United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

98 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed

power of the Resurrection reminds our culture that grace is always more powerful and effective than sin and evil.

FOR DISCUSSION 1. When Jesus says our discipleship involves the Cross, what does this mean for you? In what ways do you find yourself resisting this part of Christ’s call? What is your “way of the Cross”? 2. How would you help people come to faith in the Resurrection of Christ? Why is it so central to your faith? 3. How could you come to understand or experience the need for a Savior? Why are the Cross and the Resurrection bound together in the Paschal Mystery? • To many in Israel, Jesus seemed to be acting against the Law, the Temple, and their faith in the One God. • Christ suffered because he was “rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes” who handed “him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified” (Mk 8:31; Mt 20:19). • Jesus did not abolish the Law of Sinai. He fulfilled it and revealed its ultimate meaning (cf. Mt 5:17-19; 6:43-48). • Jesus honored the Temple, to which he journeyed for the major feasts and which he loved as God’s dwelling on earth. • By forgiving sins, Jesus manifested himself to be the Savior (Jn 5:16 18). Those who did not accept him as the Savior saw him only as a man who claimed to be God, a blasphemer (Jn 10:33). • Our salvation flows from God’s love for us because “he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3). • Jesus came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). By his loving obedience to the Father, he fulfilled the atoning mission of the suffering Servant, “he was pierced for our offenses, / crushed for our sins, / . . . by his stripes we were healed” (Is 53:5). DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS