Sin and Salvation

Sin is, ultimately, sin against God; a seeking of spiritual and moral autonomy which is founded in unbelief and rebellion. In sin we seek to do our own will rather than the will of God.

In committing sin we ‘miss the mark’, we fall short of the standard which is required of us by God and which is fitting to the proper dignity of human nature.

By sin we create disharmony in our relationship with others and with all creation, we cloud the divine image within us, and we cut ourselves off from friendship with God.

Salvation is the act of God which breaks the bondage of sin.

We cannot save ourselves: salvation is dependent on the grace of God, and is realised through Jesus Christ, whose birth and atoning death took place for the sake of sinners.

‘...... God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the ‘plan of his loving kindness’, conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: ’He destined us in love to be his sons’ and ‘to be conformed to the image of his Son’, through ‘the spirit of sonship’. This plan is a ‘grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began’, stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.

                                                        Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Divine Works and the Trinitarian Missions