What did Jesus' death on cross do for us?

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steeevb

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Could anyone please fill me in on exactly what Jesus’ death on the cross did for us within the context of Catholicism? I have heard a many times that he died for our sins. What does that really mean? The Catholic religion still seems to have a pretty robust system of tracking sins, categorizing them into venial and mortal and emphasizing that if you die in a state of mortal sin, you will be punished for eternity in hell. To me, it seems analogous to a bank forgiving you your debt but insisting that you still make monthly payments and threatening you with jail if you are late. I really find this confusing. How would our lives be different had Jesus not died on the Cross for our sins?
 
How would our lives be different had Jesus not died on the Cross for our sins?
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He conquered death and opened the gates of Heaven for us. Prior to this, Heaven was closed to us. Now we can live in eternity in joy with God and the inhabitants of Heaven. Before His death and Ressurection, we could not.

Not that this is a very simple answer. You can expound upon this and entire books and sets of books have been written about it.
  • clears throat and looks at their Bible* 😉
God Bless,
Snert
 
Snerticus said:
He conquered death and opened the gates of Heaven for us. Prior to this, Heaven was closed to us. Now we can live in eternity in joy with God and the inhabitants of Heaven. Before His death and Ressurection, we could not.

Not that this is a very simple answer. You can expound upon this and entire books and sets of books have been written about it.
  • clears throat and looks at their Bible* 😉
God Bless,
Snert
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**So before Christ the gates of Heaven were shut. To everyone. Where did pre-Christ human souls go when they died?

Limerick **
 
limerick said:
So before Christ the gates of Heaven were shut. To everyone. Where did pre-Christ human souls go when they died?

**Limerick **
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Well, almost everyone went to a place called Sheol (in Hebrew). It was also called Hades in Greek. It was the precursor to what we understand today as Purgatory, as I think the Latin word for Hades was Purgatorium. This place (Sheol) was not meant to purify, but to wait. It was also divided into two parts, as Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man attests. The good part - which was also called Abraham’s bosom and the not-so-good part 😉 - of which I don’t know the name of, if it even had a name. This place was not to be confused with our understanding of Hell, however - the place of eternal damnation.

The reason I said almost everyone was because from what I understand a few blessed people did make it to heaven, such as Moses and Elijah. This can be observed during the Transfiguration scene in the Bible, in which Jesus was visited by both when he took Peter, John and James with Him one day and Peter wanted to erect tents in honor of the three.

Snert
 
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