Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
603 Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned.
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?"
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".
407
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."
408
God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
409
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."
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.
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."
412
III. 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]",
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."
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."
415
The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"
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."
417
607 The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life,
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."
419
And again,
"Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?"
420
From the cross, just before "It is
finished", he said, "I thirst."
421
"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".
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.
423
Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and
to give his life as a ransom for many."
424
Jesus freely embraced the Father's redeeming love
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