John, the Forerunner of the Lord, whose baptism was only a baptism leading to repentance, and not bringing the Heavenly Kingdom, demanded that those who came to him be baptized confess their sins, not having the need for this confession himself, as John Climacus remarks [1109], but taking care of the spiritual benefit of those who were baptized by him.

Confession of sins has always been recognized in the Church of Christ as an integral part of repentance. He was demanded of all those who intended to be baptized with the aim that the Holy Baptism given would be received and preserved in the way that befits the great, unrepeatable Sacrament. Finally, repentance is an institution of God and a gift of God to fallen humanity.

Repent, O Kingdom of Heaven [1110], proclaimed the holy Forerunner to those who came to him and received from him the Baptism of repentance. The Heavenly Kingdom, as the Forerunner further explained, was signified in his sermon by the Holy New Testament Sacrament of Baptism [1111]. In order to receive the Heavenly Kingdom, repentance is needed. The Saviour of the world demanded repentance from people, in order to grant people the gift of salvation through Holy Baptism, in order to make people capable of receiving the heavenly spiritual Gift. Repent, he said, for the Kingdom of Heaven draws nigh [1112]; repent and believe in the Gospel [1113]. Everything has already been done for you, no work, no podvig, no application to the gift is sought from you! From you one purification is sought through repentance, because it is impossible to entrust the priceless, all-holy, spiritual treasure to the unclean and those who do not intend to be pure. Sending the disciples to preach, the God-Man commands them to proclaim repentance to mankind because of the approaching Heavenly Kingdom [1114]. The Apostle Paul says of himself that he, wandering throughout the world, proclaimed to all, both Jews and Greeks, repentance, conversion to God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ [1115]. When in Jerusalem thousands of Jews came to believe in the Saviour as a result of the preaching of the holy Apostle Peter and asked him and the other Apostles: "What shall we do, men, brethren?" Then the Apostle Peter said: Repent, and let everyone be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins: and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit [1116]. Everywhere we see repentance as the only entrance, the only ladder, the only threshold before the Faith, the Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven, before God, before all the Christian Sacraments, before Holy Baptism — this birth of man into Christianity. It is necessary to reject one's former sinful life and to live one's life according to the Gospel commandments, in order to worthily accept and be able to worthily preserve within oneself the gift of the Holy Spirit received at Baptism. The ecclesiastical pastors of the Christian Church of the first centuries took every possible care that Holy Baptism, which was then accepted almost exclusively in adulthood, would be accepted by those who received it with a full understanding of the Spiritual Gift they were receiving [1117].

And modern pastors have the sacred, indispensable duty to provide an accurate and detailed understanding of Holy Baptism to those who received the Sacrament in infancy and therefore do not have any experiential knowledge of the Sacrament. The Gift has been received by them: an account of the use of the Gift is inevitable. Timely preparation for the report is necessary, extremely necessary! Careless and ignorant possession of the Gift entails the most disastrous consequences. Whoever does not use the Gift according to the desire and command of the Giver, who does not develop the grace of Baptism in himself by acting according to the Gospel commandments, but hides the talent entrusted to him in the ground – that is, buries and buries the grace of Baptism, destroys in himself all its action, completely devoting himself to earthly cares and pleasures – the grace of Baptism will be taken away from him at the judgment of Christ. Its unworthy ruler will be plunged into utter darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth [1118]. In order to have a proper understanding of the importance of Holy Baptism, one must lead a God-pleasing, evangelical life: it alone reveals to the Christian the mysteries of Christianity with due clarity and satisfaction [1119].

