A New Perspective
Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:36 pm
I just had a humongous epiphany about he Gospel and I feel moved to share.
I was watching a film reviewer doing a very reasonable and objective critique of the movie The Passion of the Christ in a way that wasn't all Christian bashing but was very critical of the film (for reasons I agree with him on) but as he was discussing the themes in the film, he said something that my brain locked onto. I can't recall what he said exactly, but my INFJ way of thinking (Yes I am totally into Myers-Briggs personality types) took off with it and now I GET IT.
I have struggled for a very long time (Read: Even back in my Catholic days) with the connection between Jesus' actions and death, and our sin. Why did Jesus dying make any difference to my sinful nature? And now I GET IT.
What is the opposite of sin?
I would say the opposite of sin isn't obedience but SACRIFICE. Sin is indulging our carnal or selfish wants and desires. Christianity is all about helping us to rise above our animal, instinctual desires like gluttony and lust... and doing something more enlightened and more noble. It is enlightenment, and Jesus is the one who teaches us that enlightenment. But sacrifice... sacrifice is denying ourselves of the lust and gluttony and greed and selfishness. It's why we fast. It's why we have the Law of Chastity. It's a path that makes us become the masters of our own animal, base selves. Sacrifice is the opposite of sin because sin is indulging our desires while sacrifice is denying them to the point of actively pushing them aside.
So. We as humans are, in part, animals. We will often choose our base desires over the higher path because it is in our nature as mortal, carnal beings. This is our fallen state.
We can sacrifice in our lives to be better, but on balance we can never sacrifice so much that we compensate for our indulging ourselves.
So just how do we get out of that? Well, you take a Being who never indulged those animal desires because He was enlightened to the point of total mastery over them. HE makes a MASSIVE and horrible sacrifice... He sacrifices His own body, the body (which, by the way is the source of our carnal wants) and His LIFE in the most horrible and torturous way imaginable at the time.
He deserved none of it, but by being an exemplar of not only self sacrifice, but doing it nobly, for the betterment of others, teaches us that we needn't be bound by our carnal sins, that there's a way out, and he's leading it.
It isn't that there's some kind of cosmic debt to a bank that Jesus pays in full. Yes, we use that metaphor but I think the real point is that He shows us what perfection looks like. And having seen that perfection, leads us to strive to be like Him. We can never quite get there because we have already sinned, but a life spent in pursuit of that goal is one that will be enlightened and noble.
His sacrifice was pure love because He simply didn't HAVE to do it. Yet He did do it, to not only demonstrate that love, but by sacrificing He shows that love is sacrificing for others by choice.
And that's why the world is so catastrophically screwed up right now. It's preaching carnality as virtue and self indulgence as nobility.
Jesus shows us that the most perfect being in all of human history is one who allowed Himself to be tortured and killed, unjustly, out of a desire to help US fallen, carnal beings to have a path to glory to be with Him.
And Jesus is the ultimate exemplar of sacrifice and therefore, love.
I was watching a film reviewer doing a very reasonable and objective critique of the movie The Passion of the Christ in a way that wasn't all Christian bashing but was very critical of the film (for reasons I agree with him on) but as he was discussing the themes in the film, he said something that my brain locked onto. I can't recall what he said exactly, but my INFJ way of thinking (Yes I am totally into Myers-Briggs personality types) took off with it and now I GET IT.
I have struggled for a very long time (Read: Even back in my Catholic days) with the connection between Jesus' actions and death, and our sin. Why did Jesus dying make any difference to my sinful nature? And now I GET IT.
What is the opposite of sin?
I would say the opposite of sin isn't obedience but SACRIFICE. Sin is indulging our carnal or selfish wants and desires. Christianity is all about helping us to rise above our animal, instinctual desires like gluttony and lust... and doing something more enlightened and more noble. It is enlightenment, and Jesus is the one who teaches us that enlightenment. But sacrifice... sacrifice is denying ourselves of the lust and gluttony and greed and selfishness. It's why we fast. It's why we have the Law of Chastity. It's a path that makes us become the masters of our own animal, base selves. Sacrifice is the opposite of sin because sin is indulging our desires while sacrifice is denying them to the point of actively pushing them aside.
So. We as humans are, in part, animals. We will often choose our base desires over the higher path because it is in our nature as mortal, carnal beings. This is our fallen state.
We can sacrifice in our lives to be better, but on balance we can never sacrifice so much that we compensate for our indulging ourselves.
So just how do we get out of that? Well, you take a Being who never indulged those animal desires because He was enlightened to the point of total mastery over them. HE makes a MASSIVE and horrible sacrifice... He sacrifices His own body, the body (which, by the way is the source of our carnal wants) and His LIFE in the most horrible and torturous way imaginable at the time.
He deserved none of it, but by being an exemplar of not only self sacrifice, but doing it nobly, for the betterment of others, teaches us that we needn't be bound by our carnal sins, that there's a way out, and he's leading it.
It isn't that there's some kind of cosmic debt to a bank that Jesus pays in full. Yes, we use that metaphor but I think the real point is that He shows us what perfection looks like. And having seen that perfection, leads us to strive to be like Him. We can never quite get there because we have already sinned, but a life spent in pursuit of that goal is one that will be enlightened and noble.
His sacrifice was pure love because He simply didn't HAVE to do it. Yet He did do it, to not only demonstrate that love, but by sacrificing He shows that love is sacrificing for others by choice.
And that's why the world is so catastrophically screwed up right now. It's preaching carnality as virtue and self indulgence as nobility.
Jesus shows us that the most perfect being in all of human history is one who allowed Himself to be tortured and killed, unjustly, out of a desire to help US fallen, carnal beings to have a path to glory to be with Him.
And Jesus is the ultimate exemplar of sacrifice and therefore, love.