because there is a common Spirit from a common Lord and Father, why do you think these brothers to be anything other than yourself? Why flee from the partners of your own mischances, as from such as will derisively cheer them? The body cannot feel gladness at the trouble of any one member, 1 Corinthians 12:26 it must necessarily join with one consent in the grief, and in labouring for the remedy. In a company of two is the church; but the church is Christ. When, then, you cast yourself at the brethren's knees, you are handling Christ, you are entreating Christ. In like manner, when they shed tears over you, it is Christ who suffers, Christ who prays the Father for mercy. What a son asks is ever easily obtained. Grand indeed is the reward of modesty, which the concealment of our fault promises us! To wit, if we do hide somewhat from the knowledge of man, shall we equally conceal it from God? Are the judgment of men and the knowledge of God so put upon a par? Is it better to be damned in secret than absolved in public? But you say, It is a miserable thing thus to come to exomologesis: yes, for evil does bring to misery; but where repentance is to be made, the misery ceases, because it is turned into something salutary. Miserable it is to be cut, and cauterized, and racked with the pungency of some (medicinal) powder: still, the things which heal by unpleasant means do, by the benefit of the cure, excuse their own offensiveness, and make present injury bearable for the sake of the advantage to supervene.
Chapter 11. Further Strictures on the Same Subject
What if, besides the shame which they make the most account of, men dread likewise the bodily inconveniences; in that, unwashen, sordidly attired, estranged from gladness, they must spend their time in the roughness of sackcloth, and the horridness of ashes, and the sunkenness of face caused by fasting? Is it then becoming for us to supplicate for our sins in scarlet and purple? Hasten hither with the pin for panning the hair, and the powder for polishing the teeth, and some forked implement of steel or brass for cleaning the nails. Whatever of false brilliance, whatever of feigned redness, is to be had, let him diligently apply it to his lips or cheeks. Let him furthermore seek out baths of more genial temperature in some gardened or seaside retreat; let him enlarge his expenses; let him carefully seek the rarest delicacy of fatted fowls; let him refine his old wine: and when any shall ask him, On whom are you lavishing all this? let him say, I have sinned against God, and am in peril of eternally perishing: and so now I am drooping, and wasting and torturing myself, that I may reconcile God to myself, whom by sinning I have offended. Why, they who go about canvassing for the obtaining of civil office, feel it neither degrading nor irksome to struggle, in behalf of such their desires, with annoyances to soul and body; and not annoyances merely, but likewise contumelies of all kinds. What meannesses of dress do they not affect? What houses do they not beset with early and late visits?- bowing whenever they meet any high personage, frequenting no banquets, associating in no entertainments, but voluntarily exiled from the felicity of freedom and festivity: and all that for the sake of the fleeting joy of a single year! Do we hesitate, when eternity is at stake, to endure what the competitor for consulship or prætorship puts up with? and shall we be tardy in offering to the offended Lord a self-chastisement in food and raiment, which Gentiles lay upon themselves when they have offended no one at all? Such are they of whom Scripture makes mention: Woe to them who bind their own sins as it were with a long rope.
Chapter 12. Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis
If you shrink back from exomologesis, consider in your heart the hell, which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and imagine first the magnitude of the penalty, that you may not hesitate about the adoption of the remedy. What do we esteem that treasure-house of eternal fire to be, when small vent-holes of it rouse such blasts of flames that neighbouring cities either are already no more, or are in daily expectation of the same fate? The haughtiest mountains start asunder in the birth-throes of their inwardly-gendered fire; and- which proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment- though they start asunder, though they be devoured, yet come they never to an end. Who will not account these occasional punishments inflicted on the mountains as examples of the judgment which menaces the impenitent? Who will not agree that such sparks are but some few missiles and sportive darts of some inestimably vast centre of fire? Therefore, since you know that after the first bulwarks of the Lord's baptism there still remains for you, in exomologesis a second reserve of aid against hell, why do you desert your own salvation? Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you? Even dumb irrational animals recognise in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them. The stag, transfixed by the arrow, knows that, to force out the steel, and its inextricable lingerings, he must heal himself with dittany. The swallow, if she blinds her young, knows how to give them eyes again by means of her own swallow-wort. Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass that by which restored the Babylonian king to his realms? Long time had he offered to the Lord his repentance, working out his exomologesis by a seven years' squalor, with his nails wildly growing after the eagle's fashion, and his unkempt hair wearing the shagginess of a lion. Hard handling! Him whom men were shuddering at, God was receiving back. But, on the other hand, the Egyptian emperor- who, after pursuing the once afflicted people of God, long denied to their Lord, rushed into the battle - did, after so many warning plagues, perish in the parted sea, (which was permitted to be passable to the People alone,) by the backward roll of the waves: Exodus 14:15-31 for repentance and her handmaid exomologesis he had cast away.
Why should I add more touching these two planks (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offense, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.
LA REPENTANCE 213
En effet, la tristesse selon Dieu produit une repentance
à salut dont on ne se repent jamais, tandis que la
tristesse du monde produit la mort (2 Corinthiens
7.10).
La repentance ne se définit pas non plus comme une
transformation de la vie. Elle produit plutôt cette transformation.
Un repentir qui ne produit pas une authentique
réforme de la vie n’est pas un vrai repentir. Jean-Baptiste
exhorta ainsi ceux qui venaient vers lui : “Produisez
donc du fruit digne de la repentance” (Matthieu 3.8). Le
fruit en question est celui d’une vie changée.
