Scene opens with Buffy entering the SunnyDale High School Library where Giles is busy putting away several old dusty volumes.

Buffy: Giles, I have had the most eerie evening.

Giles: Not vampires?

Buffy: Oh, there were beaucoup d'vampires, operative word being 'were' but I have a question for you and your musty volumes.

Giles: Yes?

Buffy: Last night, there were so many vampires that I actually ran out of stakes. Seven had always been enough. From now on, I'm taking a dozen.

Giles: That seems prudent.

Buffy: But last night when I ran out of stakes, I reached into my bag and found that cross I've been carrying. When I took it out to see if there were any stakes left, the vamps just wigged out. They were terrified. I understand why decapitation and staking works on vampires. I mean, a stake through the heart or losing your head would turn any day into a bad day, but why does the cross work? In all your thoroughly enlightening discussions of your books and legends, you've never told me the deal with the crosses.

Giles: Well, it is quite simple, really. You've read the pertinent passages from the Bible, haven't you?

Buffy: Well, I saw the movie...

Giles: The Movie! This generation is going to be the end of me yet.

Willow and Xander enter

Willow: What did we do this time?

Xander: Buffy, don't tell me you used the "a" word again.

Giles: The "a" word?

Buffy: Ain't. No, I was just asking Giles why crosses give vampires the willies. He was explaining to me why I give him the willies.

Willow: Oh. Well, I know why crosses give vampires willies. It's because of that Jesus guy. He was killed on one and then came back to life, or so I've been told. Right?

Giles: Quite right, Willow. Your knowledge of this astonishes me. As does your lack of knowledge of this, Buffy. Didn't Merrick impress on you the importance of reading this?

Buffy: I guess sometime between his throwing a knife at my head and getting himself killed he may have.

Giles: But you...

Buffy: Didn't. Sorry. But, hey, Giles. Here's your chance. Teach me.

Giles: Well, it's pretty much just as Willow said. There was this young man, Jesus who

Xander: Young as compared to...?

Giles: Myself, yes. Jesus was a man with extraordinary power. He cast demons out of people with a word.

Buffy: So he was some sort of slayer, only male?

Willow: A Biffy the Vampire Slayer. I like it.

Giles: Are the two of you quite through? He wasn't a Slayer as such. He was able to cure the sick, heal the crippled, raise the dead...

Buffy: And these dead he raised. I take it they didn't wake up with a taste for blood. I mean, I've seen a lot of dead raised who I wish had stayed dead.

Giles: Whom. I know what you mean, but no. These people were raised to live normal productive lives unlike some people I know.

Xander: I would resent that but then I remembered: Hey, I'm proud of my unproductivity.

Buffy: I'm still not getting it. How did Jesus raise the dead?

Giles: It all has to do with who he is.

Willow: Oh-oh-oh, I know this one. He was the Son of God or God the Son or something like that.

Giles: Right on both counts actually although the past tense isn't exactly accurate.

Willow: But I thought he died.

Giles: Well, yes, he did die. It was a special death on behalf of all mankind. The evil that had permeated the planet had to be paid for and Jesus was the only one who could live the perfect life and die on behalf of mankind.

Buffy: By evil you mean vampires, werewolves, witches, that sort of evil?

Giles: Well, yes, there's that, of course. But all of our sins, from simple lying to murder also put Jesus on that cross.

Xander: And the magical cross brought him back to life?

Giles: No, he came back to life on his own to prove the debt was paid in full.

Xander: So he's still around?

Giles: Oh yes, quite alive though he left the planet physically almost 2000 years ago.

Buffy: And the cross?

Giles: It remains a powerful symbol of the resurrection to this day which accounts for vampires' fear of it. To them it symbolizes their ultimate defeat, the victory of good over evil because of what Jesus accomplished there. Their doom is indeed sealed. He won over all rulers and principalities and powers.

Xander: I knew it. I knew it. Principals are evil.

Buffy: But, if their doom is sealed because of the evil they've done, what about us with our simple lying, hyphen, murder? Where is the cut-off? I mean, will two lies and a swear word seal my doom or can I steal a notebook and still make the grade?

Giles: Oh, no, I assure you that one sin is enough.

Buffy: Ok, I apologize for lying to you that time to go out on a date. And boy oh boy am I sorry for what Angel and I did.

Giles: Yes, I feel it safe to say we all are. But the point is that any sin is enough to seal our doom which is why Jesus died in our place, to enable us to spend eternity with God.

Buffy: But I thought our doom was sealed being sinners and all.

Giles: If you had done your reading you would know the happy ending to Jesus work. He offers eternal life with him to anyone who will trust what he did on the cross to pay for their sins. It really is that simple. Here, let me show you the passages Merrick should have shown you...

While Giles is busy digging out his Bible why don't you dig out yours and check out the following passages in context from the book of Romans, where the Apostle Paul explains the way of salvation:

Romans 3:23 ...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,...
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 10:9-11 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Everyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Buffy: So, Giles, if I understand this right, if I had died for good back there, I would now be just another pretty face being tormented in hell, slayer or not. But now that I've trusted Jesus with my eternal future, I can be assured of an eternity with him?

Giles: Yes, Buffy. I'm only sorry I made the assumption you knew all this already. You've had so many close calls, I just feel sick about it.

Buffy: There, there, Giles. At least I know now. I do have one more question, though. Now that I know where the power of the cross over vampires comes from, couldn't I just say "In the name of Jesus, depart this world" and they would just disappear?

Giles: Well, of course that would work except...

Buffy: Except what?

Giles: Except the TV censors would just edit that part out every week.

Xander: Besides, I live for the part where they turn to dust.

Willow: It has that satisfying Poof! quality to it.

Buffy: Very well, but I expect the three of you to help make stakes and crosses with me.

Willow: Oooohhh, sort of like a quilting bee except with...

Xander: Slivers. You know, everytime I saw those pictures of old men whittling away on their front steps, I always said "There, but for the grace of God, go I". Now it's "There, because of the grace of God, go I."

Giles: I suppose I could help a bit.

Buffy: By providing bandages, I suppose.