Posted on 09/03/2005 5:23:18 PM PDT by sionnsar
Last week, the Rev. William Klock of Christ Church REC in Oregon preached a sermon on "The Godly Virtue of Love" and now this week's sermon is The Godly Virtue of Purity, based on Galatians 5:16-24 and Luke 17:11-19. I thought this sermon was excellent:
Our hearts are spiritual battlefields. On one side the sinful desires of the flesh, of our natural fallen selves, of what should be the “old man” battles against the “new man” created by God’s grace in each of us. The “old man” has no concept of the joy of holiness and the “new man” has no desire for the pleasure of sin. Our old nature is checked by our new nature, but at the same time, our new nature, while it strives to please God, is constantly dragging around the dead weight of our the “old man.” The only way to overcome that anchor of the flesh is to make a concerted effort to rely on the Spirit and the grace we find in him...I think that periodically we need to re-evaluate our own lives to see whether these fruits of the Spirit are being made more evident in us; as Rev. Klock says, they are the evidence that we are in fact living in the Spirit. This is another excellent sermon--please read and meditate on it.
When Christ was crucified, he overcame sin and its consequences. So when, through faith, we are united with Christ we are made dead to sin. We have been crucified with Christ and raised to a new life of the Spirit and through the Spirit we live out these virtues and are made pure in him. The Fruit of the Spirit are the evidence that we are in fact living in the Spirit. As St. Paul says, there is no law against these things – in fact, the point of the law was to direct us to them by condemning their opposites. We can still live in the flesh and avoid the works of evil, as I said, because we fear judgement. But when we live in the Spirit, instead of the flesh, we don’t just avoid the works of evil, we also live out the positive Fruit of the Spirit – the result of being made dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams, Good article. Thanks.
Great article from Prydain - well worth the read.
Missing Arlin Adams.....
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