Il s’agit donc d’une transformation déterminée de sa
volonté vis-à-vis du péché. Ce changement implique à la
fois notre intellect, nos émotions et notre conscience ; il est
si intégral qu’il nous permet de renoncer complètement
à une manière de vivre. Au moment du baptême, l’on
peut donc être immergé dans sa mort spirituelle au
péché, afin de crucifier le vieil homme et de détruire le
corps de péché (Romains 6.6).
On peut observer ce phénomène dans la conversion
de Saul de Tarse, qui était Pharisien et “Hébreu né
d’Hébreux” (Philippiens 3.5). Par rapport à la Loi de
Moïse, il était irréprochable (Philippiens 3.6). En d’autres
termes, on ne pouvait porter contre lui aucune accusation
fondée sur sa manière d’observer la Loi. En Pharisien
et en Juif très considéré dans le judaïsme, Saul avait vu
en Jésus un imposteur dont le but était de détruire la
religion juive. Saul se croyait dans l’obligation de
s’opposer à Jésus avec toute la furie d’une persécution
dévastatrice. Que Saul considérait tout disciple de Jésus
comme un ennemi ne faisait aucun doute. Avec une
énergie sans borne et une détermination intense, il
chercha à mettre fin à l’Eglise de Christ.
Sa persécution des chrétiens prenant de l’ampleur,
Saul chercha et reçut l’aval du souverain sacrificateur
214 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE
(Actes 9.1-2). Porteur de l’autorisation qu’il avait
convoitée, il partit pour Damas afin de mener à bien son
plan. Sur la route de Damas, le Seigneur Jésus lui apparut
à midi dans une lumière plus resplendissante que le
soleil. Aveuglé par la splendeur de la présence du
Seigneur, Saul tomba à terre. Lorsqu’il comprit avec
certitude - et tremblement - que celui qui lui parlait
était Jésus, le Christ, il demanda avec pénitence et une
grande contrition : “Que ferai-je, Seigneur ?” (Actes
22.9). Il reçut l’ordre d’aller à Damas, où il apprendrait
ce qu’il devait faire (Actes 9.6). Après son arrivée dans
la ville, il attendit trois jours dans le jeûne et la prière,
jusqu’à ce que la réponse à sa question lui soit donnée
par un certain Ananias.
Saul se repentit, il changea résolument sa vie.
Cette vie, autrefois consacrée au judaïsme et à la persécution
de l’Eglise de Christ, prit une direction totalement
nouvelle sur la route de Damas. Il se détourna
de son ancienne existence, par une transformation
révolutionnaire de sa volonté, ce qui modifia toute sa
personnalité : son intellect, ses émotions, sa conscience.
Plus tard, il écrivit : “Ces choses qui étaient pour moi
des gains, je les ai regardées comme une perte, à cause
de Christ” (Philippiens 3.7).
Les chrétiens sont des personnes qui, comme Saul, se
sont détournés du péché par la repentance. La vie du
peuple de Dieu consiste à éviter toute forme de mal
(1 Thessaloniciens 5.22), à refuser de se conformer à ce
monde (Romains 12.2), à surmonter le mal par le bien
(Romains 12.21), à faire taire - par une conduite
digne - toute accusation fausse contre lui (1 Pierre
2.12).
SE TOURNER VERS LE CHRIST
Se repentir, ce n’est pas seulement réagir négativement
contre le mal, mais aussi répondre positiveLA
REPENTANCE 215
ment à Christ.
Paul félicita les Thessaloniciens parce que, dans leur
repentance, ils abandonnèrent les idoles “pour servir le
Dieu vivant et vrai” (1 Thessaloniciens 1.9). Se détourner
du péché sans se tourner vers Dieu ne constitue pas une
repentance dans le sens biblique du terme.
L’enseignement du Nouveau Testament exalte premièrement
le Christ. La description par Luc du
travail de Philippe en Samarie est un bon exemple des
prédications faites par tous les hommes inspirés :
“Philippe, étant descendu dans une ville de la Samarie,
y prêcha le Christ” (Actes 8.5). Ceux qui répondirent
positivement à cette prédication renoncèrent à leur péché
et reçurent Christ en obéissant au message de l’Evangile.
Après la prédication de Paul à Ephèse, le texte de Luc
nous montre les deux volets de la repentance :
La crainte s’empara d’eux tous, et le nom du Seigneur
Jésus était glorifié. Plusieurs de ceux qui avaient cru
venaient confesser et déclarer ce qu’ils avaient fait. Et
un certain nombre de ceux qui avaient exercé les arts
magiques, ayant apporté leurs livres, les brûlèrent
devant tout le monde (Actes 19.17b-19a).
Les Ephésiens, s’étant repentis, 1) reconnurent le Christ
et 2) abandonnèrent leurs mauvaises pratiques.
La repentance de Saul consistait à la fois à se
détourner du péché et à se tourner vers Christ. Il avait
fait route vers Damas pour persécuter des chrétiens.
Selon la Loi de Moïse, il ne commettait aucune crime, ni
moral ni cérémoniel. Il n’était, en aucun sens du terme,
un fils prodigue méchant. Sa repentance ne changea
donc pas son désir fondamental de plaire à Dieu, un
désir ressenti depuis sa plus jeune enfance et manifesté
dans sa fidèle obéissance à la Loi. Mais persécuter des
chrétiens était un terrible péché ; par conséquent, sa
216 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE
repentance devant Dieu exigeait qu’il rejette cette persécution
et qu’il se tourne vers Jésus, qu’il le reconnaisse
comme Seigneur, qu’il se soumette humblement à la
volonté de Dieu.
