Salvation
IN the Old Testament, to be saved you had to be a member of the Jewish family because the covenant was between God and the Jewish people. He agreed that they would be His people and they agreed that He would be their God. God chose Abraham and his seed to be His chosen people. They had salvation as long as they were true to His commandments but very often they were not. So the Lord provided for their forgiveness by sacrificing lambs and bulls whose blood was offered in atonement for their transgressions. And finally, the promise was that there would be a Messiah who would atone for all their sins and then not only the Jewish people but all peoples would share in their salvation.
When Jesus, the Messiah, came, His blood and not that of animals was offered for the atonement of sins of mankind. It was His blood that he offered for the atonement of our sins. And to be saved, it was no longer necessary to be a Jew or a descendant of Abraham and to be marked with circumcision but by the pouring of water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. This is how we become members of the community of Christ, the Messiah. We are baptized and we follow the commandments of the Old Testament and the commands of Jesus: To love God above all things and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. The Lord knows that we are weak and that we would transgress these commandments. But He has offered His own blood and life to make up to the Father in heaven for our transgressions. Then he gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom so that what he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven and what he binds on earth will be bound in heaven.
God loves His creatures, including each one of us. When Adam and Eve gave up their innocence by disobeying his only commandment, we lost the state of innocence and of grace. But in His mercy He made it possible to regain that state of grace by sending His Son to take up our human nature and die on the Cross to make atonement for our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross for our sins. Our ultimate purpose in life is to be united with the Creator in heaven. We may have a pleasant stay here on earth or one of hardship. That is not what is important for that lasts for only one or two centuries. The other life is without end or eternal. Life would be unjust if this were the only life. The bad seem to have all the advantages in this life. There has to be another life to have justice.
We often ignore that there is a spiritual world around us. We ignore that there are angels and devils around us. The devils, because of their envy at our good fortune, try to mislead us and to tempt us to go astray and not follow the commandments of God and ignore His love. The angels are here to guard and help us. Each one of us has a guardian angel who guides and helps us. We normally ignore this spiritual world around us. That should not be because they are real and can make a lot of difference in our lives.
Sin is what separates us from God and blocks our way to heaven. Among the sins that most bother us are those of disobedience and sex. Like Adam and Eve, our first parents, we tend to be hard headed. These are often the sins of pride and refusal to forgive. Then there is sex, a wonderful gift of God. It makes possible the acceptance of the difficult obligations of marriage. Sex is what makes the world go round and it is a sacrament within marriage but the Lord does not want us to use it out of marriage. This is where the devil has an advantage. He tries to destroy us with the use of sex out of marriage. It is a very powerful temptation and we therefore have to ask the help of God and the Virgin Mary to keep pure. Jesus is our salvation. Jesus saves.
What must we do to be saved? We need to be baptized with water and the Holy Spirit so that we belong to the family of God. Then we should follow its rules and if we transgress them to ask for pardon. For those who are not baptized, we say that God will have mercy on them and make a way for them to be with Him in Paradise as long as they follow their conscience of what is good.
We have just started Lent, a period of prayer and sacrifice.