In tomorrow’s gospel passage for Mass, the scribes say of Jesus that, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons” (Mark 3:22). Jesus indicates that, by saying this, they have committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. The classic understanding of the unforgivable sin is final impenitence, dying without repenting of a serious sin. Repentance requires truth to know one’s sins. The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and hearts to know our sin. The Holy Spirit is integral in both knowing the truth and repenting of sin. One sins against the Holy Spirit when, at one’s death, one either refuses to acknowledge the truth of one’s sins or fails to turn away from those sins or both.
The scribes in this passage call the All-Good God the evil one; they ascribe as completely evil what is the epitome of good. By exercising such extremely bad judgment in such important matters, the scribes have become “blind guides.” They can no longer tell what is good and what is bad, even if it is purely good or purely bad. They are utterly blind in what matters most. Having thus depraved themselves to such an extent, calling what is good evil and what is evil good, as long as they continue on this path, they have no hope for salvation. To be forgiven, one needs to repent; to repent, one needs to see the truth of one’s sins; to see the truth about one’s sins, one needs the Holy Spirit; refusing to see the most obvious and easily recognizable good, evicts the Holy Spirit from one’s soul. The scribes are on the path to hell, and only by their humble crying out for light from the Holy Spirit to see their sins and then their humble admission of their faults, will they have hope for salvation.
Jesus goes on to make a very interesting explanation to the scribes’ accusation; he says that, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Satan is the prince of this world, and he has a certain domination over mankind enslaved to sin. He desires to lead as many people to hell as possible; he desires our destruction and the utter diminution of our lofty dignity. Satan’s work is spreading despair and death and stealing the spouse of God away from Him.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The devil is the strong man whom Jesus comes and binds so that He can plunder his house. In the state of original sin into which everyone is born, Satan has an ownership of us; we are part of the belongings of his house. Jesus came to bind this strong tyrannical ruler and to set us free; the Old Testament image and prefigurement is God freeing the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt to pharaoh.
In Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, He has bound the strong man and plundered his house. In baptism, we are set free from sin and Satan so that we can belong to Jesus; every Eucharist is a celebration of our baptism for we were baptized into Jesus’ death, and the Eucharist is Jesus’ crucified and risen flesh, particularly His heart flesh. “Likewise, my brethren, 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). Jesus has bound the strong man, the tyrant who was our cruel slave master, and set us free to be united to Him. Jesus has plundered Satan’s house so that He can be our Spouse and unite us to Himself, making us fruitful for God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
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Showing posts with label Romans 7:4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romans 7:4. Show all posts
11.28.2007
Bear Fruit For God
Paul says in his letter to the Romans: "Likewise, my brethren, 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" (7:4). The context for this quote is marriage and how one is bound to one's spouse as long as the spouse is alive. If one's spouse dies, he is free to marry. In a similar manner, we have died to our old spouse so we may now belong to another, Christ.
How did we die? In baptism as it says a chapter earlier in Romans: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (6:3-4).
The situation is this: we were married and it wasn't to God. God made us to be married to Him, but with sin we ended up in bondage to sin and satan and the law which was added due to sin. The only way to escape that bondage is for either one of us to die, but that seems impossible. There is no way out with our adversary ready to devour us. A symbol of this in the Old Testament is when the Israelites were up against the Red Sea unarmed and loaded down with goods and little ones while Pharaoh's highly trained and highly agitated army readied itself to revenge the death of all their first-born. All hope was lost. Yet God broke in and saved Israel through the water while at the same time destroying their enemy. This is a symbol of baptism.
We are married to a tyrannical murderer who hates us with a complete hatred and only wants to destroy us; he is not going to die, and if we die, well then we are dead. So God becomes one of us, dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead. In a spiritual and real way, we are united to Jesus in both His death and resurrection through baptism. Jesus provides us a way to die so that we are no longer bound to sin and satan as spouse, and then we are free to marry another and have Him as our spouse.
We walk in newness of life because we have become a new creation in baptism and have been married to a new spouse. United to our new husband, Jesus, we are now able to bear fruit for God. "Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart ... having been set free from sin..." (Romans 6:17-18). The place we bear good fruit is in our tree of life which is our heart. Our old stony heart has died, and with our new creation we have been given a new, living, loving, obedient heart of flesh with God's law written upon it; now we desire and seek to please God, our spouse, since we love Him and want to make Him happy.
One of the main points of the entire Old Testament is that man was entrapped by sin and that his heart was hard and unbelieving; the point is that we needed a new heart. Jesus responds to that problem by giving us a new heart, His very heart, so that we can eat of the tree of life once again and love and trust God no matter what test we have to undergo. Now we are given the heart, the courage, to lay down our life for another and be faithful to God to the point of shedding our blood in love of Him. With Him and His heart beating within us, we may bear fruit for God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
How did we die? In baptism as it says a chapter earlier in Romans: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (6:3-4).
The situation is this: we were married and it wasn't to God. God made us to be married to Him, but with sin we ended up in bondage to sin and satan and the law which was added due to sin. The only way to escape that bondage is for either one of us to die, but that seems impossible. There is no way out with our adversary ready to devour us. A symbol of this in the Old Testament is when the Israelites were up against the Red Sea unarmed and loaded down with goods and little ones while Pharaoh's highly trained and highly agitated army readied itself to revenge the death of all their first-born. All hope was lost. Yet God broke in and saved Israel through the water while at the same time destroying their enemy. This is a symbol of baptism.
We are married to a tyrannical murderer who hates us with a complete hatred and only wants to destroy us; he is not going to die, and if we die, well then we are dead. So God becomes one of us, dies on the cross, and is raised from the dead. In a spiritual and real way, we are united to Jesus in both His death and resurrection through baptism. Jesus provides us a way to die so that we are no longer bound to sin and satan as spouse, and then we are free to marry another and have Him as our spouse.
We walk in newness of life because we have become a new creation in baptism and have been married to a new spouse. United to our new husband, Jesus, we are now able to bear fruit for God. "Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart ... having been set free from sin..." (Romans 6:17-18). The place we bear good fruit is in our tree of life which is our heart. Our old stony heart has died, and with our new creation we have been given a new, living, loving, obedient heart of flesh with God's law written upon it; now we desire and seek to please God, our spouse, since we love Him and want to make Him happy.
One of the main points of the entire Old Testament is that man was entrapped by sin and that his heart was hard and unbelieving; the point is that we needed a new heart. Jesus responds to that problem by giving us a new heart, His very heart, so that we can eat of the tree of life once again and love and trust God no matter what test we have to undergo. Now we are given the heart, the courage, to lay down our life for another and be faithful to God to the point of shedding our blood in love of Him. With Him and His heart beating within us, we may bear fruit for God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
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