4) Sin is such a great and terrible evil that no one could destroy it, except the Only-begotten Son of God. The almighty Son of God had to come and take him away by His suffering and death. For this reason the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). God's law is unchangeable, as stated above, so man had to either fulfill it in its entirety, or he who transgressed and sinned had to endure eternal punishment; for this is what God's righteousness demands of man. But since all were signified by the word of God to be transgressors of the law, all were therefore subject to eternal condemnation; And no one could free himself from this on his own.

For this purpose the Son of God came, and atoned for sin by His suffering and death, and by His sacrifice on the tree of the cross He cleansed it; consequently, the punishment, as a consequence of sin, He took away from those who believe in Him. For there is no sin without punishment; and when the sin is taken away, then the punishment will not follow, since the punishment is only for sin. Therefore, when the faithful pray and ask for the remission of sins, they ask him in the name of Christ, Who alone forgives and takes away sin. Without Him, there is no remission and no taking away of sin. For He is the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Do not think, man, that sin is something small. If the Lamb of God does not take sin from you, then all the endless eternity you will pay for it in hell, the righteousness of God; He will take only from those who cease to sin, repent and believe in Him. And if you consider sin to be a small thing, then you will not escape its sorrow; for this is a sign that you do not have true repentance. For he who truly repents knows his severity and sorrow, and therefore guards himself from it as from deadly poison.

5) It is frightening for pagans who do not know God and His holy law to sin, but it is more terrible for Christians who confess God and are enlightened by the light of His word. For the pagans have one conscience, but Christians are convicted of sin by conscience and by the law of God. The pagans do not know God, nor do they see His will, which is declared in the law. Christians hear every day the preached will of God and the punishment that follows the transgressors of the law of God, who, knowing the will of God, do not fulfill it.

The pagans do not know God, and they do not give any promises to Him. Christians, on the other hand, when they enter Christianity, promise to serve God, to do His will, and deny Satan and his works; but when they turn to sins, they forget and trample on all this, and betray God, and become deceitful. And so it happens to them according to the true proverb: The dog returns to his vomit, and the washed pig goes to wallow in the mud (2 Peter 2:22). Sin for Christians is nothing but apostasy, betrayal, which is betrayed not to man, but to God.

Reason, Christian, that there is a sin in which you delight. Though you confess the name of God, you deny Him by deed, when you transgress His commandment. As many times as you sin, for example, you kill, commit fornication, steal, steal, slander, blaspheme, slander, and so on, so many times do you obey the devil's advice and God's commandment, and reject His commandment; the more times you obey the enemy of the devil and do not obey God, so many times you depart from Him and approach the devil. Truly it is so, although you do not notice it.

6) Sin separates man from God, as the prophet says: "Your sins have made a division between you and God" (Isaiah 59:2). And the more a person sins, the more he moves away from God; the more it moves away, the more it is darkened. God is light (1 John 1:5). Therefore, whoever departs from Him the farther he goes, the greater the darkness he enters and the more his mind becomes blind. How does it happen that such a person often does not consider as a sin that which is a great sin, and rejoices over what he should weep about? For example, to take revenge on one's neighbor, to repay evil for evil, to insult, to deceive, to deceive, to deceive, and to wound a person with a word, like an arrow, many consider it a consolation for themselves that there is great madness and extreme darkness of the mind. Therefore, such a person in all his actions, deeds and undertakings walks like a blind man or as in darkness, and does not see the pit of perdition into which he can fall. Of such it is said: "They have not known, they have not understood, they walk in darkness" (Psalm 81:5); – And again: We touch the wall like blind men, and as without eyes, we grope about it; we stumble at noon, as in twilight (Isaiah 59:10). Sin leads to this calamity.

7) The Lord says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34). He who commits fornication is a slave of fornication; he who is drunk and overeaten is a slave of the belly, his god is the belly (Phil. 3:19). He who loves silver and gold is a slave of wealth, serving mammon (Matt. 6:24). Think the same about other passions. For whoever is overcome by someone is his servant (2 Peter 2:19). What hard and abominable work it is! More grievous and vile than to serve man, for it is better for every man, and for the tormentor himself, as a creature of God, to serve than to serve sin and sin to the devil. Oh, if only the poor sinner could see this work! He would admit that he is poorer than captives, convicts, imprisoned, chained, and other poor and bodily suffering people. But he is all the more poor because he does not understand his poverty. For passion blinds the rational eye.

