Hi I am very new to Catholicism (In the process of joining the Church) Is it fair to say that Christ’s blood shed on the cross atones for our sins? And we accept that atonement by our faith in him and by being obedient in Baptism in the name of the Trinity, Do I have my ducks in a row?
That’s pretty good, friend.
You will find, as you immerse yourself in The Faith, that contemporary thought on atonement theology is not “kinetic.” Few Catholics think about it, and fewer can answer the question, “What does it mean to say that Christ ‘died for our sins’?”
This is my personal take on this important issue…
Almighty, all sovereign, all just God just happens to be an eternal God Who is overflowing with altruistic love.
Why this should be can not be readily apprehended. It just is.
In His love, He willed to create beings – us – in order to enter into a love relarionship with Him, one in which we would love Him, and He would love us.
But, to be lovable and capable of love we have to be “in His image and likeness” – we have to have an apprehending intellect and a free will, otherwise God may as well enter into a love relationship with rocks.
But this generated a kind of problem, as follows.
God, being all sovereign, is always disabled by His sovereignty from creating equals to Himself.
Creating equals to Himself, in other words, is “against God-ness,” so to speak, like creating a “square circle” or a thing which violates the Principle of Negation.
Beings who are less than are “contingent.” They are innately insecure. Beings with an intellect which apprehends that insecurity, and a free will to respond to that thought,
without more, will always exercise their free wills selfishly, simply because, without more, there is no other (name removed by moderator)ut acting upon them.
This is what the Adam and Eve story portrays: Unsaved Man, every single time, will engage in selfish, disobedient decision-making on every single moral question, like Eve did.
We are “sin machines,” completely unworthy of friendship with God and of even being in His presence.
God is not stupid. His comprehension is perfect. So, being perfectly aware of the problem, from all eternity He knew the solution: Grace.
But here God’s perfect justice “interferes”: In response to the question, “Shall these human sin machines have grace?,” God justice says, “NO! NO WAY JOSE`! THERE ARE NO PENNIES FROM HEAVEN! NO FREE RIDES! SOMEONE HAS GOT TO PAY FOR THAT GRACE! AND IT CAN’T BE THOSE UNWORTHY SIN MACHINES! HOW CAN THEY PAY? THEY ARE WORTH NOTHING!”
In response, God the Son raises His hand and says, “I’ll do it. I’ll pay, by human suffering and death. I hereby lovingly offer myself to suffer horribly and die in spite of my innate innocence.”
In response to that, God the Father says, “I lovingly accepot the loving offer of My beloved Son, and I lovingly offer Him up to die, to pay the price exacted by *Our Own perfect justice *for the grace Man needs to enter into a love relationship with us!”
He came. He was tortured horribly and murdered. The price being paid, the grace of God poured out onto all of the ages, and I believe the angels, too.
