Romans 6,19-23 3723
7. Trinitatis 53
Apollinaris, Bishop of Ravenna, Italy, Martyr 69
23. Juli 2023
1. ℣ O clap your hands, all ye people!:
℟ Shout unto God with the voice of triumph (Psalm 47,1).
O Yahweh, Almighty God; teach us to fear, love and trust You, so that we are never ashamed and condemned but joyful and redeemed. Amen. (Psalm 34,11.5 Gradual)
2. »I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.«
3. The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians: »For our sake God the Father made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God« (2. Corinthians 5,21). From this verse, Martin Luther composed one of his famous phrases the wonderful exchange:
And this is the rich mystery of the grace of God for sinners, that by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours, but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ is not Christ’s, but ours. For He emptied Himself, that He might put on and fill us with them, and He filled Himself with ours, that He might empty us of the same, so that now Christ’s righteousness is not only objectively (as they say), but also formally, just as our sins are not only objectively Christ’s, but also formally. For in the same way that He suffers and is confounded in our sins, in this way we rejoice and glory in His righteousness, but He really and fundamentally suffers in them, as we see here. And I, although only lxx of all interpreters do with me, I almost prefer to be called ‘the words of my transgressions’ than ‘the words of my roar’. For here the bridegroom and the bride become one flesh, which sacrament can never be sufficiently said, preached, heard, thought and understood, in view of the greatness of its riches and glory, hidden from all the wise and wise of this age, and revealed only to little ones, to whom it is a constant memorial of the sun, in which they live, rejoice and glory. In comparison of which it is most disgustingly dirty, dung and loss is the righteousness which is from the law, even proceeding without questioning, as it is said in Colossians 2 (Luther 5,608.6). [1]
4. For many in our day and age, they cannot fathom the seriousness and depravity of sin before God. They have difficulty comprehending why some has to be punished for our wrongdoing. Our sin violates God’s law. By sinning we trample His law and good Word given to us, break it apart, curse it and scatter it hither and yon. Sin is an offense against God’s holy and righteous character, thus He cannot ignore and overlook our sin, otherwise He would compromise His own holiness and righteousness. The essence of our sin is to corrupt us to no longer fear, love and trust God. The Prophet Ezekiel records the blunt words of Yahweh: »The soul who sins will die« (Ezekiel 18,4). This is the cold, hard fact of God’s Word.
5. But that is not the final word on this charge. Yahweh later says through Ezekiel: »Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, and not rather that he turn from his way and live?« (Ezekiel 18,23). »As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways« (Ezekiel 33,11). God also said to Isaiah: »Seek Yahweh while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let them return to Yahweh that He may have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly forgive« (Isaiah 55,6-7).
6. When Yahweh gives Moses and Israel the law at Sinai, He also gives them the gospel — the instructions regarding the tabernacle/temple and the sacrifices describe how He will cover and forgive sin. After David captured Zion and Jerusalem he desired to build the temple on Mount Zion (740 m/2428 ft high; 2. highest point on Zion) so that the temple would tower above the land for all to see. One could see the temple from as far away as 12 km/7.45 mi from certain locations, and thus see where God dwells and the place where His forgiveness was given. God told Isaiah: »I am Yahweh; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. … And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.« (Isaiah 42,6; 60,3).
7. Jesus declared that He is this temple and thus He is the source of forgiveness, compassion and pardon; and thus Paul proclaims: »For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord« for both Jew and Gentile (Romans 6,23).
8. Once we were in bondage to sin, but in Christ we are forgiven and now bound to Him. Once we lived in the darkness of spiritual ignorance, but in Christ we live in the light of His Word. Christ has justified us, and from justification flows the fruit of sanctification and good works. He has done well for us all / And reconciled us with Himself / He has made the great exchange / And put on us His garment / And led us to God. [2]
9. A Christian man is the most free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone (WA 7,21.1-4, 49.22-25; AE 31,344). [3] Justification makes us free, and in our sanctification we serve our neighbor.
10. Behold, charity and joy flow forth from faith in the Lord, and from charity a cheerful, willing, free soul to voluntarily serve the neighbor, so that it has no reason for gratitude, ingratitude, praise and blame, profit or loss. For he does not do this in order to make men unworthy of him, nor does he distinguish between friends and enemies, nor does he regard the gratified or the ungrateful, but he scatters himself and his possessions very freely and willingly, whether he loses them among the ungrateful or earns them. For thus also does his Father, distributing all things abundantly and freely to all, causing His sun to rise on the good and the bad [Matthew 5,45].
You see, then, if we recognize the things that have been given to us, the greatest and most precious, as Paul says, soon through the spirit diffused in our hearts charity, by which we are free, joyful, omnipotent operators and conquerors of all tribulations, servants of our neighbors, nevertheless, lords of all (WA 7,66.7-20; AE 31,367). [4]
11. Lord Jesus Christ, my faithful shepherd is,
Come, entertain me with Your mercies.
With you alone I find salvation and live;
What I lack You to me can give.
Kyrie eleison.
Your little sheep You will joyously feed
Them on Israel’s mountains and will lead
Them to the fresh water,
Where life is flowing ever.
Kyrie eleison. (Herr Jesu Christe, mein getreuer Hirte selk 232,1 2021 Johann Heermann 1630)
This is most certainly true.
13. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
14. Let us pray. Most loving Father, on whose bountiful providence we do wholly depend, give us daily at Thy pleasure whatsoever the necessity of this life requireth; but above all feed our souls with spiritual food, with the bread of life from heaven. Amen. (7. Trinity, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke, 7. Band. Copyright © 1897 Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger.
Eyn Christen mensch ist eyn dienstpar knecht aller ding und yderman unterthan (WA 7,21.1-4).
Christiaus homo omnium dominus est liberrimus, nulli subiectus.
Christianus homo omnium servus est officiosissimus, Omnibus subiectus (WA 7,49.22-25).
[4] Ecce sie fluit ex fide charitas et gaudium in domino et ex charitate hilaris, libens, liber animus ad sponte serviendum proximo, ita ut nullam habeat rationem gratitudinis, ingratitudinis, laudis ac vituperii, lucri aut damni. Neque enim agit hoc, ut homines sibi demereatur, nec inter amicos inimicosque discernit, nec gratos nec ingratos suspicit, sed liberrime libentissimeque dispergit se et sua, sive ea perdat in ingratis sive mereatur. Sic enim et pater eius facit, omnibus omnia distribuens abundanter et liberrime, faciens solem suum oriri super bonos et malos, Ita filius nihil nisi gratuito gaudio, quo in deo per Christum delectatur, tantarum rerum largitore, facit et patitur.
Vides ergo, si cognoscimus ea, quae nobis data sunt, maxima et preciosa, ut Paulus ait, [Rom. 5,5] mox per spiritum diffundi in cordibus nostris charitatem, qua liberi, hilares, omnipotentes operatores et omnium tribulationum victores, proximorum servi, nihilominus tamen omnium domini sumus. (WA 7,66.7-20).
No comments:
Post a Comment