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On My Heart Imprint Your Image
Ephesians 4:17-24
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk…” It is a daunting list of traits St. Paul gives in discussing the Gentiles—and rightly so, for the Gentiles act as those who do not know God. Today we would call them “unbelievers,” but when the Apostle was writing, the people who did not know God included everyone who was not born into the particular race of the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah. Of course, by the time Paul wrote this epistle, the descendants of Shem—the people of Israel—had rejected the promised Messiah, so God provided for Himself a new Israel in those who were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
However, if you are being honest with yourself, you must admit that this was your condition, as well, for you were conceived and born into sin. And sometimes—God help you—sometimes you find yourself longing to return to that condition. There’s an old saying: “Ignorance is bliss.” And the Old Adam within you, persistent old sinner that he is, desires to return to that ignorance. Who among you has not desired to give himself over to lewdness, to work uncleanness with greediness? Who among you does not have a pet sin, one you have become comfortable with—maybe it is gossip or slander; greed or gluttony; lechery or pornography; envy or covetousness—this is not an exhaustive list, but it demonstrates how easily you can fall back into a sinful condition.
For the rest of your life in this world, your old sinful flesh will work cunningly with the devil and the world. The Old Adam within you will use those temptations of lewdness, uncleanness and greediness—or another temptation. On the one hand, he may well try to lure you into one of these sins; on the other hand, if that fails, he will tempt you to put trust in yourself because you’re not particularly susceptible to these sins. Take lewdness, for example; once a matter of shame, provocative clothing is now the fashion of the day. Put that together with the barrage of images on television, billboards, and the internet, and it’s easy to imitate the shame; it’s easy to surrender to lustful thoughts. That’s the old man in you, trying to get you to worship the false god of lust. If you dabble in un-holiness enough, you’ll leave behind the holiness of God. On the other hand, you might not be particularly troubled by sexual temptation; in that case, your Old Adam will tempt you to believe you’re more righteous because of it. He’s trying to get you to believe in yourself because your thoughts are purer than those of your neighbor.
The Lord bids you to examine yourself and to repent. You may remember the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The parable tells us that the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh do not want the seed of the Word of God to take root within you. You see, you’re certainly not holy by being lewd or greedy or slanderous; but you’re also not holy by being chaste and generous and honest toward your neighbor. Chastity, generosity, and honesty may well be fruits of holiness, but they are not the cause. The new man does good works through the Holy Spirit who dwells with him, and there is no excuse for believers to indulge in old sins. You have been set free from them.
So what is the cause of holiness? What makes you holy? Rather, Who makes you holy? It is no one else but the holy Son of God, Jesus Christ. He does not make you holy by teaching you to do better, to refine yourself to make yourself pure. Instead, He declares that He has gone to the cross and died for those sins. He forgives you. He removes all the impurity and un-holiness and unrighteousness. His grace makes you holy and righteous. His grace marks you as a new man, a redeemed child of your heavenly Father. And so we pray:
On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessed Jesus, King of grace,
That life's riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase…
This is a wonderful prayer at any time, of course, but it is especially appropriate during the season of Lent. As we heard last week, the journey to the cross is a perilous one, and the sinner who travels that path must be prepared for the dangers of that road. No better preparation exists than to be marked with the blood of the Lamb, to bear the sign of the cross upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. At your baptism, the name of Christ was placed upon you. The image of God, in which you were created, which mankind corrupted in the sinful desire to be like God, was restored by Christ’s sacrifice and placed on you once again in those baptismal waters. Every time you confess your sins, you return to those waters. So now you can confess your Savior, for you bear this clear baptismal inscription:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my Life, my hope's foundation,
And my glory and salvation!
Thanks be to God, who gives you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! In the name of the Father and of the (†) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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