Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3278

3278 Guilt of sin.... God's mercy.... atonement....

October 4, 1944: Book 43

A heaped measure of sins weighed upon humanity when Jesus Christ descended to earth to redeem it.... This is only comprehensible to those who know the reason for earthly life as a human being and the meaning and purpose of creation, for they know that the human being has travelled the path through creation for the sake of sin and should now free himself from it in the last stage in order to finally return to God again, from Whom he originally originated. But sin ties man down on earth, sin blocks his path to God, it makes the gulf between man and God unbridgeable, and thus sin destroys the purpose of earthly life, it pushes man back into the deepest depth from which he had already risen through his walk through creation. Before Christ's descent humanity was full of sin because it no longer recognized God, it was in dark spiritual night, it was devoid of all love and without any striving for perfection, it was far removed from God and therefore in greatest danger of sinking into the abyss, i.e., of taking the path which leads downwards, into eternal damnation, without knowledge and without love. This distance from God manifested itself in a way of life which completely contradicted the divine commandments, it was a way of life which contradicted the divine order, it was a life of obvious self-love, and such a life was full of sin and completely against God's will. And such a life could never ever result in people's liberation and a blissful life after death but spiritual death was the consequence, a state of extreme torment in the beyond which would never end because God's justice had to demand atonement for every sin and people's guilt of sin had already increased immeasurably so that it was hopeless for the beings to ever come close to God. For the being, however, distance from God means powerlessness, impotence, darkness and finally a hardening of its substance.... it means spiritual death for the being, a state that is far worse than non-being.... being extinguished.... But a passing away of the beingness is impossible, so also the torments of these beings are unbearable beyond all conceptions and never-ending.... And the eternal deity took pity on this and came to the aid of sinful humanity in that eternal love embodied itself in a human being Who, in His all-encompassing love, now took upon Himself the sins of humanity, Who thus released people from them by repenting for the guilt of sin by offering a sacrifice to God as atonement.... Who gave Himself, i.e. His life, in order to restore freedom to those, in order to make the kingdom of God accessible to them, which could only be entered in complete purity, without sin.... Thus He redeemed humanity from the guilt of sin, He took all guilt upon Himself, He suffered unspeakably and sacrificed His suffering and death on the cross to the eternal deity in order to give it satisfaction, in order to create a just compensation for people so that they could approach God again. And God accepted the sacrifice of the man Jesus.... He forgave people's guilt of sin for the sake of Jesus Christ, and the gates of the kingdom of heaven opened to all who accepted His gift of grace.... He redeemed humanity from sin and their guilt.... He offered them the last opportunity to achieve their earthly life purpose....

(4.10.1944) His greater than great love sought to remove all obstacles from people's path which blocked their access to the eternal home; but the greatest obstacle was sin, for it robbed the human being of his strength and will. This was the consequence of sin, that people lay on the ground without strength and will and were unable to rise of their own accord because the burden of sin pressed them down. And that is why Jesus Christ took this burden from them, He placed it on Himself and carried it to the cross in order to atone for people's guilt of sin through His death. Humanity, which had become free through Jesus Christ, could now accept His sacrifice, but also spurn it.... The act of salvation has been accomplished for all people, yet God will never force the blessings of the act of salvation upon them against their will. But they will lose them if they have no desire to be redeemed.... Then sin will still weigh heavily on these people, and then they will inevitably be drawn into the abyss, for then they will reject God's love, and then they will still have to languish for eternities in their ignorance, their guilt of sin cannot be diminished, indeed, they will still accumulate many earthly sins on top of this guilt of sin, which God can only forgive them when they accept His gift of grace, thus when they can believe with conviction that God's infinite love had mercy on their sins and sent them a redeemer. Faith in this will cause people to repent of their guilt of sin, to appeal to Him for forgiveness and to hand themselves over to His grace and mercy, and thus the graces of the act of salvation will take effect in him. He will increase in strength of will and power and now be able to free himself from the power of God's adversary. And only the person will be able to speak of forgiveness of sin who consciously takes refuge under Christ's cross, confesses his guilt to Him and appeals to Him for mercy.... His prayer will be heard, his guilt will be forgiven....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers