
…God’s divine justice, as Dante portrays it, is perfectly executed through contrapasso, the precise fitting of the sin to the punishment. This punishment is visited upon the sinner in a natural way. We often think that our vices free us to enjoy life, but they actually slowly destroy us. In other words, our sin contains the seeds of our destruction.
And, I might add, our sin also tends to destroy–or at least harm–others. How true it is that temptation deceives by offering freedom only to deliver us into slavery. That truth is laid bare when it comes to sexual sin. Only Christ can break the power of reigning sin. “…And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32 ESV). Ultimately Jesus is talking about Himself in John 8. But part of bringing to bear the truth surely includes recognizing and rejecting the allure of false freedom in favor of the freedom that is true–the freedom found in Jesus Christ.
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