Tyrannius Rufinus (c. 344/5-411 A.D.):
As regards the FORGIVENESS OF SINS, our bare act of faith ought to be sufficient. Who would search for cause or explanation where a prince’s bounty is in question? An earthly monarch’s generosity is scarcely a fit subject for argument: then is God’s largess going to be argued about by presumptuous humans? Pagans habitually make fun of us, saying that we deceive ourselves if we imagine that mere words can wipe out offences which have actually been committed. ‘Is it possible,’ they say, ‘for one who has committed murder to be no murderer, or for the perpetrator of adultery to be represented as no adulterer? How then is someone who is guilty of misdeeds like these going to be suddenly made holy?’
Faith, as I have pointed out, supplies a better answer to such charges than reason. He who has promised forgiveness is King of all things: He who assures us of it is Lord of heaven and earth. Are you reluctant for me to believe that He who made me a man out of mere clay can transform my guilt into innocence?
(Tyrannius Rufinus, Commentarius in Symbolum Apostolorum, 40; PL, 21:377; trans. ACW, 20:77. Cf. NPNF2, 3:559.)
Cf. Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583 A.D.)
The forgiveness of sins is granted and received by faith alone, which the Holy Spirit works and kindles in us. It may be said then, that the forgiveness of sins is granted at the time when it is received by faith.
(Zacharias Ursinus, The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism: Fourth American Edition, trans. G. W. Williard, [Cincinnati: Elm Street Printing Company, 1888], p. 308.)
καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν ~ Soli Deo Gloria
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