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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?
DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS
• 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).