I recently posted about a Frances de Sales giving some good advice, and I must rescind that post. Sales teaches in Chapter Six of To Philoea or Intro Into The Devout Life (Tan Classics) that doing the Sacrament of Penance means acknowledging that “you have lost God’s grace, and merit hell.” This is utterly false, we do not incur the wrath of God,
“Therefore much more, having been justified now by His blood, we will be saved by Him from wrath!” (Romans 5:9), and we are saved . We do not merit hell when we sin anymore, for Jesus has paid for our sins once for all time, otherwise he’d have to suffer forever, “For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” ( Hebrews 9:24-28). The Apostle is very clear that when we sin we can repent and Jesus will restore us, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9), there is no loss of his Grace. Grace is unmerited favor, the very fact Catholics believe that you can lose grace and earn it back through sacraments means they fundamentally do not understand that nature of grace, nor do they understand what Jesus has done at the cross, despite having crucifixes in all their churches! How can they be so blind? Oh right, Jesus said they are blind, “they are blind guides,” (Matthew 23:34) and have a spirit of stupor, “as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” (Romans 11:8)
This is the infection of Rome, it tries to make it seem possible to purchase grace from God, when it is a free gift forever to us Christians. Jesus did not die on the cross and then say, “well now you better be good for goodness sake, or I am pulling my grace!” No! Jesus loves us and He has made propitiation for our sins, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world”(1 John 2:2). Propitiation is a big word, it means more than justified and more than atoned, propitiation means Jesus took our place, even in Hell, for He did descend into Hell! (Apostle’s Creed, 1 Peter 3:18-20). The point is you never fall out of favor, or lose God’s grace, or it would not be grace, aka unmerited favor! What the Catholics believe about grace is pagan, they view it like energy you lose or gain more of (Source: Are We Together? A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism, R.C.Sproul), and they do not understand that grace is once for all, that God does not cease showing his Favor to us, otherwise then Christ’s sacrifice at cross was for nothing, “yet we know that a man is not justified [and placed in right standing with God] by works of the Law, but [only] through faith in [God’s beloved Son,] Christ Jesus. And even we [as Jews] have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. By observing the Law no one will ever be justified [declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty],” (Galatians 2:16 AMP), “I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing / died for no purpose,” (Galatians 2:21), and “How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29). Roman Catholics insult the Spirit of Grace! By adding to it! This what Martin Luther got so peeved about in 1517 with his 95 Thesis, that they were adding indulgences to God’s Finished Work.
When Jesus said “it is finished,” (John 19:30) he did not tack on an addendum, but “well actually you need to do all these sacraments, including penance or I will take my grace away.” It is finished, and the
The Roman Catholic Church is leading the way to hell, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. You serpents, you spawn of vipers, how can you escape the penalty of hell?,” (Matthew 23:15, 33) by teaching a false gospel!, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:8-9). If one does not believe the fundamental that Jesus died once and for all time for all our sins, and forgives us, justifies us, atones, and makes propitiation for us once for all, then you don’t trust Jesus as Savior. If you do not believe Jesus truly did it all to save us, and faith in Him and His Finished work at the cross and tomb, then He isn’t your Savior; he simply is forerunner of merit, and you are eternally screwed. But thanks be to God that is not the truth! Jesus Did accomplish all that was necessary to save us, reconcile us, and restore us to all righteousness at the cross. The problem is usurpers lie the Roman Catholic Church have spied our freedom, “Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery,” (Galatians 2:4) and seek to seduce people away from pure and simple devotion to Christ, “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3). In essence, the Roman Clergy are Sons of Hell, of Satan, trying to convince you that you can lose grace unless you turn on grace itself and believe its not forever, “You have been severed from Christ, if you seek to be justified [that is, declared free of the guilt of sin and its penalty, and placed in right standing with God] through the Law; you have fallen from grace [for you have lost your grasp on God’s unmerited favor and blessing].” (Galatians 5:4). The only way to lose Grace is to believe you can lose it.. ironic huh! Because God’s Grace is forever, Jesus’ Grace never ends, once you believe and confess Him as Lord and Son of God (Romans 10:9-10, 1 John 4:15) you have His Grace always! Because you are saved by that Grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) because the Grace is that Jesus took your place, showed you favor by dying in your stead (place) and taking on all your sins as the Lamb of God.
I beg you to throw out all Roman contagion. All books, all Roman Catholic Bibles, teachings, and etc. They are teeth of Satan to snatch your soul away from True Grace, that is the True Faith that Jesus Alone saves you, and you can do nothing to save yourself, only Jesus is Savior. It is tempting to enjoy the scholars of Roman, but they are little satans, seeking to ensnare you with their rhetoric and eloquence, and yet Paul said, “I did not come with eloquence, but preached Christ and Him Crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1:). The devil is ever trying to snatch the true gospel from our hearts, to convince us Jesus did not do enough at calvary, and that we somehow can merit some steps on the ladder to heaven; no! Jesus alone built the stairs to heaven through Himself and what He did on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday! Jesus Alone saves us by Grace through Faith in Him Alone. There is no works we can do, we rather trust in Christ’s finished work at the cross and that He promises us eternal life by believing in Him (John 3:16-18). Amen.
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