Does the Practice of Indulgences Forgive Sins? Rome's Compromise of the Cross of Jesus

The papal encyclical Indulgentiarum Doctrina by Pope Paul VI states that indulgences expiates sin,

2. It is a divinely revealed truth that sins bring punishments inflicted by God's sanctity and justice. These must be expiated either on this earth through the sorrows, miseries and calamities of this life and above all through death,³ or else in the life beyond through fire and torments or "purifying" punishments.⁴ Therefore it has always been the conviction of the faithful that the paths of evil are fraught with many stumbling blocks and bring adversities, bitterness and harm to those who follow them.⁵

The more they have been immersed in the fervor of charity, the more they have imitated Christ in His sufferings, carrying their crosses in expiation for their own sins and those of others, certain that they could help their brothers to obtain salvation from God the Father of mercies.¹⁷ This is the very ancient dogma of the Communion of the Saints,¹⁸ whereby the life of each individual son of God in Christ and through Christ is joined by a wonderful link to the life of all his other Christian brothers in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ till, as it were, a single mystical person is formed.1

Thus is explained the "treasury of the Church"²⁰ which should certainly not be imagined as the sum total of material goods accumulated in the course of the centuries, but the infinite and inexhaustible value the expiation and the merits of Christ Our Lord have before God, offered as they were so that all of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. It is Christ the Redeemer Himself in whom the satisfactions and merits of His redemption exist and find their force.²¹ This treasury also includes the truly immense, unfathomable and ever pristine value before God of the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, who following in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by His grace have sanctified their lives and fulfilled the mission entrusted to them by the Father. Thus while attaining their own salvation, they have also cooperated in the salvation of their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.

The use of indulgences, which spread gradually, became a very evident fact in the history of the Church when the Roman Pontiffs decreed that certain works useful to the common good of the Church "could replace all penitential practices"³⁴ and that the faithful who were "truly repentant and had confessed their sins" and performed such works were granted "by the mercy of Almighty God and . . . trusting in the merits and the authority of His Apostles" and 'by virtue of the fullness of the apostolic power', not only full and abundant forgiveness, but the most complete forgiveness for their sins possible."³⁵

The bottom line question is: who alone can expiate sin?  It is Christ alone who atones, forgives, and expiates the sins of God's people.  Sins are not truly expiated through Rome's practice of indulgences.  It is a compromise of the expiation of the crucified Savior!

Hebrews 2:17 KJV Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

Indulgences do not forgive sin as Rome teaches.  Rather only the Cross of Jesus Christ can pardon sin.  He alone made reconciliation and atonement and expiation for God's people!  If you want to stand in matchless robes of divine righteousness, look to Christ alone as the sole covering of a sinner!  A mixture of "righteousness" of the Virgin Mary, the saints and Jesus will not stand before a holy God.  You need the wholly untainted and divine and exclusive righteousness of the matchless Lamb of God alone.