Can a Person Be Forgiven for Adultery?

[Michie]

Q. I broke my marriage vows. I had an affair. My wife found out and kicked me out. I've ruined my life. I've yet to confess it. My question is: How can a priest purport to forgive me, assuming he does, if my wife doesn’t? She never will. I'll never forgive myself. — C., Pennsylvania

A. If we as Christians can’t be forgiven, we are lost; we’re as empty and desperate as we sometimes feel. But “if we confess our sins, Christ is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9).

The Council of Trent infallibly teaches: “If anyone says that the man who has fallen after baptism cannot rise again through God’s grace, let him be anathema” (Denzinger 1579).

We can rise from spiritual death and put our lives back together.

Although it is true that you won’t be reconciled to your wife unless and until she forgives you, you can be reconciled to God. Your sins can be wiped out. You can be free from the spiritual bonds caused by your bad choices. Jesus forgives sins, all sins, unilaterally. He has the power. And he gives that power to men, to priests. Inasmuch as the priest is sacramentally conformed to Jesus through his ordination, he is able to act in Christ’s person.

Continued below.

Can a Person Be Forgiven for Adultery?

DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS: No matter what you’ve done, you can rise from spiritual death and put your life back together. Go to confession.

www.ncregister.com

 

[RileyG]

Yes. All those who are truly repentant can be forgiven.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

How did Jesus treat the woman caught in adultery?

He forgave her, as he forgives anyone who turns to him with a contrite heart.

 

[RileyG]

How did Jesus treat the woman caught in adultery?

He forgave her, as he forgives anyone who turns to him with a contrite heart.

Amen!

 

[Mercy Shown]

Q. I broke my marriage vows. I had an affair. My wife found out and kicked me out. I've ruined my life. I've yet to confess it. My question is: How can a priest purport to forgive me, assuming he does, if my wife doesn’t? She never will. I'll never forgive myself. — C., Pennsylvania

A. If we as Christians can’t be forgiven, we are lost; we’re as empty and desperate as we sometimes feel. But “if we confess our sins, Christ is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9).

The Council of Trent infallibly teaches: “If anyone says that the man who has fallen after baptism cannot rise again through God’s grace, let him be anathema” (Denzinger 1579).

We can rise from spiritual death and put our lives back together.

Although it is true that you won’t be reconciled to your wife unless and until she forgives you, you can be reconciled to God. Your sins can be wiped out. You can be free from the spiritual bonds caused by your bad choices. Jesus forgives sins, all sins, unilaterally. He has the power. And he gives that power to men, to priests. Inasmuch as the priest is sacramentally conformed to Jesus through his ordination, he is able to act in Christ’s person.

Continued below.

Can a Person Be Forgiven for Adultery?

DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS: No matter what you’ve done, you can rise from spiritual death and put your life back together. Go to confession.

www.ncregister.com

Christ is the one who forgives you. Here is what How Can a Priest Forgive Sin? says, " Only God can forgive sins. In Mark 2:1–12 we find what you are saying in the story of the healing of the paralytic. When Jesus saw the paralytic, he said to him, “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). The scribes gave the same objection that you raised—that is, that only God can forgive sins. They asked, “Who can forgive sins except God alone?” And they were right. But notice how Jesus changes this later in the story. He performs the miracle of healing precisely to show that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10). So what was once only in heaven is now on earth because Jesus has the authority to forgive."

Please take heart! Read the whole story of Bathsheba and King David, a man after God's own heart. He committed adultery then had the woman's husband killed to cover it up but in the end was forgiven.