Baptism is an unrepeatable Sacrament. I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins, proclaims the Orthodox Symbol of Faith. Just as the birth into existence can take place once, so the birth into existence – Baptism – can take place once. Just as the various ailments that befall a person at birth, which afflict him, shake him, and destroy his being, are cured by various medicines that find their support in the vital force connected with existence, so the various sins committed after Baptism, which slander and upset the spiritual life of man, are cured by repentance, the reality of which is based on the grace of the Holy Spirit, implanted in man by Holy Baptism, and consists in the development of this grace. suppressed and drowned out by transgressions. "Christ," says St. Mark the Ascetic, "as perfect God, granted to those who were baptized the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not receive application from us, but is revealed to us and appears to us according to the fulfillment of the commandments, and gives us an application, so that we may all attain to the union of faith, to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulfillment of Christ" [1120]. By the union of faith is understood here the absorption of all the activity of a Christian by faith, and all activity serves as an expression of spiritual reason or the Gospel. "Therefore whatever we offer to Him (Christ), after our regeneration (by Baptism), all is already from Him and by Him was implanted in us (at the Sacrament of Baptism)" [1121].

6. On the renewal of the redeemed nature, in case of its damage, by repentance

Those who wish to acquire an experiential knowledge of Holy Baptism, who wish to discover the hidden Mystery and the priceless Spiritual Gift placed by the ineffable grace of God in the spiritual treasury, who wish to behold their nature in a state of renewal and recreation, who wish to feel and behold Christ in themselves, can achieve all this through repentance. The image of repentance that is appropriate and appropriate for a Christian corresponds to the Gift that he wishes to reveal in himself: true repentance corresponds to the Sacrament of Baptism. By baptism, alone, by the ineffable goodness of God, the Gift of God is communicated to man; and with the repentance of a Christian, who after Baptism has allowed himself the activity and life of a fallen nature, who has revived death in himself, who has killed life in himself, the Gift is returned only by the grace of God. At Baptism we are born of water and the Spirit; in repentance we are reborn through tears and the Spirit. Repentance is a childish, unceasing weeping before God for the loss of the Gift, in the hope of receiving the Gift again. Thou shalt not save my grapes! cries out in terrible sorrow the soul, which has descended from the nature renewed by Baptism into the realm of the fallen nature, having lost its freedom, being violated by sin; I feed my goats! there are no spiritual sensations and thoughts in me! all the flocks of my feelings and thoughts are useless! they are goats, as constituting a mixture of good and evil! they are mine, because they are born from my fallen nature! [1122] The properties of the nature which I have renewed have been lost! St. Isaac of Syria, being asked what meditations an ascetic of Christ should constantly engage in in his solitude, answered: "Do you ask about meditation and about that thought which should constantly occupy a person in his cell, in order to make him dead? (for the world, that is, for sin)? Does a zealous and sober person need to be asked how he should behave when he is alone, with himself?

What else can be the mental occupation of a monk in his cell if not weeping? Does weeping leave him the opportunity to turn to other thoughts? What other mental activity could be better than this? The very place of the monk's abode, his solitude, his dwelling, like living in the grave, alien to human joy, teaches him that weeping is his work. The very meaning of his name calls and induces him to weep; he is called lamenting, that is, filled with sorrow in his heart. All the saints departed from this life in weeping. If the saints wept, and their eyes were constantly filled with tears until their very transmigration from this life, then who should not weep? Consolation for a monk is born from his weeping. If the perfect and victorious wept here, how can the one who is full of wounds endure to cease from weeping? He who has his dead man lying before him and sees himself mortified by sins, does he need to be taught what kind of thoughts he should shed tears? Thy soul is mortified by sins, she who is dearer to thee than all the world is cast down dead before thee: does it not need to be mourned? If we enter into silence and remain in it with patience, then we can certainly remain in weeping. For this reason, let us pray unceasingly with our minds to the Lord, that He would grant us weeping. If this gift of grace is granted to us, the best and most excellent of all other gifts, then by means of it we will enter into purity. When we acquire purity, then this purity will not be taken away from us until our departure from this life" [1123]. Obviously, such weeping can be born only in one who has a clear understanding of the states of the fallen nature and the nature renewed by Baptism. Only he can weep bitterly and cry constantly who understands the value of the lost Gift. "Weeping for God," said St. John of the Ladder, "is a constant feeling of a sick heart, assimilated to it, with frenzy constantly seeking that which it craves, with intensity chasing after that which it lacks, and weeping mightily after it" [1124]. The suffering sensation of weeping should constitute the character of a repentant Christian. Abandonment of weeping is a sign of self-deception and error. Only Christ-imitating humility can calm the weeping one; love alone in Christ can comfort him, can wipe away his tears, can illuminate his face and heart with the light of heavenly joy. Sacrifices and burnt offerings from the fallen nature are not accepted; one sacrifice of this nature, pleasing to God: the spirit is broken[1125].

