The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary sin is crime
(ἀδικία); and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part
voluntary. Wherefore says the apostle, “Sin shall not have dominion
over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”[136]
Addressing those who have believed, he says, “For by His stripes we
were healed.”[137] Mistake is the involuntary action of another towards
me, while a crime (ἀδικία) alone is voluntary, whether my act or
another’s. These differences of sins are alluded to by the Psalmist,
when he calls those blessed whose iniquities (ἀνομίας) God hath blotted
out, and whose sins (ἁμαρτίας) He hath covered. Others He does not
impute, and the rest He forgives. For it is written, “Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth there is
no fraud.”[138] This blessedness came on those who had been chosen
by God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For “love hides the multitude
of sins.”[139] And they are blotted out by Him “who desireth the
repentance rather than the death of a sinner.”[140] And those are not
reckoned that are not the effect of choice; “for he who has lusted has
already committed adultery,”[141] it is said. And the illuminating
Word forgives sins: “And in that time, saith the Lord, they shall seek
for the iniquity of Israel, and it shall not exist; and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found.”[142] “For who is like me? and
who shall stand before my face?”[143] You see the one God declared
good, rendering according to desert, and forgiving sins. John, too,
manifestly teaches the differences of sins, in his larger epistle, in
these words: “If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto
death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life: for these that sin not
unto death,” he says. For “there is a sin unto death: I do not say that
one is to pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin
not unto death.”[144]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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