The new life
De Profundis! Out of the depths I cry to you. David cries out of the depths for his rebellious son, Absalom. He also sings of God’s forgiveness.
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
Paul talks of our forgiveness in Christ, putting off all the old life. He then says, “So then.” He gives a list of ways to live out the new life – a together kind of life. Peterson says in his introduction to Ephesians that Paul explains that the old life of sin has hurt us and then proceeds to uncover how every bone in our bodies is broken and crushed. It will take work to live the new kind of life we have been born to.
Since we are members of each other, we shouldn’t lie to our neighbors, because in the end we will be lying to ourselves. He tells the church, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Amen.