8) The Apostle says: Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first; and he calls sinners the children of the devil (1 John 3:8, 10). And the Lord said to the wicked Jews, "Your father is the devil; and you want to fulfill the lusts of your father (John 8:44). It is very miserable and frightening to be the son of the devil. But sin, the evil and devilish seed, leads man to such a terrible calamity. For the sinner who commits sin and does not want to repent, depicts that prince of darkness, as the son of his father, by his morals, and by his very deeds shows that he is of that filthy father, for his evil seed produces evil fruits, that is, sins. By the fruit the seed is known, and as the seed is, so is its fruit. The devil resists and does not submit to God – and the unrepentant sinner remains in the same disobedience. Take heed to this, everyone, and consider whose son you are, even though you bear the name of Christ upon you. True and true is the Apostle's word: Whoever commits sin is of the devil. Every tree is known by its fruit, says the Lord (Luke 6:44).

9) Sin, since, as it is said, separates from God, Who alone has life, or moreover, He Himself is the Source of life, deprives the separated soul of life and thus mortifies it. Such a person is both alive and dead: alive in body, and dead in soul. Thus our forefathers in Paradise, on the day in which they ate of the forbidden tree and sinned, died, according to the word of the Lord: "In the day that ye eat of it, ye shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Thus it is said of the prodigal son, who was separated from his father, but was converted again through repentance: "My son was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:24, 32).

It is not about bodily death that is spoken of here, because even in the separation from his father he was alive in body, as the circumstances of the parable show, but of spiritual death, from which he came to life, when he returned from error to his father through repentance. For this parable depicts a sinner who has been separated from God his Father, but through true repentance again turns to Him, who is dead in soul as long as he is separated from God. For he who has been separated from life must be dead. As he who has withdrawn from the light must be in darkness, so he who has withdrawn from life must be in the shadow of death. For where there is no light, there is certainly darkness; and where there is no life, there is certainly death. God is the living and life-giving light; therefore, in darkness and death dwells the one who is separated from Him. To such a dead man the word of God says: "Rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Ephesians 5:14).

10) An irritated conscience torments a person with sin, and this torment is so severe that it often leads to despair, as happened to Cain the fratricide (Gen. 4) and Judas, the betrayer of the Lord (Matt. 27:5). As long as sin is committed, its evil is not known; but when the conscience awakens after the Fall, then the sinner will know how bitter sin is. As a drunken man, as long as he drinks and is drunk, does not feel his own harm; and when he oversleeps, then he will feel how harmful drunkenness is, so the sinner, as long as he remains in sinful drunkenness, does not feel sinful harm; but when he wakes up from that drunkenness, then he will know what a great, grievous and painful evil sin is.

Then his conscience will awaken and torment him more than any tormentor, and, like a worm gnaws at a tree, gnaws and devours his soul inside; then sorrow, fear, and terror of God's wrath and judgment, hell and eternal torment arise in him; then thoughts, like waves, strike the poor soul: "There is no salvation for thee in thy God" (Psalm 3:3). Wherever the sinner is, everywhere this tormentor is always with him, everywhere torments and devours him; disturbs during the day, disturbs and takes away sleep at night; he falls asleep a little, and then he frightens him; when he wakes up from his sleep, his evil conscience will awaken. With this misfortune the day begins and spends, the night begins and spends, and so it can never be freed from that calamity, because it always has this evil within itself.

Oh, evil, painful evil – evil conscience! Oh, the grave evil is the sin that troubles our conscience so much! It is better to have a wounded body than a conscience wounded by sins. It is better to endure the beating of the body than the beating of conscience. It is better to accept all sorts of external troubles than to have this one trouble internally. If in this age, where we do not see every sin in the conscience – for who can understand the fall of sin (Psalm 18:38) – so grievously does the conscience torment for sin; how heavy and unbearable will this torment be in the future, where all sins will be revealed and exposed, and the poor soul will feel all the wrath of God upon itself, and in endless despair, without God's mercy, it will forever remain endless!