The Fire of Christ's Love: Meditations on the Cross by Raniero Cantalamessa

Author:Raniero Cantalamessa [Cantalamessa, Raniero]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Word Among Us Press
Published: 2013-01-07T06:00:00+00:00

26. THE FATHER’S DEBT TO THE SON

We have a distorted view of our redemption, and this creates problems of faith for us. We think of it as a sort of bargain: Jesus, the mediator between God and man, pays the Father the price of our ransom with his blood, and the Father is “satisfied” and forgives men their sins. But this is a very human view, inexact or at least partially so. Even humanly speaking, it is unbearable—a father who needs his son’s blood to be placated! The truth is that the Son’s suffering comes first and foremost (it is spontaneous and free!), and this is so precious in the Father’s eyes that he, in return, makes the greatest gift possible to the Son, giving him many brothers, making him “the first-born among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). “Ask of me,” he told him, “and I will make the nations your heritage, / and the ends of the earth your possessions” (Psalm 2:8).

Therefore, it is not so much the Son paying a debt to the Father as the Father paying a debt to the Son for having restored to him “all those who had gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6). And he paid it as only God could, in an infinite measure, for none of us could possibly imagine the glory and joy the Father gave Christ in his resurrection.

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