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Jesus Paid for AllMany today say that Jesus paid for all. Therefore, they claim His work

is infinite. I cannot add. I do not need to add. I just believe.

And they add: Where in the Bible can you find anything else?So they have two points: 1) Bible alone; 2) Jesus paid for all.We will take up each of these separately.1. As to the first: we reply: First, such people have no means of

proving which books belong to the Bible, or, are inspired. In the firstcenturies, there were many gospels with name of Apostles on them--they are not inspired. How can one know? There is only one way, andthese people do not have it.

So, before they can use the Bible, they must prove what is the Bible.They cannot do that. So if they were logical, they would give up tryingto use the Bible.

Furthermore, to try to use the Bible without help is against the Bible:The Second Epistle of St. Peter, speaking of the Epistles of St. Paul,

said in 2 Peter 3:16: "There are some things in them hard tounderstand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their owndestruction, as they do to the other Scriptures."

All Protestants try to claim Scripture is fully clear by itself: they needno help. They contradict St. Peter. And they do twist things.There is help: 2 Timothy 2:2 told Timothy: "What you have heard

from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will beable to teach others as well."--This is making provision for the ongoingteaching of the church to keep people from twisting St. Paul and the

other Scriptures. Otherwise, Protestants have to imagine that Jesussaid: Write some books - get copies made--pass them out - tell peopleto figure them out for themselves. -- Then we will fall as Peter warnedthey would fall.

Rather, Jesus Himself said several times: Luke 10:16: "He who hearsyou, hear me". In Mt 16:19: after saying He would give Peter the "keys"- a sign of authority - Jesus added: "Whatever you shall bind on earthwill be bound also in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earthwill be loosed also in heaven." There is a similar saying to all theApostles in Matthew 18:18: "Whatever you shall bind on earth, shall bebound also in heaven. Whatever you shall loose on earth shall be

loosed also in heaven." Some Protestants say this authority was givento all, and it means they should preach justification by faith. There arethree things wrong: 1) We know historically how the words bind andloose were understood in the time of Christ. They meant a decision byauthority as to what was right or wrong. 2) These words bind and loosenever meant preaching justification by faith - no hint of that at all inthe text or context. Two fine Protestant scholars, W. F. Albright (in hisday often called "Dean of American Scripture scholars) and C. S. Mann,

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in their commentary on St. Matthew in Anchor Bible (p. 198) wrote:"Peter's authority to 'bind' or 'release' will be a carrying out ofdecisions made in Heaven. His teaching and disciplinary activities willbe similarly guided by the spirit to carry out Heaven's will." 3) Peter isgiven the keys, a sign of authority. The keys are not given to all, not

even to all the Apostles. -- Therefore to refuse to recognize theteaching authority to bind and loose of Peter and the Apostles andtheir successors is to go against the Bible. The result is what St. Peterwarned of (2 Pet 3:16):"The ignorant and the unstable twist them totheir own destruction, as they do also the other Scriptures."This same grant of authority is repeated at the Last Supper in John

13:20 to the Twelve: "He who receives the one I send receives me: hewho receives me, receives the One who sent me." He spoke only to theApostles, who were the only ones present. For people today to ignorethis grant of authority is to contradict the Bible.

Again not long before the ascension (Mt 18:18-20): "All power is given

me in heaven and on earth. So go and teach all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commandedyou. And behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation ofthe world." - So Jesus commanded them to go and teach -- He did nottell them to write some books, pass out copies, tell people to figurethem out for them selves. To do what would result in what St. Peterwarned about: The ignorant and the unstable twist them to their owndestruction as they do also the other Scriptures."To suppose the Church was so far from having they help of Christ,

which He promised until the end of the world, that it for most of its

existence it could teach a false way to salvation - this makes nonsenseof the promise of Christ to be with them all days. And then to supposean immoral man like Luther was the one to put the church right- thisstaggers the imagination.The first Christians understood this grant of authority well. In Acts

2:42 the people "devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles."They did not establish Bible study groups to figure things out forthemselves - they would then "twist them to their own destruction."Acts 5:13 also reports: "No one of the rest dared to join himself tothem [the Apostles] but the people magnified them."

