Why Did David Get a Pass? The Early Christian View of Repentance | Jason Willis

Lesson Transcript

But tell me, why does he get such a pass, hmm? I was married when I first laid eyes on Debbie; David was married when he first laid eyes on Bathsheba. Debbie was married to another man; Bathsheba was married to another man. David had an affair; I had an affair. David got another man's wife pregnant; so did I. I got a man thrown in prison; he used his political sway to have a man murdered. Yet somehow I'm the scumbag, and he gets to be the man after God's own heart. Why does he get such a pass?

O Lord, restore your ancient way, and make your people new. The year was 2008. I was 20-something, standing in a house that finally belonged to me. My wife and I drifted from room to room like we were children in a museum, touching everything as if the walls might vanish if we didn't claim them out loud. "Our wall," I said, rubbing my hand across it. "Our kitchen," my wife said, running her hand across the countertop. We were on top of the world, homeowners, for the very first time.

Then we met our neighbors, Nick and Debbie. Nick was all inked up, the kind of guy who looked like he had been sandpapered by life. Debbie was the opposite: bright, asserting, funny, soft, the sort of beautiful that makes men stand up straighter. My wife invited them over to dinner because, you know, that's what good neighbors do. As the night unfolded, I caught myself thinking: how did this man Nick—battered, overweight, not really that good-looking—how did he score a woman like Debbie?

It didn't take me long to figure out that Debbie wasn't overly interested in the marriage. I came to learn she wanted out. Somewhere between the salad and the goodbye, Debbie found little private pockets of privacy with me—glances that lasted too long, her hand brushing against mine. One thing led to the next. I won't pretend it was an accident: we had an affair. And then came the fallout: "She's pregnant." And it got worse when she broke the news to me: Nick couldn't even have kids. It was physically impossible.

The moment that she began to show signs, he knew he would know something in the milk wasn't clean. We were both in quite the pickle. I wish that I could say I confessed. I wish that I could say that we chose the hard road and we limped toward forgiveness, but instead I chose a darker path.

I remember that night when Nick was at dinner and he told us the story of his life, how he had gone down the wrong road and he had gotten in trouble with all sorts of serious drug charges, and now, because of a miracle, he had the opportunity to turn his life around. And what was that miracle? Nick said, "The judge showed me mercy." He granted me parole, totally unexpected, completely undeserved. It even blindsided his own lawyer.

If it were not for Judge Albertson, he said, "I'd be locked up to this day." But mercy came with a condition. Nick called it his only second chance. The judge said if he violated parole, even something as small as a jaywalking offense, he goes to prison for 30 years, no discussion, no appeal, just like that. So what did I do? I purchased everything that I needed to frame Nick as a drug dealer: a couple ounces of methamphetamines, a couple eight balls of coke, some tiny baggies, and some digital scales.

And I stashed them in the toolbox of Nick's truck. Then proceeded to contact his probation officer. "Yes, uh, Mr. Sanchez. Yeah, I understand you're Nick's parole officer. Yeah, I hate this. You know, Nick seems like such a good guy, but, um, I'm pretty sure he's—he's dealing dope again, and, you know, I really don't want that in my neighborhood." Then proceeded to tell Mr. Sanchez where he stashed his drugs.

Wouldn't you know, Nick shows up for probation the next day, and it just so happens there's a drug dog on site. The dog hits on his truck, and just like that, Nick isn't my problem for the next 30 years. The years leading up to that, I had run my own business, which meant I had some money that my wife didn't know about. So I paid Debbie $25,000 to disappear. She let the house foreclosed, didn't matter it was in Nick's name, he was locked up. Never saw her again.

And here's the twist in this story, the best part of the whole thing: none of it happened. I just made all of that up. For a couple of different reasons. I wanted to give you an aneurysm, maybe. I wanted you to experience, in real time, your thoughts about me, about who I am at the core of my person. I wanted you to experience them shifting. Sure, we all know that I've had a checkered past, but you never expected it to be that level of darkness. When you hear that story, what feelings did you have about me?