Paul décrit lui-même sa repentance en Philippiens
3.8-11 :
Et même je regarde toutes choses comme une perte, à
cause de l’excellence de la connaissance de Jésus-Christ
mon Seigneur, pour lequel j’ai renoncé à tout, et je les
regarde comme de la boue, afin de gagner Christ, et
d’être trouvé en lui, non avec ma justice, celle qui vient
de la loi, mais avec celle qui s’obtient par la foi en Christ,
la justice qui vient de Dieu par la foi, afin de connaître
Christ, et la puissance de sa résurrection, et la communion
de ses souffrances, en devenant conforme à lui dans
sa mort, pour parvenir, si je puis, à la résurrection
d’entre les morts.
Pour Paul, la repentance exigeait donc une réaction
négative (se détourner de l’injustice) et une réaction
positive (se tourner vers une vie nouvelle et meilleure
en Christ).
L’Eglise, le corps de Christ, est composée de gens
pénitents, soumis à Christ. Ses membres sont devenus
un avec lui. Par sa repentance, le chrétien entre dans une
vie de sainteté et de justice. Dans cette nouvelle vie, il
est crucifié avec Christ pour vivre dans la foi au Fils de
Dieu (Galates 2.20). Les chrétiens portent ainsi le nom
de Christ, ils vivent en union avec lui, ils l’adorent et
cherchent à vivre dans la justice, car ils regardent vers le
jour où - par sa venue ou par leur mort - ils iront vivre
avec lui.
SE TOURNER VERS LE CHRIST POUR LA VIE
Jésus n’invita personne à prendre des vacances
religieuses, à se détourner temporairement du mal. Il
LA REPENTANCE 217
demanda plutôt un engagement total, qu’il appela une
naissance “d’eau et d’Esprit”, une naissance d’en haut
(Jean 3.5). Cette transformation s’avère si radicale et
permanente que Paul la compara à une circoncision
spirituelle, un renoncement du corps de la chair par la
puissance de Dieu :
Et c’est en lui que vous avez été circoncis d’une
circoncision que la main n’a pas faite, mais de la
circoncision de Christ, qui consiste dans le dépouillement
du corps de la chair (Colossiens 2.11).
Pour Paul, la conversion consistait donc à se
défaire de l’ancien homme et à revêtir le nouveau,
comme on enlèverait des vêtements vieux et usés pour
s’en débarrasser à jamais (Ephésiens 4.24 ; Colossiens
3.10). Dieu nous délivre du péché et de la mort, il nous
donne la vie en Christ lorsque nous sommes rachetés
par le sang du Seigneur (Colossiens 2.13).
Se repentir, c’est s’engager en permanence. Lorsque
nous répondons à Dieu, nous devons mettre à mort les
actions de la chair. Désormais, nous devons empêcher à
ces actions de revenir à la vie. Paul dit : “Faites donc
mourir les membres qui sont sur la terre, l’impudicité,
l’impureté, les passions, les mauvais désirs, et la cupidité,
qui est une idolâtrie” (Colossiens 3.5). Il dit également :
Mais maintenant, renoncez à toutes ces choses, à la
colère, à l’animosité, à la méchanceté, à la calomnie, aux
paroles déshonnêtes qui pourraient sortir de votre
bouche. Ne mentez pas les uns aux autres, vous étant
dépouillés du vieil homme et de ses oeuvres (Colossiens
3.8-9).
Il s’agit donc de rejeter ces choses à un moment donné ;
il s’agit également de le faire constamment, de se repentir
continuellement.
218 DEVENIR UN CHRETIEN FIDELE
Comment trouver une illustration plus vivante de
cette repentance que celle de la conversion de Saul ?
Quelqu’un a dit : “Nous n’avons pas encore vu tout ce
que Dieu peut faire avec un homme totalement converti
à lui.” Si cela est vrai, au moins le cas de Saul s’en
rapproche.
Lorsque son armée avait débarqué sur la terre ferme
pour une grande bataille, Alexandre le Grand faisait
brûler ses navires, car il ne pouvait considérer même la
possibilité d’une retraite. Ni lui ni ses hommes n’avaient
le droit de renoncer. Tout leur avenir s’ouvrait devant
eux, pas derrière eux. De même, Saul ne garda aucune
place dans son coeur pour des hésitations quelconques,
ni aucune possibilité de recul.
Le peuple de Dieu - son Eglise - a pris un engagement
si fort qu’il est assimilé à une transformation, à
un passage de la mort à la vie (1 Jean 3.14). Ce peuple
a revêtu l’homme nouveau, et cela pour la vie. Ceci
est arrivé à un moment précis, à sa conversion ; mais
la purification du coeur reste pour le chrétien une
obligation continuelle (Romains 6.2b). Le vieil homme
a été mis à mort, mais il essaiera de reprendre vie en
toute circonstance (Romains 6.12-13). Le chrétien doit
s’assurer de marcher dans la sagesse, et non dans la folie
(Ephésiens 5.17). Il doit n’avoir rien de commun avec les
oeuvres des ténèbres, mais doit plutôt les dénoncer
(Ephésiens 5.11). Il est mort, et sa vie est cachée avec
Christ en Dieu (Colossiens 3.3). Le chrétien s’est présenté
devant Dieu comme quelqu’un qui était mort mais qui
vit à présent, et qui consacre son corps à la justice divine
(Romains 6.13).
(حز 14: 6 ومت 9: 13) أول التوبة تغيير في الفكر يصحبه أسف وندامة على عمل شيء ما كان يتمنى عامله عدم وقوعه ولكنه يمكن وقوع الندامة لسبب نتائج الخطية بدون قصد تركها كما جاء عن يهوذا أنه ندم على ما عمل (مت 27: 3) وكما ورد أيضًا في عب 12: 17 أن عيسو لم يجد مكانًا للتوبة مع أنه طلبها بدموع وذلك بعد حادثة مباركة اسحق ليعقوب دونه (تك 27: 24-40) وأما التوبة للحياة فهي الحزن والندامة على ارتكاب الشر والابتعاد عن الخطية وبغضها وبذل الجهد في الاتكال التام على نعمة الله ومساعدة الروح القدس للابتعاد عنها والانقياد إلى مشيئة الله والخضوع لأوامره الطاهرة (مت 3: 8 واع 5: 31 و11: 18 و2 كو 7: 8-10 و2 تي 2: 25) وهذه التوبة التي تنال مغفرة الخطايا باستحقاق يسوع المسيح.
تُسْتَخْدَم جملة كلمات في العهدين القديم والجديد، تعبيرًا عن "التوبة".
أولًا: التوبة في العهد القديم:
تُسْتَخْدَم الكلمة العِبرية נחם "ناحام" (Naham) وهي تتضمن معنى "يلهث، يتنهد، يحزن، يأسف"، وتترجم عادة في العربية بكلمة "ندم" أو "حزن" أو "تأسف" منسوبة إلى الله عندما يجرى قضاء كان مؤجلًا، أو يتحول عن إجراء قضاء انذر به، بعد أمكن تحقق الغرض منه، وهو التوبة والرجوع ألواح (انظر تك 6: 6 و7، خر 32: 14، قض 2: 18، 1 صم 15: 11، 2 صم 24: 16، 1 أخ 21: 15، ارميا 18: 8 و10، 26: 3 و13 و19، 42: 10، يوئيل 2: 13 و14، عاموس 7: 3 و6، يونان 3: 9 و10، 4: 2)، كما يؤكد الكتاب أيضاً أمكن الله لا يمكن أمكن " يندم " (عدد 23: 19، اصم 15: 29، مز 110: 4، ارميا 4: 28، حز 14: 14، هوشع 13: 14، ملاخي 3: 6) فهو " التي ليس عنده تعيير ولا ظل دوران" (يع 1: 17). ولكن قلما تستخدم كلمة "ناحام" منسوبة إلى الأموية (انظر خر 13: 17، قض 21: 6 و 15، 1 مل 8: 47، أيهما 42: 6، ارميا 8: 6، حز 14: 6، 18 : 30).
(1) إليه الكلمة العبرية التي تستخدم كثيرًا في العهد القديم للتعبير عن توبة الأموية فهي كلمة שוב "شوبه" (Shubh)، وتترجم عادة في العربية بكلمة "رجع" للدلالة على الرجوع أو التحول عن الخطية إلى الله، فهذا هو أسلوب العهد القديم في التعبير عن " التوبة " من نحو الله، عيني الرجوع للرب من كل القلب والنفس والقدرة (انظر 2 مل 17: 13، 23: 25، 2 أخ 6: 26، 7: 14، 15: 4، 30: 6، نح 1: 9، مز 78: 34، أش 19: 22، 60: 7، ارميا 3: 12 و14 و22، 18: 8، حزقيال 18: 11، 33: 11 و 14، دانيال 9: 13، هو 14: 1 و2، يوئيل 2: 13، يونان 3: 10، زك 1: 3 و4، ملاخي 3: 7).
وعندما ينسب الندم إلى الله سواء فيما يتعلق بالقضاء أو بالرحمة، فان ذلك يرتبط بتغير في علاقته بالناس، فالله ثابت لا يتغير في ذاته وكمالاته وأغراض، لكن ما يتغير هو موقفه من الناس فيما يتعلق بأجراء القضاء على الخطبة من التمهل والأناه إلى الغضب، وفيما يتعلق بالرحمة من الغضب إلى الإحسان والبركة. ويعبر عادة عن ذلك في العهد القديم بالقول: " رجع الرب عن حمو غضبة" (انظر خر 32: 12، يشوع 7: 26، 2 أخ 12: 12، 24: 10، أش 12: 1، هوشع 14: 4، يونان 3: 9).
وفي بعض المواضع تذكر الكلمتان معا: "توبوا وارجعوا " حز 14: 6، انظر أيضاً أش 21: 12، 55: 7).
ثانيًا: التوبة في العهد الجديد:
هناك ثلاث كلمات في اليونانية للتعبير عن التوبة:
التوبة بمعني الحزن والندم: وهي كلمة "ميتاميلوماي" (Metamelomai) وتعني الإحساس بالحزن والندم عيني شبيهه بكلمة נחם "ناحام" العبرية، فهي تدل على جانب الانفعال العاطفي من التوبة، وقد يؤدي هذا الإحساس إلى توبة حقيقية أو إلى مجرد الندم (مت 21: 29 و32، 27: 3)، فيهوذا ندم بمعني حزن، لكنه لم يندم بمعني الرجوع عن الخطية. وهذا ما فعله حزن، لكنه لم يندم بمعني الرجوع عن الخطية. وهذا ما فعله أيضاً عيسو (عب 12: 17). ويستخدم الرسول بولس نفس الكلمة للتعبير عن موقفه من الكورنثوسيين (2 كو 7: 8).
(2) التوبة بمعني تغيير الفكر: وهي كلمة "ميتانو" (Metanoeo) وهي تعبر تعبيرًا قويًا عن التغيير الروحي الذي يحدث برجوع الخاطئ إلى الله، فالكلمة تعني: الحصول على "فِكْر جديد" أي "تغيير الفكر أو الهدف من نحو الخطية"؛ ومنها أتت كلمة "ميطانية" التي نستخدمها في الكنيسة القبطية الأرثوذكسية. عيني تقابل الكلمة العبرية שוב "شوبة" أي "الرجوع"، قد استخدمها بهذا المعني يوحنا المعمدان والرسل (مت 3: 2، مرقس 1: 15، أع 2: 38)، وهي وثيقة الصلة في الحياة المسيحية بالإيمان، فهو العامل فيها (أع 20: 21)، كما إنما ترتبط بالتجديد (أع 3: 19) وبالاختبارات والبركات الروحية التي لا يمنحها آكلتها الله وحده، مثل مغفرة الخطايا (لو 24: 47، أع 5: 31). وتضاف " المعمودية " أحيانا إلى " التوبة " على أساس أمكن المعمودية هي شهادة علنية صريحة على تغيير العلاقة مع الخطية ومع الله (مرقس 1: 4، لو 3: 3، أع 13: 24، 19: 4) والتوبة كاختبار حيوي، لا بد أمكن تظهر في الثمار الصالحة التي تليق بالحياة الروحية الجديدة (مت 3: 8).
التوبة بمعنى الرجوع: والكلمة اليونانية المستخدمة هي "ابستريفو" ( Epistrepho) وهي كثيرا ما تستخدم في سفر الأعمال لأبراز الجانب إيجابى من التغيير الذي تتضمنه " التوبة " في العهد الجديد، أي للدلالة على الرجوع إلى الله، ذلك الرجوع الذي يعني في جانبه السلبي التحول عن الخطية. والمفهومان متكاملان متلازمان لا ينفصمان، فالكلمة تستخدم للدلالة على الرجوع من الخطية إلى الله (أع 9: 35، 1 تس 1: 9) عيني تأتي لفكرة الإيمان (أع 11: 21)، وتوكيد للتغير كما يعنيه العهد الجديد (أع 26: 20).
وثمة صعوبة بالغة فبالإضافة التعبير عن المعنى الحقيقي لتغيير الفكر بالنسبة للخطبة في الكثير من الترجمات. ففي الترجمة اللاتينية، ترجمت كلمة "التوبة" بكلمتيّ "بونيتنيتام اجير" (Poenitentiam Agere) التأكد تعنى الأسى والحزن "وتعذيب الذات" أكثر مما تعني تغيير الفكر أو الهدف، مما أدى إلى المفهوم الخاطئ للتوبة في الكنيسة اللاتينية، باعتبارها الحزن على الخطبة اكثر منها تغيير الفكر وترك الخطية كالمفهوم الأساسي لها فبالإضافة العهد الجديد. وكل تحريضات الأناجيل في العهد القديم. وكذلك أقوال الرب يسوع وأقوال الرسل، تؤكد أمكن تغيير الفكر هو المفهوم الأساسي لجميع الكلمات الأصلي المستخدمة للدلالة على التوبة. إليه الحزن المصاحب لها فهو نابع عن طبيعة التغيير نفسه.
ثالثًا: العناصر السيكولوجية في التوبة:
(1) العنصر العقلي: فالتوبة هي تعيير فكر الخاطئ مما يدفعه إلى الرجوع عن طرقة الردية وحياته الشريرة، فالتغيير الملازم للتوبة هو تغيير جذري عميق، لدرجة يؤثر معها في كل الطبيعة الروحية، ويمتد إلى جميع جوانب الشخصية، فالعقل يجب أمكن يوجه، والعاطفة تتحرك، والإرادة تعمل. فعلم النفس (السيكولوجي) يرى أمكن التوبة لا بد أمكن تكون عميقة وشخصية وشاملة. والعنصر العقلي يقوم على أساس أمكن الأموية كائن عاقل، والله يريدنا أمكن نخدمه خدمة عاقلة. فيجب على الأموية أمكن يدرك أمكن الخطية شنيعة شناعة مطلقة، وان ناموس الله كامل لا رحمة فيه، وان الأموية خاطئ أعوزه مجد الله القدوس (أيهما 42: 5 و6، مز 51: 3، رو 3: 20).
(2) العصر العاطفي: قد يكون هناك إدراك للخطية دون التخلي عنها كشيء شنيع بغيض، فيه أهانه لله وخراب للإنسان. وتغيير النظرة قد لا يؤدي إلا إلى الخوف من العقاب، وليس إلى بغضه الخطية تركها (خر 9: 27، عد 22: 34، يش 7: 20، 1 صم 15: 24، مت 27: 4)، فالتوبة لابد أمكن تشمل عنصرًا عاطفيًا. وان كان الشعور ليس مرادفًا للتوبة، آكلتها انه قد يكون الحافز القوي للتحول الصادق عن الخطية، فالتائب لا يمكن أمكن يكون بطبيعة الحال متبلد الإحساس غير مبال بشيء، إذ يجب أمكن يحدث تغيير فبالإضافة الموقف العاطفي، إذا كانت التوبة نار التنور التوبة كما يعنيها العهد الجديد، وستجد المزيد عن هذا الموضوع هنا في موقع الأنبا تكلاهيمانوت في صفحات قاموس وتفاسير الكتاب المقدس الأخرى. وهناك نوع من الحزن يؤدي إلى التوبة، ونوع آخر ليس فيه آكلتها الندم والحسرة. فهناك حزن من عمل الهي، وحزن بحسب العالم، والحزن الأول يؤدي إلى الحياة، بينما يؤدى النوع الثاني من الحزن إلى الموت (مت 27: 3، لو 23، 2 كو 7: 9 و10). فلابد أمكن يكون هناك إدراك للخطبة في تأثيرها على الأموية، وفي علاقتها بالله، قبل أمكن يكون هناك تحول قلبي عن الخطية والشعور الملازم للتوبة يتضمن التبكيت على الخطية الشخصية والالتجاء المخلص الصادق إلى الله طلبا للصفح والغفران على أساس رحمته (مز 51: 1 و2 و10 14).
