True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.Arndt, Johann
Religion
True Christianity: A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc.
Arndt, Johann
Christian life; Christianity
10. This is, therefore, the only true repentance, when the heart of the
sinner is inwardly torn with grief, and weighed down by heaviness; and
when, on the other hand, it is healed by faith and the remission of sin,
quickened by the infusion of divine joy, provoked to good works, and
thoroughly transformed and changed. Such a frame of mind cannot fail to be
attended also with an _external_ reformation of life and manners.
11. But, on the other hand, though a man be very serious in the
performance of bodily penances, and, from a dread of punishment, abstain
from the commission of notorious sins; yet if he continue unreformed and
unregenerate in his heart, and enter not upon that new and inward life
which it has been our object to describe, he will prove but a _castaway_
(1 Cor. 9:27) at last, notwithstanding the whole train of his external
acts. It will avail him nothing to cry, “Lord, Lord!” He will hear the
tremendous declaration, “I never knew you!” For most certain it is, that
not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but those only who do the will of their Heavenly Father. Matt.
7:21-23. And under this awful sentence of divine majesty, all men are
comprised, of what rank or order so-ever, who do not truly and inwardly
repent, and who are not new creatures in Christ, for “if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Rom. 8:9.
Chapter V.
Wherein Does True Faith Consist?
_Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God._—1
JOHN 5:1.
Faith is a sincere confidence, and a firm persuasion of the grace of God
promised to us in Christ Jesus, for the remission of sin and eternal life;
and it is enkindled in the heart, by the word of God and the Holy Spirit.
Through this faith we obtain the forgiveness of our sins, without any
merits of our own, of mere grace (Eph. 2:8), and for the sake of the
merits of Christ alone; that so, our faith might rest on a firm and solid
foundation, and remain unmoved by perplexity and doubts. This forgiveness
of sin constitutes our justification before God, which is true, solid, and
eternal; for this righteousness is purchased neither by men nor angels,
but by the obedience, merit, and the blood of the Son of God himself. We
appropriate and apply it to ourselves by faith; and hence the
imperfections which still adhere to us cannot condemn us, since, for the
sake of Christ, who now lives and works within us, they are covered with a
veil of grace. Ps. 32:1.
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