Lent & the Catholic Mass

Hi John:

So good to hear from you. Wondered how you were getting along. Concerning Your question about the practice of Lent in the Catholic faith: Lent is part of the teaching of Catholicism, not taught in the Bible. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith alone, not by any works of ours. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Paul put it again in Romans 3:28 "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." And again in Romans 10:4 "For Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." And again in Galatians 2:16 "Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

The Bible teaches that we cannot be saved through our works. This is because, while we are responsible for our actions and sin, man’s problem is not what he does or does not do, but his dead human spirit. The Bible makes plain that anything we do that is not motivated by God first by His Holy Spirit through our human spirit is sin. Isaiah 30:1 states "‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah, ‘who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin.’" Paul wrote also in Romans 14:23 "But He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin." We are walking in faith when what we do or do not do is the result of God’s initiative by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit. Anything which originates from our soul first is the Bible’s definition of sin.

This was Adam and Eve’s sin. We think their eating of the forbidden fruit was their sin. Their sin was that they acted out of the reasoning of their thoughts, their soul, and made the decision to eat the fruit, instead of going to God and getting His Holy Spirit evaluation about what the serpent had said to them. When they did that their human spirit died. When that happened they were no longer able to receive from God because that is the function of the human spirit: to have a relationship with God and be able to receive and communicate with God. When Adam and Eve sinned, while their human spirit did not cease to exist, its function ceased to exist. The end result was they found themselves left with only their soul: their intellect and feelings; and their flesh (their body): their appetites and desires to lead and guide them.

This was the significance of Jesus then walking into the garden looking for them. He had to talk to them this way because He was no longer able to communicate with them through their human spirit which now no longer functioned.

Jude 19 "These are the ones who cause divisions, motivated-and-controlled-through-their-soul, devoid of Spirit."

John 4:23-24 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God."

Because you and I were in Adams loins, therefore, after the fall of Adam and Eve, all their offspring were then born into this world soulishly and physically alive but spiritually dead. This means all men are born into this world without the ability to communicate with or have a relationship with God. This is what we mean by all men being born with original sin, that is they are born with the consequences of that sin: a living soul and flesh but a dead human spirit. Paul wrote in Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." Sin is making choices with our soul God did not initiate first by His Holy Spirit. That is the Bible’s definition of sin.

Since man does not have a living human spirit and cannot receive anything from God, and only what is initiated by God by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit is acceptable to God, therefore everything man does whether good or bad in man’s eyes is still sin in God’s eyes. It is sin because it came from the reasoning of his soul, not by the Holy Spirit through his human spirit which he does not have. This is what we mean by all men being in total depravity. This is also what God means when he says in Isaiah 64:6 that "All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." They are a filthy garment because whether good or bad man’s actions are his idea, not God’s Holy Spirit’s idea. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 2:14 he said "But a man who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-soul does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned through the spirit."

This is why when Nicodemus came to Jesus in the Gospel of John Chapter 3, Jesus did not tell Nicodemus "Hey! Nicodemus, if you just focus on obeying the law perfectly, following the Torah more diligently, you might make it to haven." Jesus knew that man’s problem was not what he did or did not do, He understood that man’s primary problem was his dead human spirit. Jesus said, therefore, to Nicodemus in John 3:3 "Truly, truly, I say to You, unless one receives-birth from-above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’" Nicodemus thought Jesus wanted him to enter the womb of His mother and be born twice physically into the world (John 3:4). Jesus then said in response in John 3:5-6 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one receives birth of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which receives-birth from the flesh is flesh, and that which receives-birth from the Spirit is spirit." Often times when I quote this passage some misguided Christians will say "See! You are saved by water baptism!!!" Is that what Jesus said? Jesus explains what He means by water, He said "That which is born of the flesh is flesh. . ." What Jesus was telling Nicodemus was that if He was born again by man’s seed through a woman, he would still only be soulishly and physically alive and still spiritually dead, without capacity to have a relationship with God and be able to communicate with God. This is also why reincarnation will never lead to a person’s salvation. Why? because even if reborn 2 million times, that person will still be only soulishly and physically alive and still spiritually dead, without the ability to receive or have a relationship with God.

Jesus said to Nicodemus that because this is true, being born again physically into this world would not solve man’s problem, it would not bring his dead human spirit back to life. He told Nicodemus that the only thing which would bring His human spirit back to life was for him to be bornagain by the Holy Spirit from above: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

This is also why works cannot save us. Since only what is initiated by God by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit is acceptable to God, anything man does comes from His human soul and is not acceptable to God. Also Jesus said in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing." Only the Holy Spirit can create life. There is no life in the human soul to create anything. There is no work of the soul which can bring man’s human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God

What then is the solution? Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." When we receive Jesus into our heart as Savior and Lord, when we believe on the Gospel, God automatically forgives us for all our sins past, present and future and brings our human spirit back to life and back into relationship with Him. God then also automatically gives us His Holy Spirit and unites it with our human spirit and brings our human spirit back to life. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:13-14,

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory."

