98. Christ’s death is the will of the Father but not his final word.

Christ’s death is the will of the Father but not his final word.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 98

Ave Maria series

98  Did God will the death of his only Son?

The violent death of Jesus did not come about through tragic external circumstances.  Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts of the Apostles 2:23).  So that we children of sin and death might have life, the Father in heaven “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  The magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father asked of his Son, corresponded to the magnitude of Christ’s obedience: “And what shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  No, for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).  On both sides, God’s love for men proved itself to the very end on the Cross.  [599-609, 620]

Jesus entry into Jerusalem by Giotto Scrovegni ....98

In order to save us from death, God embarked on a dangerous mission: He introduced a “medicine of immortality” (St. Ignatius of Antioch) into our world of death—his Son Jesus Christ.  The Father and the Son were inseparable in this mission, willing and yearning to take the utmost upon themselves out of love for man.  God willed to make an exchange so as to save us forever.  He wanted to give us his eternal life, so that we might experience his joy, and wanted to suffer our death, our despair, our abandonment,   so as to share with us in everything.  So as to love us to the end and beyond.  Christ’s death is the will of the Father but not his final word.  Since Christ died for us, we can exchange our death for his life.

“Apart from the Cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”  St. Rose or Lima (1586-1617, patron saint of Peru, first saint of the Americas)

“It was not the death that pleased him (God the Father), but rather the will of him who freely died, who through that death abolished death, made salvation possible, and restored innocence, who triumphed over principalities and powers, robbed death and enriched heaven, who restored peace to what is in heaven and on earth and united everything”  St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

[599-609, 620]

REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION

"Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God"

599 Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts of the Apostles 2:23)."³⁹³ This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God (compare Acts of the Apostles 3:13).³⁹⁴ —Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

600 To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place (Acts of the Apostles 4:27-28; compare Psalm 2:1-2)."³⁹⁵  --CCC

For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness (compare Matthew 26:54; John 18:36; Jn 19:11; Acts of the Apostles 3:17-18).³⁹⁶ --CCC

"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"

601 The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin (Isaiah 53:11; compare Isa 53:12; John 8:34-36; Acts of the Apostles 3:14).³⁹⁷ Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3; compare Acts of the Apostles 3:18; Acts 7:52; Acts 13:29; Acts 26:22-23)."³⁹⁸ In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant (compare Isaiah 53:7-8 and Acts of the Apostles 8:32-35).³⁹⁹ Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant (Compare Matthew 20:28).⁴⁰⁰ After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles (compare Luke 24:25-27, 44-45).⁴⁰¹  --CCC

"For our sake God made him to be sin"

602 Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. . . with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." (1 Peter 1:18-20.)⁴⁰² Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. (Compare Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:56.)⁴⁰³ By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21; compare Philippians 2:7; Romans 8:3.)⁴⁰⁴ –CCC

603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned. (Compare John 8:46.)⁴⁰⁵ But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:2; compare John 8:29.)⁴⁰⁶ Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son". (Romans 8:32; Rom 5:10.)⁴⁰⁷ –CCC

God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love

604 By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10; 1 Jn 4:19.

)⁴⁰⁸ God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8.)⁴⁰⁹ –CCC

605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:14.)⁴¹⁰ He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. (Matthew 20:28; compare Romans 5:18-19.)⁴¹¹ The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer." (Council of Quiercy (853): DS 624; compare 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 John 2:2.)⁴¹² –CCC

CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS FATHER FOR OUR SINS

Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father

606 The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the will of him who sent [him]", (John 6:38.)⁴¹³ said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:5-10.)⁴¹⁴ From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." (John 4:34.)⁴¹⁵ The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2.)⁴¹⁶ expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father." (John 10:17; Jn 14:31.)⁴¹⁷ –CCC

607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, (Compare Luke 12:50; Lk 22:15; Matthew 16:21-23.)⁴¹⁸ for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour." (John 12:27)⁴¹⁹ And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?" (John 18:11.)⁴²⁰ From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst." (John 19:30; Jn 19:28.)⁴²¹ –CCC

"The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world"

608 After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". (John 1:29; compare Luke 3:21; Matthew 3:14-15; Jn 1:36.)⁴²² By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover. (Isaiah 53:7,12; compare Jeremiah 11:19; Exodus 12:3-14; John 19:36; 1 Corinthians 5:7.)⁴²³ Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45.)⁴²⁴ –CCC

Jesus freely embraced the Father's redeeming love

609 By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 13:1; Jn 15:13.)⁴²⁵ In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. (Compare Hebrews 2:10,17-18; Heb 4:15; Heb 5:7-9.)⁴²⁶ Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." (John 10:18.)⁴²⁷ Hence the sovereign freedom of God's Son as he went out to his death. (Compare John 18:4-6; Matthew 26:53.)⁴²⁸ --CCC

IN BRIEF

620 Our salvation flows from God's initiative of love for us, because "he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (I Jn 4:10). "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19). --CCC