You went—I went from being respected to abhorred. I went from decent to unholy. I went from kind to dark and twisted, so utterly consumed, so self-centered that I would let a man rot in prison to hide a lie. Not to mention paying $25,000 to make a woman with my child in her womb disappear. All sorts of words came to your mind: unholy, unrighteous, self-centered, wicked. But I guarantee you, there was one thought that did not come to your mind: that I was a man after God's own heart. Words are powerful, aren't they?

After that whole story, all I had to say was, "A man after God's own heart." And just like that, every single one of you thought of King David. But tell me, why does he get such a pass, hmm? I was married when I first laid eyes on Debbie; David was married when he first laid eyes on Bathsheba. Debbie was married to another man; Bathsheba was married to another man. David had an affair; I had an affair. David got another man's wife pregnant; so did I.

I got a man thrown in prison; he used his political sway to have a man murdered. Yet somehow I'm the scumbag, and he gets to be the man after God's own heart. Why does he get such a pass? Not only does he get a pass, but he gets all the praise. Somehow this man becomes the benchmark, the bar, the standard for generations to come as the measurement of what righteousness looks like. All the kings after him were considered to be good and righteous if they walked as David walked.

David becomes the measuring rod of goodness. Question: how? How does this story of Bathsheba exist in his life and somehow he become the measuring rod of righteousness? This has always been a mystery to me, something that I always wondered growing up. It is a mystery that we will be solving today in this message. Now, one thing that really struck me as I dove into the writings of the early Christians was how they spoke with a passion against sin, which seems to be lost in our age.

Their words about sin weren't soft or diplomatic; no, they were harsh, uncompromising, brutal. Sin wasn't just a mistake to them; it was a poison, a cancer, a disease of spiritual leprosy that spreads and destroys. When Irenaeus was commenting on the Old Testament story of Naaman, he said this: he said he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. That washing wasn't a random miracle; it was a sign for us. Why? Because we are lepers in sin. The early Christians believed three things about repentance and sin.

Number one, once the soul is stained, the sin—by sin, it is permanent. It doesn't go away. Even the sins you didn't even mean to commit—you didn't even know you were sinning—even those stain your soul. The sins you are aware of are worse. They bruise and they welt the soul. Grievous sins, those considered sins leading to death, when practiced produce open lesions on the soul. And once they become open wounds, they never heal.

Leprosy of the soul spreads; it colonizes the heart, and then the soul, corrupted by the sin, becomes addicted to the very poison that's killing it. The second thing that they believed is that a great day of judgment is appointed. And on that day, there will be two categories of people: those with the leprosy of sin and those without. The sheep and the goats, the light and the dark. And those who carry their sin into that day of judgment will meet outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And the third thing they believed about sin is there is only one remedy in all of existence for this disease of sin, and that is the forgiveness of God. It's very simple, really. If God forgives you, the stain is removed, as far as the east is from the west. But if God does not forgive you, the doors will be shut, and the eternity of outer darkness will begin. So number one, the stain is permanent. Two, judgment is coming, and the only cure is the forgiveness of God.

Question: what does this have to do with repentance? Everything, really. But let's not go too fast. As many of you know, prior to me adopting the Anabaptist worldview, I was a Protestant. I subscribed to the Protestant worldview. The way the early church understood repentance stands in complete opposition to the modern Protestant worldview. Let me explain what I mean. In the Protestant worldview, repentance is a one-time event. It's a one-time decision.

You repent once, boom, you're born again, and you're permanently grafted into the vine. But the early Christians saw it differently. They saw repentance as a lifestyle, something that was lived out. Now, both groups of people agreed on something rather important. The Protestants will tell you the Greek word for repentance means to change your mind.

And the early church said the exact same thing, Tertullian putting it this way: in the Greek, the root meaning of repentance is not a confession of sin, but a change of mind. But doesn't this beg the question: change your mind about what? Let's get specific here. As the Protestant, what did I mean when I said that? And when the early church said it, what did they mean when they said it?

Now, me, having been on both sides of this fence, I would say that it's fair to picture it like this: the early Christians started with 10 gallons of repentance, and then the Protestants simmer it down and simmer it down, low and gentle heat, down to a gallon, down to a quart, down to a cup, down to just 2 tablespoons of repentance. The first tablespoon says, "When I was younger, I did not believe that Jesus died for my sins, but I've changed my mind.

