JESUS CHRIST
THE CROSS AND THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE
Eternal Life Is a Free Gift
Eternal life is not something we deserve, it is not a 'right' but something that Jesus Christ has earned for us through his death and that he now offers us free of charge. The best things in life are truly free. Some think they can merit heaven and eternal life by putting their trust in their own works. The only thing that we deserve is death:
For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6: 23).
A salary is something we earn and therefore deserve, but a gift is free. This of course does not mean that our works do not matter, they are the sign and guarantee that that our faith is genuine and are an integral part of our journey once we have accepted Jesus in faith. So also faith in itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith. You believe in the one God -- that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Fool! Would you not like to know that faith without deeds is useless? You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified. (James 2:17-20, 24)
Eternal life is a free gift that is obtained only through the mercy of the Father, through the merits of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Eternal life is a Trinitarian experience. We cannot earn it, we can only humbly receive it; we have nothing that we have not received.
The Scandal of the Cross
The cross is a symbol of death and defeat, the fate of a criminal, a scandal. In Italy there were atheists who protested over the crucifix hung in every Italian school on the wall behind the teachers podium and in Italian courts of law. On Italian TV, RAI 1, Adel Smith, founder of the Muslim Union of Italy described the crucifix as “a little cadaver hanging from two sticks”. Indeed it does take a a miracle for anyone to say and mean 'Jesus is Lord': "no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). Natural man cannot understand the things of God
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ( 1 Corinthians 1:18)
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
For those who have accepted Jesus Christ the cross is the symbol of humility, love, mercy, total self-giving and surrender to the will of God and victory. For those who do not accept it it reminds them of the finality of death. The cross is a line of demarcation, on the one side eternal life, on the other eternal death. Each person needs to decide where he stands. The cross is a challenge to each of us.
"It is Finished"
Jesus Christ, true God and true man, although without sin, clothed himself with our sinful humanity and took it to the cross.
The whole Christ body, soul, and spirit, the incarnate logos, died in our place.
In his own humanity he bore the whole of suffering humanity. In his humanity he felt the full force of that separation from God in which the human condition found itself and cried out
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Again, the whole Christ, in a final act of surrender to the Father, body, soul, and divinity, cried out “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). A final act of total surrender and union. The cry of despair and separation gives way to the final cry of union with the Father taking with him the despair of separation.
Our humanity, together with Christ's divinity, is a sacrificial offering to the Father. On the cross, our lives are indeed "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
There is now union with Christ in the Father, the gap has been bridged. The veil of separation has been torn apart.
That same Christ, body, soul, and divinity returns to us in the Eucharist as the risen Lord and Saviour to live out that union achieved on the cross and we can truly say "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
Those who truly accept and follow Christ can claim victory, the victory of the cross and make our own those words of the apostle Paul:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
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Next: The Resurrection
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Introduction to the Christian Faith - Index
© R W
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