Refutation of James McCarthy's "Christ's Work of Redemption is Finished, Not Continuing"
James's words are in blue; mine are in black.
Just before the Lord Jesus gave up His spirit upon the cross, He cried out, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). His sacrificial work of redemption was done. The Greek verb here is in the perfect tense. "It implies a process, but views that process as having reached its consummation and existing in a finished state." In other words, the saving work of Christ was completed on the cross and continues in a state of completion. The verse can be translated: "It has been finished and stands complete" (John 19:30).
Was Jesus' saving work complete? No, but His passion and death was. However, we still have to re-offer His completed sacrifice to the Father (not re-sacrifice Him) during the mass.
Roman Catholicism misrepresents the finished work of Christ on the cross by saying that the sacrifice of the cross is continued in the Mass. The Church claims that "�God Himself wishes that there should be a continuation of the sacrifice�." And so, Christ "�has offered and continues to offer Himself as a victim for our sins�." According to Roman Catholic theology, at over 120 million Masses each year four things occur:
An Immolation
As we have seen, the Church teaches that at each Mass, through the words and actions of the priest, Christ is immolated-made present in His victimhood upon the altar under the appearance of bread and wine. This, says the Church, is "no mere empty commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, but a true and proper act of sacrifice�an unbloody immolation�a most acceptable victim�."
This doctrine terribly misrepresents the present resurrected and glorified state of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures teach that "Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him" (Romans 6:9). Christ manifests Himself as "the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore�." (Revelation 1:18). He then adds, "�and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (Revelation 1:18). Shall the living One who holds all power over death be continually presented in His death? And that by those for whom He died? Clearly not.
Clearly so.
"Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." - Revelation 5:6
Furthermore, the Bible makes no mention of an unbloody immolation. Scripture teaches that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). No blood, no propitiation.
James misunderstands this verse. If there is no blood shed during the act of the sacrifice, then there is no forgiveness of sins. However, the mass is not a new sacrifice; it is Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary re-offered to the Father. The lack of blood in the mass is irrelevant because it's merely a re-offering of a sacrifice that WAS bloody. The sacrifice itself is bloody, but the manner in which we re-offer it is not.
A Re-Presentation
The Church teaches that at each Mass, Christ "�offers Himself a most acceptable victim to the Eternal Father, as He did upon the cross." In the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest petitions God, "Look with favor on your Church's offering, and see the Victim whose death has reconciled us to yourself." The Church explains that the priest is praying that "�the Body and Blood of Christ may be the acceptable sacrifice which brings salvation to the whole world."
"But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." - Hebrews 7:24-25
Let's analyze this.
1) Jesus is a priest forever.
2) Because He is a priest forever, He is able to save all who approach God.
3) He is able to save all who approach God because He always intercedes for them.
We can see that Jesus is able to save because He is a priest and because He always makes intercession, meaning that His intercession is a priestly intercession. Also, Jesus is a priest forever "because He continues forever." What does He continue? His priestly work.
If Jesus continues His priestly work by interceding, what else can He do but continually offer up His sacrifice to the Father? It looks like the Catholic Church is right.
This re-presentation of Christ in His victimhood, allegedly occurring millions of times each year at the Mass, misrepresents the accepted work of Christ. The Bible teaches that Christ presented the sacrifice of His life to the Father only once. Upon His death, the Lord Jesus passed "through the greater and more perfect tabernacle" (Hebrews 9:11). His purpose was "to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24). Jesus entered the heavenly throne room of God "not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood" (Hebrews 9:12). His purpose was "to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). He "entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12).
Jesus entered the holy place once, and He stays there. When the merits of the cross are applied to us, our PAST sins our forgiven (2 Peter 1:9). If we sin again, we need the merits of the cross to be applied to us again to forgive our new sins.
As Hebrews 10:26-27 says, "For if we willingly persist in sin after having received the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect pf judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." If there NO LONGER remains a sacrifice, that means that there was a sacrifice for sins (the merits of the cross were applied), but not any more. This illustrates why the merits of the cross forgive our PAST sins.
