Where sin is, grace abounds all the more

This is sin: the state of self-division, self-contradiction, unless it is dealt with or healed or repaired in some way, will destroy us, rip us apart. Because sin is such a painful state of division to be in, we invoke the law to try to deal with it. And the law cannot get to the root of the problem. It can deal with the symptoms maybe, can give you the self-righteousness of fulfilling the law, which becomes a kind of a substitute for real goodness, but it doesn’t take away the fundamental wound of self-division. Where did it come from? Why are we in it? We don’t know, but it’s there. And then St Paul second great insight is that where sin is, grace abounds all the more. And this is a huge breakthrough: where sin is, there is grace in abundance.

Grace at Work by Laurence Freeman OSB