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Reflection on Rom 6:6
Post date: 2018-09-24Autor: BCP
The Word of God says that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin (soma hamartiás) might be done away with (katargéthé) or paralysed, or, in other words, so that the source of evil in us or our old self might be inactive – crucified. And the Scripture says that as a result we should no longer be slaves (dúleuzin) to sin. We are not even aware that we are slaves to sin, that we serve a master who is called sin and who holds us in bondage. We think we are free but we are not; we are slaves to sin. Only the one who is in unity with Christ is free. Jesus won true freedom for us through His death on the cross. And we can taste this freedom at the very moment when we are united to Christ.
Reflection on Rom 6:4
Post date: 2018-09-08Autor: BCP
In this verse, the word of life emphasizes the word “buried”. When someone is buried, it means that it was preceded by an absolute death. So if we are united to Christ’s death by faith at the present moment, sin in us, our old self, i.e. the source of evil, is dead, inactive. And right here the second mystery reveals itself to us concerning baptism – a new life begins to work in us. It is not the life of angels or something like our past life but it is the life of God, the life of Jesus Christ in us! Through faith and unity with Christ’s death, we allow God, Jesus Christ, to live in us. And this is our greatest dignity!
Reflection on Rom 6:3
Post date: 2018-08-25Autor: BCP
It is said that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized – immersed – into His death. Let us realize that by dying on the cross, Jesus overcame sin which is in us, i.e. the source of evil and lies, as well as the devil. At the moment when He said, It is finished, the devil and sin was overcome, and the narrow way to eternal glory was opened for us. Finally, He added, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit, and died. So we need to realize the essence of baptism as well as the essence of Christianity – through baptism we are united to Christ, to His supreme sacrifice on the cross – i.e. death. Let us live this mystery by faith.
Reflection on Rom 5:18
Post date: 2018-08-11Autor: BCP
It is emphasized here again: Adam’s one trespass led to condemnation for all his descendants. On the other hand, one act of righteousness of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, leads to justification and life for all men. But there is one problem. Christ died for all people, but not all people will be saved. To be saved they must admit their sin both to themselves and to God, and accept by faith justification and life given us through Christ’s act of righteousness.
Reflection on Rom 5:15
Post date: 2018-07-28Autor: BCP
This Word of life points out again the relation to Adam, through whom sin entered human nature, and it points out our relation to Christ, through whom we have been justified by grace. For two weeks we are going to recite verse 15, which says, “But the free gift is not like the offense. By the one man’s offense many died.” For example, we know that if someone practises occultism, the curse for this offence is passed on through three to four generations. Naturally, its manifestation is not the same with all the offspring. For example, when the father is a chronic alcoholic, his children, mostly boys, are strongly predisposed to alcoholism. Of course, if they become conscious of the sins of their parents and pray with perseverance for the grace of God, they can overcome these consequences and are not affected by them.
Reflection on Gal 5:16-17
Post date: 2018-07-14Autor: BCP
Walking in the Spirit is a stimulus to self-sacrificing love, as Jesus says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words.” And He continues: “We will come to him,” – the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus – “and make Our home with him” (Jn 14:23). The keeping of Jesus’ words entails little sacrifices, a kind of self-discipline, without which self-sacrificing love of God and man is impossible. And this sacrifice indeed is our spiritual act of worship. Whenever we lose, for God’s sake, the evil desires that tempt us, this our sacrifice in which the Holy Spirit strengthens us brings us true freedom and, moreover, we bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace. This spiritual act of worship involves short moments of a living faith and inner self-denial – that is a sacrifice which brings us peace and joy.
Reflection on Gal 4:18-19
Post date: 2018-06-30Autor: BCP
Let us focus, in this Word of life, on the depth of the words: “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”The word formed is of great importance here. It is the Greek verb “morfoó” which means “to morph, or to form” or in the passive voice “to assume a form, or to be formed”. “Metamorphosis” is a familiar word which means transformation. The Apostle is zealous for one thing: that Christians become mature, that they be truly rooted in Christ, and he literally says, that Christ be formed in them. And he himself not only prays for them, not only instructs them in God’s Word, but he himself undergoes this process of change spiritually. He literally says: “I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” The Apostle undergoes this process and endures this pain practically until the end of his life. It culminates in his martyr’s death in Rome, which again is a sacrifice for his spiritual children, won by him for Christ, who became children of God, heirs of God’s kingdom.
Reflection on Gal 3:26-27
Post date: 2018-06-16Autor: BCP
Let us be aware that we are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus rather than through works. We are in Him spiritually; not only through baptism – as it is written that being baptized into Christ we have clothed ourselves with Christ – but also through faith and through the holy sacraments we should be aware of this deep truth, draw strength from it for spiritual struggle and rejoice that Jesus is with us, that we are in Him, and He is in us. As Jesus said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.” And this happens during Holy Communion in the Divine Liturgy.
