Article  XVI

OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM^[1]

Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable.  Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism.  After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.

In the previous Article we were considering the declaration that Christ alone is free from sin; ‘all we the rest . . . offend in many things’,^[2] and therefore the call to repentance is always relevant to our state.  ‘Repentance’ is a strong term; it goes much deeper than sorrow for particular sins, and a resolve not to repeat them: it means a change of mind, the acquirement of a viewpoint aud attitude which are the reverse of those which led to sinning.  When the use of ‘repentance’ and its cognates in the New Testament is studied, it will be found that it seldom occurs with reference to Christians.  It appears most frequently in the Gospels and Acts in exhortations to Jews and Gentiles, and is, in fact, an invitation to people to give up their imperfect or idolatrous faiths and embrace the Gospel,  ‘Repent ye, and believe in the Gospel’, that is how Jesus began His preaching;^[3] and St. Paul’s message consisted of ‘testifying both to Jews and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ’.^[4]

On the other hand, admonition and exhortation in the Epistles are usually intended to remind believers of their high calling in Christ; they are already children of light and ought to be have as such.^[5]  It is not a matter of renouncing what they are, but one of consistency, of living in keeping with their true status.  Hence much modern biblical theology has ‘become what you are’ as its theme; Christians must become in terms of practical living what they already are in status.

The key to understanding and harmonizing the various statements on this question in the New Testament is the idea of the Church as a divine society, through which the eternal order has been implanted in the world.  Its life is ‘the Way’,^[6] ‘the way of salvation’,^[7] the very life of heaven on earth.  On their conversion to Christianity men leave a world of darkness and error, and enter the realm of light and truth, and upon the enjoyment of the blessings of their glorious destiny.