ОТДЕЛ II. О БОГЕ СПАСИТЕЛЕ В ЕГО ОСОБЕННОМ ОТНОШЕНИИ К ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКОМУ РОДУ

To me is given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and teach all tongues, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to keep all the commandments given to you: and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He who has faith and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not have faith will be condemned. § 164. Connection with the previous one and the subject of this section The Son of God, having become man, accomplished our salvation. As a Prophet, He announced to us the secret of salvation, and showed us the direct path from death to life; as the High Priest, he redeemed us from sin and all executions for sin and deserved eternal benefits for us; as a King, he confirmed the truth of his gospel with a number of miracles, destroyed the power of death and hell, and opened for us the entrance to the kingdom of heaven. But it is also necessary that this great work, accomplished for us and for us by the Son of God, be assimilated by us and become, so to speak, our property: otherwise it will remain alien to us, and the Lord Jesus will not yet be our Savior. It is necessary, in particular: a) for us to truly be cleansed of the sins from which He redeemed us, and from sinners to become righteous, or sanctified; it is necessary - b) so that, after that, they really free themselves from all the disastrous consequences of sin, temporary and eternal, and receive eternal bliss. It is towards these two goals, towards this assimilation of salvation for us, that all the activities of our Savior are now directed, expressing His special attitude towards the fallen human race (§ 51). And – 1. The Lord Jesus uses all means to ensure that we are sanctified, from sinners made righteous, from children of wrath sons of God, so that we, after the first life, put off the old man, which is corrupting in deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, created by God in righteousness and in the excellence of the truth (Eph. 4:22.24): this is done for for private individuals throughout their entire earthly life, and for the entire human race it will be carried out until the very end of the world. 2. The Lord Jesus, suddenly, after the death of each person, judging by whether the deceased used or did not use the means previously given to him for the sanctification of himself, frees him or does not free him from just punishment for sins, and honors or does not honor him with eternal bliss, and at the end of the world he will carry out a general judgment and finally reward everyone according to their deserts. Thus, the special attitude of God the Savior towards us, different from the one He has towards all of His other creatures, as Creator and Provider, is expressed in His two main actions: I) He is our Sanctifier; II) He is our Judge and Rewarder. You might be interested in: