We are indeed dealing with a difference in how terms are defined. More than that, we also have a different viewpoint of the normal Christian life. Is a believer one who is constantly crawling off the altar, or is he one subject to other forces attempting to pull him away from the altar while he maintains his integrity to stay on the altar and in communion with the Lord? I opt for the latter.
Repentance loses all meaning when we define it as being characterized by joy. Repentance involves sorrow. Sack cloth and ashes. What is that all about? James 4 properly describes the mourning that should be involved in repentance. John wants to dismiss it because it is written to Christians. Well, if a person finds himself to be a sinner, whether he calls himself a Christian or not, he needs to repent, and James tells him how. The admonition is that we are not to be joyful when we see that we are sinners. This goes right along with 1 Cor. 5 when Paul speaks of the Corinthians being puffed up. They had a sinner in their midst, and they were puffed up, patting him on the back and telling him that he is saved and accepted by God. When Luther wrote what is known as the 95 theses, he was dealing with a corrupt system in the church, a corrupt system of penance and indulgences. The whole thing is poorly written and difficult to understand by those not familiar with Roman Catholicism and the historical situation of penance and indulgences. His leading sentence is the most ambiguous of all, saying that Jesus was calling for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. He never really defines what he means by that. He defines only what he does not mean. Namely, he says that repentance does not mean the sacrament of penance, nor does it mean only inner repentance of the heart. I truly think that Luther did not fully grasp what repentance was because he had one foot in the Roman Catholic Church and one foot in Jesus Christ. Now others take his statements to argue that repentance is joy, and repentance is a constant work in life. I would hope Luther would object to the modernizing of his statements. Perhaps he would, because he ends his thesis by warning against those who avoid the cross and proclaim peace, peace. His last thesis was: "And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace." I like this statement much better than all the commentary on what he might have meant by his first statement that Christ's command to "Repent" was a call for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. It now occurs to me that perhaps what he really meant was that one's whole life, not lifetime, but entire body, soul, and spirit, was to be one of repentance. If this is what he meant, then I would feel compelled to revise some of my words in my previous post. Perhaps my objections should be more directed toward the modernist's interpretation of Luther rather than toward Luther himself. David Miller. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lance Muir To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 6:54 AM Subject: [TruthTalk] Fw: Fw: Continuing repentance ----- Original Message ----- From: Debbie Sawczak To: 'Lance Muir' Sent: February 21, 2006 14:23 Subject: FW: Fw: Continuing repentance In other words, David does not seem to have taken the point about penance and our modern psychological equivalent. And probably both views of repentance are true--both kinds are happening. The constant re-orienting, the constant checking the compass and correcting for deviation on the one hand, and the punctiliar turnings on the other. D From: Debbie Sawczak [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 1:57 PM To: 'Lance Muir' Subject: RE: Fw: Continuing repentance I understand what he is saying about the one-time turn, but I don't think this is what Victor/Luther meant. They mean something more like that funny little cliche people used to say about Romans 12:1: the problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar. In other words, we tend to actually turn off the track, and have to turn again in order to get back onto it. Not the track of salvation or reconciliation, but the track of living (proceeding with our fifth act of the play, as it were, making our way through life in this world) out of our relationship to Christ, oriented to him. I would even say that sometimes, our turning off the track is a stumbling into the morass of self-willed morality. Is JD also making the point that repentance is not a mournful act? Am I understanding him aright? If so, I heartily agree. Repentance is not the same as remorse or regret. Turning back to the right direction, turning back into harmony and intimacy with Christ, is surely a joyful act! D From: Lance Muir [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 1:16 PM To: Debbie Sawczak Subject: Fw: Fw: Continuing repentance ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Lance Muir Sent: February 21, 2006 12:39 Subject: Re: Fw: Continuing repentance David writes: If we really were suppose to be in a constant state of repentance, this last phrase has no meaning. Is such were so, we should then all be sad, mourning, without joy. I have found, over the years, that Daivd does not appreciate a difference between "confessing" and "repenting." The comments of James 4:8 have to do with "repentance," in the mind of David and that is why he says what he does in the above. He does not seeem to consider thte fact that James is a leter written to those who have already "turned around." If you are always respenting, then, you are always in sorrow. If repentance is more than the point in time we turn around, if it extends to the walk extending from this "repenting," how is it possible that repentance is not on-going? John ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
