The Significance of the Crucifixion

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My question is about the suffering and death of Christ. When I was a protestant, I was taught that Christ’s suffering and death were a function of The Father pouring out the full measure o His holy wrath upon Christ. Basically, the doctrine was as follows: All the punishment of hell that would have otherwise been poured out on all those who would eventually be saved was poured out on Christ on Calvary. Christ absorbs the punishment due us for our sins–E.g., the result of the Father’s wrath–on our behalf. The Father punishes the Son, who became our sin. The Father accepts us, who have received the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us. Christ becomes our sin in the Father’s eyes; we become Christ’s perfection in the Father’s eyes.

Therefore, it seems absolutely necessary that Jesus did endure everything He endured and not one bit less–the entire punishment due us for our sins. Christ’s passion and death were not primarily an exercise in demonstrating His love, but a real, hellish punishment for our sins.

But the Baltimore Catechism says that even the smallest bit of Jesus’s suffering was more than sufficient to redeem us. Presumably, Jesus could have merely been struck and spat upon, and that suffering could have been a sufficient atonement. We are told that the majority of Christ’s suffering was basically gratuitous: He suffered to show his love for us, but it was ultimately unnecessary…technically.

The Bible seems to present Calvary as something like an absolute necessity to get us into heaven. I don’t see indicators that it was merely a display of love as much as I see indicators that reflect the idea of Christs bear our weight and vicariously absorbing our fully punishment.

I’m uncomfortable with the Catechism’s claim that Jesus didn’t actually have to suffer what he did in it’s full, horrifying entirety. Does anyone have any thoughts on this. It’s been on my mind a lot since returning to the Church, and it’s a major burden because I feel that the Catholic doctrine actually cheapens the significance of Christ’s atoning work on our behalf.

-Matt
 
Yea I have some thoughts. What makes you think all the tortures of hell from all of mankind’s sins are equal to one crucifixion? Talk about cheap.

The Passion of Christ was an example of giving a life for the sake of others. And not just any life, but God’s own Son. If even a pure sacrifice such as Christ’s sacrifice was demanded by God…then what about our own life?

At the end of St. Peter’s life he knew exactly what to do. Not being worthy to die in the same manner as Christ, he requested to be crucified upside down.
 
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The Lord is kind and merciful.

Christ died because of our sins. We, the roman leaders, the soldiers, the Jewish people, all leaders, all soldiers, all people, chose to punish Christ. Every sin hardens our hearts until we choose to punish the stranger.

God is hurt by all these sins, but he will not take back the freedom given to us when we were created. God sent Jesus to accept the consequences of our hardened hearts and our sins. Jesus frees us from the burden of sin. Our hardened hearts are replaced with living hearts. We endure punishments as Jesus did, to keep our hearts supple and alive.
 
joeymatt said:
But the Baltimore Catechism says that even the smallest bit of Jesus’s suffering was more than sufficient to redeem us.
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Not sure to which place in the Baltimore Catechism you are referring. However, something similar does appear in St Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, Part 3, Question 46 (The Passion of Christ), Article 5, Reply to Objection 3:
The very least one of Christ’s sufferings was sufficient of itself to redeem the human race from all sins; but as to fittingness, it sufficed that He should endure all classes of sufferings, as stated above.
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Perhaps you will find the answer you seek there, in the various articles of Question 46.
 
Hi Matt

The scriptures imply that it was ordained by God from all eternity and forseen by Him that Christ would suffer in such a way . A blood sacrifice - ‘‘the lamb slain from the foundation of the world’’ .

So because it was ordained, Christ did have to suffer and die as the true Passover Lamb. The animal sacrifices in the OT prefigured a greater reality and fulfillment in Christ and ''without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin ‘’

With regards to the protestant theory you mentioned about atonement, thats not what the Catholic position is . Its important to understand first of all that God is impassible. This means that He does not have emotions. ‘Wrath’ is not in reference to an emotion that God feels or experiences, because emotions are subject to change and God is unchangeable. The actions of another being cannot affect a change in God. In his nature he is perfect love and perfect Justice .

So It was his divine Justice that demanded satisfaction. And that’s how atonement was achieved - … Christ sacrificed himself to satisfy divine justice and purchased for us the forgiveness of sin.

It was God the Fathers love for mankind , that he gave his Son to die for us and atone for our sins.
 
I would recommend to you to find in the EWTN radio library a program that Dr. David Anders really explains in detail the difference between the protestant vs the Catholic view of the significance of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
GOD cannot punish the innocent because of the sins of the guilty.

See for example when Sodom and Gomorrah were to be destroyed GOD would have spared all the sinners living in them, if, 10 righteous people could be found in the city.

GOD does not hate us, we apply our rationale to how GOD behaves.

As for why did Jesus have to die?
Well when Adam sinned he lost all possibility of redemption since he did not posses any thing that could repair the affront made to GOD. Think of it, GOD is infinite, we cannot fully comprehend how huge was our transgression to an infinite GOD, even our very lives are not enough to repair the damage.
It was necessary that a man whose life was also infinitely valued as HE is also GOD offered the sacrifice that none of us either one by one or collectively could not offer to GOD.
But then what happened just as when Abraham was going to offer his son in sacrifice to GOD was stopped and lo and behold a ram was there. And Abraham offered it in sacrifice instead of his son. Fast forward to Jesus and GOD has provided us the sacrifice that can close the fracture between man and GOD and HE is providing it in perpetuity to us, since HE is GOD. Without the cross we would be lost and unable to ever enter in the heavenly realm.
 
Does Jesus love each and everyone of us as he loves himself?

When Jesus spent his time on Earth, he would have lived by the greatest commandments, he could do nothing greater. But how did Jesus hold out his hands on the cross, and love the man with the hammer and nails, as he loves himself? We know Jesus prayed forgive them Father, that includes us too.

It seems to show that nothing stands in the way of Christ’s love for us.
 
That was God hanging on the cross suffering an extremely humiliating and painful death in human flesh at the hands of His own sinful creation to show how much He loves us in spite of our sin. So we might just begin to fathom how wide and long and high and deep that love is. So that we, too, might turn from the world’s ways, the ways that oppose that love, that God, and begin wanting to love like that ourselves.
 
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Had Jesus not died, He wouldn’t have resurrected either.

I for one wouldn’t find much sense in Christian faith if it weren’t for the living presence of the Resurrected Lord, and the almost unbelievable promise His resurrection made to our own lives.

To me, one of the most powerful ideas of Christianity, and one of the main reasons I’m a Christian, is the fact that God Himself shared the most miserable part of human life, suffering and death (the consequences of sin, in which He had no share), and conquered them. I am a sinner, I have suffered and will probably suffer in the future, I will die, but I can face these facts knowing that Christ, Who loves me more than I can possibly conceive, has ultimately rendered the death-bearing powers of this world powerless.

“Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!”

(Paschal Troparion)
 
joeymatt said:
Therefore, it seems absolutely necessary that Jesus did endure everything He endured and not one bit less–the entire punishment due us for our sins. Christ’s passion and death were not primarily an exercise in demonstrating His love, but a real, hellish punishment for our sins.
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Why can’t it be both? The wage for sin is death. In Him there was no sin. He suffered it all, not one bit less. He is the Lamb of God.

He chose to be the Lamb because he loves you.
 
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