b

419 ‘We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, “by propagation, not by imitation” and that it is.. . “proper to each”’(Paul VI, CPG §i6).

420 The victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: ‘where sin increased, grace abounded all the more’ (Rom 5:20).

421 Christians believe that ‘the world has been established and kept in being by the Creator’s love; has fallen into slavery to sin but has been set free by Christ, crucdled and risen to break the power of the evil one...’ (GS 2 §2).

Chapter Two

I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST,

THE ONLY SON OF GOD

The Good News: God has sent his Son

422 ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son,

389	born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were

under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This is

‘the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’:2 God has visited his

people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his

2763	descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation — he has sent his

own ‘beloved Son’.3

423 We believe and confess thatJesus of Nazareth, born ajew of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He ‘came from God’,4 ‘descended from heaven’,5 and ‘came in the flesh’.6 For ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father... And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.’7

424 Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the

683 Father, we believe in Jesus and confess: ‘You are the Christ, the Son