No mercy for sin

For years and years I wandered this earth

Until I died and went to hell

But my despair had ascended to heaven

That's how I finally got rid of it

-- They Might Be Giants, "Hopeless Bleak Despair"

For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

-- Matthew 5:29, 30

For he said unto him that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.

-- Helaman 5:10

Then cried they all again, saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber.

-- John 18:40

Well I do believe in miracles

And I want to save my soul

And I know that I'm a sinner

I'm gonna die here in the cold . . .

You'll never make a saint of me

-- The Rolling Stones, "Saint of Me"

A man died and was brought before St. Peter at the pearly gates.

"Let me say in all sincerity that I would like very much to let you in," said St. Peter. "However, you lived a life full of sin, and your heart is full of sin even now. No unclean thing can enter Heaven but must be cast into the fire. That is the law, and there are no exceptions."

"I know it, I know it," said the man -- and, weeping and wailing and gnashing his teeth, he was cast down into hell.

A few days later, another man died and was brought before St. Peter at the pearly gates.

"Let me say in all sincerity that I would like very much to let you in," said St. Peter. "However, you lived a life full of sin, and your heart is full of sin even now. No unclean thing can enter Heaven but must be cast down into hell. That is the law, and there are no exceptions."

"Oh, thank God, thank God!" cried the man through tears of joy -- and his sin was cast into the fire, and he ascended, clean.

⁂

The flesh cannot be expected to be other than weak, but the spirit must be willing. That is why it is so important to the devils that people identify with sin -- embrace it as a central part of their identity -- and why there has been such a push for moral inversion -- for people to internalize the idea that evil is good and good, evil.