Is there a sin that cannot be forgiven?
For anyone who has done something grave, this is the question that sits beneath every other: is it over? The Orthodox answer is that for the person who repents, there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach. The Church does not minimise serious wrongs; adultery, betrayal, abuse of trust and violence are called by their names. But she teaches that God desires the return of the sinner and not his destruction, and that the door of repentance stays open as long as life lasts.
The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means a change of mind: a turning of the whole person from one direction to another. It is not first of all a feeling of guilt. Guilt may accompany it, but the heart of repentance is a decision to turn back, and the faith that one can. The apostle writes: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9 listen in the Audio Bible). The words are plain, and they are addressed to those who have sinned.
What does Scripture show about falling and rising?
The Gospels give the pattern in the life of Peter. On the night of Christ’s arrest he denied knowing him three times, and when the cock crowed he went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:54-62 listen in the Audio Bible). After the resurrection, Jesus asks him three times, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” and each time restores him to his task: “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15 listen in the Audio Bible). The threefold question answers the threefold denial. The man who failed most conspicuously is the one entrusted with the flock.
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives the same message from the Father’s side. The son squandered his inheritance and came home expecting to be a hired servant; but “while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20 listen in the Audio Bible). Notice that the father runs, and the son’s prepared speech is cut off by the welcome. For a believer who has fallen, these two scenes are the standard Gospel pictures of what to expect. You can hear both in the Audio Bible.
What can we learn from David’s Psalm 50?
King David’s fall is among the best-known in the Old Testament: adultery, and then the arranged death of a faithful soldier, confronted by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12). Tradition attributes to him Psalm 50 in the Septuagint numbering (Psalm 51 in many modern Bibles), which the Orthodox Church uses throughout its services, and which every Orthodox Christian can say by heart. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy” is its opening cry (Psalm 50:1 listen in the Audio Bible).
The psalm is a model of repentance precisely because it does not make excuses. It names the sin, asks for a clean heart, and declares that “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” David’s life was not the same afterwards; the consequences in his house were severe. But he remained in the people of God, and the psalm became the prayer of countless penitents. Repentance, it teaches, does not erase all consequences; it ends the separation from God. For how to begin praying in this way, see our beginner’s guide to prayer.
What is the example of Mary of Egypt?
The Church remembers Mary of Egypt on 1 April and on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. According to her Life, traditionally attributed to Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, she left home at twelve and lived a life of sexual immorality in Alexandria for seventeen years. Going to Jerusalem for the Exaltation of the Cross, she was unable to enter the church until she prayed before an icon of the Mother of God; she then crossed the Jordan and lived as a hermit in the desert. The monk Zosimas met her about a year before her death and gave her Communion.
Modern historians debate the details of the Life, and the Church is not asking anyone to treat each element as a verified biography. What she is given us for is the picture: that a person whom the world would write off can become a saint. Her place in the Lenten cycle is intentional. In the middle of the fast, the Church puts before the faithful a figure of repentance so complete that it is read as a promise. For more on how the Church understands holiness, see our article on what makes a saint.
What is a penance, and is it a punishment?
In the Orthodox understanding, a penance (epitimia) is medicine and not punishment. The Sixth Ecumenical Council (Trullo, canon 102) compares those who hear confessions to physicians, who must weigh the sinner’s state and the fruits of his repentance and then choose a treatment: stricter for some, gentler for others, and never so severe as to drive a person to despair, nor so light as to make him careless. The canon points back to the practice taught by St Basil the Great.
This explains why penances differ so widely. One person may be asked to pray a particular prayer daily, to abstain from Communion for a period, to make restitution, or to do works of mercy. Another may be asked for little. The aim is the person’s healing, and the priest is the one entrusted with the diagnosis. The commonest mistake is to treat the penance as a price paid to buy forgiveness; forgiveness is already given in the sacrament, and the penance is for the sake of recovery. The fuller picture is in our article on confession.
What about clergy who have fallen?
Here the Church is more careful, because a priest or bishop holds a public trust. Under the canonical tradition, a cleric who falls into grave sin is generally removed from ministry, which is a protection for the people entrusted to him and, in a sense, for the cleric himself. Removal from ministry is not removal from the Church. A deposed cleric is still a Christian, can still repent, can still be forgiven, and can still be saved. Whether and how he might ever be restored to any service is a matter for the bishop and the canons, and in the usual practice return to the altar is not granted.
This distinction between ministry and salvation matters for lay people too. A scandal in the Church does not mean that the sinner is beyond help, nor that the Church’s mercy is a sham. It also does not excuse the abuse of the vulnerable, for whom the Church’s first duty is protection; where a crime has been committed, civil authorities must be involved. For questions on how a spiritual guide should act in these situations, see our article on spiritual fathers.
Why is despair the greater danger?
Two disciples betrayed Christ on the same night. Peter wept and returned. Judas, seized with remorse, went away and hanged himself (Matthew 27:3-5 listen in the Audio Bible). The tradition reads the difference not in the size of their sins but in what each did next: one turned toward the Lord and the other turned away from the possibility of mercy. For this reason the Fathers regard despair as more dangerous than the fall itself, since it closes the very door through which healing comes.
This is also why Orthodox writers speak of judgment and hell without turning them into threats against the penitent. Their purpose is to wake a person up and not to crush him. The relation between God’s mercy and the final judgment is discussed in our article on heaven and hell. A person who is afraid, ashamed and sure that he is beyond help is still, in the Church’s eyes, a person at the beginning of a path.
What are the practical first steps?
First, stop the sin, so far as that is in your power, and seek safety for anyone being harmed. Second, speak to a priest and make a confession; if you have never confessed, tell him so, and he will guide you. Third, accept the guidance given, including any penance, as medicine. Fourth, if you have wronged another person, seek to make amends where it is safe and appropriate, with advice from the priest. Fifth, keep a simple prayer rule, and the prayer of Psalm 50 is a good place to start.
Finally, expect it to take time. Repentance is not one moment but a direction held over years, and there will be days of discouragement. Remain in the life of the parish, receive Communion when your priest blesses you to, and come to the services even when you feel unworthy; the Church’s teaching is that that is where the medicine is given. Nothing here replaces the counsel of a priest. If you are in distress or at risk of harming yourself, please contact a doctor or emergency services without delay.
