But for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for an example to them who should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 1:16 Go To 1 Timothy 1
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
To all sins, then, committed whether by flesh or spirit, whether by deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment has nevertheless engaged to grant pardon by means of repentance. For he has said to the people, “Repent, and I will save you”; and again, “I live, says the Lord, and I will have repentance rather than death.” Repentance, then, is “life,” since it is preferred to “death.” That repentance, O sinner, like myself (nay, rather, less than myself, for preeminence in sins I acknowledge to be mine), do you so hasten to so embrace, as a shipwrecked man the protection of some plank. This will draw you forth when sunk in the waves of sins and will bear you forward into the port of the divine clemency.