Just as the deviation from the state belonging to the renewed nature, and the descent into the state belonging to the fallen nature, is accomplished by means of the abandonment of the activity belonging to the renewed nature, in other words, from the abandonment of life according to the commandments of the Gospel, and by means of deviation into the activity belonging to the fallen nature, so, on the contrary, the return from the state belonging to the fallen nature to the state belonging to the renewed nature is accomplished by means of a resolute and complete rejection of activity according to the reason and will of fallen nature, through a resolute and complete acceptance of activity according to the teaching and testament of the God-man. At the same time, an inner struggle opens up in a person, because the life that preceded repentance by its own will and reason deprived a person of spiritual freedom, gave him over to sin and the devil. The penitent strives to act according to the Gospel commandments, but sin and the devil, having received the power arbitrarily transferred to them by their previous residence, try to keep the captive in captivity, in chains, in prison! The experiential cognition of captivity through the sensation of captivity and violence, the experiential cognition of spiritual death through the sensation of death, intensify and strengthen the weeping of the penitent. "This struggle," says St. Mark the Ascetic, "is internecine. It is not from outside, and we must not fight with our brethren. It is within us, and no man can help us in it. We have one helper: Christ mysteriously hidden in us by Baptism, invincible and unable to be suppressed (destroyed). He will strengthen us if we fulfill His commandments according to our strength" [1126]. Here the venerable ascetic does not reject the guidance of spiritual and experienced people, no! he advises without fail and carefully to resort to the advice of spiritual Fathers and brethren! [1127] Here he wants to show that our invisible triumph in the inner battle depends solely on the will and action of grace implanted in us by Baptism, acting in accordance with our will, manifested and proved by the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, and in accordance with the incomprehensible will of God for man. For this reason, some, with abundant and constant human guidance, bear the most scanty fruit; others, having heard the briefest instruction, in a short time reveal rapid success by their spiritual gifts. "Know for certain," said St. Isaac of Syria, "that every good thing that works in you mentally and secretly was intercessed by Baptism and Faith, by which you were called by our Lord Jesus Christ for His good works" [1128], and not for the imaginary good deeds of your fallen nature.