As Hebrews 7:24-25 says, Jesus continues His priestly intercession for the forgiveness of sins.
He redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), allowing for our sins to be forgiven. This redemption, once it occurs, does not have to happen again.
The Father accepted the perfect sacrifice of Christ without reservation. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Revelation 5:12), shall be the praise of myriads of angels in heaven for all eternity.
And He accepts it again every time it is re-offered to Him during the mass.
On earth the Father signaled His acceptance of Christ's work by dramatically removing one of the principal symbols of the separation that sin had caused between God and man. In the Temple, as instructed by God, a thick curtain formed a wall between the area in which the Aaronic priesthood could minister and the Holy of Holies where God dwelt. The Scriptures record that as Christ yielded up His spirit, "Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51). This removal of the barrier between God and man signaled that Christ's work of redemption had been accepted.
I agree, Christ's redemption was accepted; however, this does not mean that He ceases to act as a priest for the forgiveness of sins.
The greatest manifestation of the Father's acceptance of Christ's sacrifice came three days later. The Bible says that Jesus "was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4:25). Christ's offering for sin had been accepted (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Okay, and James's point? Catholics don't say that the Father didn't accept Jesus' sacrifice; we say that He continually accepts it again and again at every mass.
The Scriptures further teach, speaking of Christ: "When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). He sat down for His work was finished. There He remains until a future day: "He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet" (Hebrews 10:12-13).
He sat down at the right hand of God, yet He continues in His priestly role (Hebrews 7:24-25) at the right hand of God.
An Appeasement
Roman Catholicism teaches that the Sacrifice of the Mass is a "truly propitiatory sacrifice" of "infinite value"
To the contrary, the Lord is offended by the offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass. God has already told us that He is fully satisfied with the once for all offering of Christ on the cross: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).
Forgiveness of sins and eternal redemption comes from Jesus' sacrifice; I agree.
The "Holy Spirit also bears witness to us�saying�their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 10:15-17).
When God forgives our sins, they are completely forgiven; I agree.
The conclusion naturally follows: "Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18).
When Hebrews uses the word "offering," Paul (traditionally identified as the author) means "the act of sacrificing something," which is not the same as re-offering something. Basically, when Paul refers to Christ's offering, he's referring to the act of being sacrificed (the cross), not any acts of re-offering it to the Father. This can be seen from Hebrews 9:25-26:
"Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself."
For Christ to have to suffer and die again to be re-offered, He would have to be re-sacrificed, which is not what happens at the mass.
So, Paul is saying that where there is forgiveness of sins, you don't have to sacrifice anything else, and Catholics don't re-sacrifice Jesus. He was contrasting Jesus' once for all sacrifice, which can take away sins, with the Old Covenant repeated sacrifices, which couldn't take away sins.
For this reason, Scripture repeatedly calls the cross the "once for all" offering of Christ (Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 9:26, 9:28, 10:10; Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18).
I agree; Jesus was only sacrificed once. However, God, who transcends time, makes it present to us in the mass so we can offer it up to Him again.
An Application
Finally, Roman Catholicism teaches that at each Mass, the blessings of Calvary are meted out to Catholics
All of this stands in contradiction to the Bible. Scripture teaches that God freely and immediately bestows upon each true believer "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3). These He lavishes upon His children in Christ (Ephesians 1:7-8).
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" - Ephesians 1:3
"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us." - Ephesians 1:7-8
Neither of these passages supports James's position; they don't exclude the possibility of having graces given to us at mass.
Nowhere does God require a Christian to participate in an ongoing sacrifice in order to obtain his or her blessings in Christ.
"To obtain his or her blessings in Christ"? James is making it sound as if the Church says that no graces are given outside of mass, which is false.
If James is saying that nowhere does the bible command us to attend mass, then he's still wrong. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). The Greek word for "remembrance," "anamnesis," refers to a memorial SACRIFICE (as shown by the Septuagint's use of it in Numbers 10:10 and Leviticus 24:7), so Jesus was commanding us to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
