The Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
O God, Who has prepared for those who love You such good things as pass our understanding; Pour into our hearts, such love toward You, that we, loving You above all things, may obtain Your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle Romans 6:3-11
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For he who has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. 9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Gospel of St Matthew 5:20-26
20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.21 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.
23So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; 26 truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today's Epistle Reading is taken from St Paul's Epistle to the Romans Chapter 6, Verses 3-11.
This portion of St Paul's Epistle to the Romans is one of the most important pieces of Scripture contained in the Holy Bible. St Paul, in writing these words to the Christians in Rome, reaches into the very heart of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ:
“3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Paul reveals to us what is the very deep core, and significance, of the Holy Gospel.
We who are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit are united with the Lord Jesus in His death. We do not physically die when we are baptised but rather our evil human nature, with it’s associated desires for the passions and pleasures of the world and the flesh, dies with the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus takes on the burden of, and the punishment for, the sins of our evil human nature.
The Holy Bible reveals to us two different types of sin. The first type of sin is known as actual sin. This sin is the wrong doing that all of us commit each day of our lives. This type of sin may be lying, hatred or jealousy directed at someone, wishing that someone might receive hurt or injury in revenge for some perceived wrong against us. It may be evil desires relating to greed for money, or impure thoughts regarding women, or other men.
The second type of sin is known as original or inherited sin. This is the sin we inherit at birth as a result of being related to the first human being Adam. The Holy Bible tells us that when Adam and his wife Eve disobeyed God, after He commanded them not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (commonly, but mistakenly, described as an apple tree), they were punished by God and expelled from the Garden of Eden.
God also told them that they and their descendants would forever battle the forces of nature, such as drought, floods, or insect pests, to grow crops to provide a living for themselves and their families. Also all the future births and lives of human beings would be accompanied by pain. God’s decree of Adam and Eve’s punishment is recorded in the Old Testament Book of Genesis Chapter 3, Verses 16-19:
“16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Many of us today still bust our backs working under various difficulties to provide for ourselves and our families.
Satan (often portrayed as a serpent) tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God and every human being born since that event inherits their sin, and the punishment for it.
God, besides punishing Adam and Eve, also promised to destroy Satan by raising up a descendant, of Adam, to crush Satan once and for all time. God’s Judgement of Satan is recorded in the Book of Genesis Chapter 3, Verses 8-19:
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
The descendant of Adam who would crush the serpent's head is the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be born as a man, through the line (family) of David, the second, and one of the greatest kings of Judah and Israel.
The Lord Jesus Christ was born with no inherited sin as He is the Eternal Son and Word of God, and to become a man He was conceived, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the Mighty Holy Spirit of God.
In addition to being born free of inherited sin, The Lord Jesus also committed no actual sin during His earthly life.
This is the heart of the Holy Gospel. The Lord Jesus having no sin whatsoever, owed no penalty for sin, to God.
It was this Unique and Divine quality that gave The Lord Jesus the right to offer, once and for all, never to be repeated, His Pure and Spotless Life to pay the penalty which every other person past, present and future owes to our Holy and Righteous God.
No other person in human history, past, present or future, had, has, or will have this Holy Sinless Nature.
The Lord Jesus Christ alone is the Proper, or as Martin Luther the great reformer declared, the Right Man.
St Paul then declares:
"6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For he who has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. 9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
This is the miracle of the Holy Gospel, that God was able to maintain His Uncompromising Holiness, and His Righteous Judgement of sin and sinners, and yet was able forgive those sinners who believe in, and accept His Gift of Salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross.
During His Crucifixion the Lord Jesus cried out “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me.” This anguished cry of the Lord Jesus reveals to us that God had, in that moment, turned His back on the Lord Jesus, His only Begotten and Beloved Son, and suspended the Holy Intimate Bond that they shared as Father and Son.
The Lord Jesus’ anguished cry, and His Mighty Work of Redemption was predicted and declared in many other portions of Holy Scripture. Among them are these most important examples:
The Old Testament Psalm 22, Verse 1, was fulfilled:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?”
