God loves us with a reckless love and He call us to be holy and to be perfect as the father in heaven is perfect. The commands are repeated in Scripture, old and new. How do we balance all these Truths? “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation;a]">[a] the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2 Cor 5: 17-18a). Last week we shared about the Church’s teachings on confession and why this is such a beautiful and joful gift of healing, mercy, joy, and freedom. This week we wanted to be more clear about sin. Who doesn’t like to talk about sin, right? Admitting we have fallen short, though the Scriptures tell us in Romans 3 that ALL have fallen short of the glory of God, is a difficult act of humility. Calling a sin a sin, especially in today’s relativistic culture, is a very important key to growing in holiness and breaking free from the binds of the evil one. Original sin, actual sin, sanctifying grace versus actual grace… what does it all mean? Let’s get started.
“This also do we believe, in accordance with the Catholic faith, that after grace received through baptism, all the baptized are able and ought, with the aid and co-operation of Christ, to fulfill all duties needful for salvation, provided they are willing to labor faithfully. But that some men have been predestined to evil by divine power, we not only do not believe, but if there be those who are willing to believe so evil a thing, we say to them with all abhorrence anathema. This also do we profess and believe to our soul’s health, that in every good work, it is not we who begin, and are afterward assisted by Divine mercy, but that God Himself, with no preceding merits on our part, first inspires within us faith and love.” Council of Orange, 531AD
Take everything, even your failures, to the Lord and ask Him to redeem it ALL. Give it all back to Jesus and allow Him to heal you.
“22 Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” – Ephesians 4:22-24 Reference
“Repentance is the returning from the unnatural into the natural state, from the devil to God, through discipline and effort
