Reconciliation question

[vej09]

Despite years of Catholic school, I feel that I don’t understand how Jesus’ death washed away our sins? I just can never seem to put 2 and 2 together. I also have problems really appreciating what He did, and I feel rather desensitized towards the Passion anymore. I know this is wrong, but I just cannot seem to make sense of this event and its significance in my mind, and I therefore have troubles appreciating it. I try, but find dead ends.

Any revelations?

 

[jennyr]

It might be easier to tackle your 2nd issue first.

Why do you not appreciate it? Do you think that with what he was and what he knew that it wasn’t a big sacrifice? (I’m not trying to be sarcastic… I myself years ago often wondered in the back of my mind why it was such a big deal)… Can you put your thoughts into words?

 

[kleary]

Despite years of Catholic school, I feel that I don’t understand how Jesus’ death washed away our sins? I just can never seem to put 2 and 2 together. I also have problems really appreciating what He did, and I feel rather desensitized towards the Passion anymore. I know this is wrong, but I just cannot seem to make sense of this event and its significance in my mind, and I therefore have troubles appreciating it. I try, but find dead ends.

Any revelations?

Well I would strongly suggest that you watch “The Passion of the Christ”.

Mel Gibson’s depiction, even though innacurate in many ways is an accurate depiction of how our Lord experienced what He endured during His passion.

Since Jesus is God Incarnate, all the feelings He felt were enhanced so to say. That is what I was always taught. He felt more pain when He was scourged, more pain than you could imagine. That is why “The Passion of the Christ” seems so bloody and horrible… and horrifying-

When you see what God did for you - I mean come on… even the Chosen People have defected- because what He did was so EXTREME—

BEHOLD YOUR KING - ISRAEL!
HIS CRIB IS A FOOD TROUGH…

That is not enough for you? The Creator of all life - of everything seen and unseen to become a helpless human being and die the most humiliating excruciating death so that your soul has AN OPPORTUNITY to live in Heaven after your body dies is not enough for you?

Ken

 

[vej09]

I have trouble verbalizing exactly what I feel, but it is just that I have grown up with everyone telling me: “He died for your sins”, and I am rather embarassed to admit that, despite everything, I don’t understand exactly how his death granted us this . I mean, I firmly believe that Jesus was God, and everything else that the Church teaches. I believe that He was resurrected. But I seem to have a mental block when it comes to what is in between his death and resurrection. he was persectued by the Romans and Jewish leader b/c of what He thought, and it was controversial to them. He could have saved Himself, being God but did not. I understand his life and teachings fairly well. But then I just cannot see the correlation? He was put to death and resurrected, but how did this do anything about my sins that I commit 2,000 years later? Was it that he loved us so much the he was willing to die to show us His love? And because of this love he will forgive us if we are truly sorry for our sins? Is that it?

Sorry, to be so confusing in trying to unravel m thoughts, but I feel that my mind is tied into knots over the basis of our theology!
help!

 

[Rawb]

Have you ever heard “The Punishment of Sin is death” ?

Sin causes seperation between us and God. This is just a fact of life, it’s a natural law, like gravity. Because sin is so serious, it requires a death to fix our relationship to God. Why or how this works isn’t something I think we need to fully understand, but this is true as well. Under the Mosiac law animals’ deaths were used to reconcile people to God. These animal sacrifices had to be repeated however; they were imperfect sacrifices.

Ever heard “Jesus was the perfect sacrifice” ?

Jesus was/is God. He led a sin-free life. Thus, he was a perfect sacrifice. As such we don’t have to sacrifice animals anymore, because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. He took away the sins of the world, took them on and thus paid the price.

That’s also the significance of the curtain tearing in the Temple; the high priest offered sacrifices there, but now there is no need for more sacrifices.

If I’ve misrepresented anything I’m sorry, someone please correct me. That’s how it was explained to me, but I don’t know how much of my old Protestant heritage still shines through.

 

[LilyM]

Basically Jesus died IN OUR PLACE - taking on him the horrific punishment which we all deserve for our sins. By his death he also opened heaven to us - not a one of us would be there without it!

Can you not imagine yourself having committed a crime which by law deserves the death penalty and having an innocent friend step forward in your place to go to the electric chair or take the lethal injection for your crime? How grateful would you be to that friend who died so that you might continue to live? This is what Jesus did for you. Your sins deserve hell - without his death there would be no forgiveness and no heaven.

If you have a problem with the fact that he died centuries ago just consider that there IS no such thing as time to God really - he exists outside time, in an eternity where Christ’s death is always in the PRESENT to him. To God there is no difference in time between your sin and Christ’s death which pays the spiritual penalty for that sin.

 

[Chipper]

Despite years of Catholic school, I feel that I don’t understand how Jesus’ death washed away our sins? I just can never seem to put 2 and 2 together. I also have problems really appreciating what He did, and I feel rather desensitized towards the Passion anymore. I know this is wrong, but I just cannot seem to make sense of this event and its significance in my mind, and I therefore have troubles appreciating it. I try, but find dead ends.

Any revelations?

Ya know what. I used to have a slight problem understanding why Jesus’s crucifixation was salvific.

What cleared it up for me, believe it or not was the movie “Narnia”. This movie has analgous theology embedded in it.

