Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!
In the name of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
The Indian Orthodox Church along with other churches following the Gregorian calendar celebrated the feast of Pascha on April 12 of this year while our sister churches following the Julian calendar look forward to celebrate the feast of feasts on April 19. The Indian Orthodox Church commemorates the days after Pascha till the First Sunday after Pascha as ‘Hevoro Days’, also known as Days of Brightness. In the ancient Christian tradition, catechumens were normally baptized into the Christian faith during these days.
The days of brightness ascribes to the brightness that ought to be there in the lives of the faithful, who believe they are resurrected with Christ on Pascha (and on every day) and have a new life with Him. The new life in Christ is a life full of imitating Him and showing the world Who Christ really is. The Church Fathers while ascertaining portions of the Bible to be read and understood for each day mentions certain characteristics that are to be there in the life of the faithful. In a series of blogs under the heading ‘Days of Brightness’ let us look at some of these characteristics that we need to develop in our Christian life.
Instruments of righteousness to God
The Pauline letter prescribed to be read and understood for the Monday after Pascha Sunday (Hevoro Monday) is from St. Paul’s letter to Romans 6:12-23. When we read and understand the chapters 6 and 7 of the letter to Romans, we understand that St. Paul is talking about baptism and how baptism is our death, burial and resurrection in union with Jesus Christ. He tries to help us understand that it is through baptism, which was given by Christ through His crucifixion and resurrection, that the Church is granted an entrance into the Kingdom of God and life eternal.
St. Paul when writing about baptism, he writes
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4
Though baptism leads to our first death with Christ on the Cross and we are born again, we die a second death, which is a continuous death through the newness of life. In our new nature, it is inappropriate for us to give sin dominion over our lives – to be slaves to sin – now that we have been resurrected with Christ. We need, instead, to give God dominion – to be slaves to God. St. Paul’s command to ‘not let sin reign’ proves that sin does not have absolute power over man, rather it is something that we allow in our lives by our free will.
When we look at the story of the entry of sin in man’s life, we see that man’s will was the first aspect of the human nature that was damaged, and therefore it is the first thing that Christ heals. His healing, through His death and resurrection, allows us to make the true choices against sin. We need to understand that though sin does continue to plague humanity, through our union with Christ in baptism, we have the power to overcome the bondage of sin. We can overcome the temptation to sin by the new nature that God has given us through baptism (and also through prayer, worship, use of scripture among other spiritual disciplines). It is important to keep reminding ourselves on who we are and Whose we are in our fight against sin.
St. Paul also mentions that we are not to present any of our members — any part of our bodies — to be used by sin as a weapon. Instead we are to present our whole selves and all of our parts to be used by God as weapons of righteousness. In the great contest between good and evil, St. Paul calls us to get on the right side — God’s side. But how do we become the instruments of righteousness to God?
We can become instruments of righteousness by not just believing who we are in Christ, but also acts upon that belief. The belief must lead to tangible, real, and physical action steps in our life and it has to become an identity with our walk in Christ. Hence we must not only consider ourselves as dead to sin, but also not allow sinfulness to reign in our lives and make active changes in our lifestyle.
Actions without understanding of who you are “in Christ” leads to legalism and self-trusting will power. Knowing who you are in Christ, without decisive actions of righteousness, leads to license and a laissez-faire Christianity. You need both indicatives (who you are in Christ) and imperatives (commands to be followed). Indicatives strengthen imperatives, which strengthen indicatives, which strengthen imperatives.
As children of the Light, Jesus Christ, we become the bearers of the brightness in our lives and we are meant to carry this brightness in all our dealing with the world. Hence as we walk as the children of Light, we are called to be instruments of righteousness to God. We can only become such instruments by saying “No” to sin. There is a struggle in the lives of the believers between good and evil, daily. The devil is attempting to replay his rebellion and the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden. He wants to spoil everything that reflects the goodness and grace of God. And St. Paul commands us here to both see sin for what it is and to not let sin express itself in the body. You see, sin is not just an idea or a theory. It is real, and it expresses itself in the control of the body. So Paul says, “Don’t let it win in your body.”
St. Paul also tells us to watch out for our desires, our passions, or our feelings. You see, the enemy is so good at using God-given desires and turning them so that they become secret tunnels for the forces of evil to enter our lives. The desire for food, drink, rest, approval, sex, success, and countless others are not, in themselves, bad. But they can become bad, and when they become distorted, self-centered, and anti-god, these traitor-desires take control of parts of the body.
We become instruments of righteousness by not only saying “No” to sin, but also by saying “Yes” to God. The first “Yes” involves in us offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices. We are to offer ourselves in a general or total sense, but are also to offer our individual members to God as well. So the rule of God is to be total and very specific.
We are to present ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. We need to live very practically in the reality of what Christ has done for us. We need to see ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God. But we also need to see our members as the instruments of righteousness. We need to see our brains, mouths, eyes, hands, and sexual organs not as the helpless tools of evil but as weapons in the service of the living God.
You see, every time we connect our identity to Christ and connect the members of our body to righteousness, we are making a glorious and powerful statement about the supremacy of God, the power of the gospel, and victory in Jesus. Sanctification happens as we repeatedly and progressively decide that we agree with what the Bible says about us and as we use every part of our self for the service of the real King.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, as we being a new life with our Saviour through His resurrection from death, we are not called to be sinless perfectionist in our life. We are called to fight sin aggressively, and to present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. Sin, while still dwelling in the believer, is no longer in charge. Sin may be present, but it is not in power.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
Really nice content. Keep up the good work!