The Third Sunday in Lent, March 23, 2025
The Third Sunday in Lent, March 23, 2025
Paul simply states the obvious: “There are no sinners in the kingdom of Christ and God.” We do not build our way into this kingdom as if we could lay our sins behind us like bricks and, once we had laid enough bricks, could enter the glorious kingdom of God which admits no sinners. No, this kingdom is not built on past achievements or present righteousness. Instead, this kingdom breaks in upon you from the future… from beyond the eschaton… from that New Creation of which Christ is the first fruits (Ro. 8:29). You cannot earn or bargain your way into this kingdom of God and Christ through your right thinking, right feeling, or right doing. You can only enter the same way Jesus Christ entered it. You must die and be raised to life in it. The old sinner in you—that Old Adam or that Old Eve—must be put to death under the accusation of the Law. This is God’s alien work. Out of that death, you are raised up to walk in newness of life. This is the good news of the Gospel, God’s proper work. The Apostle Paul teaches this as he writes to the Galatians. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). To be imitators of God does not mean walking the pilgrim’s way until you finally achieve the beatific vision. To be imitators of God means coming into the kingdom in the way of Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:2). He died and he was raised. Your old sinner dies and then you, too, are raised up having the life of Christ. During these days of your baptism, while your flesh still adheres, your mortality will always be susceptible to immorality, impurity, greed, etc. Your mortal flesh will succumb to those temptations because that is the way of flesh. The life of Jesus Christ will be dethroned from your conscience. You as sinner will go down to death beneath the accusation of the Law. You know this as repentance. But thanks be to God, there’s a word of forgiveness waiting to be spoken to you. The sweetness of this gospel message raises you up once again, having the life of Christ in you. Just so, the days of your baptism continue with your dying and being raised, with your repenting and being forgiven until that day when your mortality joins the dust from which it came. There you await your bodily resurrection into the promised kingdom.
Table Talk: Discuss receiving the kingdom from the future.
Pray: Heavenly Father, keep Christ as my life in all my temptations. Amen
Ephesians 5:1-9 (ESV)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).