I've repented." Tablespoon number two says, "Now I do believe," or, "Now I do believe that Jesus died for my sins. I have repented." Tablespoon number two says, "I used to think that my actions, the things that I did, had something to do with my salvation. I thought I had to be good enough. I thought I had to earn my salvation by avoiding sin. But I've changed my mind about this too. Now I believe that Jesus did it all. He died for my sins. He paid for it all, all of my sin debt, all of it.

The moment that I believed in Him and accepted Him as Lord and Savior, all of my sins were forgiven—my past sins, my present sins, and my future sins." Now, as a Protestant, where do they get this idea that past, present, and future sins are all forgiven? Where did I get it from? I got it from the Protestant preaching that I sat under. But when you look into history, what you find is that this teaching did not emerge until the Reformation, around the 1500s. Before that, it wasn't a thing.

Martin Luther, one of the Protestant reformers, in 1521 wrote a letter to a gentleman named Philip saying this: "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but rejoice in Christ even more boldly. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery a thousand times a day." That's where this stuff comes from. Two tablespoons of repentance. And as I explained, these two tablespoons were simmered down from 10 gallons of repentance that the early Christians started with.

Now, once again, the early Christians said repentance is a change of mind, but when they said it, they meant this: in the past, I did not believe that I needed to love God with all of my mind, all of my strength, and all of my body, and all of my soul. Nor did I believe I needed to love my neighbor as myself. But I've changed my mind. I've repented. Now, there is a lot packed into those few sentences there.

In this moment, I doubt there is any way you can understand the magnitude of what those two sentences contain. But hopefully, by the end of this message, you will. And as I said, the early Christians started with 10 gallons of repentance. But the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that the analogy doesn't quite capture the magnitude of what repentance meant to the early church. It is hard to put into words how vast and how all-encompassing their understanding of repentance really was.

The best phrase that comes to my mind is a holistic repentance. The early Christians didn't just simmer repentance down, and it wasn't just a 10-gallon pot either. It was more like they began to fill the 10-gallon cauldron, and then as soon as it reached the top, the brim, they simply put the hose in, propped it up, and let it run and overflow. Their repentance wasn't reduced; it was overflowing. Now, this study has been one of the most edifying studies of my life, which sounds like a positive thing, and it is.

But to be honest, after this study, I have been less assured of my salvation than I ever was before. Because my eyes were open to just how narrow the road is that leads to life. In that verse that says, "Few there be that find it," those words mean what they say: few are going to find it. Why is this, you may ask? Well, let's look at my real checkered past. All jokes aside, my life. You see, I was baptized 26 years ago, where I was told that when God saw me, He wasn't able to see my sin.

I was told that when God saw me, I was cloaked with the righteousness of Christ. And then within a few short years of my baptism, the drugs began. Most people start smoking a little pot, maybe drinking a little alcohol, but no, not me. I dove headlong into hallucinogens, LSD. And to be honest, I loved what it did for me. It expanded my mind. It gave me the ability to think thousands of times deeper about things.

And as odd as it sounds, it gave me a new skill set to help me to overcome some depression and heartbreak that had just been eating me up at that time in my life. It gave me the ability to look at life. Emotions in life are so entangled, and it helped me to look at my life and to untangle the emotions and remove emotions and make decisions without my emotions throwing me around hither and thither. And if LSD could do this for me, what else was I missing? I asked myself.

Next thing you know, it's cocaine, methamphetamines, ecstasy, mushrooms, DMT, marijuana, mushrooms, pills, ecstasy, you name it. Not to mention sexual perversions and the addiction to pornography that began 15 years earlier when I was like 5 or 6. Then a buddy of mine decided we were going to be drug dealers. And then I realized I could grow drugs. And at different times in my life, all through, I was into manufacturing, things of that nature. I always had this idea, "One day I'm going to go off the grid.

I'm going to grow a whole bunch of drugs, make one big drug deal, and then I'm never going to have to work again." All that to say that I was baptized, and then I spent year after year after year just steeped in sin. And now here's the crazy part. Through all of this, as far as I was concerned, I was still a Christian. And I'm not making any of this stuff up right here. I prayed all the time. I didn't just read my Bible; I studied my Bible. I would witness to my friends.

