The late repentants were those who narrowly escaped the torment of hell. While of some speculation, the poem reads as a vivid contrast between different providence levels through saving faith and life lived out by grace—this artistically expressed through Dante’s purgatory. Yet as a comparison, it is written, escaped so as by fire (Ita Quod Per Ignem). “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1 Cor 3:15). Is it possible to obtain the gift of repentance without first obtaining faith through grace?
“Thither we drew; and there were persons there / Who in the shadow stood behind the rock, As one through
indolence is wont to stand.”
Godly Sorrow Produces Repentance Leading to Salvation
– 2 Corinthians 7:10
“The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God.” Oswald Chambers
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” – 2 Timothy 2:24–26 (NKJV)
