The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained/Chapter5

by Benjamin Fiske Barrett

 

V.—Remission of Sins.

Intimately connected with the nature of sin, is the doctrine concerning its remission. The prevailing idea among Christians a hundred years ago,—nor has it become quite obsolete yet,—respecting the Divine forgiveness or remission of sins, was altogether erroneous. It was believed that sins could be forgiven and the sinning soul cleansed of its defilements by an act of immediate Divine mercy, or through the willingness of God to exercise forgiveness—as natural filth may be washed off from the body; and that this could be effected instantaneously, and is actually granted in a moment as the reward of the exercise of faith alone.

But Swedenborg teaches (or shows us that the Scripture teaches) and the New Church believes, a very different doctrine. He says that the Divine Love which is Mercy itself, is the very essence of forgiveness; and that this Love is ever ready and waiting to flow into human hearts with its ineffable sweetness and delights; but that it can flow in and be received only in the degree that we come to see our evils in the light of truth, humbly acknowledge them, and shun their indulgence as sins against God. As we do this, the evil of self-love which is the fountain of all other evil loves and the progenitor and instigator of all evil deeds, is overcome or removed, and the good of disinterested neighborly love flows in, and with it a sweet and heavenly peace—a sense of the Divine presence which is essential Love and Forgiveness. So that the Divine forgiveness is not and cannot be experienced, except on condition of repentance and obedience—a voluntary turning away from moral evil, and yielding obedience to the laws of heavenly charity;—a gradual losing, through self-denial and self-surrender, of our own life for the Lord's sake, and the consequent reception or finding of that true and higher life which is from Above, and is promised to the regenerate. Accordingly Swedenborg says:

"It is believed by most people within the church that the remission of sins is the wiping or washing them away as of filth by water; and that after remission they are clean and pure in the way in which they go. Such an opinion prevails, especially with those who ascribe the all of salvation to faith alone. "But it is to be observed that the case is quite otherwise with the remission of sins. The Lord remits sins to every one, since He is Mercy itself; nevertheless they are not remitted on that account, unless a man performs serious repentance, desists from evils, and afterwards lives the life of faith and charity, and this even to the end of his life. When this is done the man receives from the Lord spiritual life which is called new life; and when he looks from this new life at the evils of his former life and holds them in aversion and horror, then sins are first remitted; for then the man is kept in truths and goods, and withheld from evils by the Lord. Hence it is evident what is meant by the remission of sins, and that it cannot be granted in an hour nor in a year." (A. C. 9014. See also A. C. 9443-9454.)