I would be praying to God for the salvation of my friends who acted just like me, but they didn't believe. They were atheists. I would meet with Jehovah's Witnesses. I would refute them and debate them, trying to win them over. And when a customer would walk into the store at my work, I would be praying, "Jesus, how can I show You to this person?" Jesus was on my mind all the time. To many of you, that probably sounds insane. How can such a contradiction be? It doesn't even make sense.

But that's why lenses are so important. You have to remember I had the Protestant lens. All my sins were forgiven—past, present, and future. These things matter. Then one day, about 5 years ago, I heard about this thing called the historic faith. I learned I like to talk about the time machine that Philip Schaft built. His English translations of the writings of the leaders of the early church make it possible to go back and listen to what it sounded like in the beginning.

And the ugly baby of this whole story is that the early Christian understanding of repentance just about ruined Christianity for me. I almost jumped ship. I remember reading these early Christians, what they believed about repentance, and saying to myself, "What is the point? What good is the cross if I can't sin?" There I was thinking that the blood of Christ was covering all of this stuff up. But the early Christians said, "No, absolutely not.

You've been corrupted with spiritual leprosy, and you are driving 1,000 miles an hour towards the pit of hell." That crossroads I faced 5 years ago, it came down to 6 truths that the early Christians just hammered home. 6 truths about repentance that shattered my Protestant worldview and rebuilt my understanding of salvation. Let's walk through them today. Number 1: repentance precedes baptism.

Then Peter said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Origen said, "Matthew teaches us that the benefit of baptism is connected with the intentions of the baptized person. To him who repents, the baptism is saving.

However, to him who comes to it without repentance, the baptism will produce a greater condemnation." We see this same idea echoed in 2 Peter, "For it would have been better for them to have not known the way of righteousness than to having known it and turned from it." Listen to how Tertullian explains it. He says, "Baptism is a seal of faith that has already begun and has already been strengthened by repentance. We are not baptized so that we will stop sinning.

We are baptized because we already have turned from sin." Again, knowing that baptism is not to be rashly administered. Now, we don't use this word rashly very often today. Think of it as hastily or prematurely. Know that baptism is not to be administered prematurely. Then, quoting Jesus, He says, "Do not give what is holy to the dogs." You wouldn't give communion to a dog, would you? No. Then do not give baptism to the unrepented, He says. So number 1: first you repent, and then you are baptized.

Point number 2: repentance is a complete turning away from sin. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him. Repent and turn from all of your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed. Whoever is born of God does not sin.

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation." Lactantius said, "God especially desires for men to be cleansed of their sins. Therefore, He commands them to repent. Yet, here it is, to repent means nothing else than to profess and affirm that one will sin no more." Pretty straightforward.

Clement of Alexandria, "He then that repents of what he did no longer does or says the things he did." And then he continues to define what true repentance means, saying, "True repentance means to no longer be bound in the same sin for which he acknowledged was his own death sentence. Rather, it is to eradicate them completely from the soul. For on their extirpation, God takes up His boat again in you." Now, not knowing this word, I looked it up. It means to root something out or to surgically remove something.

If they take your kidney, they don't leave anything attached. Surgical, annihilated. And the word abode, we all know what that means, but it's not something we use really today. It's a place where someone lives or a home or a dwelling place. So the Holy Spirit, He lives in us. He dwells in us. Listen to Clement again. "True repentance means to no longer be bound in the same sin. Rather, it is to eradicate them completely from the soul.

For upon their annihilation, God returns, making His dwelling place once again." Now, I had never once in my life heard preachers speak as if the Holy Spirit might leave me because of something that I did. Yet here was Clement saying it. "Once a Christian repents and then he returns to his sin, the Spirit is liable to leave you. And then once again, you eradicate it from your soul. He will take His abode in you again." Now listen to Hermes speaking something very similar. Just think of how dangerous this stuff is.

Same sentiment. "Foolishness gives birth to bitterness. Bitterness gives rise to anger, and anger grows into madness. This madness is the product of so many evils, ending in a great and incurable sin. For when these spirits are dwelling in one vessel, which the Holy Spirit also dwells, the vessels cannot contain them but overflow.

