CE Retreat Plan of Daniel Day Sta. Maria

Reflection on Chapter 10

                             

                     Sometimes I ask myself, "What is the most important gift I had ever received?" For me, it does not need to be super expensive. In fact, if a gift gave me happiness or gave me what I needed in my life, I will cherish it.

Among all the gifts I like to receive, one stands out above all. God gave this not just to me, but to all humanity. Jehovah gives me many things, but the most important gift of all is the ransom of his son, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 20:28) The ransom can give me unprecedented happiness and can suffice my most important needs. The ransom is the greatest declaration of love of Jehovah for me.

To sum it out, the ransom is Jehovah's way to pay or save mankind from sin and death. (Ephesians 1:7) Long ago, when Jehovah made Adam, he gave him perfectness. He is free from sickness, he will not grow old, he has everlasting life and therefore do not die. He has a father-son relationship with God.(Luke 3:38) Unfortunately, his skill of free will led him astray. Despite his perfectness, he chose to disobey God. He lost his perfectness and life. But his lost is not just for him, but for all his siblings too, that is why we die. (Romans 5:12) We inherited sin from Adam, and therefore because of sin, we die.





Because a perfect life was lost, no mere imperfect human can repay the ransom. It needs an equal payment for the ransom. Jehovah paid the ransom by sending a perfect spiritual son. But Jehovah did not send a mere son, he sent his only begotten son.(1 John 4:9,10) Jesus voluntarily left his heavenly home to serve his father.(Phil 2:7) Through the holy spirit, Jesus' spiritual body was transferred to Mary's womb as a perfect human. Jesus is called  "The Last Adam",  who is perfect and never sinned, gave his perfect life to ransom Adam's lost perfectness, Jesus paid the sin of Adam. So Jesus gave hope to Adam's siblings.

The Bible illustrated the challenges and punishments Jesus suffered before and during his death. He experienced brutal whips and then nailed in a stake. His sufferings proved that he was loyal to the end, even in the face of adversity.




Despite my sinfulness, I can experience rich blessings because of Jesus' ransom. The ransom gave way to forgiveness of sins we commit. Although we cannot avoid sin, we must strive to resist sin, do what's right and really regret our sins and try to never do it again.