Certain of the Ultimate Freedoms
- davidwperk
- Apr 2
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, April 2, 2025
The week of the fourth Sunday in Lent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s epistle reading:
8:1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
(You will find the full text of today’s Romans 8 reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 954)
AM Psalm 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; PM Psalm 119:121-144
Jer. 18:1-11; Rom. 8:1-11; John 6:27-40
Today we celebrate the Feast of James Lloyd Breck. (See below.)
David's Reflections
My life in ministry began rather early, which is not that unusual in the Baptist world. My first sermon came at age 16 (the hearers did require a special dispensation of divine mercy to endure). At age 20, as a college junior, a tiny Baptist church, the Longstraw Baptist Church, four miles south of Choudrant, Louisiana, invited me to be their part-time pastor. The College Place Baptist Church responded to their request and ordained me on Mother’s Day in 1965.
One Saturday, sitting in my garage apartment across from the college campus, I was reading this passage. The words of verses 1-4 took on living energy in my spirit. It dawned on me in a new and convincing way that I was spiritually alive and free from eternal death and that God's presence was within to enable me to live as God intended. God would never let me go. I found myself on my feet, scurrying down the stairs, and walking around under the pecan trees covering that corner lot, too full of energy to remain sitting down.
This chapter rings with notes of deliverance from death, a deliverance in Christ so profound that we can be certain of our future with God. Bishop Robert J. Hargrove ordained me to the Episcopal priesthood. He once told me that he was convinced many in the Episcopal Church live without the certainty that God loves them and that one of my pastoral responsibilities would be to lead people to that certainty, to a sense of their belovedness.
Most of us have not had some sort of lightening-strike conversion to Christianity. I was baptized as a small child in the Baptist church but I cannot remember a time when I did not trust in Jesus. It's easy to conclude that it's my life of church attendance, ministry, and obedience (such as it is) that brings God's love and forgiveness into my life. The problem with that understanding is that I can never know when I've done enough to be certain that God will love and forgive me.
Paul lived under no such illusions. He had been a persecutor of Christians, and his turning to Christ was totally at God's initiative. He knew that Jesus had come to him completely unsought and undeserved. Hence, his letters reverberate with this heart certainty that God loved him, claimed him, and would never let him go, certain that he was free from sin and death. Those ultimate freedoms are ours, only when we set our hearts on Christ and trust only in his grace.
I hope that your reading of passages like this one in Romans will bring you nearer that certainty. Because you trust in Christ as the baptismal promises in The Book of Common Prayer require of every baptismal candidate, you have the Spirit of Christ within you, and nothing can separate you from God's love. (BCP, pp. 302-303—“Do you accept Jesus as your Savior? Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love? Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?), As the rubrics regarding Holy Baptism say, ""The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble." (BCP, p. 298) Or, as Paul says, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
I read the previously unpublished essays of Ernst Käsemann for a Lenten discipline a few years ago and return to them frequently.. I am re-reading them for Lent this year. Käsemann was a German New Testament scholar persecuted by Hitler. (His commentary on Romans offers me ongoing inspiration and insight.) In a lecture on God’s righteousness in Paul, he says:
The message of God’s righteousness is a very dangerous affair. It injures our human pride and contradicts all reason when it bases earthly salvation on grace alone, once more making of us the clay the Creator must mold and help to take on life. The slogans “by Christ alone, by faith alone” have an edifying sound. But it is very annoying to hear and learn in every moment that of ourselves we are incapable of doing good, and even in the most favorable instance, must admit as did the servants in the parable. “We have done only what we ought to have done!”*
*Ernst Käsemann, On Being a Disciple of the Crucified Nazarene: Unpublished Lectures and Sermons. (Eerdmans, 2010), p. 21.]
Collect of the Day, The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 219)
Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Lent
O Lord our God, you sustained your ancient people in the wilderness with bread from heaven: Feed now your pilgrim flock with the food that endures to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, p. 36)
Today we celebrate the Feast of James Lloyd Breck, priest, educator, missionary (died 30 Mar 1876 CE).
Collect of the Feast of James Lloyd Breck
O God, who sent your Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: call us from comfortable complacency to preach, teach, and plant your church on new frontiers, after the example of your servant James Lloyd Breck; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Grace
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
For the Diocese
O God, by your grace you have called us in this Diocese to a goodly fellowship of faith. Bless our Bishop, _____, and other clergy, and all our people. Grant that your Word may be truly preached and truly heard, your Sacraments faithfully administered and faithfully received. By your Spirit, fashion our lives according to the example of your Son, and grant that we may show the power of your love to all among whom we live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 817)
A Prayer for Light
O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Epistle, Romans 8:1-11
8:1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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