The tender spirit, not being accustomed to dwell with wicked spirits, nor with the harshness of the angry man, withdraws from such a man and seeks to dwell with meekness and peacefulness." This then is what happens to all of the angry. My Protestant brain was fighting against these things. How can these things be true? If I were reading between the lines correctly, I would have to start questioning if I was even a Christian. Maybe I was reading it wrong. Maybe that's not what they're saying.

Then Justin Martyr decided to speak up, just cutting right to the point, saying, "Those who do not obey the commands of Jesus are not real Christians. Even if they claim to follow Christ's teaching, salvation is not promised to those who pay lip service, but to those who act on His words." So 1: repentance precedes baptism. 2: repentance is a complete turning away from sin. 3: baptism only washes away your former sins.

"For he who lacks these things is shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." "So that we may not remain as children of necessity and ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and so that we may obtain from the waters of baptism the remissions of our sins formally committed." Cyprian, "By the help of the water of the new birth, the stain of our former years has been washed away." Irenaeus, "For we were lepers in sin.

We were made clean from our old transgressions by the means of the sacred water." Clement of Alexandria said it 7 different ways from Sunday. "The sins we committed before faith are accordingly forgiven by the Lord. Not that they may be undone, but as if they had not been done at all. Those who fall into sin after baptism are those who are subject to discipline. For the deeds done before baptism are remitted in the baptism. However, those committed after baptism must be purged." "God forgives us of our past sins.

However, for our future sins, each one procures this for himself. Yet again, he then from among the Gentiles and from the old life have come to the faith, have obtained forgiveness of sins but once. But he who sins after this should fear. Why? For he is as one no longer washed to the forgiveness of sins." This is where my Protestant worldview began to crumble. It was under heavy attack. If any of these things were true, then I had decades of sin heaped up on myself. Two Christianities. Only one could be true.

Either my sins, past, present, and future, were washed away in some moment of faith 26 years ago, or my baptism only cleaned what came before, and I since then turned myself into a spiritual leper. There was no both, and I could not unread what I read. Repentance precedes baptism. Repentance is a complete turning away from sin. Baptism only washes away your former sins. Bringing us to point number 4, sins committed after baptism are forgiven through repentance.

"If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, he will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." Origen wrote, "Repentance is the price for which the Lord has determined to award pardon." A quick announcement. No more paywall. The historic faith is now free for everyone. Explore over 2,500 Bible translations in over 2,200 languages. There are also 39 courses and over 600 lessons. And David has answered 164 Q&As so far. Freely listen to 11 of David's most popular audiobooks.

And also Dean Taylor's audiobook. Listen to the early Christians through modernized Anti-Nicaean writings. And study the Bible and early Christians with Strong's tools. Every lesson and audiobook includes discussion questions designed for personal study, families, and church groups. Click on any verse and discover what the early Christians believe. Build playlists, join discussions, chat with others, and go deeper with guided questions. Donations keep it running. The access and sign-up are free.

Visit thehistoricfaith.com. Repentance is the price for which the Lord has determined to award pardon. Isn't that good news? The Lord has determined to award pardon. Repentance is the price for which the Lord has determined to award pardon. He offers to redeem us from the penalty of our sins committed after baptism by accepting repentance as payment. Sellers first examine the coins with which they make their bargains. They see if they're cut or maybe scraped or if they're even counterfeit.

In the same way we believe the Lord when about to grant us such costly merchandise, we're talking eternal life. He first tests our repentance. Now, that's an interesting statement, isn't it? What do we make of that? The Lord when about to grant us eternal life, He first tests our repentance. What does that mean? And how do you know when your repentance has passed the test? Hermes answers this question for us. "These are the ones who now heard my commandments and have repented with their whole hearts.

And when the Lord saw that their repentance was good and pure, and they were able to remain in it, He ordered their former sins to be blotted out." How do you know when your repentance has healed your wounds? How do you know when God has seen your repentance and forgiven you and blotted out your sins? Does it happen the moment you say, "Oh, God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Forgive me." Is it instant? I believe the answer to that question is both yes and no. Let me explain.

