Day 86: God's Plan of Salvation

By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." CCC 604

In today's reading, the Catechism speaks about God's plan for our salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. As stated in the paragraph above, this was an act of "benevolent love" which He freely did for us without "any merit on our part". He could have chosen another way or even stuck firmly to the Law, condemning all of us since we constantly fail to keep every part of it. Yet He did not. Jesus the Son freely chose to do the will of the Father and take on human flesh, suffer and die, and finally be resurrected. By these things, he conquered death and freed us from our slavery to sin (Jn 8:34-36). The Church teaches, as shown in the Catechism Compendium, that the death of Jesus was part of God's plan:

To reconcile to himself all who were destined to die because of sin God took the loving initiative of sending his Son so that he might give himself up for sinners. Proclaimed in the Old Testament, especially as the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant, the death of Jesus came about “in accordance with the Scriptures”. (#118)

Finally, in consideration of certain teachings, like that of the Calvinists, the Church very clearly answers the question of whether what Christ did on the cross is for all persons or not, as shown in the Catechism Companion, Vol I:

Jesus died for all people, without exception. The Council of Quiercy in the year 853 stated: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer. Those words should be embedded deeply into our hearts. When we are talking with anybody or looking in the mirror, we should recognize this is true. This is why we pray for those who do not yet know Christ. God has so much life and love and joy that he wants for the entire world. (p. 176)

In other words, while He already knows our eternal destiny, God's love is still for YOU and everyone else - including that guy you cannot stand. Christ suffered and died for us all no matter who we are or what sins we have committed. It's up to us to respond to His grace and accept Him in faith and love.