Righteous Presentations

Our saving relationship in Christ demands that we present ourselves to God for service to him.  The Greek verb paristaemi / paristano (present / offer) can be translated to mean “to place at one’s disposal.”  With this understanding, I am reminded of the Isaiah.  Upon his commission to God’s service, the prophet Isaiah presented himself to God.  He placed himself in service to God:  “Here am I. Lord.  Send me” (Isaiah 6: 8).  As Isaiah presented himself at God’s disposal after being cleansed by the coal of fire taken from the heavenly altar, so we, having been cleansed by baptism, faith, and the Eucharist, must present ourselves to God to be in his service.

However, in our former lives apart from faith in Christ and the newness of life that comes from him, we were unable to present ourselves to be in God’s service.  St  Paul comments on this in his epistle to the Roman faithful:

For as by one man’s [Adam’s] disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s [Christ’s] obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5: 19).

St Paul continues,

What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  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.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin (Romans 6:  1 – 7).

Thus, by our new life of freedom from sin, in Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin.  We are now free to present ourselves for holy service to God.   St Paul gives further instruction:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  Do not present [maede paristanete] your members to sin as as instruments of wickedness, but present [alla parastanete] yourselves to God as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6: 11 -13).

I am a sinner.  I continue to struggle and fight against the sin and corruption that still indwells me, and it is only by cooperating with God’s grace that this can be done and sin overcome.  But, I have known many of faith who have only an intellectual understanding of these words of St Paul.  There seems to be a surrender — there is only an apparent minimal will to fight for the freedom given to us by Christ.  There is no heart for battle to grow in purity.  Perhaps the origin of this complacency comes from this bumper sticker mindset:  “Christians aren’t perfect.  We’re just forgiven!”  This saying represents a truncated and reductionistic understanding of our salvation.  We are forgiven, but that is not the sum total of our salvation.  Our Lord speaks of the benefits of such struggle:  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (St Matthew 5: 6).

Jesus Christ Conquers

Though, from time to time, we succumb to sin due to our weaknesses, We have been and continue to be cleansed by Christ as we battle sin.  I return to the prophet Isaiah and the cleansing which came to him.  The coal of fire which cleansed his lips is seen by the Church to be an Old Testament type for the Eucharist’s sanctifying power which comes to the faithful Christian in communion.  A priest will say this after consuming the Body and Blood of Christ, “Behold this coal of fire has touched my lips and takes away my transgressions and cleanses me of my sin.”  The same is true for every Christian who comes forward for the Sacrament.  Though we may have fallen, we are set on our feet and made clean to continue to present ourselves to be in Christ’s service.  Also, regarding the Eucharist, there is a message impressed upon the Lamb (the portion of the bread which becomes the Body of Christ by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the simple bread):  “Jesus Christ conquers.”  His victory over sin and death is taken into our lives to nourish and empower us as we, by the Holy Spirit, present ourselves to God for our sanctification.

May these words of St Paul be of benefit:  “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to greater and greater lawlessness.  Thus now present your members as slaves to righteousness which leads to sanctification” (Romans 6: 19).

In Christ,

Fr Irenaeus