Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/7664

7664 Right attitude to the work of redemption....

August 3, 1960: Book 80

Jesus' crucifixion was the act of atonement for the sins of all humanity. He took all humanity's sins upon Himself when He walked the path to the cross, for He suffered unspeakably both physically and spiritually because the guilt of sin He wanted to atone for was too great. It was the original sin of the spiritual beings' apostasy from God which people would never have been able to atone for themselves, and it was the sin which all people commit in earthly life.... Yet He offered the sacrifice on the cross in love in order to redeem people. No human being is aware of the magnitude of this act of mercy, and no human being can appreciate during earthly life what unheard-of grace it means that he can turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of his great guilt. For only this forgiveness opens the gate to the kingdom of light for him, because a being burdened by guilt can never enter that kingdom, because it would have to remain in the kingdom of darkness forever if it did not have this forgiveness through Jesus Christ.... And no human being can measure the torment and pain the man Jesus suffered for sinful humanity, which was only ended by the most bitter death on the cross.... No human being can measure the suffering and humiliation He took upon Himself out of love for His fellow human beings, whom He knew to be in deepest spiritual need.... He wanted to remove this great adversity from people, He wanted to smooth the path to the father for them, who were His fallen brothers, He wanted to redeem their guilt of sin because this required God's 'justice', that atonement was made for this guilt of sin. But people have to acknowledge His act of salvation.... they must want Him to die for them too, they themselves must confess their guilt before Him and ask Him for forgiveness.... This is all that is required of them in order to then also be released from their sinfulness, in order to be entitled to the spiritual kingdom again, where there is freedom and light and bliss.... Acknowledging Jesus Christ, the divine redeemer, and taking the path to Him oneself.... is all that is required of people but which every person also has to do of his own free will in order to belong to the redeemed for whom He shed His blood.... The act of salvation has taken place for all people of the past, the present and the future.... But one's own free will is necessary for the human being himself to become free from his guilt of sin, otherwise the whole spiritual world would be redeemed abruptly and would also make a life on earth superfluous if there were only 'redeemed' souls after the death of the cross.... Free will is not eliminated for this redemption, and thus the human being himself must want Jesus to redeem him too through His death.... He has to want to belong to the redeemed and thus consciously ask Him for it. And all people should realize that they themselves must first have the right attitude towards Him, the divine redeemer.... they should believe in Him and unite with Him in thought, they should pray to Him that He may save them, that He may liberate them from sin and its consequences.... And therefore they must acknowledge Him. But then they will have a living faith and thus also the right attitude towards Him, and then they will also belong to those for whom His blood flowed on the cross. Without Him and His redemption, however, the human being will remain in darkness, he will remain in the kingdom which belongs to God's adversary, he will have no connection with God Who embodied Himself in Jesus, he will be outside of those for whom Jesus died on the cross. And then he cannot be saved from spiritual adversity either, then he will collapse under the burden of sin and be unable to rise again without help.... For only the divine redeemer Jesus Christ can free him from his guilt...._>Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers