Thursday, March 28, 2019

The Sinless One - Article 15/39

XV. OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN
CHRIST in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, and in his spirit. He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world, and sin, as Saint John saith, was not in him. But all we the rest, although baptized, and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Articles 11-18 will keep hammering this home until we get it.

Some years ago an incumbent (Vicar or Rector), on the first Sunday after arriving in a new church, was required to read the 39 Articles instead of preaching a sermon. It was a test of their orthodoxy.

I recall the late Colin Bevington (Bev the Rev) at St Stephen's, Selly Park breaking it into two parts and taking a fortnight.This would be about 1975.  I have never, in my recollection, been present when somebody actually did it in one and I have never done it myself.

Somewhere between Articles 11 and 18 many will have lost the will to live. But let's stick with it. The additional material this article adds (says O'Donovan) is that it '...rejects any conception of justification as an achieved possession within our individual past histories, an event on which we can count in such a way that we are no longer dependent as we once were dependent. When we speak of justification as finished and accomplished, we certainly should not mean that it is finished and accomplished in our lives...' (italics all his).

In other words, we need to remind ourselves to live Jesus-centred lives all the time.

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