Reflection on Rom 5:9
Post date: 2018-06-02Autor: BCP
Let us notice the words justified by His blood – i.e. the blood of Jesus. It means that we have received the righteousness of Jesus, and through His blood God no longer sees us as debtors since Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, has once and for all paid the debt for all our sins. On our part, we need to realize again and again the saving faith which presupposes that we admit our sins both before God and before ourselves, and not conceal them, and that we turn with trust to Jesus on the cross every time we say during our prayer stop: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
Reflection on Gal 3:22
Post date: 2018-05-19Autor: BCP
The whole world is a prisoner of sin. In other words, the law convicts us of sin but does not deliver us from it. We are delivered through faith in Jesus Christ. So that what was promised is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore the centre of our faith and salvation is a personal relationship to Christ. The purpose is not to observe external rites or commands and then to give Christ the second or tenth place. Christ must have the first place! And how? Through the saving faith, because our sins force us to go to the source of forgiveness, which is the cross of Jesus. So not through the observance of some rules, however good or holy, for appearances’ sake, but through repentance of sins and faith in Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.
Reflection on Gal 3:18
Post date: 2018-05-05Autor: BCP
The Apostle explains that God gave the inheritance to Abraham by promise, and we receive it through faith in Christ. This faith cleanses us from sin. But the condition is to admit sin, to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for my sins, and to give my sins to Him. Through this faith the Holy Spirit gives us everything that Christ has done for our sake. But first of all, this faith unites us to Jesus Himself, who dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph 3:17). In the hour of death, this faith then changes into the sight of God in the light of glory.
Reflection on Gal 3:13a
Post date: 2018-04-21Autor: BCP
It is said that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. However, one supposes that the Law of Moses brings blessing rather than curse. So how are we to understand it? No person is able to fulfil all the requirements of the law. So all people are under the curse of the law. Verse 11 says: “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith’.” So justification from sin is by faith in Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus voluntarily took upon Himself the curse which falls on each of us for our sins to redeem us from this curse, which is the fruit of sin, and also to redeem us from eternal death caused by sin.
Reflection on 1 Cor 15:3-5
Post date: 2018-04-07Autor: BCP
In the Letter to Corinth, the Apostle Paul speaks about the resurrection from the dead. He writes: “Now I would remind you, brethren, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.” (1Cor 15:1-2) Then the Apostle mentions that Jesus appeared to Peter and the Twelve, and he continues: “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.”During this Eastertide, let us realize that Jesus not only died for our sins but was really raised from the dead and is with us all the days of our life!
Reflection on Gal 3:11
Post date: 2018-03-24Autor: BCP
It is clearly said here that no one will be justified by the law, and it is emphasized that the just shall live by faith. Let us focus again on the term ‘the just’, both from the natural point of view and from the point of view of the Scripture. The just is the one who gives everyone his due, i.e. giving God, neighbour and oneself what is due by right.
Reflection on Gal 3:8
Post date: 2018-03-10Autor: BCP
It is said that the Scripture foresees that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. An example is Abraham himself, who was a Gentile but he believed in God, in His almightiness, acknowledged God as his sovereign Lord and surrendered his life to Him. He accepted the moral laws which God had put into the heart of man through conscience. In this respect, Abraham is an example to the Gentiles. If they have the faith of Abraham, God will justify the Gentiles.However, we have to distinguish between the Gentiles like Abraham and the Gentiles who have embraced religious systems which block them and are the greatest obstacle for the Abrahamic faith because they force the Gentiles to worship demons rather than the one Sovereign God as the Creator and Supreme Lawgiver.
Reflection on Gal 3:6-7
Post date: 2018-02-24Autor: BCP
The Apostle points to Abraham again and sets him as an example of faith. He believed God, believed in God’s almightiness, and he stood in this faith even in the face of hard trials. Faith was accounted to him for righteousness; in other words, he was justified of his sins by faith. The Apostle continues in verse 7: “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” The faith in one God the Creator is the foundation for justification of sins.
Reflection on Gal 3:2-3
Post date: 2018-02-10Autor: BCP
In chapter two, the Apostle points out that we are not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Christ (v.16) and if justification came through the law, then Christ died in vain (v.21). So justification requires faith in Christ Jesus. And now the Apostle reveals that this faith in Christ is also necessary for man to receive the fullness of the Spirit of God like the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. He makes it clear that one does not receive the Spirit of God by the works of the law but again, only and only by faith in Jesus.
Reflection on Gal 2:21
Post date: 2018-01-27Autor: BCP
What does it mean to set aside the grace of God? It means to disregard it, to misuse it, or not to accept by faith what God gives. He paid so dearly, did His most, and not to make the least effort on our part – i.e. not to accept by faith what God has done for me – is really a grave insult to God. This is setting aside grace! The Apostle says that this is not what he does – he does not set aside grace but rather uses it. And this should be true of each of us – I do not set aside the grace of God!
Reflection on Gal 2:16
Post date: 2018-01-13Autor: BCP
Both in the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul points to the deep truth which concerns our justification from sin. He says that we know that a man is not justified before God by his works but by faith in Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. We who have believed in Christ Jesus have been justified from our sins by faith in Him.
Reflection on Rom 4:13
Post date: 2017-12-30Autor: BCP
What does the word heir express? The Word of God says that if we are children, we are also heirs. And how do we become children of God? By receiving Jesus: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (Jn 1:12) Salvation, which Jesus obtained for us through His blood in a hard struggle on Calvary, is given us freely as an inheritance through faith. We should obtain grace for other people too, that they also may receive Jesus and share in the inheritance of eternal life after death.