When a fish is caught and taken out of the water, it dies. The former watery world that it knew is passing away (1 Cor 7:31). Similarly, everything changes when we enter into the kingdom of God. Living in God’s kingdom is as different from our pre-Christian life as it is for that fish trying to live on land. Lifestyles that worked underwater no longer work in fresh air. In order for the fish to live on land, it literally has to die to its old life. The fish would need to die and receive a new nature to be able to live on land.
So it is with us human beings. To live in the kingdom of God, we die to our old
nature in Baptism and become sharers
of the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4) when we
rise from the waters of Baptism. Now our
old lifestyles won’t work. Once we begin
living the new, baptized life in Christ, we can no longer life the lifestyle we
had before.
--One Bread, One
Body
No comments:
Post a Comment