Let Us Become Who We Are

Preparing for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost: Two Days before Sunday (Year B)

Scripture

Semi-continuous: Psalm 26; Job 4:1-21; Romans 8:1-11

Complementary: Psalm 8; Genesis 21:22-34; Romans 8:1-11

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Prayer

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer).

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Reflection

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through[k] his Spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:1-11).

Human beings have two problems that are related. First, we are mortal. We will die. As the adage goes, “Not one of us will get out of life alive.” Second, we are flesh and for Paul that does not mean physical flesh covering bones, but living life that is not in character with God’s will and desires for human beings. For Paul, life in the Spirit means that flesh and blood human beings can live a life that is not according to the flesh.