T. 19. II. 8. & III. 1 – 4. Jesus: “Perhaps you would be tempted to agree with the ego, that it is far better to be sinful than just mistaken. Yet think you carefully before you allow yourself to make this choice. Approach it not lightly, for it is the choice of hell or Heaven to you!
The ego’s subconscious attraction to guilt is found in ‘sin,’ not what you merely see in yourself as error. Thoughts of sin will be repeated because of this attraction, although fear can become so acute that the sin may be denied its acting out. But while guilt still remains attractive, the mind will yet suffer, and not let go of the idea of sin altogether. For any remaining guilt still calls on sin, and the guilty mind hears it and yearns for it, making itself a willing captive to its sick appeal!
Sin is the idea of something ‘so evil’ that it cannot be corrected, and an idea that will be forever desirable to the unhealed mind. As an essential part of what the ego makes you think you are, your mind will always be attracted to sin! And seemingly, only an ‘unseen avenger,’ with a mind unlike your own, could stamp it out by overwhelming it with fear!
The ego does not think it possible that love, not fear, is really called upon by the perception of sin, and always answers you if you so choose. For the ego brings sin to fear and the threat of punishment. Yet punishment is but another form of guilt’s protection, for what is ‘deserving punishment’ must, of course, have been ‘really done!’ Punishment, then, is always the great preserver of sin, treating it with respect and honoring its enormity. What must be punished, after all, must be true! And what is true must be eternal, and will be repeated endlessly. For what you think is real, you have decided that you want, and so you will not let it go! A sin can be repeated over and over, with obviously distressing results, but without the loss of sin’s appeal.
An error, on the other hand, is not attractive to hang onto. What you see clearly as a mistake you merely want corrected! Suppose that suddenly, you change the status of a perception from a sin to a mistake! Now you will not repeat the sin; you will merely stop and let it go, unless some guilt remains. For if guilt remains, you will but change the ‘form of sin,’ granting that this time it was an error, but keeping the idea of sin in your mind, uncorrectable. This would not really be a change in the level of your perception, for it is sin, not error, that calls for punishment.
The Holy Spirit cannot punish sin because He does not see it! Mistakes He recognizes, and would correct them all, as God entrusted Him to do. But sin He knows not, nor can He recognize any mistake that cannot be corrected. For a ‘mistake that cannot be corrected’ is meaningless to Him.
Mistakes are for correction, and they call for nothing else. What calls for punishment must call for nothing. Every mistake perceived must be a call for love.
What, then, is sin? What could it be but a mistake you would keep hidden from the Holy Spirit; a call for help that you would keep unheard and thus unanswered?”