He who rejects those to whom Christ gave authority to teach, and

tries to teach himself is indeed ignorant - ignorant of the Gospels -- andunstable - and twists things to his own destruction.

In John 20, right after the resurrection Jesus told the Apostles: "Whosesins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, whose sins you shallretain they are retained." This was spoken to the Apostles only. Thereis no hint it meant just preaching justification by faith. Rather, theApostle would need to learn - by confession - the state of a soul, so asto know whether to forgive or to retain.

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2. Jesus paid for all. His merits are infinite. So I cannot add. I do notneed to do anything.

BUT: Even the Bible says there is more to it than that:Romans 8:17: "We are heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided

thatwe suffer with Him, so we may also be glorified with Him." This is

part of the large syn Christo theme ("with Christ") of St. Paul. Cf. Rom6:3-8 - we are baptized into His death, and so should rise with Him. Col3:1-43: Since we have been raised up with Christ, we must think of thethings that are above. Cf. Ephesians 2:5-9.

So can we just settle down and do nothing, saying Christ paid for all?St. Paul - if anyone ever took Christ as his Savior it was Paul - wrote in1 Cor 9:27: "I chastise my body and lead it into subjection, so that afterpreaching to others, I may not be rejected at the scrutiny." Even afterhis heroic work for Christ, Paul knew His body might lead him into sin,and so he could lose salvation. In 2 Cor 10 Paul gives a long list ofprefigurations, forecasts in action, of things in the NT. The original

people of God had these, but that was not enough- God was displeasedwith and slew many of them.

Similarly Paul warned the Galatians (Gal 5:16-25) that they mustfollow the Spirit or they do not belong to Christ (cf. Rom 8:9). And Paulgave them two checklists in that passage to see which way they wereliving. It as not enough just to have taken Christ as their Savior.

In 1 Cor 6:9-10 Paul gives a list of the chief great sins and sinners andwarns they who do such things "will not inherit the kingdom of God."So it was not enough to take Christ as their Savior.

We note too the word inherit which Paul uses several times, in thecontext of saying God is our Father. We indeed can get heaven without

earning it, it is our inheritance, since we by grace are transformed intochildren of God and temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19 and 3:16).But we could earn to lose it: Romans 6:23: "The wages [what we canearn] of sin is death, the free gift of God [what we do not earn} iseternal life."

How does this all fit with the fact that Jesus earned all forgivenessand grace? Not difficult. It is one thing for Him to earn it, another forme to be open to receive it. He of course can specify what is neededfor me to receive. He has done that through the Bible, which shows mehow to be open to receive.

What of the Mass? It does not, need not earn all forgiveness and

grace. That was done once for all on Calvary. But it obeys Hiscommand, "Do this in memory of me." Why? He wanted us to have aplace to join our dispositions of heart with His, for as we explained,that is needed for us to receive what He wants to give. We learn fromIsaiah 29:13 what sacrifice is. God complained that this people honorsme with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. So we see asacrifice entails two things, outward sign, and interior dispositions. Theoutward sign is there to express and perhaps promote the interior. On

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Holy Thursday the outward sign was the seeming separation of bodyand blood, to express His obedience to the will of the Father that Heshould die the next day. On Friday the sign was the physical separationof body and blood, still expressing the same interior disposition ofobedience. In the Mass He is present with the same interior disposition

of His Heart, so we may join with Him, to become open to receive whatHe wants to give. It is a sacrifice not that He dies again, or earns againwhat was bought and paid for, but that He provides the means ofgiving out what He once paid for.

It is not that we earn salvation by our own power - not at all - but it isHis will that we join with Him - cf. the syn Christo theme, with Christ.Insofar as we are not only His members but like Him we get in on theclaim He generated, as His members who are like Him. Cf. Romans8:17: "We are heirs together with Christ provided we suffer with Him sowe may also be glorified with Him." And cf. Mt. 16:24:" If anyone willsto come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and

follow me." Cf. also Mt. 10:38.