Let's say you're tempted to do something. You've never done anything like this before. You've never stolen anything or in the grocery store, and you stick a candy bar in your pocket. You walk out and you're grief-stricken. You turn around, you go in, you make it right with the store owner, and you never do that again. I mean, it's very possible God may instantly just it never hit the books. Lactantius said this, "Repentance erases every sin when there is no delay after the fall of the soul.

It erases every sin when the disease is not allowed to go on for an extended time. For then the evil will not have power to leave its mark on us." It is a different case, though. When a man sins and repents and sins and repents and sins and repents, that's not repentance. That's just the imitation of repentance. In this case, no. Once the disease has been allowed to go on for an extended time, your repentance will need to be tested.

And when it is good and pure and you're able to remain in it, then the test is passed and your sins will be blotted out. Repentance precedes baptism. Repentance is a complete turning away from sins. Baptism only washes away our former sins. Sins committed after baptism are purged through repentance. And number 5, it is all or nothing or mercy. "Then they will also respond to the fearsome judge who does not show favoritism.

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or estranged or naked or sick or in prison and we did not care for you? Lord, don't you recognize us? You molded us. You sculpted us. You created us out of four elements. You gifted us spirit and soul. We believed in you. We received your seal. We were baptized in your name. We affirmed you as God. We recognized you as Creator. We performed miracles in your name. Through you, we expelled demons. For you, we mortified our flesh. For you, we maintained our virginity.

For you, we practiced chastity. For you, we became outsiders in this world. Can't you say, 'I don't recognize you. Leave me'?" Then he will reply to them, "You acknowledged me as Lord, but you did not obey my words. You were branded with my seal, but you erased it with your hard heart. You received my baptism, but you did not follow my commands. You dedicated your bodies to chastity, but you did not demonstrate kindness, and you didn't remove hatred from your brothers from your soul." It's all or nothing.

It's not enough to believe and be baptized and to mortify your flesh and maintain your virginity and practice chastity if through all of that, somehow you're not even a kind man. Or you still harbor hatred in your heart for your brothers. These foundational things are so important. It's all or nothing. And I must warn you that these next quotes demonstrating this point, very difficult pills to swallow. Listen to these sobering words.

"And therefore I say to you that if anyone is tempted by the devil and he sins after that great and holy calling, he has opportunity to repent but once. But if he should sin frequently after that and then repent to such a man, his repentance will be of no avail." Now that, pretty harsh, isn't it? What do we make of that? Clement had a similar idea arise. "He then from whom among the Gentiles and from that old life have come to faith, have obtained forgiveness of sins but once.

The frequent asking of forgiveness for the same sin isn't repentance. It's only the imitation of it." He states it another way. "Being very merciful, God has promised a second repentance. There it is again. For those who fall into some transgression, yet they remain in the faith. In that manner, if anyone is tempted after his calling and is overcome by force or fraud, he may still receive repentance, but he must not turn from that repentance.

Because continual and successive repentings of sin, sinning of repenting, sinning of repenting does not differ at all from the case of those who have never believed at all." Now, I know these quotes seem harsh, almost non-Christian, but it is important that we do not look at these quotes in a vacuum. Cherry-picking them, as I have just done, does not paint the whole picture.

I encourage all of you to find these quotes and read these entire works because when you do, what you will find is what they're communicating is there has to be a day where a line is drawn in the sand. This line that once you cross over, here's the key phrase, you practice righteousness for the rest of the days of your life. The early church sugar-coated nothing. They just put it out there. After you repent and you're baptized, your former sins are washed away. Your soul becomes as white as snow.

You are in that moment coming out of the waters in the cleanest state you will ever be in on this side of heaven. And now you're born again. You need to draw the line in the sand and go and sin no more. And when you fail, because you will remember that God has given us a second gift, the gift of the grace of repentance. But if you go back to your sin and back again, you're in a dangerous spot. When a man sins and repents and sins and repents, at some point, the question must be asked, did he ever really repent?

If God is testing that repentance, is it passing the test? The early Christians said it's all or nothing. You got to draw that line in the sand and practice righteousness the rest of your days. And if you turn back to your sin fear, fear no longer washed. And then that sin must be purged through repentance, which will be tested and must be found to be good and pure and that you're able to remain in it.

