Consequences
- Michael Haldas
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
“Scripture memorializes two types of events. On the one hand, the righteous exploits of God working through His saints (e.g., Ps 104) are held up as examples to be followed. On the other hand, there are the mistakes of the people of God and their consequences (e.g. Ps 105)…In various circumstances, every human is both the committer of sin and its victim. For this reason, even when God gives sinful humanity over to the consequences of their sin, they are measured and aimed at repentance and restoration (Rom. 11:32).” (Orthodox Study Bible, Joel 1:2-3, Fr. Stephen De Young)
“The consequences of sin may benefit us in the end if we do not whimper, like Cain, “My guilt is too great to be forgiven” (Gn 4:13). As Christians, we know that there is a better way of responding to our sins. The Prophet David teaches us that “a heart that is broken and humbled, God will not despise” (Ps 50:17 LXX or 51:17). The truth is that our response to sin is critical. By God’s grace the consequences of sin provoke our contrition, providing the breaking and humbling we need for healing. On the other hand, our denial of sin generates a downward spiral into hardened resistance, like Cain’s.” (Dynamis 3/23/2021)
“Sin and passion cause great harm to the soul, and even when he offers repentance, a man bears the consequences of his sin—just as a patient who has suffered from smallpox is left with scars on his body. It’s not enough to simply confess a sin; you have to make an effort to overcome the inclination to sin in your soul—just as a doctor removes a cancerous tumor and prescribes a course of chemotherapy to defeat the disease and prevent relapse. Of course, it’s not so easy to immediately give up a passion. But a repentant man shouldn’t be hypocritical and say, “I’ll repent, and then continue to sin.” A man should make every effort to start out on the path of correction, to no longer return to sin. Ask God for help in fighting your passions: “Help me, Lord, for I am weak.” A Christian should burn the bridges that lead back to a sinful life. Repentance in Greek is metanoia, which translates as “change.” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)
“At confession, sin is forgiven; but even so, a person still has to bear the consequences of his sin. The classic example is the repentant thief who was crucified on the cross beside Christ. He repented, and the Lord said to him, Today you will be with Me in Paradise. Nothing unclean can enter into Paradise, so we know that the Lord has already purified him and forgiven him his sins; nevertheless, he remained hanging on the cross! And if that weren’t enough, the Gospel tells us that the soldiers then broke his legs (John 19:32). A person all the same has to bear consequences for his sins, although certainly not to the degree he deserves to suffer.” (Archpriest Valerian Krechetov)
“Repentance is made up of a series of stages in a sense. The first stage is realization and remorse. We acknowledge our wrongdoing and regret it. The mind sinks into the heart. The next stage is the act of seeking forgiveness of the person or persons we have wronged, and participating in the sacrament of repentance and confessing our sins. The last stage, and perhaps the most important one in that it is often our point of failure that leaves our repentance incomplete, is to willingly accept the consequences of our actions. We can indeed be forgiven by God and others and still have consequences to our actions. To not have the spiritual maturity to accept them is to not be fully repentant.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
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