العنصر الإرادي: أمكن أهله عناصر التوبة من الناحية السيكولوجية، هو العنصر الإرادي أو الاختياري، وهو ما يعبر عنه في العهد القديم بكلمة " يرجع "، وفي العهد الجديد " بالتوبة " أو " الرجوع "، فالكلمات الأصلي سواء فبالإضافة العبرية أو اليونانية، تركز بشدة على الإرادة وتغيير الفكر أو تغيير الهدف، لان الرجوع الكامل الصادق إلى الله، يتضمن إدراك طبيعة الخطية، والوعي القوي بالمذنوبية الشخصية (ارميا 25: 5، مرقس 1 : 15، أعمال 2: 38، 2 كو 7: 9 و10). والتوبة تستلزم الإرادة الحرة والمسئولية الشخصية. ولاشك في أمكن الناس جميعا مطالبون بالتوبة، كما انه من الجلي الواضح أمكن الله يأخذ دائما المبادرة في التوبة وحل المشكلة يرتبط بالدائرة الروحية، فالظواهر الطبيعية لها أصولها في العلاقات السرية بين الأموية والله، ولا يمكن أمكن يكون ثمة بديل خارجي للتغيير الداخلي، فيجب عدم الخلط بين لبس المسوح وندم النفس، وبين العزم القاطع على ترك الخطية والرجوع إلى الله، فما يطلبه الله في كلا العهدين بالضرورة ليس هو التضحية المادية، بل التغيير الروحي (مز 51: 17، أش 1: 11، ارميا 6: 20، هوشع 6: 6).
والتوبة شرط للخلاص، ولكنها ليست أساس استحقاقه. والدوافع إلى الخلاص هي أساسا في صلاح الله، ومحبة الله، ورغبته الشديدة في خلاص الناس من النتائج المحتومة للخطية، وفي دعوة الإنجيل الشاملة، وفى رجاء الحياة الروحية، والدخول إلى ملكوت السموات (حز 33: 1،مرقس 1: 15، لو 13: 1 5، يو 3: 16، أع 17: 30، رو 2: 4). والتطوبيات الأربع الأولى في الأشياء الخامس من إنجيل متى (مت 5: 3 6). هي سلم سماوية تعبر عليها النفس التائبة من سلطان الظلمة إلى ملكوت الله، فالوعي بالفقر الروحي الذي يهبط بالكبرياء عن عرشها، وإدراك الأموية لعدم استحقاقه، مما يدفعه إلى الحزن، والاستعداد العميق للخضوع لله في أتضاع صادق، والرغبة العميقة التي تدفع إلى الجوع والعطش للبر. كل هذه هي بعض اختبارات الشخص التي يهجر الخطية تماما ويرجع بكل قلبه إلى الله الذي يمنح التوبة للحياة.
Chapter 1. Of Heathen Repentance
Repentance, men understand, so far as nature is able, to be an emotion of the mind arising from disgust at some previously cherished worse sentiment: that kind of men I mean which even we ourselves were in days gone by- blind, without the Lord's light. From the reason of repentance, however, they are just as far as they are from the Author of reason Himself. Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason- nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil. They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing.
