Book of Common Prayer

God’s action in Messiah and spirit

8 So, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in the Messiah, Jesus! ² Why not? Because the law of the spirit of life in the Messiah, Jesus, released you from the law of sin and death.

³ For God has done what the law (being weak because of human flesh) was incapable of doing. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sin-offering; and, right there in the flesh, he condemned sin. ⁴ This was in order that the right and proper verdict of the law could be fulfilled in us, as we live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

The work of the spirit

⁵ Look at it like this. People whose lives are determined by human flesh focus their minds on matters to do with the flesh, but people whose lives are determined by the spirit focus their minds on matters to do with the spirit. ⁶ Focus the mind on the flesh, and you’ll die; but focus it on the spirit, and you’ll have life, and peace. ⁷ The mind focused on the flesh, you see, is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s law; in fact, it can’t. ⁸ Those who are determined by the flesh can’t please God.

⁹ But you’re not people of flesh; you’re people of the spirit (if indeed God’s spirit lives within you; note that anyone who doesn’t have the spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him). ¹⁰ But if the Messiah is in you, the body is indeed dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of covenant justice. ¹¹ So, then, if the spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you, the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies, too, through his spirit who lives within you.

The parable of the wedding feast

22 Jesus spoke to them once again in parables.

² “The kingdom of heaven,” he said, “is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son. ³ He sent his slaves to call the invited guests to the wedding, and they didn’t want to come.

⁴ “Again he sent other slaves, with these instructions: ‘Say to the guests, Look! I’ve got my dinner ready; my bulls and fatted calves have been killed; everything is prepared. Come to the wedding!’

⁵ “But they didn’t take any notice. They went off, one to his own farm, another to see to his business. ⁶ The others laid hands on his slaves, abused them and killed them. ⁷ (The king was angry, and sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and burn down their city.) ⁸ Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but the guests didn’t deserve it. ⁹ So go to the roads leading out of town, and invite everyone you find to the wedding.’ ¹⁰ The slaves went off into the streets and rounded up everyone they found, bad and good alike. And the wedding was filled with partygoers.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who wasn’t wearing a wedding suit.

¹² “ ‘My friend,’ he said to him, ‘how did you get in here without a wedding suit?’ And he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie him up, hands and feet, and throw him into the darkness outside, where people weep and grind their teeth.’

¹⁴ “Many are called, you see, but few are chosen.”