Reconciliation Unexpected: The Cross (Kerygma Part 3)

There is a big difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. As Dr. Edward Sri continues his series on the Kerygma, he breaks open reconciliation with God. Each of us struggles with sin. In some way or another, sin has had a hold over us. Dr. Sri explains how Jesus freed us and reconciles us to himself.

Snippet from the Show
The deepest reality of the universe is not power, but love.

What Are You a Slave to?

• Addiction
• Other people’s opinion of you
• The need to be right
• Status
• Money
• The list could go on!

Definition of Penal Substitution from “How NOT to Understand the Cross” on Catholic Answers by Joe Heschmeyer

“There are different forms of that theory, but one popular version goes something like this: God is wrathful about our sin, and He needs to vent that wrath on someone. According to the theory’s defenders, if God doesn’t pour out His wrath on someone, then He’d be unjust. Since somebody must get punished, Jesus steps in to be punished in our place.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 615

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities". Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 616

It is love "to the end" that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.

What do You Seek? Encountering the Heart of the Gospel by Dr. Edward Sri

The Good News of Jesus Christ is known as the kerygma , based on the Greek word kerysso , meaning “to herald” or “to proclaim”. It is the core message of Christ that each of the Apostles, the original heralds of the Gospel, proclaimed to the world. It is Christ’s answer to his own penetrating question, “What do you seek?”

This is why the Catholic Church emphasizes the importance of what it calls the “First Proclamation”: the core Gospel of God’s love and the person and mission of Jesus Christ, which ideally we surrender ourselves to, so that a more in-depth, systematic presentation of the Faith can take deeper root in our soul.

Unfortunately, many Catholics today might know facts about Jesus and the Gospel, but they do not know him and this story of his love in a way that shapes their entire lives. How about you? In What Do You Seek?, Scripture scholar Dr. Edward Sri helps us enter more deeply into the Gospel, to ponder the mysteries of God’s love for us and his work of salvation, so that we can be transformed and join in Christ’s work of saving the world. Learn more here!

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