One More Thought on the Colombian Double Suicide-Assassination

I do not condone the open shame-peddling of the mainstream media.

It is greatly unfortunate that two Colombian priests, attempting to live holy lives in their own strength, ended up succumbing to great temptation, harming their bodies, damaging their lives, and ultimately choosing to end their lives rather than seek solace and receive the grace of God which imparts forgiveness through Christ and imputes no sin.

It is damaging to portray to the world the idea that living a life with utmost respect for Almighty God is an impossibility. In one's strength we can do nothing. However, we can depend up the Finished Work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit living within us to convict us of our righteousness before God, a transformation which takes us from glory to glory, from faith to faith.

The righteous by faith live, writes Habakkuk the Prophet ( Habakkuk 2:4). The Apostle Paul quoted this verse frequently in his epistles. Jesus demonstrated in the Sermon on the Mount that God's Law is an ultimate and impossible standard, one which man cannot keep in his own efforts.

We must stop demonizing religious who fail to live up to God's standards, for none of us can.

The New Covenant which God imparts to man by grace through faith, this is what we need to emphasize, especially in the wake of such tragic and unnecessary stories, like the planned demise of two priests who could not maintain their religious vows in their own strength.

This is the New Covenant:

"For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 8-12)

God wipes away our sins forever through the death of His Son Jesus Christ. Because we are then fully cleansed from within, the Holy Spirit can then reside in us, imparting within us the Holy Law of God, and internal peace which guides us to live holy without striving through our own efforts. This is the Good News that everyone needs to hear. No more enmity with God, no more trying to earn right standing before God, no more guilt and shame which must be expiated with confession and penance. Just faith and adherence to the Finished Work of God, respecting our new standing in Christ, as He is, so are we in this world!

I am grieved that these two priests did not receive the full revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as laid out in the New Testament.

I only pray that individuals will seek the Truth in the gospel, independent of the tenets of men who would press upon listeners to attempt to earn righteousness or at least feign it in their lives, as these two priests tried and failed to do.