My Catholic friends: Obsession with 'mortal sin' can doom you
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice" (CCC 1033). There are three ingredients in a mortal sin: 1. "grave matter," 2. "full knowledge," and 3. "deliberate consent." Cardinal Henry Edward Manning explained the seriousness of this Catholic doctrine: "One mortal sin strikes a soul dead, driving out from it the Holy Ghost."
But rather than trying to nail down specific instances of individual sins that are said to immediately drive the Holy Spirit out of your soul and instantly remove you from a "state of grace," the vast majority of Christian theologians over the centuries have followed St. Paul's approach and St. Peter's method of addressing the wicked intentions and consistently bad behavior of unconverted people.
Paul wrote, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction" (Galatians 6:7-8). Sowing to please your sinful nature refers to deliberate ongoing sinful behavior, and is thus far broader than a single "mortal sin."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Paul used various labels for unconverted people who continually live for sin: "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
Meanwhile, Christians try to avoid sinning. And thankfully, believers are not "under law," but "under grace" (Romans 6:14). You see, Jesus doesn't kick His followers to the curb when they commit an egregious sin, no more than parents kick their 12-year-old child out of their home when he or she does something appalling. An excellent example is when Peter, without premeditation, was overcome with fear and impulsively denied the Lord three times (see Luke 22:54-62).
Wicked intent and persistent sin are what display a lack of genuine repentance. A person cannot rightly claim to be a Christian while engaged in an illicit affair, or scheming to defraud others, or intentionally and repeatedly lying about someone. The adulterer, fraudster and slanderer are under law.
And while deliberate and persistent sin provides evidence of an unconverted soul, it is abusive to threaten people with eternity in Hell if they don't jump through every hoop the Catholic church imposes on its members. Such authoritarian coercion smacks of what was going on in Galatia, where some legalistic false teachers were promoting works righteousness by claiming that unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved from your sins.
Attempting to bind the consciences of conscientious Catholics on questionable matters is unbiblical and spiritually harmful. Pressuring people in this way is reminiscent of why Paul wrote Galatians: "Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:7). It is a perversion of the Gospel to make legalistic mandates on questionable issues a requirement for remaining "under grace."
What if a Christian chooses to skip church for no good reason? Karl Keating writes on catholic.com: "Yes, it is a mortal sin to miss Mass knowingly." While skipping a weekend worship service with your church family is detrimental to your spiritual health, doing so will not remove the Holy Spirit from a believer's soul, despite it being labeled a "mortal sin" by Catholic officials. This false claim is unbiblical and dangerous.
And why aren't Catholics free to eat meat on Friday during Lent? Pope Innocent III in the 13th century and Pope Alexander VII in the 17th century both asserted that to violate the law of abstinence on a required day is a mortal sin, whereas Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
Paul explained how Christians should view matters of conscience: "Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). The bottom line? Violating an official fiat on a questionable religious rule does not "unconvert" a Christian, regardless of what any church leader may decree.
Catholics who surrender their soul to ill-advised mortal sin mandates can quickly slip into a works righteousness approach to salvation. Going down this legalistic path is ultimately what leads some religious people to Hell. It would be far better to forsake Catholicism altogether than to go against your conscience and submit your soul to legalism and works righteousness.
The last thing any Christian church should do is make mandatory compliance of dubious decrees a requirement for remaining "under grace." Paul's Epistle to the Galatians exposes legalism and the peril it poses for those who become seduced by its reliance on the law (see Galatians 3:10-11) and its counterfeit "form of godliness" (2 Timothy 3:5).
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