I don’t want to go into details, since I don’t want to destroy the excitement of the movie, if you haven’t seen it.

Chipper

 

[vej09]

Thank you very much for your insight, it brought up some things that I had never thought of before, including Rawb’s “the punishment of sin is death”. I never thought of the correlation between the Temple curtain, etc. either. After reading this, I also see Chipper’s point on Narnia. I have read/ seen it, and after reading the other explanations, I find it, too very helpful.

Thank you again, and God bless!

 

[Church_Militant]

Despite years of Catholic school, I feel that I don’t understand how Jesus’ death washed away our sins? I just can never seem to put 2 and 2 together. I also have problems really appreciating what He did, and I feel rather desensitized towards the Passion anymore. I know this is wrong, but I just cannot seem to make sense of this event and its significance in my mind, and I therefore have troubles appreciating it. I try, but find dead ends.

Any revelations?

Thank you very much for your insight, it brought up some things that I had never thought of before, including Rawb’s “the punishment of sin is death”. I never thought of the correlation between the Temple curtain, etc. either. After reading this, I also see Chipper’s point on Narnia. I have read/ seen it, and after reading the other explanations, I find it, too very helpful.

Thank you again, and God bless!

Hey vej09,
Have a look at this. God’s Love For You

Something is wrong with the human race. We all sense it. Things aren’t the way they should be. Not in the world. Not in our neighbors. Not in ourselves.

We aren’t as kind, as generous, or as loving as we should be. We do things we shouldn’t. We are selfish, arrogant, sometimes even cruel. We use other people for our own ends. We fall short even of our own low standards.

The Bible has a word for this: sin.

WE CAN’T ESCAPE

Sin is a constant of the human condition. It’s all around us. It’s inside us, too. We are all sinners. Sometimes our sins are written large, like adultery or murder. Sometimes they are buried in a cutting glance. But they’re always there.

We sense that things shouldn’t be this way, that there must have been a time when things were right in the world. And there was such a time.

When God first made man, he made him perfect, able to live and love as he should, free from sin and sin’s worst consequence, which is death. But our first parents turned away from God, and the human race hasn’t been right since.

Sin is a violation of the way things should be, a violation of a fundamental law. That law was designed by God to make us happy. Think of how it would be if everyone in the world lived up to that law.

Unfortunately, we all turn away from God’s law. In doing so, we turn away from him. If we don’t come back to God, we will be separated from him forever. But we are caught in a cycle of sin. Try as we might, we can’t break free. Not on our own.

Hang in there and pull out that Rosary and take a long close look at that crucifix. It’ll all come to ya. It does for me.
Pax tecum,

 

[Pax]

Despite years of Catholic school, I feel that I don’t understand how Jesus’ death washed away our sins? I just can never seem to put 2 and 2 together. I also have problems really appreciating what He did, and I feel rather desensitized towards the Passion anymore. I know this is wrong, but I just cannot seem to make sense of this event and its significance in my mind, and I therefore have troubles appreciating it. I try, but find dead ends.

Any revelations?

The crucial thing to remember is that there is nothing that we can do to mend or bridge the gap between man and God that was caused by the fall. God is infinite and we are finite. Meditate on that. Think about what God has done by thinking about creation. We are but a speck within the cosmos yet the cosmos in all of its complexity was created by God.

The vast distance between God and His creatures gives you a visual image as to why finite beings that commit sins against an infinite Creator are incapable of providing the infinite components of atonement, expiation, and redemption. Only Jesus, who is both God and man, could provide a perfect and infinite sacrifice on our behalf. Jesus fulfills the requirement that a man provide the mediation and redemptive sacrifice. As God, Jesus fulfills the requirements of a sacrifice of infinite value.

Moreover, Jesus did this because of God’s love for us. Scripture tells us that “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”[Jn 15:13] God sends his only begotten son to lay down his life for us. Jesus provides the sacrifice that we cannot provide ourselves.

I hope this helps.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Vej09,

You know…I’ve kind of wondered a similar thing, very recently.

Sometimes God brings us times like that in our life so that we can search to know Him better. Like, there’s this wondering about the Faith, and the tangible logical connections aren’t there, so you just go on “Faith Octane” gas and in God’s timing it will be linked back to the reasonable connections you’re after.

When I was wondering, I went to the Scriptures, and I made notes on a Rosary Mystery (Crucifixion) about these Scriptures to read occasionally…

Romans 6:6 - We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

(Read the context there, and pray over it!)

Ephesians 2:13-16
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ**.** For He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by **abolishing in His flesh **the law of commandments and ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.

There in Ephesians, the context is that the Gentiles can now be brought near to God, and it’s through Christ. But more to the point, there is this supernatural thing happening, which may be why it’s sometimes hard to comprehend, it is “above nature.”

But not “contrary to reason.” Jesus Christ took our nature, that is…the Word became Flesh, and the Person of Christ offered Himself to God, bringing humanity back in union with God, restoring what was lost. He could do that because He was God. He could do that because He was man.

Don’t just concentrate on the Passion and the Cross, spend at least as much time thinking and learning about the Incarnation, and I believe that will help you greatly!!

Be patient! Faith Octane gas burns the hottest!

Rob