Jesus and Exorcism, Evil, Original Sin Essay

Jesus chose to be baptized in water so as to manifest his great humility and not to wash away any sins of his own. Death found nothing to punish him but just for the inauthentic justice and not be violent. Hence man can overcome and conquer the devil in the name of Jesus. Also, grace justifies a man for his sins he inherited from the forefathers and can be forgiven through Jesus Christ.

Using the 2 prayers of Exorcism and the first anointing in the present Rite of Baptism of Children, remembering the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi - the law of praying is the law of believing or we believe what we pray - how would you teach the issues of exorcism, evil, original sin, Satan, etc., in a baptismal class?

I would begin my teaching from the premise that exorcism leads to belief and theology and shows the relationship between worship and belief. Hence, it develops the creeds of Christians and the doctrine matters basing on the prayer texts of the church. Satan being evil, engineered the trespass that led to the original sin. After the original sin, man ignored the right things to do and had an appetite for the noxious things. These brought them both error and misery and then arose two evils that felt to be imminent leading to fear. Man could not lose the appetite for blessedness even in his evil nature, man and the angel had common evil but God had a unique penalty for man. God had threatened a man with severe punishment of death if he sins. After placing him in the happiness of paradise and endowed him with freedom of will, man sinned and he was banished and his descendants were to be punished for sins.

The descendants of a man have the penalty of disobedience that entered through inheritance of the original sin. Since through one man sin entered the world and death entered the world through sin hence death came upon all men who have sinned. The whole mass of human race has paid fully the deserved penalty for desertion which includes death. The Almighty God has sent his son Jesus to come and cast out the power of Satan. This is to ensure that man is rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. Through Jesus Christ, the children are set free from sin and made the glory of the temple of God.

The children of God always face the world that is full of temptations and cunnings of the devil. They have to fight the ways of the devil through Jesus Christ who died and rose to save them. Through the grace of Christ who has victory over the sin and death, the children of God have victory over the devil. They have freedom to enjoy since they have been rescued from the slavery of sin.