Book of Common Prayer

Leaving the state of sin through baptism

6 What are we to say, then? Shall we continue in the state of sin, so that grace may increase? ² Certainly not! We died to sin; how can we still live in it? ³ Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into the Messiah, Jesus, were baptized into his death? ⁴ That means that we were buried with him, through baptism, into death, so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the father’s glory, we too might behave with a new quality of life. ⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Dead to sin, alive to God

⁶ This is what we know: our old humanity was crucified with the Messiah, so that the bodily solidarity of sin might be abolished, and that we should no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ A person who has died, you see, has been declared free from all charges of sin.

⁸ But if we died with the Messiah, we believe that we shall live with him. ⁹ We know that the Messiah, having been raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has any authority over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, you see, he died to sin, once and only once. But the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In the same way you, too, must calculate yourselves as being dead to sin, and alive to God in the Messiah, Jesus.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem

21 When they came near to Jerusalem, and arrived at Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples on ahead.

² “Go into the village over there,” he said, “and at once you’ll find a donkey tied up, and a foal beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, say, ‘The master needs them, and he’ll send them back straight away.’ ”

He sent them off at once.

⁴ This happened so that the prophet’s words might be fulfilled:

⁶ So the disciples went off and did as Jesus had told them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and its foal, and put their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

⁸ The huge crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and scattered them on the road. ⁹ The crowds who went on ahead of him, and those who were following behind, shouted out,

¹⁰ When they came into Jerusalem, the whole city was gripped with excitement.

“Who is this?” they were saying.

¹¹ “This is the prophet, Jesus,” replied the crowds, “from Nazareth in Galilee!”