Now, like I said, I know these teachings are very hard, but remember this fifth point was not titled, it's all or nothing. It was titled, it's all or nothing or mercy. Let us go beyond the cherry-picking that I have done here, and let's look at the whole picture. Let's look at what the Bible says about this and what these exact same early Christians, what they also say about God's mercy.

In Tertullian's On Repentance, he talks about the prodigal son saying, "Surely in this parable, God is the Father." He says, "He then will receive you, his own son back, even if you squandered everything you received from him, even if you returned naked, just because you've returned. He will rejoice more over your return than over the one who stayed sober and steady.

But that is only if you truly repent, if you compare your present hunger to the abundance of your father's household of hired servants, if you leave behind that swine, that unclean herd, and once again seek your father you offended, confessing, 'I have sinned and I'm no longer worthy to be called yours.'" Clement, God welcomes the repentance of the sinner. He loves the repentance that follows sin. "For this word of whom we speak alone was sinless.

For to sin is natural and common to all, but to return to God after sinning is characteristic not of just any man, but only of a man of great worth." Origin, "Those who have passed severe condemnation on themselves because of their sin and on that account lament and bewail themselves as lost are received by God because of their repentance." Hermes, "Trust God then, you who on account of your sin have despaired of life and who add to your sins and weigh down your life.

For if you return to the Lord with all of your heart and you practice righteousness, here it is, the rest of your days, and you serve him according to his will, he will heal your former sins and you will have power to hold sway over the works of the devil." Cyprian, "After all these things, Christ still receives his own murderers. Even those who shed Christ's blood can be made alive with Christ's blood.

If one introduces love into his soul, although he is born into sin and done many forbidden things, he is able to retrieve his mistake. He does this by increasing his love and adopting a pure repentance." Lactantius, "Let no one be disheartened. Let no one despair concerning himself if he has turned aside to the way of unrighteousness because he was overcome by passion or impelled by desire or deceived by error or compelled by force. For it is possible for such a one to be brought back and set free.

It is possible if he repents of his actions and makes satisfaction to God. At the end of the world, the angels radiant with joy, hemming and opening the heavens, will receive into the celestial abode those who truly repent." Now let's look at what the Bible says. "Mercy triumphs over judgment. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect was tempted as we are.

Yet he was without sin. My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. But if anyone does, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Repentance comes before baptism. Repentance is a complete turning away from sin. Baptism washes away our former sins. Sins committed after baptism can be forgiven, but it comes at the cost. They must be purged through repentance. It is all, it is nothing, or it is mercy.

And my final point, six, repentance and righteousness are two sides of the same coin. "But if a wicked man turns from all of his sins which he has committed and he keeps all of my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live." As I was studying this topic, I would be reading the early Christian writings and I realized something. The early Christians didn't separate righteous living from repentance. To them, repentance wasn't just turning from sin.

It was turning towards God with your whole heart. Repentance and righteousness, two sides of the same coin. What would happen is I would find a quote and I would say, "Yes, this is perfect for this repentance sermon." And I'd put it on my little spreadsheet. And then I'd go back and I'd be reading it and I'd be like, "Man, it doesn't say repent. The word repentance isn't in there. No indication of turning from sin." And what I finally realized is that the early Christians' view of repentance was holistic.

This is that 10-gallon pot I was talking about overflowing with a hose still propped in it. And it all ties back to this early Christian definition of repentance, which is to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Yes, turning from sin is repentance, but also loving God and your neighbor is also repentance. Because it's not normal. Non-Christians don't do that. It's not a thing. It goes against everything the flesh wants.

I'll paint the picture for you of what it looks like in real life. You're exhausted. You're hungry. You're cranky. You just want to be home. You pull into McDonald's because you're too tired to cook. And you're about to pull into a parking spot and this guy in a Honda, honestly, he pulls in with 10 kids right in front of you. It was clearly your spot. You kind of had to back up a little bit to let him in. And you're forced to park all the way at the end of the parking lot.

Now you're walking to the door, praying to God, "Oh God, please, service has gone down until so bad since COVID. Please don't let the line be long. I just want to be in and out. I'm hungry, I'm tired, I'm cranky." You're 15 feet from the door. And you realize, though you had to walk from the back of the parking lot, the guy in the Odyssey took forever to wrangle his 10 kids out.