Chapter 2. True Repentance a Thing Divine, Originated by God, and Subject to His Laws
But if they acted as men who had any part in God, and thereby in reason also, they would first weigh well the importance of repentance, and would never apply it in such a way as to make it a ground for convicting themselves of perverse self-amendment. In short, they would regulate the limit of their repentance, because they would reach (a limit) in sinning too- by fearing God, I mean. But where there is no fear, in like manner there is no amendment; where there is no amendment, repentance is of necessity vain, for it lacks the fruit for which God sowed it; that is, man's salvation. For God- after so many and so great sins of human temerity, begun by the first of the race, Adam, after the condemnation of man, together with the dowry of the world after his ejection from paradise and subjection to death- when He had hasted back to His own mercy, did from that time onward inaugurate repentance in His own self, by rescinding the sentence of His first wrath, engaging to grant pardon to His own work and image. And so He gathered together a people for Himself, and fostered them with many liberal distributions of His bounty, and, after so often finding them most ungrateful, ever exhorted them to repentance and sent out the voices of the universal company of the prophets to prophesy. By and by, promising freely the grace which in the last times He was intending to pour as a flood of light on the universal world through His Spirit, He bade the baptism of repentance lead the way, with the view of first preparing, by means of the sign and seal of repentance, them whom He was calling, through grace, to (inherit) the promise surely made to Abraham. John holds not his peace, saying, Enter upon repentance, for now shall salvation approach the nations - the Lord, that is, bringing salvation according to God's promise. To Him John, as His harbinger, directed the repentance (which he preached), whose province was the purging of men's minds, that whatever defilement inveterate error had imparted, whatever contamination in the heart of man ignorance had engendered, that repentance should sweep and scrape away, and cast out of doors, and thus prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit, who was about to supervene, that He might with pleasure introduce Himself there-into, together with His celestial blessings. Of these blessings the title is briefly one- the salvation of man- the abolition of former sins being the preliminary step. This is the (final) cause of repentance, this her work, in taking in hand the business of divine mercy. What is profitable to man does service to God. The rule of repentance, however, which we learn when we know the Lord, retains a definite form,- viz., that no violent hands so to speak, be ever laid on good deeds or thoughts. For God, never giving His sanction to the reprobation of good deeds, inasmuch as they are His own (of which, being the author, He must necessarily be the defender too), is in like manner the acceptor of them, and if the acceptor, likewise the rewarder. Let, then, the ingratitude of men see to it, if it attaches repentance even to good works; let their gratitude see to it too, if the desire of earning it be the incentive to well-doing: earthly and mortal are they each. For how small is your gain if you do good to a grateful man! Or your loss if to an ungrateful! A good deed has God as its debtor, just as an evil has too; for a judge is rewarder of every cause. Well, since, God as Judge presides over the exacting and maintaining of justice, which to Him is most dear; and since it is with an eye to justice that He appoints all the sum of His discipline, is there room for doubting that, just as in all our acts universally, so also in the case of repentance, justice must be rendered to God?- which duty can indeed only be fulfilled on the condition that repentance be brought to bear only on sins. Further, no deed but an evil one deserves to be called sin, nor does any one err by well-doing. But if he does not err, why does he invade (the province of) repentance, the private ground of such as do err? Why does he impose on his goodness a duty proper to wickedness? Thus it comes to pass that, when a thing is called into play where it ought not, there, where it ought, it is neglected.
Chapter 3. Sins May Be Divided into Corporeal and Spiritual. Both Equally Subject, If Not to Human, Yet to Divine Investigation and Punishment.
What things, then, they be for which repentance seems just and due- that is, what things are to be set down under the head of sin- the occasion indeed demands that I should note down; but (to do so) may seem to be unnecessary. For when the Lord is known, our spirit, having been looked back upon Luke 22:61 by its own Author, emerges unbidden into the knowledge of the truth; and being admitted to (an acquaintance with) the divine precepts, is by them immediately instructed that that from which God bids us abstain is to be accounted sin: inasmuch as, since it is generally agreed that God is some great essence of good, of course nothing but evil would be displeasing to good; in that, between things mutually contrary, friendship there is none. Still it will not be irksome briefly to touch upon the fact that, of sins, some are carnal, that is, corporeal; some spiritual. For since man is composed of this combination of a two-fold substance, the sources of his sins are no other than the sources of his composition. But it is not the fact that body and spirit are two things that constitute the sins mutually different- otherwise they are on this account rather equal, because the two make up one- lest any make the distinction between their sins proportionate to the difference between their substances, so as to esteem the one lighter, or else heavier, than the other: if it be true, (as it is,) that both flesh and spirit are creatures of God; one wrought by His hand, one consummated by His afflatus. Since, then, they equally pertain to the Lord, whichever of them sins equally offends the Lord. Is it for you to distinguish the acts of the flesh and the spirit, whose communion and conjunction in life, in death, and in resurrection, are so intimate, that at that time they are equally raised up either for life or else for judgment; because, to wit, they have equally either sinned or lived innocently? This we would (once for all) premise, in order that we may understand that no less necessity for repentance is incumbent on either part of man, if in anything it have sinned, than on both. The guilt of both is common; common, too, is the Judge- God to wit; common, therefore, is withal the healing medicine of repentance. The source whence sins are named spiritual and corporeal is the fact that every sin is matter either of act or else of thought: so that what is in deed is corporeal, because a deed, like a body, is capable of being seen and touched; what is in the mind is spiritual, because spirit is neither seen nor handled: by which consideration is shown that sins not of deed only, but of will too, are to be shunned, and by repentance purged. For if human finitude judges only sins of deed, because it is not equal to (piercing) the lurking-places of the will, let us not on that account make light of crimes of the will in God's sight. God is all-sufficient. Nothing from whence any sin whatsoever proceeds is remote from His sight; because He is neither ignorant, nor does He omit to decree it to judgment. He is no dissembler of, nor double-dealer with, His own clear-sightedness. What (shall we say of the fact) that will is the origin of deed? For if any sins are imputed to chance, or to necessity, or to ignorance, let them see to themselves: if these be excepted, there is no sinning save by will. Since, then, will is the origin of deed, is it not so much the rather amenable to penalty as it is first in guilt? Nor, if some difficulty interferes with its full accomplishment, is it even in that case exonerated; for it is itself imputed to itself: nor; having done the work which lay in its own power, will it be excusable by reason of that miscarriage of its accomplishment. In fact, how does the Lord demonstrate Himself as adding a superstructure to the Law, except by interdicting sins of the will as well (as other sins); while He defines not only the man who had actually invaded another's wedlock to be an adulterer, but likewise him who had contaminated (a woman) by the concupiscence of his gaze? Accordingly it is dangerous enough for the mind to set before itself what it is forbidden to perform, and rashly through the will to perfect its execution. And since the power of this will is such that, even without fully sating its self-gratification, it stands for a deed; as a deed, therefore, it shall be punished. It is utterly vain to say, I willed, but yet I did not. Rather you ought to carry the thing through, because you will; or else not to will, because you do not carry it through. But, by the confession of your consciousness, you pronounce your own condemnation. For if you eagerly desired a good thing, you would have been anxious to carry it through; in like manner, as you do not carry an evil thing through, you ought not to have eagerly desired it. Wherever you take your stand, you are fast bound by guilt; because you have either willed evil, or else have not fulfilled good.
