2 Corinthians 5 - My argument against Catholic intercession
My post 2 Corinthians 5 - Being Reconciled to God makes a point about Catholism that many protestants make through less direct means, and that is the intercessory nature of saints and priests in one’s walk with God. Now, I was never Catholic, and mean no insult, especially to whatever degree I might unwittingly misrepresent what Catholics believe.
That said, it is my understanding that Catholics pray TO Mary to intercede for them with God. They pray TO the saints as well. Finally, they confess their sins and receive absolution from their priests. If I have this right, then I would consider these to be unbiblical practices, because it places a distance between people and God that God does not intend to have with His followers.
Read my post 2 Corinthians 5 - Being Reconciled to God. There I discuss Paul’s writing, where he shows that Christ is our sin. This isn’t a statement that Christ is our evil nature, or the substance of our wrong-doing. If “sin” is merely our distance from God, then Christ replaced that distance with Himself. Jesus is our distance from God, become in essence our sin… the only context in which “sin” is not bad.
The ramifications to Catholicism are severalfold. First of all, the idea of intercessory prayer goes out the window. What I mean is, we do not need Mary or the Saints to give God a message for us… we do not need them to bridge the distance between us and God, because that is what Jesus did. If Jesus bridged the gap, then what need Mary or the Saints do? There is no gap, hence no need for them in our walks or prayer life! That shakes up a lot of Catholics, but they believe in the same scriptures that I do, so if they read 2 Cor. 5, then I do not know what other conclusion they should be able to come to.
This also speaks to the role of the priest. Why confess our sin to the priest? Frankly, Jesus is now our sin. A Catholic who is truly saved could honestly walk into a confession booth and say, “I have come to confess my sin, and it is Jesus.” In other words, the sinful actions of a saved person are no longer a true distance between them and God. If you imagine the distance between you and the father as a piece of elastic rubber, then sinning stretches it. Before Christ, that rubber was true distance, and something of your own making that will never let you actually be with God; when you accept Christ however, He becomes that elastic rubber. Your sinful acts still stretch Him, and yet He continues to bridge that gap, no matter how far or wide… Christ is the manifestation of God’s love for you, and you cannot break that, and He does not let you go. He stretched out His arms on the Cross, and that stretching will continue as you sin in this life, until you die and He rebounds with you in hand, bringing into God’s glorious presence as His child. So with Christ already connecting you to the Father, even through your sin, the priests role in forgiving appears superfluous.
To any Catholic reading this, I mean no offense, but I hope you will read the 2 Cor 5, and my post on it. See that God loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you… what else was He required to do? Give you Mary, a priest, and the saints? No. Christ was enough, and is enough. He is your sin. He is your connection to God. Be comforted in that. Feel loved through that. He loves you so much, that nothing CAN come between Himself and you… not even your most sacred symbols. See that? Even if you ask them to intercede for you, they actually can’t; they cannot bridge the gap! Because if you are saved by Christ and His work on the Cross, and by His resurrection, the gap you ask them to fill was never there! Do not feel threatened… feel loved.