What does the Cross mean? What is atonement?

[Windfish]

Why did the Christ die on the Cross? For the remission of sins and the salvation of the world, correct? How was this accomplished?

 

[illmatic]

Adam’s fall predestined man to death. By dying for man, Christ took this weight off our shoulders and upon His cross.

 

[BerhaneSelassie]

Jesus died on the cross so that we can have forgiveness for our sins, His blood and death made this possible. He is called a sin offering, a propitiation (appeasing God’s wrath)

 

[Todd_Easton]

There are different ways to explain this. Here’s one way that makes the most sense to me:

When we sin and fail to give the love we owe to God and to our neighbor, we incur a debt which justice demands we repay. The debt we incur when we sin and fail to give the love we owe to the infinite God is an infinite debt. To repay an infinite debt an offering of infinite value is required. Unfortunately, an infinite debt is impossible for finite human beings to repay. Enter Jesus Christ. On the altar of the Cross, Jesus Christ, our high priest, offered his own blood in repayment of the infinite debt human beings owe for their sins against God. The blood of Jesus Christ is efficacious in repaying this infinite debt because it has infinite value being the blood of a divine person. A single drop of the blood of Jesus Christ would have been sufficient for the task but, to show the greatness of his love for us, he offered all of it.

Atonement means repaying the debt we owe for sinning and failing to give the love we owe to God or to our neighbor.

 

[Salvatore123]

Before the fall by Adam and Eve, man was “at one” with God. By sinning, man’s “oneness” with God was lost and although it COULD have been “taken care of” in whichever way God chose (after all, He is God), God “reacted” in a completely understandable manner:

1. Harming God, an infinitely loving being, no matter WHO caused the harm, resulted in an INFINITE harm because of who the harm affected.
2. God, as mentioned above, could have simply said, if Adam and Eve had sincerely repented (instead of Adam passing the buck to Eve, and then Eve passing the buck to the serpent), “okay - apology accepted; you are back in my good graces”. But let’s face it - that would have been too easy FOR MAN and would not have been indicative of how hurt God was, nor would it have given man a sense for how much God really wanted man to be back with him.
3. God decided to “erase” the infinite harm in the only way that it could PROPERLY be erased: through an infinite sacrifice. As man, is, well, just “man”, man alone could not offer an INFINITE sacrifice that could benefit ALL mankind, both past and future. But God incarnate could - through suffering and death. Remember: we are talking about balancing out an infinite harm with an infinite “apology/sacrifice” performed on behalf of man. Thus, by becoming man, God effectively “killed two birds with one stone”: He balanced the injustice done to Him by man’s sinful ways (which God certainly did not deserve), but he did so at great “hurt” to himself through the death of his Son (which showed just how much God loved man - “look at what I am willing to put my only Son through, simply because I love you, mankind, and want you to be one with me again”.
4. A short note: by sinning, heaven was closed, and could not be reopened until the breach was sealed. NO ONE entered heaven until Jesus’s death on the cross.
5. Catholics (and other like-minded theologically rooted religions) “divide” God’s plan of salvation of man into two things: redemption and salvation. As outlined above, man could NOT do anything to effect his own redemption. Note that redemption is from the root “redeem” - to buy back. Jesus’s death was the “purchase price” to re-open heaven for those deserving entry.

What separates Catholics, et al., from most Protestants is that Protestants do not divide God’s plan into redemption and salvation - they consider them either the same or combined.

Catholics, et al., however, view SALVATION as the part of God’s salvific plan in which man CAN play a role - by cooperating with God and living a life in an attempt to conform to God’s chosen way.

Sum

Man and God were “at one” in the beginning. When mankind sinned, they were no longer “at one” with God. God sought to heal that breach at the appropriate time by sending his only begotten son, Jesus to die - which was known by us as a REDEMPTIVE death. The death on the cross was redemptive in the sense that it bought back what had been lost: being “at one” with God.

“At one” = “atone”. Christ’s death atoned for man’s sin, and thus man was again possible to be at one with God again, provided he cooperated with God.

Thus, we are alike with Protestants in that Christ’s death was something done that man could NEVER have done to effect the same result. But we are unlike Protestants in that we still must cooperate with God in order to effect the remaining part of the salvific plan: “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”.

Hope this helps.

 

[Salvatore123]

Addendum: I try to explain it this way to my kids:

Suppose they negligently break my neighbor’s window with a baseball. They sincerely apologize for doing so, and the neighbor accepts their apology.

Is the incident over?

Technically, no. The HARM (broken window) is still present. Only the act was forgiven. To make the harm COMPLETELY “right”, my children would have to repair the window at their expense. Only then would the situation be “put right”.

