Actual Effects of the Passion of Christ
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The first effect of the Passion is the delivering ofman from sin. The Passion renders human sin forgivable. Itfurnishes a medicine which cures sin in those who take that medicine rightly. A man’s individual responsibility for his acts, and his sins, is not taken away; nor is free will nullified. But the Passion removed the barrier of original sin which made heaven inaccessible to mankind, and merited the grace man needs to raise him out of actual sins and set him in the sure way to heaven. These graces man obtains through the faith by the use of thesacraments and prayer which have efficacy because of the Passion and its merits.
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The Passion delivered man from the power of the devil.It made sin forgivable, and, through the forgiveness of sin, man can be reconciled with God and put in the way to heaven. Thus Satan is defeated, and no man need longer remain in his power. Satanoverreached himself in conspiring to bring about the death of our Lord, for that death meant Satan’s own defeat.
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The Passion freed men from the punishment due to sin. Christ paid superabundantly on man’s behalf. Henceforth, if aman deserve such punishment, it is his own personal and individual doing, his own actual sinning. And even such actual sin can be forgiven, and its punishment cancelled, by the forgivability of sin established by the Passion.
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The Passion reconciled man with God. St. Paul (Rom.5:10) says:
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Original sin closed the gates of heaven to all mankind. And serious actual sin also closes heaven to the sinner. Now, the Passion atoned for original sin, and so opened heaven to the whole race, and made it possible, on Christ’s terms, for a man to get there. As for the personal sinner, the Passion, by making actual sin forgivable, opens heaven to the truly repentant.
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Christ humbled himself in his Passion, and so meritedto be exalted. Says scripture (Phil. 2:8, 9): “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him.” Christ was exalted as man in the Resurrection, the Ascension, the placing atthe right hand of God, the receiving of the homage of all rational creatures, who are to bow the knee at the mention of his name.
“We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”The Passion, in addition to its delivering of man from thethralldom of sin, is a most pleasing sacrifice to God. So pleasing indeed, and so powerful is this sacrifice, that God is appeased by it for every human sin if the sinner makes himself one with Christ and complies with his will and his institution for removing sin and gaining grace.