Monday • 3/15/2021
Week of 4 Lent
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89:1–18; Jeremiah 16:10–21; Romans 7:1–12; John 6:1–15
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2–6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94)
Every Sunday in Lent, in our church we chant the 10 Commandments, and after each commandment we sing this couplet: “Lord, have mercy upon us, And incline our hearts to keep this law.” Today’s and tomorrow’s readings from Romans (chapter seven) remind us why the Commandments make us ask for God’s mercy: “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Wednesday’s, Thursday’s, and Friday’s readings from Romans (chapter eight) remind us why we can honestly ask for God’s help to obey: “And incline our hearts to keep this law.”
“You have died to the law.” “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good,” insists Paul (Romans 7:12). The first five books of our Old Testament are called “torah” in Hebrew. Paul embraces torah: the “law” as our total obligation, any “commandment” as a particular obligation, and “instruction” about how to implement God’s law—all of it—comes from God and expresses who God is. It outlines his character; and provides a template for what it is for the bearers of God’s image to, well, bear his image.
Coming from God, then, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good.” The law tells us whom and how to worship, that we are to honor our parents, refrain from taking innocent life, honor wedding vows, respect our neighbor’s property, speak truthfully, and guard our hearts against covetousness. All of this is holy, just, and good. (Much mischief in the history of the Christian church could have been avoided if this simple truth had been kept in mind. The law is not evil. It is not cruel. A person is not being “legalistic” or “moralistic” if they care about what God’s law says and what his commandments require. But that’s a complicated discussion, for another time and setting.)
Paul’s point here in Romans 7, is that we are the problem. Or rather, the sin that has tainted our every wish, thought, inclination, and action—that is the problem.
And so, in Romans 7, Paul uses an analogy of a marriage, in which the law is compared to a condemning husband who only points out our flaws and magnifies our errors (Romans 7:1–3). For when we look at the law, and then look at our lives honestly, we have to confess (at least we should confess): “I am undone!” Paul wants to help us understand that this bad “marriage” in which we know only condemnation, abuse, and barrenness of soul ends when we come to Christ. Our accuser (the law) is dead. We are no longer bound to the law. We belong to another: Jesus Christ (Romans 7:5).
Then Paul reframes his analogy. Our accuser is dead, yes. At the same time, our “old self” has died, too. We are brand new creatures in Christ, free from the condemnation of the law. We belong wholly to Jesus Christ, with new life and new purpose. “In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
When our “old self” dies, that is, when it is crucified with Christ, we are fully free to belong to another, to Christ himself. When we belong to Christ, we will know ourselves to be loved, nurtured, and cherished—and we will find “the new life of the Spirit” flowing through us (Romans 7:6—more about that in Romans 8).
The law’s first function in our lives is to make us cry out for mercy, for freedom from its condemnation. This mercy flows from the wounds of Christ on the cross. Lord, have mercy upon us…
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Image: "Beth El Synagogue Torah Mantels" by Sherri Lynn Wood is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0