Although these 3 paragraphs come at the end of the article...I would suggest reading the whole thing. An interesting take on explaining Christianity to the Atheist...
And this, finally, is the answer Christianity gives to
suffering. Since Christ became all sin, and suffering is the result of
sin, Christ took upon himself all suffering. Since his act was for all earthly time, this includes our current suffering.
If this is true, no suffering is apart from the suffering of Christ.
All is his. I am a Christian because I can acknowledge the reality that
my suffering is in fact the suffering of Christ, and thereby “offer it
up” with him, giving it meaning and the most glorious of purposes: The
end of all suffering.
As Paul says: “Now I rejoice in what I am
suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in
regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the
church.” Our suffering, because it is Christ’s, saves the world.
This
changes everything: To see the child with leukemia is to see Christ
suffering in that child, suffering to bring the world back to
Perfection. To experience agony is to cry out with the strain of lifting
this fallen world to Paradise. We are called to recognize this, and to
actualize this. This is why I am a Christian.
No comments:
Post a Comment