Tag Archives: repentance

The Value of Remembering Our Sins

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On the Value of Remembering Our Sins (according to John Chrysostom)

Anyone who is truly repentant should never forget their own sins. While it is good & proper for repentant souls to beg God not to remember their sins, it is beneficial for us to always remember them—for as long as we are in this life. For if we humble ourselves now by purposely & regularly calling our sins to mind, then God will purposely forget our sins on Judgment Day. Therefore, let us not be squeamish about exacting punishment from ourselves by remembering our sins. Let us accuse ourselves, and in this way, we shall propitiate the Judge. For sin that is confessed becomes less, but sin that is not confessed becomes worse. For if a person adds shamelessness & ingratitude to their pile of past sins, then how will such a person—who has purposely forgotten that they used to indulge in sin—be at all able to guard themselves from falling back again into the same sort of evils? Continue reading The Value of Remembering Our Sins →

Christ is the Cause of Salvation; Faith & Good Works are the Conditions

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Christ is the Cause of Salvation; Faith & Good Works are the Conditions

(The efficacy of the death of Christ consistent with the necessity of a good life)[1]

by William Paley (b. July 1743 – d. May 1805)

Our first argument to support the thesis stated above is that although the Bible clearly represents Christ’s atonement as efficacious for the salvation of mankind, it also clearly teaches the necessity of our own efforts toward virtue and good works for salvation’s sake. But the Scriptures go further than that. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Scriptures, foresaw that as the death & atonement of Christ was revealed to Christians as being instrumental to salvation, that this would lead some Christians to the [mistaken] opinion that mankind’s own works, their own virtue, their personal efforts, were to be set aside or done away with. In other words, the Holy Spirit foresaw that some Christians would [mistakenly] conclude that if the sacrificial death of Christ was effective for salvation, that this would mean that all the moral efforts or good works of mankind were unnecessary for salvation. The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Scriptures, foresaw that some Christians would draw this [mistaken] conclusion from certain teachings that are now located in the New Testament and so He, through the Scriptures, provided a remedy for this erroneous interpretation. Continue reading Christ is the Cause of Salvation; Faith & Good Works are the Conditions →