And in 1 Corinthians 6:17 "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him."

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

This is how we are saved and brought back into relationship with God.

Titus 3:5-7 "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy-Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus-Christ-our-Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

This is why works cannot save us and why if we were to be saved God Himself would have to take on a human nature in the person of Jesus Christ and save us Himself.

Romans 5:8-9 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."

This then brings us to the problem of the concept of Lent. Lent is man trying to save himself through His own works. Man cannot save Himself and no work of man can bring his dead human spirit back to life and back into relationship with God. Only the word of Jesus Christ can do that, and that work of salvation for us can only be received by faith and through faith alone. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:16 "Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

Sorry for the long explanation, but you can only really understand what is wrong with the concept of Lent by my explaining it this way. The Bible teaches that salvation is God’s free gift of grace received through the vehicle of faith. Catholicism, which teaches Lent, teaches that Jesus died for our sins so that we can now work our way to heaven. Again Paul wrote in Romans 3:28 "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." That simply means that when we believe on the Gospel, God saves us. He then gives us His Holy Spirit as proof. The Holy Spirit is our engagement ring and proof that we are saved and engaged to the Lamb of God and will be married to Him for eternity in Heaven. The writer of Hebrews states that when a person believes on the Gospel with saving faith;

Hebrews 10:10 "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb 10:10)

"But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God." (Heb 10:12)

"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." (Heb 10:14)

By one sacrifice we are perfected, saved and forgiven for all time. Jesus’ work of salvation for us is a completed work and there is nothing we can do to add to it. This also shows that why the concept of resacrificing Jesus in the mass is also not Biblical and is again another work of man to appease God for his sins that were completely appeased the first time Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sins. All we can do now is receive it by faith and thank God for saving us Himself through His work of salvation for us through the one time death and shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Well, what do we as Christians do when we do sin? When we become aware of an act of sin in our lives, it is important that we immediately confess it to God. The moment we do that, God’s forgiveness is an automatic fact according to 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The moment we confess our sins God’s forgiveness is an automatic fact (snapping fingers). No Lent needed to get God’s forgiveness. You are already forgiven through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:8-9), you cannot be any more forgiven then you already are. When we try to gain God’s forgiveness for our sins through works we slap God in the face and say "Your Son’s sacrifice on the cross was not enough, I must add to it before you will forgive me." It denies what God clearly tells us in His word, that we are saved when we believe on God’s work of salvation for us, not our own. That is why the Nation of Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Why? Because they were relying on their works for salvation through obedience to the Law of Moses. Paul wrote in Romans 10:3 "For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." They could not receive by faith God’s work of righteousness for them through Jesus Christ’s death and shed blood on the cross because that would mean all their works for salvation would be of no benefit to them. Their human ego’s and pride couldn’t stand for that. So they rejected God’s only means of salvation for them and chose instead to trust in the works of their flesh, of their soul for their salvation which unfortunately cannot save anyone. As a result rather than it saving them, it only added to the sins they already had, because any work of the flesh for salvation is sin. Any work of the flesh not initiated by the Holy Spirit first is sin period. Isaiah 30:1 "‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah, ‘who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin.’"

However, for the person who puts his trust in Jesus Christ’s death and shed blood for the forgiveness of their sins is accepted by God, saved and will go to heaven because this is God’s work of salvation for us by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:30 "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption."

Jesus is not only our redemption, but he is also our righteousness and our sanctification. Jesus is our everything. That is why when we come to God the Father by faith through Jesus Christ God the Father accepts us, saves us and treats us as if we are as holy and as righteous as His Son. That is because when God sees us through the filter of Jesus’ blood, we are!!!

Since we are saved through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ and that alone and cannot be anymore saved or accepted by God than we already are, Lent nor any other invented work of man will make us anymore accepted. We are already completely and totally saved and accepted, we cannot be anymore saved and accepted than we already are. Get used to it, LOL. I hope this has satisfactorily answered your question about Lent and any other work of man he is attempting to add to God’s already completed work in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The work is finished! This is why Jesus now sits at the right hand of God. The work being complete, He now sits in rest waiting for man to receive that completed work by faith so that He can enjoy heaven with Him forever also.

Sincerely in Jesus,

Dale P. Kruse
Pastor Evangelist