WHAT ROLE DOES CHRIST PLAY IN OUR SALVATION?

16 SEPTEMBER, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION..1 2. THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST IN OUR SALVATION.....2 3. AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUSS RESPONSE ON THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST IN OUR SALVATION...3 4.CONCLUSION...6 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................7

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The research paper is based on the analysis of Jesus Christs role in peoples salvation and on the analysis of Pelagius and Augustines opinions concerning His action. The hypotheses of the paper are: Jesus Christs primary mission on earth was to save people by means of personal death; Pelagius and Augustine expressed totally different opinions concerning the action of Jesus Christ and thus established two different trends in history, Pelagianism and Augustinianism. The hypotheses of the research paper will be either supported or refuted in the process of conducting a research. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, played an increasingly important role when He was on earth. He glorified His Father; He made a lot of miracles, such as curing people and resurrecting them; He conducted moral lessons of life, the main purpose of which was to inform people that if they want to make truly intimate relations with God, they should follow His commandments, and so on and so forth. Jesus Christ did a lot of good things to people, but He always reminded that He was provided with power to do all that by His Almighty Father. However, the primary role of Jesus Christ on earth was to propagate the ideas of His Father first of all and to save people. Jesus Christ died and He saved peoples lives by His death. Nevertheless, not all people approved of His deed. Augustine and Pelagius had quite controversial opinions concerning Jesus Christs death as a means of peoples salvation. Pelagius supported the idea that Jesus Christ died in order to save people. However, Augustine expressed quite a controversial idea. 1

CHAPTER 2 THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST IN OUR SALVATION

Jesus Christ, the only Son of His Almighty Father, was sent on earth to spread the information about His Father and Fathers kingdom. He spread information that eternal life on earth is possible if people develop strong faith in God and if they live a decent life, not only externally, but internally as well. Jesus Christ stated that people should have only positive thoughts, as all the thoughts and intentions are seen and evaluated by God. Jesus Christ lived a decent life on earth, doing a lot of positive things and thus proving that a miracle is possible. However, God created people with a dual type of nature, which possesses both positive and negative features. Jesus Christ provided all people with equal possibility to obtain knowledge and implement it practically later on, though not all of them listened to Him in the same way due to their biological nature. If some people were His true pupils and followed all His teachings with much respect, then the other category of people became very jealous and wanted to get His power. The evil side took priority and jealous students killed Jesus Christ. However, God resurrected Jesus Christ on the third day after He was killed and thus proved that peoples intentions are nothing in comparison with Gods intentions. God demonstrated that people had a choice: to live an eternal life, being surrounded by pleasant people, or to be temporary guests on earth. People chose the second variant, being sure that they are as almighty as God and that was their greatest mistake. Jesus Christ did not remain for a long period of time on earth and soon He died in order to save people, as He was sent on earth to save people. Gonzales stated 2

3 in his book: Christ died for our sins.1 Jesus Christ played an increasingly important role in peoples salvation. He was the only person on earth who had no sins. Did Jesus Christ really die? He died as a person. Nowadays, Jesus Christ is in Heaven and observes what is going on on earth. Jesus Christ predicted everything that would happen in the world and He stated that all people who would manage to develop strong faith in God and would follow Gods commandments will live a happy life later on. Jesus Christ even predicted the events of the modern world and He described the relations that would flourish among people. Jesus Christ said: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.2 As soon as Jesus died, God predicted everything that would happen in the world. However, Jesus Christ told His followers that they should not give up under any circumstances and they will be rewarded. Jesus Christ said: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 3 Jesus Christ died in order to save the lives of millions of people, but before death He provided people with universal knowledge that can help overcome a lot of difficulties, develop strong faith in God, follow Gods commandments, and live a decent life. So, people all over the world should be thankful to Jesus Christ, as Jesus Christ saved peoples lives by His death and provided people with sacred knowledge. ______________
Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (The United States of America: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984). Bible Online: Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. (Available at http://carm.org/kjv/Matt/matt_24.htm), Matthew 24:7-14. Bible Online: Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. (Available at http://carm.org/kjv/Matt/matt_24.htm), Matthew 28:19,20.
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CHAPTER 3 AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUSS RESPONSE ON THE ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST IN OUR SALVATION

