Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'On repentance'.
My summary
Today Tertullian teaches us about repentance.
We learn about:
(i) heathen repentance;
(ii) true repentance;
(iii) sins which are bodily and spiritual;
(iv) baptism and repentance;
(v) repeated repentance;
(vi) God's willingness to pardon the penitent;
(vii) the outward signs of repentance through exomologesis.
What grabbed me
I liked Tertullian's emphasis on repeated repentance: 'However, if any do incur the debt of a second repentance, his spirit is not to be forthwith 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.'
Although falling into sin again is terrible, not to repent again would be even more terrible.
Next week's reading
Read 'On baptism'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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