In another situation we see some people fooling themselves and saying:`Who is this one who forgives even the sins? Only God can forgive them.`
They didn’t know that the One to whom they spoke was God and the Word of God, the Creator of the Universe, the Maker, the One who came to save the lost one, to sacrifice Himself for the man!
`He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.`[1]
He came here to His creatures, to His creation, but they did not receive him. But to those who have received him He gave them the power to become children of God, sanctified and washed with His divine blood, worthy of the Kingdom of heaven and dwelling with Him in the heavenly Jerusalem.
There will live the children of God. And those who were pagans, blasphemers, debauchers, killers but who repented, all these will enter with Christ the Bridegroom in the heavenly Jerusalem. Only the unrepented and proud mind is that one which hurts the great mercy of God. There is no other sin which hurts the Kingdom of God than the lack of repentance. Humbleness means triumph. It is no defeat when we bow our heads, when we ask for forgiveness, when we surrender and renounce at our will.
[1] John 1, 11.
Excerpt from the book the Art of Salvation – archimandrite Ephrem Philotheos, Evanghelismos