As it was already stated, Jesus Christ saved humanity by His death. It is also proved by the fact that He asked people to celebrate His day of death, as it is the day of peoples salvation. Did Augustine and Pelagius support Jesus Christs action? Both of them had quite different opinions concerning it. Augustine expressed a different opinion. Firstly, he believed that people can live a decent life under any circumstances if they have such a desire. However, he added that original sin makes human moral behavior nearly impossible.4 Then, Augustine stated that people are able to save their lives themselves: as people sin, they should save themselves alone. He did not support the idea that Jesus Christ saved the lives of all the people. On the contrary, he believed that people are too strong and thus they do not need external support. Augustine supported the idea that Adams sin is his personal sin and, as a result, it is unfair that all people should suffer because of Adams sin. He believed that each person should be judged individually, irrespective of other peoples sins. Augustine supported the opinion that there were people before and after Jesus Christ who had no sins, though they are not spoken about. This idea, however, had no support. He opposed the idea that only Jesus Christs teachings could make people closer with God. He believed that the law has practically the same power as the teachings of Gods Son and, thus, the law can make people live a decent life. However, he did not take into consideration that the law is created by people and ______________
Augustine. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer-Reviewed Academic Resource. (Available at http://www.iep.utm.edu/augustin/).
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5 Jesus Christs teachings are created and blessed by Almighty God. Augustine did not support the idea that the resurrection of Jesus Christ led to the resurrection of entire humanity in general. More than that, Augustine did not support the fact that the death of Gods Son led to peoples salvation. Pelagius did not support the ideas expressed by Augustine. He believed that people can save themselves only with the help of Gods support, and people can get this support by demonstrating truly love to each other, by following and implementing practically Christs teachings. In addition, he added that people should not just follow Gods Sons teachings unconsciously, but they should rather understand everything what they want to follow in order to realize the teachings. Pelagius believed that human nature deprived people of the possibility to live a descent life. He believed that it was unfair to ask people to follow commandments and Christs teachings, as people did not have enough will to do it due to their nature. If God called humans to live moral lives, Pelagius thought, it should be within their power to carry out such commands.5 However, he believed that people should always improve and even in case something is difficult to achieve, people should never give up. More than that, people should always work on personal improvement. He thought that people cannot develop moral behavior without Gods help, because people are weak social beings in comparison with the power of God. As God created commandments, people can follow them only in case they feel strong support of God. He believed that Jesus Christ saved humanity by His death and he emphasized that people should be thankful to Jesus Christ for it. Pelagius believed that people should appreciate their life and be obedient, merciful, and charitable in order to demonstrate strong love, appreciation, and faith in God and His power.

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Justin Holcomb, Pelagius: Know Your Heretics. (Available at http://theresurgence.com/2010/03/15/pelagius-know-your-heretics).
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CONCLUSION Jesus Christ played a great role in humans destiny, saving people all over the world. Jesus Christ was sent on earth by His Father in order to glorify the kingdom of His Father and persuade people that it is possible to live there, as well as to save humanity. There are different opinions concerning the role of Jesus Christ in the salvation of humanity. Pelagius supported that Jesus Christ saved people by His death. However, Augustine expressed quite an ambiguous opinion concerning the role of Jesus Christ in peoples salvation. The hypotheses of the research paper were proved in the process of conducting a research. The research paper serves as a solid background for further research.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Augustine. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer-Reviewed Academic Resource. Available at http://www.iep.utm.edu/augustin/. Bible Online: Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. Available at http://carm.org/kjv/Matt/matt_24.htm. Gonzalez, J. L. The Story of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. The United States of America: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984. Holcomb, J. Pelagius: Know Your Heretics. Available at http://theresurgence.com/2010/03/15/pelagius-know-your-heretics.