Respect and praying on nature background – Source: iStockphoto.com/ipopba
You can see all the lectionary readings for the Proper 7, Year A by clicking here. I have chosen to discuss the passage from the book of Romans from Track 2.
In this passage, Paul asks if we should continue to send so that grace may abound—in other words, maybe our sinning makes grace all the greater, so should we just sin away to demonstrate that amazing grace? Paul says BY NO MEANS. If we have died to sin with Christ, we can’t go on living in it. As we are baptized, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus—which is the death of our sin and our resurrection into new life—not an old life of sin. As Paul puts it, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Obviously, we do not achieve perfection in our baptism, and we will go on to sin, but we must not wallow in that sin and consider that grace’s work done. We go on day by day to embrace the new life in Christ Jesus. We go on to discipleship in him—I consider discipleship just a way to say lifelong learning and growth in the love of Jesus. If we are learning and growing in Christ, we are seeking to avoid sin and instead to love with the love of God. Let us go forth in the name of Christ.
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