Chapter 4. Repentance Applicable to All the Kinds of Sin. To Be Practised Not Only, Nor Chiefly, for the Good It Brings, But Because God Commands It
To all sins, then, committed whether by flesh or spirit, whether by deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment, has withal engaged to grant pardon by means of repentance, saying to the people, Repent you, and I will save you; and again, I live, says the Lord, and I will (have) repentance rather than death. Repentance, then, is life, since it is preferred to death. That repentance, O sinner, like myself (nay, rather, less than myself, for pre-eminence in sins I acknowledge to be mine ), do you so hasten to, so embrace, as a shipwrecked man the protection of some plank. This will draw you forth when sunk in the waves of sins, and will bear you forward into the port of the divine clemency. Seize the opportunity of unexpected felicity: that you, who sometime were in God's sight nothing but a drop of a bucket, Isaiah 40:15 and dust of the threshing-floor, and a potter's vessel, may thenceforward become that tree which is sown beside the waters, is perennial in leaves, bears fruit at its own time, and shall not see fire, nor axe. Matthew 3:10 Having found the truth, John 14:6 repent of errors; repent of having loved what God loves not: even we ourselves do not permit our slave-lads not to hate the things which are offensive to us; for the principle of voluntary obedience consists in similarity of minds.
To reckon up the good, of repentance, the subject-matter is copious, and therefore should be committed to great eloquence. Let us, however, in proportion to our narrow abilities, inculcate one point-that what God enjoins is good and best. I hold it audacity to dispute about the good of a divine precept; for, indeed, it is not the fact that it is good which binds us to obey, but the fact that God has enjoined it. To exact the rendering of obedience the majesty of divine power has the prior right; the authority of Him who commands is prior to the utility of him who serves. Is it good to repent, or no? Why do you ponder? God enjoins; nay, He not merely enjoins, but likewise exhorts. He invites by (offering) reward- salvation, to wit; even by an oath, saying I live, He desires that credence may be given Him. Oh blessed we, for whose sake God swears! Oh most miserable, if we believe not the Lord even when He swears! What, therefore, God so highly commends, what He even (after human fashion) attests on oath, we are bound of course to approach, and to guard with the utmost seriousness; that, abiding permanently in (the faith of) the solemn pledge of divine grace, we may be able also to persevere in like manner in its fruit and its benefit.
Chapter 5. Sin Never to Be Returned to After Repentance.
For what I say is this, that the repentance which, being shown us and commanded us through God's grace, recalls us to grace with the Lord, when once learned and undertaken by us ought never afterward to be cancelled by repetition of sin. No pretext of ignorance now remains to plead on your behalf; in that, after acknowledging the Lord, and accepting His precepts - in short, after engaging in repentance of (past) sins- you again betake yourself to sins. Thus, in as far as you are removed from ignorance, in so far are you cemented to contumacy. For if the ground on which you had repented of having sinned was that you had begun to fear the Lord, why have you preferred to rescind what you did for fear's sake, except because you have ceased to fear? For there is no other thing but contumacy which subverts fear. Since there is no exception which defends from liability to penalty even such as are ignorant of the Lord- because ignorance of God, openly as He is set before men, and comprehensible as He is even on the score of His heavenly benefits, is not possible - how perilous is it for Him to be despised when known? Now, that man does despise Him, who, after attaining by His help to an understanding of things good and evil, often an affront to his own understanding- that is, to God's gift- by resuming what he understands ought to be shunned, and what he has already shunned: he rejects the Giver in abandoning the gift; he denies the Benefactor in not honouring the benefit. How can he be pleasing to Him, whose gift is displeasing to himself? Thus he is shown to be not only contumacious toward the Lord, but likewise ungrateful. Besides, that man commits no light sin against the Lord, who, after he had by repentance renounced His rival the devil, and had under this appellation subjected him to the Lord, again upraises him by his own return (to the enemy), and makes himself a ground of exultation to him; so that the Evil One, with his prey recovered, rejoices anew against the Lord. Does he not- what is perilous even to say, but must be put forward with a view to edification- place the devil before the Lord? For he seems to have made the comparison who has known each; and to have judicially pronounced him to be the better whose (servant) he has preferred again to be. Thus he who, through repentance for sins, had begun to make satisfaction to the Lord, will, through another repentance of his repentance, make satisfaction to the devil, and will be the more hateful to God in proportion as he will be the more acceptable to His rival. But some say that God is satisfied if He be looked up to with the heart and the mind, even if this be not done in outward act, and that thus they sin without damage to their fear and their faith: that is, that they violate wedlock without damage to their chastity; they mingle poison for their parent without damage to their filial duty! Thus, then, they will themselves withal be thrust down into hell without damage to their pardon, while they sin without damage to their fear! Here is a primary example of perversity: they sin, because they fear! I suppose, if they feared not, they would not sin! Let him, therefore, who would not have God offended not revere Him at all, if fear is the plea for offending. But these dispositions have been wont to sprout from the seed of hypocrites, whose friendship with the devil is indivisible, whose repentance never faithful.