This is an example I also use when “debating” Protestants who claim that all one need do is say, “I am sorry” and that is it. No, it is not “it”. We must walk in life like Christ (or rather, as close as possible - we can never walk like Christ, as that is impossible) IN ADDITION to being sorry for our wayward ways.

Thus: we have to be sorry AND fix the wrong.

Two prongs . . .

 

[perro_sarnoso]

Why did the Christ die on the Cross? For the remission of sins and the salvation of the world, correct? How was this accomplished?

Sin is of such destructive nature that it took a Divine Being - that is - Jesus Christ to make atonement to the Father on behalf of all of us. His passion, death and ressurection were the super-abundant sacrifice which destroyed the power that sin had over us - death.

Jesus came to put death in it’s proper perspective and to anounce the age of mercy and salvation through Him, with Him and in HIm.

 

[Windfish]

I am still having trouble.

I cannot understand what it means that the Cross was a sacrifice. Well, how does the death of the Christ relate to the satisfaction of sin? There is a causal link there that I think has not been explained. And why is a sacrifice even necessary? Did not the Jews atone and plead for forgiveness long before Jesus arrived? Why was it necessary to go beyond that? And is not the sacrifice a bit barbaric? The Jews sacrificed animals, but a human???

And IF the Cross of Christ is efficacious so that the world is restored to before the Fall, why is that we still have concupiscence? Why is there still natural evil? So what does the Cross actually accomplish?

I am only asking these question to help better my understanding - not to offend anyone. Thank you.

 

[PJM]

=Windfish;7349973]Why did the Christ die on the Cross? For the remission of sins and the salvation of the world, correct? How was this accomplished?

Partially correct

***By the Incarnation [God freely becomming a human man, like us in every way BUT sin;] then freely chosing not only to be crucifid; BUT Crucified by being Nailed to His Cross. A rare punishment reservered to ONLY the MOST serious and hardened criminals], then permitting HIMSELF to be buried like a normal human is; were all planned to REDEEM humanity from the Sin of Adam an Eve “Orginal Sin.”] Orginal sin had as ONE of it’s HIGHLY signifiant effects; LOCKING the gates of heaven. No-one but God could enter!

Jesus assumed the Role of the Second Adam [as did Mary the New Eve] **1Cor.15:22 *" For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 45 **Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit"

In fulfiling this Role the Good actions and Good Will of Jesus was sufficient to make ammends to God for the Original Sin of our first parents." This resulted in HEAVEN being re-opened and access to heaven restored.

In addition; Christ become the ONLY possible source of ones individual Salvation. However, Salvation is a Process that requires the RIGHT USE of our God given special gifts: our minds, intellects, freewill and souls.

Because God has so Blessed humanity’ God is GREATLY OBLIGATED to permit humanity to make the right use of these Gifts or to choose to freely apply ones gifts improperly and DENY God’s grace and violate by our freewill; God’s desires for us to particiapte with His Plan for our salvation.

Humanity by OURSELVES choose eternal Hell or Eternal Heaven. God only affirms our freewill choices!

Even the “remission os sins” is most often mis-understood. On Neds understand this phrase in the light of "MAKING POSSIBLE [POSSIBLE BEING THE KEY WORD] the forgiveness of sin. This is made painfuly clear in these verses:**
** 1John.1 Verses 8 to 10:** "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

** 1John.5 Verses 16 to 17**"If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. ** There is sin which is mortal**; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, ** but there is sin which is not mortal. **

** John.20 Verses 20 to 23**]" When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ** Jesus said to them ** again, “Peace be with you. ** As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” ** And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

As an FYI: YES it is God alone who can and DOES even ibn th CC, forgive sins. The role of the prist is different and absolutely esential!

This expressed the 2,000 year old teaching of the CC.
God Bless,
Pat

 

[Salvatore123]

Windfish,

With respect, and in order:

1. You said: “I cannot understand what it means that the Cross was a sacrifice. Well, how does the death of the Christ relate to the satisfaction of sin? There is a causal link there that I think has not been explained.”

It is not the cross per se - it was the entire Passion - man’s rejection of him, whipping, beating, mocking, crucifixion. Many have a tendency to collectively refer to all of these injuries as “the cross”.

There is no causal link between the death of Christ and the “satisfaction of sin”. Sin was not being “satisfied” by Christ’s suffering: the debt that resulted in man “being in the red” to God because of man’s sins were being satisfied. Keep in mind that the Church teaches us that God views creation as having and needing a “balance”. We can’t continually go into debt and never repay - to do that would lead to hell. But ONE thing that could not be repaid was the harm done to God when man FIRST disobeyed God. THAT harm was infinite and could only be “satisfied = repaid” with an infinite repayment. How could that be accomplished to benefit man, but where it was impossible to be done BY man? By God becoming incarnate. God, through his Son, repaid the debt incurred by man as a result of man’s original sin. Note the baseball/window example I gave above: saying “sorry” is not enough - the window still needs to be repaired to bring back “order” before the break of the window.