The prediction of the Great Old Testament Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 53, Verses 4-6, was fulfilled:
“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”
St Paul’s declares the Blessing of the Holy Gospel to all people, both Jews and Gentiles (non Jewish people) in his letter to the Galatian Church Chapter 3, Verses 13-14:
“13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
In that moment of the Lord Jesus’ anguished cry from the Cross, the Holy Righteousness of God as Judge of All Things was figuratively emblazoned across the sky as the Lord Jesus, who had no sin, was made to be sin in order to save those who trust in Him.
St Paul declared this great truth in His Second Epistle to the Corinthian Church, Chapter 5, Verse 21:
“21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the Righteousness of God.”
If any of us could live our life without sinning, and of course, no person can, then we would not able to offer our life for other sinners as our life would only pay for our own inherited sin.
Christians have died to sin, through faith in The Lord Jesus Christ, and are now alive to God with our Holy Saviour.
On the Day of Judgement all people will be judged, fairly, by God on their response to the Holy Gospel and whether they have died to sin with the Lord Jesus, and have been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus’ Perfect Work of Redemption.
St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is the greatest commentary dedicated to explaining and preaching the Holy Gospel. It would have had a great impact on any persons who were scholars of the Jewish faith in the first century AD, as it draws on many references to the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah.
The Epistle to the Romans declares, and leaves readers in no doubt that the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah, He who was promised by God to destroy the works of sin and Satan, thus freeing His people for all time.
Let us give our Mighty God everlasting love, thanks, devotion, and service, for His Great Gift of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us also praise Him for fulfilling His Promise made in the Garden of Eden, when man first fell from Grace because of sin, but now has been reconciled to Him through the Mighty Work of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Today's Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 5, Verses 20-26.
This passage from the Holy Gospel of St Matthew forms part the Lord Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and deals with a believer’s need to strive to ensure that their actions exhibit their love for God (their righteousness) in a way that exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees:
“20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.21 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.”
The Scribes and Pharisees formed part of the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ time.
They were often simply referred to as “the Jews,” and more than often they were accompanied by their servants and other minor officials as they gathered in public places to conduct their activities which included teaching and praying together, and acting as judges in the everyday matters that arose.
It is very important to note that the Lord Jesus tells His audience that “you have heard that it was said to the men of old”……but I say to you….
The Lord Jesus is re-interpreting and expanding the Word of God, for He is God, in human flesh.
The Lord Jesus told His hearers that the Commandment “you shall not kill” means much more than taking someone’s life. It encompasses anger as a lessor form of killing, and anger is a grievous sin. Anger stems from the same evil frame of mind that the act of killing comes from, and is therefore punishable by God.
The Lord Jesus was re-interpreting one of the commandments of The Old Covenant that God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai. This would have startled and thrilled those who heard these words. The Lord Jesus spoke as one with Authority (of God), not like the Scribes and Pharisees.
The Holy Gospel of St Mark records this authoritative teaching of the the Lord Jesus in Chapter 1, Verses 21-22:
“21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.”
The Scribes and Pharisees loved to be seen by the ordinary people as they recited long-winded prayers in public, dressed in their finest robes. The Lord Jesus referred to them as the hypocrites. This description of the Pharisees is recorded in the Holy Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 6, Verses 5-6:
“5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
The Lord Jesus then told His hearers that before they went to worship they must make sure that they were reconciled to any other person(s) with whom they had a grievance, before they offered worship to God:
“23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
We must do the same.
The Lord Jesus also told His hearers the importance of settling debts with those from whom we have borrowed or to whom we owe something.
“25 Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; 26 truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.”
Although this teaching by the Lord Jesus refers to a person’s day to day debts owed to other people, it also points to our debt to God.
We all owe a great debt to God for our sin, so it is imperative that we "make friends" with God, through faith in the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, lest we are cast into hell for eternity.
Each of us can remember, in our lives, incidents or actions in which we have played a part, and which we now regret. These sins are our debt to God.
The Lord Jesus has paid the penalty for all our sins by His death on the Cross.
Our sins were "buried" with Him.
Since the Lord Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins past, present, and future, our response should be to seek to live our lives as those redeemed by the Holy Blood of The Lord Jesus Christ, always seeking to live by His Commandments and Example.
Let us always thank God for the Gift of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and always seek to tell others about the Lord Jesus and the Holy Gospel and how they can receive God’s forgiveness and share in Everlasting Life in His Eternal Kingdom, which exceeds all that we can desire.
May the Grace of the Lord Jesus be with us all.
Bishop Ian