Tag: faith

Good Friday and Wisdom 2:12-24

As I was reflecting on the related Old Testament prophecies and John’s gospel pertaining to Jesus’ death on Good Friday, I also recalled a related passage from the Apocrypha, the Wisdom of Solomon.

[Note: In Article 6 of the Anglican 39 Articles of Religion states that the Apocrypha isn’t used to establish doctrine but it is good for instructing and example of living a Christian life.]

In Wisdom 2:12-22, there is an interesting connection to Good Friday:

12 “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
13 He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
15 the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
16 We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
17 Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
18 for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
19 Let us test him with insult and torture,
that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”

21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hope for the wages of holiness,
nor discern the prize for blameless souls;

Wisdom 2:12-22 (RSV)

The context of Wisdom 2:12-22 is about how evil men oppose God by disregarding his justice through their words and deeds. These involves them plotting to harm a righteous man because of his rebuke to them and to test his claim of being the Son of God. This righteous man in Wisdom chapter 2 is not named, but when it is read in understanding of the gospel, that righteous man is actually Jesus Christ.

Next, Wisdom 2 ends with a warning about death in verses 23 to 24:

23 for God created man for incorruption,
and made him in the image of his own eternity,
24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his party experience it.

Wisdom 2:23-24 (RSV)

As an Anglican Christian, I think Wisdom 2:23-24 is to be understood as an instruction by way of a negative example, to the permanent death which will happen to evil people who reject God, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as Son of God and their Lord and Saviour. This same warning is also given by Jesus Christ in the gospels to repent from our evil ways and believe in him as God and King or to face eternal death.

Given the warning, we have to examine ourselves in a few ways:

  1. Do I know the secret purposes of God which are revealed in Jesus Christ’s life and teaching as testified of in the Gospels?
  2. Is there anything wicked that I need to repent of and turn to Jesus Christ for help?
  3. Do I hope for “the wages of holiness” and “the prize of blameless souls” as sealed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

The Circumcision of Christ

Happy New Year! And for those who celebrate, Blessed Feast of the Circumcision of Christ.

This celebration commemorates Christ’s circumcision according to Jewish law eight days after being born. In other words, Jesus Christ who is God and therefore the Lawgiver to Moses, was born under the Law and circumcised according to the Law in order to redeem us through His keeping of the same Law so that we might be adopted as sons of God (Galatians 4:4-5). And so as sons of God, let us deny the wordly and fleshy desires and subject ourselves to God.

The Collect
The Classic 1662 BCP CollectB&C P’s modernisation
Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true Circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Almighty God, who made your blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the Law for man: Grant us true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey your blessed will; through the same, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
According to the 1662 BCP rubrics, this collect together with the Epistle and Gospel readings are to be said from 1st January until 5th January
The Epistle Reading

blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

Romans 4:8-14 (ESV)
The Gospel Reading

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke 2:15-21 (ESV)