1. You said: “And why is a sacrifice even necessary?”

It was NOT necessary in the sense that the way God chose was the ONLY way that God could have considered the harm repaid. God could have done whatever He wanted. But he had a two-fold purpose in Jesus’s death: (1) repairing an infinite harm with an infinite sacrifice - the horrible tortuous death of his only Son, and (2) demonstrating, THROUGH that tortuous death, just how much God loved man.

So it was not necessary in the sense that it HAD to be done (as in, “that was the ONLY way”). It was done simply because God CHOSE that way for the redemption.

1. You said: " Did not the Jews atone and plead for forgiveness long before Jesus arrived? Why was it necessary to go beyond that? And is not the sacrifice a bit barbaric? The Jews sacrificed animals, but a human???"

Again, man could NEVER have accomplished a sacrifice never on par with the harm done to God because man inflicted an infinite harm on an infinite being and man, alone, can never do anything that has infinite value. Thus, it took man AND God combined as Christ.

The Jews tried to atone for their sins, but even with Jesus’s arrival, they rejected him. How God chooses to deal with the Jews is between God and the Jews. I make no statement/judgment on that.

And yes, what Christ did WAS barbaric - crucifixion was, at that time, a method of death perfected by the Romans as the most painful way someone could be put to death - slowly, in horrible pain, suffocating for hours (some lasted days on the cross - this explains Pilate’s surprise at hearing Christ died so soon after he was nailed to the cross).

1. You said: “And IF the Cross of Christ is efficacious so that the world is restored to before the Fall, why is that we still have concupiscence? Why is there still natural evil? So what does the Cross actually accomplish?”

The world was NOT restored to the same as before the Fall. Man’s chance to be at one with God - that is, the gift of immortal life in both body and soul with eternal bliss - was forever loss with original sin. That would never be recovered. Christ’s Passion was efficacious in the sense that it reopened heaven, without which, no matter how much man would have cooperated with his own salvation, he would have never made it to heaven.

Recall the VERY OLD term “Limbo of the Fathers” - it is where those such as Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, et al., were waiting until Christ came. It is to them, and others, that Christ journeyed after his death to announce what he had just done (“preached to the captive souls”). We call that state of one’s soul (not an actual place) “purgatory”.

“Natural evil” (as you call it) and man’s inclination towards sin exist because God permits them to exist. That is the workings of free will combined with allowing Lucifer to live and battle for men’s souls. God did not and does not cause evil - but he allows evil to exist because if he did not, then man would be denied the greatest gift a man has: the free will to do as he pleases. God does not prevent men from coming to him - he allows men to prevent themselves from coming to God.

Hope this explains it a little better . . . I tried my best.

 

[MarcoPolo]

There is a causal link there that I think has not been explained. And why is a sacrifice even necessary?

I will also give it the old college try. And this only adds to what others have said. But remember, whenever we get hung up on the “why” of Divine Mysteries, we may be left with God saying, “Place all your trust in me.”

Anyway, in the OT, sins were atoned for with various animal sacrifice. Scripture tells us that God is revealed to man through nature. And even in ancient pagan religions, sacrifice was common to please the gods and erase a condition out of favor with the gods to a condition in favor of the gods.

Now, consider the goal of the sacrifice of Christ----> LIFE.

How does man sustain earthly life? He eats something. What does he eat? Meat and vegetables. In order for man to have life, animals and vegetables must be killed. Through death comes life. The very image of a seed “buried” in the ground is signal of death, yet it rises up anew, in glorious living form.

The Christian faith is fraught with this imagery in the work of Christ dying, then rising to resurrected life. There is Paul’s teaching on baptism—in baptism we die with Christ and rise again to new life.

The very character of sacrifice is a signpost to man----> something old has been done away with and life anew begins. So it is with Christ’s sacrifice.

Of course, as someone said, God didn’t need to sacrifice anything or anyone to redeem man. Or He could have sacrificed just a drop of blood. But how much more striking is His testament of love in condescending to the realm of His creatures. And how much should we understand how glorious must be the life anew on the other side of our dying with Him who was innocent and divine?

So there’s a stab at the mystery in brief. Hopefully it is a glimpse through a dark glass of the whole truth we shall understand in that very life anew (1 Cor 13:12).