When Are We Justified before God; or When Are We Not Justified before God?

2nd book of Samuel 12:7-10.13.

Then Nathan said to David: "You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.

Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.'

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan answered David: "The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.

Excerpts fr. the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke:

Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,

she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner." Jesus said to him in reply, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days' wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?" Simon said in reply, "The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven." He said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

Re: verses from the 1st Reading

"... Why have you spurned the LORD and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me ....."

Re: verses from the 2nd Reading, from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians

"..by works of the law no one will be justified.

a person is not justified by works of the law...

but through faith in Jesus Christ,.. we have believed that we may be justified by faith in Christ

For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ;

yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing."

RE: verses from the Gospel:

"... her many sins, (Mary Magdalen’s many sins), have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." This is as regards our story in the Gospel in reference to the Lord’s affirmation of the sinful woman in the story as well as HIS changed commendation of her for having become justified before God per her true sorrow for her sins.

Exactly

in what consists SIN? On the other hand, exactly when are we delivered from sin, when are we forgiven and become pleasing to God?

Let us answer the second part of the question first, before we answer the first part of the question. The answer to the first: we are delivered from sin and are pleasing to God when we have God within us. And since God is love, if we have love within us, then we have God. If we love others, we have God. On the other hand, this answers the second: if therefore we do not have God, we do not, and can not love others, and we only love ourselves, and so we are stuck at being under the power of sin.

Another way to look at this: not to have God within us is to be separate from God. And what separates us from God is PRIDE & LIES. Pride is when we have the illegitimate exaltation of self whereby we deny credit to God, and to others. LIES consist similarly in giving us credit that we do not have, and in denying all the credit that belong to God, and some credit that belong to others. ON THE OTHER HAND, to be delivered from sin, or forgiven by God is to give All Credit to God, while appreciating the little credit that belongs to us AND WHILE recognizing some credit that belongs to others.

What was the sin of David? He overreached beyond what belongs to him. He was already generously gifted by God; yet he denied Uriah the right to his own life, and also denied him/took away from Uriah the right to his wife. On the other hand, what was the justification of Mary Magdalen? She, (and David too – afterwards,) acknowledged her great need of forgiveness from God for her sins. She believes, if God forgives her, she will once again be clean, as she will have been delivered from her many sins.

Real sorrow for sins is not equivalent to mere loudest emotional expression of guilt. Not even if accompanied by extreme physical mortification or punishment. Real Act of Contrition is rather equivalent to a total turn around of self away from natural human selfishness into the supernatural abandonment to the will of God about our life: both life ways and orientation as well as more importantly the conversion of the fleshly oriented behaving into the spirit oriented/God oriented behaving, ie no less than being born again from the life of the flesh to the life of grace in Christ.

Bottomline: unless I disclaim all self independence in relation to my God, I remain a sinner before God. Whatever good I do does nothing to make me "worthy before God", and does nothing at my having the new life in Christ.

And so I remain unable to love; I, rather, remain stuck to myself, I continue to unravel myself to be selfish, ie. I am prone to use others for the sake of myself. But upon my "getting crucified," ie. upon my disclaiming my desire to be independent (the – my not needing God); but rather confess my need for God, and absolute depending upon HIM, then at that moment, to quote St. Paul, "I live no longer myself, but Christ lives in me."