The role of the cross in the saving work of God in the theology of St. Paul

Abstract

The author of this article analyzes the texts, in which St. Paul writes on the subject of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. In Ga 2: 19–20 the apostle presents the love of Christ as an essential feature of his nature and he suggests that this love was expressed in the particular, historical self offering on the cross. In Rom 5: 7–8 he states that the only motive for the redeeming sacrifice, which the Son of God offered of himself, following the will of the Father, is the heroic love, shown in the death for sinners. Despite the fact that in the antiquity the cross was a tool of the most degrading and humiliating death, St. Paul writes in Ga 6: 14 that he boasts of the cross of Jesus Christ, furthermore, in 1 Cor 1: 24 he adds that the crucified Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God”. In Ga 3: 13 Paul observes a state of humanity, overloaded with the curse of sin, as a slavery, from which the Christ freed it, through his sacrifice offered on the wood of the cross, because on it, by his own will he took this curse, which was leading humanity to condemnation, on himself. Further deepening of the theological reflection on the role of the cross in the saving work of God can be found in Eph 2: 13–16 and Col 1: 19–20. The author of these texts recognizes the blood of Christ, poured out on the cross, as the tool of reconciliation and introducing peace and reconciliation to the world.