Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5106

5106 Self-redemption.... only with Jesus Christ....

April 18, 1951: Book 57

No-one will be able to redeem himself by his own efforts, and yet it depends solely on his will whether earthly life brings a person complete redemption from the bound state which was the result of his past apostasy from God. Redemption therefore means liberation from the power of satan, who separated the spiritual beings from God, who let them become sinful and unhappy. It was impossible for the once fallen spiritual beings to achieve this redemption on their own until Jesus Christ descended to earth to accomplish this work as a human being. He stood up as an adversary against satan and defeated him, i.e. His will was so strong that He resisted him, that He developed love as God's part in Himself to such an extent that God's adversary became powerless, because love is strength from God.

Every person is able to kindle this love, thus every person could also redeem himself if he wanted to.... But precisely this will is weakened by the past sin, the human being is inferior to God's adversary and his own strength is not enough to liberate himself from him, because the will to love is too small as an inheritance from the one who is devoid of all love. But through Jesus Christ the human being has been enabled to increase his will to love as soon as he avails himself of the grace of the act of salvation, as soon as he has Him as His support, Who died for him on the cross and paid the purchase price for all souls to God's adversary with His blood.... The latter can now no longer keep him bound if the human being wants to free himself. Thus the redemption of the human being on earth is certainly a work of free will which, however, only becomes active in the right direction when Jesus Christ is called upon for help as the redeemer of humanity. Then the human being redeems himself, which he cannot do without Jesus Christ, since satan still has him in his power, whose power was only broken by Jesus, thus the human being has to stand behind Him in order to get out of satan’s power. Self-redemption without Jesus Christ is impossible, but with Him it can very well be achieved, but the human being first has to muster the will to set himself free, otherwise even the divine redeemer cannot accomplish the work of redemption in him, even though He died for all people on the cross. Yet no human being is prevented from making use of the blessings acquired by Him, which is why the whole of humanity also participates in Christ's act of salvation, but this does not mean that people will be redeemed against their will....

(18. 4.1951) They can freely give themselves to Jesus Christ but also remain faithful to satan, who to a certain extent participated in the creation of the spiritual world because he drew the strength for it from God but used the strength according to his will and thus also placed willful resistance against God into the beings, from which Jesus Christ wants to redeem them through His greater than great love.... The act of salvation is accomplished for all, yet no being is forcibly redeemed but it must be of its own will to be redeemed through Jesus Christ's blood.... otherwise the act of salvation has been accomplished in vain for this being, because it still recognizes its lord in satan and has no desire to escape his power....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers