Die daily to sin.
Almighty Father,
who gave your only Son to die for our sins,
and to rise again for our justification,
grant us so to put away the old leaven of malice and wickedness,
that we may evermore serve you in purity and truth,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The good news of the gospel is the good news of God’s rescue mission. God created the universe to be a realm of perfect relationships, between God and humans, humans and each other, and humans and the rest of creation (Genesis 1-2). So he wasn’t content to let sin and death, which infected and affected every layer of the universe in Genesis 3 have the final say. Instead, God puts the universe back together again, chiefly and ultimately through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. The resurrection, then, is the monument of God’s victory over sin and death. It’s also, as the collect for Easter Day noted, the “gateway to everlasting life.”
The resurrection isn’t just some afterthought to the gospel. It’s not mere proof that the Cross “worked.” It’s much more. It’s the first and final victory over death, our ancient foe. As Romans 4:25 reflects “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
I love this collect because it also draws my attention to aspects of the atonement which were underemphasised in my own early Bible understanding which was built mainly around the gospel being chiefly in financial and/or judicial terms — “penal substitutionary atonement,” as it’s called. Jesus Christ died to pay my debt. He died in my place, to take my guilt upon himself, so that I might be declared righteous in his place. That’s such an awesome and beautiful exchange. And, in my opinion, a really important and true facet of the gospel! But, dare I say, there’s more to the gospel than just penal substitutionary atonement.
We live in a world that is still stained by sin and, often it appears, dominated by death and decay. However, at Easter time (and on EVERY Sunday!), we remind ourselves that sin and death have lost the battle. We know how God’s Story ends — with resurrection and eternal life! So, on that basis, we ask God to give us his joy, even in the midst of our current earthly sorrows.
The collect echoes 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “grant us so to put away the old leaven of malice and wickedness that we may evermore serve you in purity and truth, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.” We ask God to help us to die to sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. It simply will not do to celebrate the resurrection with our lips, and yet deny the resurrection with our lives. We ought not to celebrate our deliverance from bondage to sin and death as we continue to live in captivity to sin and death!
In order to experience the liberating results of the resurrection, we need the Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out — so that we might hate what God hates and love what God loves. Easter isn’t just a “feel-good” moment, it’s a complete life-transforming moment. Yes, Jesus Christ sets us free from bondage to sin and death! So then let’s be joyful, and die daily to sin.
So pray this with me:
Almighty Father,
who gave your only Son to die for our sins,
and to rise again for our justification,
grant us so to put away the old leaven of malice and wickedness,
that we may evermore serve you in purity and truth,
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.