Scripture: Romans 6:5-8
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Thought for the Day: One of my seminary professors and theological mentors was Dr. Joe Jones. Joe was and continues to be one of those people who is brilliant beyond measure, yet in his graciousness, he always assumed the rest of us were equally intelligent. I only wish… With that said, I have always appreciated Joe’s writings, for though they are always a strenuous intellectual and spiritual exercise, they give me a great deal of sustenance on which to chew. In a paper Joe wrote entitled Salvation: Mapping the Salvific Themes in Christian Faith, he wrote:
[Jesus] is the vulnerable Priest who proclaims a Kingdom of peace and nonviolence and was murdered by the principalities and powers—imperial political and religious leaders—that murder in order to dominate and subjugate. He is the Victor raised from the dead who is the presence of and the forerunner of a Kingdom of peace. In all these offices, Jesus is the incarnate life of God graciously taking the sins of the world upon and into the divine Life and thus disarming them of their power to determine human meaning and destiny before God.
I love the imagery of the Jesus event disarming the power of sin that would otherwise determine human meaning and destiny. Paul says that sin has been ‘destroyed’. The Greek word we translate as ‘destroyed’ is Katargeo, and it means to render idle, discharge or to make ineffective. Sin desires to determine who we are and what will become of us, yet Jesus says otherwise. That’s powerful stuff!! What will the new life, determine not by sin but by grace, look like?
Prayer: Lord of All, you have destined us, in the grace-filled life of Jesus Christ, to an existence that reflects your reign of peace. Amen.
JOIN US FOR WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY
It is Pentecost Sunday
The Birthday of the Church
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Consider a Gift
To
The Pentecost Offering
(Helping start new churches)
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And an important meeting for parents…
