New Life in Christ

The appointed Epistle reading for the Daily Prayer of the Church is taken from Paul’s greatest letter, the letter to the Romans.  We read:

 

There is therefore 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, though the body is dead because of sin, 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 from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Rms. 8:1-11).

 

Jesus has made us a new creation!  We live, move and have our being in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit breathes the life of God into our renewed humanity restored in Christ for God the Father.  Therefore, as Paul tells us: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”  You and I are made new and raised to life through Jesus Christ.

 

Let us pray:  O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your people; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made  new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST, especially Sue, Sean, Tom, Jillian, Patricia, Audrey, Lee’s mother and his family, Pat, Julie, all of those who are serving in the Armed Forces, Randy, and Steve.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550