Whatever desire then there may be in us to live righteously, we are still guilty of eternal death before God, because our life is ever very far from the perfection which the Law requires. There would then be no stability in the covenant, except God gratuitously forgave our sins. But it is the peculiar privilege of the faithful who have one embraced the covenant offered to them in Christ, that they feel assured that God is propitious to them, for they have the promise of pardon.
And it must be observed that this pardon is promised to them, not for one day only, but to the very end of life, so that they have a daily reconciliation with God; for this favour is extended to the whole of Christ's kingdom, as Paul abundantly proves in the fifth chapter of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. And doubtless this is the only true asylum of our faith, to which if we flee not, constant despair must be our lot. For we are all of us guilty; nor can we be otherwise released than by fleeing to God’s mercy, which alone can pardon us.
John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 190.
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