- THE EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF SIN -
'Sin is a desire in opposition to the eternal law of God.' - Saint Augustine of Hippo - Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the 'Greatest sin', one eternal or unforgiveable sin. Everyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but he/she who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. - Luke 12:10 - 'He/She is not with me is against me, and he/she who does gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, everyone of men's sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And anyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but let anyone speak against the Holy Spirit and he/she will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next. - Matthew 12:30-32 -
'I tell you solemnly, all men's sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies; but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he/she will never have forgiveness: he/she is guilty of an eternal sin.' This was because they were saying, 'An unclean spirit is in him/her'. - Mark 3:28-30 -
Sin deserves punishment because it is a violation of God's holy character, but His pardon is gracious.
C C C # 1848 - As Saint Paul affirms, "Where sin is increased, grace abounded all the more." But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and bestow on us "righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "When law came, it was to multiply the opportunities of falling, but however great the number of sins committed, grace was even greater; and so, just as sin reigned wherever there was death, so grace will reign to bring eternal life thanks to the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 5:20-21 - Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin: "Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgement of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man's inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Thus in this "convincing concerning sin" we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of the truth is the Consoler. - Saint John Paul II DeV 31&2 -
Self-love which is good, can be preserved into self-adoration, in which one says, "I am my own law, my own truth, my own standard. Nobody can tell me anything. Whatever I call right is right; what I call wrong is wrong. Therefore, I am God." This is the sin of pride, the perversion of self-love into egotism. Such undue self-inflation is one of the principal causes of unhappiness; the more a balloon is inflated, the easier it is to puncture it. The egotist walks warily, in constant danger of having his/her false values destroyed.
Hence, anyone who blasphemes [speaks evil] against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation. Such slander of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ implied, reveals a spiritual blindness, a warping and perversion of the moral nature, that puts one beyond hope of repentance and forgiveness. Those who call the Holy Spirit, Satan, reveal a spiritual cancer so advanced that they are beyond any hope of healing and forgiveness.
"If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There will be left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and the raging fire that is to burn rebels. Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will repay. And again: The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." - Hebrews 10:26-31 -
Sin is a real and positive evil. Sin is more than unwise, inexpedient, calamitous attitude, behaviour that produces sadness, sorrow, grief and distress. It is rebellion against God. Sin is thus the faithless rebellion of the creature against the just authority of his Creator. Sin involves the denial of the living God from whom human beings draw life and existence - Acts 17:28 - The consequence of this revolt is death and the torment of hell. Death is the ultimate penalty imposed by God for sin. For this reason, sinning against God and breaking His commandments at any point involves transgression at every point.
Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 5:19 - "Well, the right thing to do is to keep the supreme law of scripture: you must love your neighbour as yourself; but as soon as you make distinction between classes of people, you are committing sin, and under condemnation for breaking the Law. You see, if a man/woman keeps the whole Law, except for one small point at which he/she fails, he/she is still guilty of breaking it all.- James 2:8-10 -
Now, however, you have been set free from sin, you have been made slaves of God, and you get a reward leading to your sanctification and ending in eternal life. For the wage paid by sin is death; the present given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:22-23 -
Apart from Christ Jesus, all are 'dead in trespasses and sins.' But this does not mean that people who committed sins and behave as wickedly as they might, for God restrains the outworking of the sinful heart. God has provided through His Son, Jesus bears the penalty of sin in place of His people. And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God's anger as the rest of the world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ - it is through grace that you have been saved - and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.
This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live in. - Ephesians 2:1-10 -
Grace is one of the key attributes of God. Therefore, grace is almost always associated with the spiritual gifts: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, self-control, compassion and justice. The grace of God was supremely revealed and given in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not only the beneficiary of God's grace, but He was also its very embodiment, bringing it to mankind for salvation. By His passion, death and resurrection, Jesus restored the broken fellowship between God and His peoples. The only way of salvation for any person is 'through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.'
Peter stood up and addressed them. 'My brothers,' he said, 'you know perfectly well that in the early days God made his choice among you: the pagans were to learn the Good News from me and so become believers. In fact God, who can read everyone's heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he had to us. God made no distinction between them and us, since he purified their hearts by faith. It would only provoke God's anger now, surely, if you imposed on the disciples the very burden that neither we nor our ancestors were strong enough to support? Remember, we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus. - Acts 15:7-11 -
The Holy Spirit is the One who binds Christ Jesus to all peoples so that they receive grace, forgiveness, and newness of life as well as the spiritual gifts. "Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, through all and within all. Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted. - Ephesians 4:3-7 -
The theme of grace is especially prominent in the epistles of Saint Paul. He sets grace radically over against law and works of the law. Apostle/Saint Paul makes it abundantly clear that salvation is not something that can be earned or merited; it can be received only as a gift of grace. Grace, however, must be accompanied by faith, hope and love.
In short, there are three things that last: Faith, Hope and Love; and the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13 -
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 -
In the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, a person is accepted by the grace, mercy, and love of God through faith and repentance. When it is mentions individuals being accepted by God, offerings frequently are mentioned. In the Old Testament, offerings were acceptable to God when made as prescribed, but they were unacceptable when God's instructions were ignored. However, they were rejected when the attitude of one's heart was wayward and irreverent.
In the primary New Testament passage of acceptance, Saint Paul explains that God has fully accepted believers through the merits of Christ Jesus. God will not reject them; He opens Himself to His own by welcoming them. Saint Paul speaks also of a teaching 'worthy of all acceptance' or deserving of universal. God accepts us fully in Jesus Christ because of His offering and receives what we return to Him.
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us
in all wisdom and insight.
He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth. And it is in him that we were claimed as God's own chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came. Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise, the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised. - Ephesians 1:3-14 -
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, and who judged me faithful enough to call me into his service even though I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith. Mercy, however, was shown me, because until I became a believer I had been acting in ignorance; and the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus. Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life. - 1 Timothy 1:12-16 -
Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him. For all the truth about us will be brought out in the law court of Christ, and each of us will get what he/she deserves for the things he/she did in body, good or bad. - 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 -
The difference between forgiveness and reparation is indicated in Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. When Moses sinned by doubting, God forgave him - but God still imposed a penance on Moses. 'You shall not pass this Jordan' - Deuteronomy 3:27 - King David repented for his adultery and Nathan, the prophet absolved him: 'The Lord has taken away your sin: you shall not die' - 2 Kings 12:13 - But God demanded satisfaction, 'The child that is born to you, shall surely die' - 2 Kings 12:14 - It is the same today: God's pardon in the Sacrament restores us to His Friendship but the debt to Divine Justice remains either in time or in eternity.
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 -
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -
Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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