You're 15 feet from the door and the parking spot thief is now behind you with his 10 children who are not going to be able to figure out what they want to order. By all social standards, you have reached the door first. You have the right of way. The next spot in line belongs to you. You grab the handle and you step aside and you hold it open and you smile and you wave them in. You just repented. You loved your neighbor as yourself. It's not normal.

When life happens to you, when someone takes your parking spot or someone cuts you off in traffic or someone is making fun of you or belittling you or stealing from you or slandering your name, lies all around town. When life is happening to you and you respond right, when your first response is kindness and to turn your cheek and to pray for those who are spreading the lines, you're actively repenting. Repentance is an entire lifestyle for the Christian.

Your choice to act righteously as life is happening to you is simultaneously repentance. In any of those cases, if you fail to respond right, your responsibility to respond right doesn't go away, but you can't go back in time and undo what you did. Now you've sinned. Now you have failed to love God and your neighbor as commanded by Jesus. Now you must purge that sin through confession and repentance. So do you see what I mean? That repentance and practicing righteousness are two sides of the same coin.

Now, we began the sermon asking the question, why did King David get such a pass? How does that story in Bathsheba exist in his life? And yet he becomes the measuring rod of a righteous king. The answer to the question is repentance. I'm going to end with this final quote from Chrysostom, where he describes David's repentance so beautifully. And you will notice that there's only one single thing in this description that is him turning from his sin.

Everything else that is mentioned is him responding right as life happens to him. This quote beautifully captures the idea of a pure and a holistic repentance. Chrysostom said this, "David also sinned. Let us see how he repented.

He sat in ashes for three days, but he did not do this because of his sin, but for his child, still uncaring due to his distress, he cleansed his sins in other ways, through humility, a broken heart, a sorrowful spirit, by avoiding repeating the same sin, by always keeping his sins in his mind, being grateful and accepting everything that happened to him, by sparing those who hurt him and by withholding from retaliating against those who plotted against him, even going as far as stopping those who wished to do so

on his behalf.

For instance, when Shammae showered him with countless insults and his accompanying captain was quite offended, David said, 'Let him curse, for God told him to curse.' Of course, the Lord did not put those curses in the man's mouth, but do you see how David accepted everything that happened to him as if it was from God? He also had a broken and a humble heart, and it was this above all that cleansed his sins. That is confession. That is repentance.

So then humble your heart as well so that you may pull God close to you. For the scripture says that the Lord is near to those with a broken and a contrite heart. Don't you see those in wealthy households who are in disgrace not responding even when their lesser servants insult them? Instead, they endure it because of the shame encircling them because of their own sins. You should also. If anyone insults you, do not get angry, just remorse.

Not for the insult, but for the sin in your own life which has led you to your disgrace. Lament when you sin, but not because of the punishment you will face, as that is insignificant. No, lament because you've offended your master who is so gentle, so compassionate, loving you so much and longing for your salvation that he even sacrificed his own son for you for this mourn and do it continually. For this is confession.

Do not be cheerful one day and then sad the next and then cheerful again, but maintain a persistent state of mourning and self-approach because blessed, he says, are those who mourn. That is those who do this unbrokenly. So continue doing this consistently. Be cautious and afflict your heart as if you've lost your own beloved son.

As it says in Joel, "Tear your hearts, not your clothes." Therefore, adopt a humble mind, understanding that a single word justified the tax collector, and it was not humiliation, but true confession. If this has such power, just think of the magnitude of humility. Be like David. Forgive those who have sinned against you as this too brings forgiveness of your own sins.

Jesus said it himself, "Forgive and you will be forgiven." You know, there is another way that delivers us this remedy of forgiveness that we so desperately need. That is acknowledging our mistakes because admit your sins first that you may be justified. For when a man who is in distress gives thanks, it erases his sin as well as almsgiving, which is greater than all these things.

For it is written in the book of Tobit, "For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin." Consider therefore the remedies to heal your wounds and apply them all consistently. Humility, confession, forgiving wrongs, giving thanks in affliction, showing mercy in both charity and actions, persisting in prayer. What excuse then can we have if with so many paths leading to heaven and so many remedies to heal our wounds? This is the early Christian view of repentance.

O Lord, restore your ancient way and make your people new.