How exactly did Jesus Christ win our salvation? That's the question that is bothering me at the moment (I think that's either because it's almost Christmas or I've just read Betty Eadie's Embraced By The Light).
In catechism, I was taught that Christ saved us by coming down from Heaven and dying on the cross. He saved us by becoming the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. His death redeemed us from eternal punishment.
To be honest, I really don't get this whole arrangement. For instance, why did Jesus had to come down? Why was this the only way to win our salvation? And what exactly were we saved from (True,we might have been spared from eternal damnation, like what my CLE teacher said, but we were not saved from the human tendencies that make us sin. Bummer.)?
But perhaps, there's another way at looking at things and this involves looking at Jesus Christ less as a scapegoat and more like the perfect model of God's love. I know there's nothing new about what I just said but, in a period where people place more importance and emphasis to the act of sacrifice rather than to the man who made it, I believe it's urgent to revisit this idea once more.
Going back, Christ died to save us from our sins. But when exactly did he save us? Was it at his moment of death or was it when he came down to the world to face a life of mortality, suffering, and human frailty? For me, I would go with the latter. Debunking the perceived significance of the cross in salvation history, I believe Christ had already saved us when he decided to be born, when he decided to be a finite being. Christ had indeed "died" to save us from our sins but this was when he assumed life as a mortal and not when he was uttering his last words in Calvary.
Following this up, if the act of "saving" was not made at the cross but at the moment of coming down to the world, what did Jesus Christ save us from then? Well, I believe he saved us by living a life of love, by serving as the perfect example from which we can pattern our lives. In human history, it is impossible to not take notice that it was Jesus Christ who pioneered the centrality of love in human affairs.
To conclude this post, what do we make of the cross now? What do we make of his death? Rather than presupposing it was an unfortunate accident, I believe Christ's death was a necessary consequence, the inevitable byproduct of introducing a radically new concept of living, a concept borne on the premise that love should be the core of our humanity.
To sum it up, Christ had to "die" - he had to come down - to show us the way how to live. And in doing so, he was not spared the usual treatment we accord to society's radicals: he was persecuted and killed.
Right now, I'm still ruminating about what I just wrote here. But maybe, with some guidance from mentors, I can eventually clarify my thoughts more clearly and express them more eloquently. But right now, I think this is it. Advance Merry Christmas everybody and God be with you.
In catechism, I was taught that Christ saved us by coming down from Heaven and dying on the cross. He saved us by becoming the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. His death redeemed us from eternal punishment.
To be honest, I really don't get this whole arrangement. For instance, why did Jesus had to come down? Why was this the only way to win our salvation? And what exactly were we saved from (True,we might have been spared from eternal damnation, like what my CLE teacher said, but we were not saved from the human tendencies that make us sin. Bummer.)?
But perhaps, there's another way at looking at things and this involves looking at Jesus Christ less as a scapegoat and more like the perfect model of God's love. I know there's nothing new about what I just said but, in a period where people place more importance and emphasis to the act of sacrifice rather than to the man who made it, I believe it's urgent to revisit this idea once more.
Going back, Christ died to save us from our sins. But when exactly did he save us? Was it at his moment of death or was it when he came down to the world to face a life of mortality, suffering, and human frailty? For me, I would go with the latter. Debunking the perceived significance of the cross in salvation history, I believe Christ had already saved us when he decided to be born, when he decided to be a finite being. Christ had indeed "died" to save us from our sins but this was when he assumed life as a mortal and not when he was uttering his last words in Calvary.
Following this up, if the act of "saving" was not made at the cross but at the moment of coming down to the world, what did Jesus Christ save us from then? Well, I believe he saved us by living a life of love, by serving as the perfect example from which we can pattern our lives. In human history, it is impossible to not take notice that it was Jesus Christ who pioneered the centrality of love in human affairs.
To conclude this post, what do we make of the cross now? What do we make of his death? Rather than presupposing it was an unfortunate accident, I believe Christ's death was a necessary consequence, the inevitable byproduct of introducing a radically new concept of living, a concept borne on the premise that love should be the core of our humanity.
To sum it up, Christ had to "die" - he had to come down - to show us the way how to live. And in doing so, he was not spared the usual treatment we accord to society's radicals: he was persecuted and killed.
Right now, I'm still ruminating about what I just wrote here. But maybe, with some guidance from mentors, I can eventually clarify my thoughts more clearly and express them more eloquently. But right now, I think this is it. Advance Merry Christmas everybody and God be with you.
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