----- Original Message -----
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
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
----- Original Message -----
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
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