{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6509","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":10,"chapter_to":10,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":26,"verse_to":26},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: Each one should conciliate, as far as he is able, anyone at variance with him. He should not hold past wrongs against the repentant sinner but from his heart should pardon him. He who says that he repents of his sin should not only feel remorse for the sin which he has committed but should also bring forth fruits befitting repentance. If he who has been corrected for his first sins and has been deemed worthy of pardon again falls, he prepares for himself a more wrathful judgment.<br/><i>— LETTER 22</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: So a person who has received pardon for sins must refrain from future sin. For in the light of the first and only repentance of sins—sins committed earlier in a person's first, pagan life, I mean, a life led in ignorance—repentance is immediately available to those who are called, and it cleanses the region of the soul from anything discordant to provide a foundation for faith. The Lord, \"who knows the heart,\" and foreknowing all that is going to happen, has a foreknowledge from the very first of human instability and the devil's crooked villainy. [The Lord has knowledge] of how the latter is jealous of the forgiveness of human sins and, by his mischievous calculations to induce them to share in his fall, will introduce other occasions for God's servants to sin.So in his great mercy he gave yet another chance of repentance to those who, despite their faith, fall into some form of disharmony, so that if anyone should, after their calling, fall into temptation and be forced or tricked into sin, they may have one more chance of \"a repentance that brings no regret.\" \"For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.\" Continual and repeated repentance for sins is no different from those who have once and for all turned away from faith, except alone in the consciousness of sin. I do not know which is worse: deliberate sin, or, after repentance for sin, offending again.… To repeat an action repented is a deliberate accomplishment of an action already condemned.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 2</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Trees which have been planted, and have had the advantage of all other care, and the hands and the labors of the cultivator, and yet yield no return for the labors, are pulled up by the roots, and handed over to the fire. So somewhat of this kind takes place also in the case of our Illumination [Baptism]. For when Christ has planted us, and we have enjoyed the watering of the Spirit, and then show no fruit; fire, even that of Hell, awaits us, and flame unquenchable.</p><p>Paul therefore having exhorted them to love and to bringing forth the fruit of good works, and having urged them from the kindlier considerations. (What are these? That we have an entrance into the holy of holies, \"the new way which He hath inaugurated for us.\"-c. x. 20), does the same again from the more gloomy ones, speaking thus. For having said, \"not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching\" (c. x. 25), this being sufficient for consolation, he added, \"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth.\" There is need, he means, of good works, yea, very great need, \"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.\" Thou wast cleansed; thou wast set free from the charges against thee, thou hast become a son. If then thou return to thy former vomit, there awaits thee on the other hand excommunication and fire and whatever such things there are. For there is no second sacrifice.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 20</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: At this place we are again assailed by those who take away repentance [the Novatians], and by those who delay to come to baptism. The one saying, that it is not safe for them to come to baptism, since there is no second remission: And the other asserting that it is not safe to impart the mysteries [the Holy Eucharist] to those who have sinned, if there is no second remission.</p><p>What shall we say then to them both? That he does not take away repentance, nor the propitiation through repentance, nor does he thrust away and cast down with despair the fallen. He is not thus an enemy of our salvation; but what? He takes away the second Washing. For he did not say, no more is there repentance, or no more is there remission, but \"no more\" is there a \"sacrifice,\" that is, there is no more a second Cross. For this is what he means by sacrifice. \"For by one sacrifice,\" he says, \"He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified\" (c. x. 14); not like the Jewish rites. For this reason he has treated so much throughout concerning the Sacrifice, that it is one, even one; not wishing to show this only, that herein it differed from the Jewish rites, but also to make men more steadfast, so that they might no longer expect another sacrifice according to the Jewish law.</p><p>\"For,\" saith he, \"if we sin willfully.\" See how he is disposed to pardon. He says, \"if we sin willfully,\" so that there is pardon for those who sin not willfully. \"After the knowledge of the truth\": He either means, of Christ, or of all doctrines. \"There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,\" but what? \"A certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.\" By \"Adversaries\" he means not the unbelievers, but those also who do what is against virtue; or else he means that the same fire shall receive them of the household also, which receives \"the adversaries.\" Then expressing its devouring nature, he says, as if giving it life, \"fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.\" For as a wild beast when irritated and very fierce and savage, would not rest till it could lay hold on some one and eat him up; so also that fire, like one goaded by indignation, whatever it can lay hold of does not let go, but devours and tears it to pieces.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 20</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"For if we sin willfully.\" As the involuntary has a lighter punishment.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"if we sin.\" Note that he did not say 'having sinned,' but used the present tense to indicate the persistence in sin until the end. For from this, it is especially clear that he does not deny repentance.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"after we have received the knowledge.\" That is, the faith concerning Christ.<br/>\"there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.\" In order to erase sins. For among the Jews there were victims that were offered for their remission, so that they were not for involuntary sins.<br/>\"remains a sacrifice.\" It does not abolish repentance, may it not be; but it prohibits the existence of a second baptism. For here, it calls the cross and baptism a sacrifice, just as it says elsewhere. \"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.\" (Heb. 10:14)<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Shepherd of Hermas</b>: And therefore I say to you, that if any one is tempted by the devil, and sins after that great and holy calling in which the Lord has called His people to everlasting life, he has opportunity to repent but once. But if he should sin frequently after this, and then repent, to such a man his repentance will be of no avail; for with difficulty will he live.<br/><i>— Shepherd of Hermas, Commandment 4</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But the world returned unto sin; in which point baptism would ill be compared to the deluge. And so it is destined to fire; just as the man too is, who after baptism renews his sins: so that this also ought to be accepted as a sign for our admonition.<br/><i>— On Baptism</i></p><p><b>Theodore of Mopsuestia</b>: Those who have changed from the better to the worse must in the end be handed over to punishment, when they rise from the dead, since they did not allow any repentance in this life. For not merely in the present life does such an individual abolish repentance, but by his inability to assent to repentance he remains content with his fall and takes no notice of his stumbling, accomplishing every sort of sin with much pleasure by a certain lack of reason.<br/><i>— FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 10.26-27</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Now, it was not that he was ruling out repentance in these statements; rather, he was claiming there is no second sacrifice: our Lord was immolated for us once and for all. He used the term deliberately to emphasize that what is done against our free will enjoys a degree of pardon.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 10</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"5805d5264edf858c94caafcfa223eb8ffaec367e3fd0be62b09e09afd708b0b5","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6509,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"c8a69a08c6bb1142f4da9437f2b6d18f819b363b0fb70d40654e658309b03d70","translator":null,"work":null}