The fate of God helps the penitent in this way, as the holy Prophet David said: "Thy fates will help me" [1129]. By God's providence, manifold sorrows are allowed to the penitent: for the Lord loves, says the Apostle, He chastens: but He smites every son, whom He receives[1130]. Enduring sorrows with thanksgiving to God, with acknowledging oneself worthy of sorrow, with acknowledging the sorrow allowed to be the very salvific medicine that we need for healing, is a sign of true repentance. "He who does not know the destinies of God," says the Monk Mark, "walks with his mind along the path that runs between the rapids, and is easily cast down by every wind. Whoever resists the sorrows that befall him, without knowing it, resists the command of God, but whoever accepts them with true reason, according to the Scriptures, endures the Lord [1131]. He who knows the truth does not resist sorrowful adventures: he knows that they lead a person to the fear of God. Former sins, being remembered in appearance, bring harm to the one who has good hope: if this remembrance arises in conjunction with sorrow, then hope is taken away by them; but if it arises without sorrow, then it renews the former defilement within. When the mind, through the renunciation of itself, by the simplicity (simplicity) of thought, acquires hope, then the enemy, under the pretext of confession, depicts (in memory) the sins previously committed, in order to renew the passions which the grace of God has blotted out by oblivion, in order thus imperceptibly to inflict harm on man. Then the firm mind, hating the passions, will of necessity be darkened, confused by the remembrance of the sins committed. If he is still dark and voluptuous, he will certainly linger in remembering and will passionately converse with the thoughts that come to him, so that such remembrance will become not a confession, but a mental renewal in himself of the sins previously committed [1132]. If you want to bring uncondemned confession to God, do not remember sinful inclinations in appearance, but courageously endure the sorrows brought about for them. Sorrows come (in retribution) for previous sins, bringing to every sin a corresponding (appropriate) retribution. The wise and truth-teller confesses to God not by the remembrance of the sins committed, but by the endurance of the sorrows that befall him. Having rejected suffering and dishonor, do not promise to bring repentance through other virtues; vanity and painlessness know how to serve sin even by means of right deeds" [1133]. "The way of God is an everyday cross. A person who is under the special Providence of God is known by the fact that sorrows are constantly sent to him by God" [1134]. The power of God is made perfect in the weakness [1135] of the fallen nature, when this nature is erased to dust by the Cross of Christ [1136]. On the contrary, fallen nature can develop only with the abundance of benefits provided by fallen human society: with learning, with wealth, with honors. Such are the foundations and at the same time the signs of the development of the fallen nature. In this development, the fallen nature accepts, like an apocalyptic woman, worship [1137] from blinded, unfortunate humanity, and enters into fornication with it when it renounces Christ and the Holy Spirit — perhaps without words of renunciation — in its essential renunciation, in activity, in life. After the renewal of our nature by the God-Man, the return of man to his fallen nature is adultery in relation to God.

The grace of Holy Baptism through repentance elevates the Christian to spiritual freedom, to the freedom that he already had when he came out of the font of Baptism. Thus, the patient, after intensive treatment, begins to feel in himself the freshness and the strength that he had before the illness, in a state of health. The initial cause of the renewal of strength is not medicines, but the life that the Creator has placed in human nature: medicines only helped the vital force to successfully fight the disease, to conquer and expel the disease, which is nothing but a disorder of the actions of the vital force. Repentance requires a more or less long time for various reasons, and especially according to the will of Divine Providence, which governs us. This can be seen from the biographies of many saints of God, who passed from the state of sinfulness to the state of holiness through repentance. The Nun Mary of Egypt told Blessed Zosima about herself, that she struggled with her thoughts and lusts, as with fierce beasts, for seventeen years [1138]. From our negligence about the preservation of the precious Gift given to us by Baptism, from our activity according to the lawless law of fallen nature, the power of sin creeps into us imperceptibly: imperceptibly we lose our spiritual freedom. The most difficult captivity remains invisible to many, it is recognized as the most satisfactory freedom.

One should not become disheartened and weakened by such a sight: one should devote oneself to repentance with courage and determination, as an all-powerful physician who has the command and authority from God to heal and heal all sins, no matter how great and numerous these sins may be, no matter how old and strengthened the habit of sins may be. Christ gave Himself to us and entered into us through Holy Baptism, then hid Himself in us, when we did not present our will, that He should dwell in us and govern us; Christ will certainly reveal Himself in us if we prove by true repentance that He should dwell in us. Behold, I stand at the door, saith He, and it is of no avail: If any man hear My voice, and open the doors, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My Throne, as I also conquered, and sat with My Father on His Throne [1139]. The voice of Christ is the Gospel.

The order in which a repentant sinner ascends to holiness through repentance is set forth by St. Macarius the Great as follows: "He who desires to approach the Lord and be vouchsafed eternal life, to become the house of God and to be worthy of the Holy Spirit, in order to be able to bear the fruits of the Spirit without blemish and purity, according to the commandments of the Lord, must begin in the following way: first, he must firmly believe in the Lord, wholly surrender himself to the words of His commandments, to renounce the world in all things, so that the mind is not occupied with any of the visible objects (the world), to remain steadfast in prayers, not to fall into despair (despondency, hopelessness) in anticipation (delay) of the Lord's visitation and help, — at all times to have the mind constantly directed to the Lord.