In a historic speech at the St. Patrick Cathedral in New York, the Pope made some astonishing statements that disputes the whole essence of Christianity.
“AND IF AT TIMES OUR EFFORTS AND WORKS SEEM TO FAIL AND PRODUCE NO FRUIT, WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT WE ARE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS… AND HIS LIFE, HUMANLY SPEAKING, ENDED IN FAILURE, THE FAILURE OF THE CROSS.”
Is it true that Jesus failed?
Jesus’ dying on the cross is the only way we are able to establish a relationship with God the Father. If Jesus’ death and resurrection did not happen, we would not be able to have this relationship with God the Father because our sin separates us from God until we receive salvation through Christ. Salvation is not possible without Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus made this possible by taking upon our sins with Him on the cross and dying for us.
In Hebrews 2:9, Paul says that Jesus had to die for everybody, “that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Jesus Himself had pointed out that God would give His Son for the whole world, telling Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
Why was this necessary? It was because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). What makes this fact even worse is that there are severe consequences to sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Yet, even as Paul mentions the gift of God, the Bible teaches that God loves us enough to have had Jesus lay down His life for the sins of everyone. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us…” (1 Jn. 3:16). This is why it was necessary that He by the grace of God should taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:10, the passage says that the aim of making the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings (referring to His death) was for Him to bring many sons to glory. This may refer to the fact that all human beings are the offspring (sons or children) of God, physically speaking, because He is the Father of our spirits (Acts 17:28, Heb. 12:9). This would mean that God wants to make a way for all His offspring or all human beings to be saved from sin. It might also refer to the fact that those who are saved from sin are born again through the word of God and hence become the spiritual children of God (1 Pet. 1:23, 1 Jn. 3:1-3).
However, either way we look at it, we must understand that the death of Jesus Christ was necessary in order for this to happen because it was He who “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev. 1:4-6). Just as one goal of the captain of a ship is to bring the passengers to safety, so Jesus as the captain of our salvation has as His aim to bring many sons to glory.
Hebrews 2:14 says that through His death, Christ has destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil After Adam and Eve had sinned, it had been prophesied that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3.16). This has universally been understood as a prophecy of the Messiah who would come to destroy the devil. Jesus Himself understood that His mission involved conquering Satan. In Matt. 12:22-29, He said that His power over the demons demonstrated that He had first bound “strong man.” In Lk. 10:17-18, when the seventy returned having cast out demons, Jesus said that He saw Satan falling as lightning from heaven. This was not something that had taken place before the world began but was going on right then as Christ was involved in conquering Satan. Both Jn. 12:27-31 and 16:7-11 also make reference to the casting out or judgment of the prince or ruler of this world that was soon to come. This is exactly what Jesus did “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8). The devil’s power over mankind, which brings the fear of death, is through sin, but by His death Jesus makes possible the forgiveness of sin, thus destroying the power of death and releasing those who receive His forgiveness from the fear of death.
Hebrews 2:17 says that His death has made reconciliation or propitiation for the sins of the people. The verb translated “make reconciliation” in the King James Version or “make propitiation” in the New King James Version was used among the Greeks to mean to make the gods propitious or to appease them, since their good will was not conceived as their natural attitude but something to be earned. This use of the word is foreign to the Bible. In the Old Testament, the concept was related to the atonement that was made for the sins of the people with the animal sacrifices (cf. Lev. 16:8-22). Of course, these sacrifices pointed forward to the time when Christ would come to make complete atonement for the sins of the world. Thus, in the New Testament, the concept of “propitiation” always refers to the fact that God is propitiated through the provision that He made in the sacrifice of Christ to show mercy and make possible the remission of sins. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood…” (Rom. 3.24-25). We must conclude, then, that the death of Jesus Christ
was what made it possible for the scriptures to call Him “the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 2:1-2, 4:10). Because He made propitiation for our sins, we can have reconciliation with God
So friend, according to The Pope, Jesus’ death at the cross was a failure. According to Apostle Paul, it was by the death of Christ that we are called sons and daughters of God. Who will you choose to believe?
Discussion about this post