Daily Liturgy and Scripture

How far does the Kingdom of Jesus go? Through all things, redeeming all creation. His resurrection is an early preview of our own future, but the world will go with us. In the end, God will make all things new as Jesus was made new. Nothing can separate us from this promise if we are part of that Kingdom.

What does life in the Spirit do? More than just give us a great place to spend eternity. In the here and now, life in the Spirit is the Kingdom of Christ on earth as it is in heaven. This is what Paul works out for Christians in Rome who might have been struggling with their theology.

Jesus's transfiguration was symbolic. Meeting with Elijah and Moses, he came together with the historic figures for the law and the prophets. With their departure and Jesus being left alone, the law and prophets have not dissolved. Both are still an important part of God's story. In the Kingdom of Jesus, both have found fulfillment in him.

Since Paul has spent the last few chapters upending the Jewish view of law and obedience, he needs to connect obedience back to life in Christ. Not that we have been give a free pass to do what we want, but that living in Christ is living LIKE Christ. Of course, none of us can be fully like Christ until the resurrection, but in the meantime, it is our job to bring that Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

There's some pretty great theology in this passage, and actually pretty simple. Maybe a good way to sum it up might be, "If the best the law had to offer us was a way to to correct the path of Adam, then the best Jesus has to offer us is the news that it's not longer about the path, it's about him." Being slaves to sin was something God always meant to free us from, and the law was the first step, but never the final one. When the time was right, God enacted the upgrade: the Word made flesh, the life of the Spirit.

Paul continues to equalize Jewish and non-Jewish believers by remind them what Abraham, the great patriarch, had as his distinguishing trait. It was, of course, his faith. That is what made Abraham great, and would also be the common factor among all who follow Christ.

It must have been difficult in the early days of the Church. Jesus was a Jew, the early church started from a group of Jews, but Christianity was a very different thing. Paul was also a Jew, and a well-read scholar. In helping the early church understand what the role of Jews and non-Jews was, he somewhat cuts to the chase: God made the Jews the people of the promise that is fulfilled in Jesus. Now, with Jesus as the head of the church, we are all part of the fulfillment of the old promise and the hope of the new one.

Paul opened by talking a bit about the wrath of God, but now he defines the people of God. It is not an outward mark or a birthright that makes a Christian, but rather a state of the heart. Our identity is in Christ, and so is our future.

It's sometimes difficult to reckon with the wrath of God, because we so often think of God as love. God is a God of love, but wrath is also one of God's qualities. The love God shows for his people is complete only if he cares for them, and preserves them. Wrath is the measure of preservation that turns against those who turn against his people.

The gifts of the Spirit are intended to create a single body, the Church. This is where God brings gifts together and continues to move among his people. There is no hierarchy in these gifts (the "higher gifts" are those that most directly bring honor to God and not the gift holder, remember that he spent a LOT of time talking about humility), and love is what really binds the body together, in appreciation for the gifting of all.