Article 16

“Not every sin knowingly committed after baptism is sin against the Holy Spirit and unforgivable. Therefore the gift of repentance is not to be declared impossible for those who fall into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy Spirit we may depart from the grace given to us and fall into sin, and may also by the grace of God return and amend our lives. Therefore those who say that they are incapable of sinning any more in this life are to be condemned, as are those who deny the opportunity of forgiveness to those who truly repent.”

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Is it ever too late to turn to God? Is it possible to make too many mistakes to be forgiven? John Newton might have thought so. He was an 18th century slave trader, whose personality suited that cruel trade. However, his life was transformed after a close brush with death: a ship he was sailing on almost sank in a storm. A biographer writes: “During some hours of solemn reflection, Newton reviewed his whole life, especially his scoffing at Scripture, his vicious conduct, the dangers he had been in and the wonderful deliverances he had experienced. The ship outrode the storm and the awakened sinner was saved to serve God in the world.”

The 39 Articles tell us that “we may also by the grace of God return and amend our lives.” God gave John Newton the opportunity to return to him and change his life. Though Newton had bought and sold human beings against their will, he later did his utmost to expose the cruelty of this terrible trade. He began to study the Bible and preach its message to others. And he wrote a hymn that tells his story, and the story of many who sing it today:

“Amazing grace – how sweet the sound -
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
was blind, but now I see.”

The 39 Articles warn us that we must never “deny the opportunity of forgiveness to those who truly repent.” Referring to Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, the great hymn writer, Charles Wesley wrote:

“His blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.”

Wesley saw the reality of this truth in John Newton’s life and asked the former slave trader to be a pallbearer at his funeral. What God did in Newton’s life, he continues to do today for “those who truly repent.”