Monday, March 30, 2009

On Sin and How to Get to Heaven

19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live in God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, the Christ died to no purpose.
-- Galatians 2:19


Brothers and sisters, we are saved by grace alone. It is by the grace of Jesus Christ we are saved. There is absolutely nothing we can do to 'earn our way to heaven'.

Did you go to confession over the past weekend? What are you doing to accept or reject God's forgiveness?




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For further study, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Salvation and Justification:

See Article Four

AND

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The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.







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