Book of Common Prayer

Looking back on life under the law

¹³ Was it that good thing, then, that brought death to me? Certainly not! On the contrary; it was sin, in order that it might appear as sin, working through the good thing and producing death in me. This was in order that sin might become very sinful indeed, through the commandment.

¹⁴ We know, you see, that the law is spiritual. I, however, am made of flesh, sold as a slave under sin’s authority. ¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want, you see, but I do what I hate. ¹⁶ So if I do what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the law is good.

¹⁷ But now it is no longer I that do it; it’s sin, living within me. ¹⁸ I know, you see, that no good thing lives in me, that is, in my human flesh. For I can will the good, but I can’t perform it. ¹⁹ For I don’t do the good thing I want to do, but I end up doing the evil thing I don’t want to do. ²⁰ So if I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer “I” doing it; it’s sin, living inside me.

The double “law” and the miserable “I”

²¹ This, then, is what I find about the law: when I want to do what is right, evil lies close at hand! ²² I delight in God’s law, you see, according to my inmost self; ²³ but I see another “law” in my limbs and organs, fighting a battle against the law of my mind, and taking me off into captivity in the law of sin which is in my limbs and organs.

²⁴ What a miserable person I am! Who is going to rescue me from the body of this death? ²⁵ Thank God—through Jesus our Messiah and Lord! So then, left to my own self I am enslaved to God’s law with my mind, but to sin’s law with my human flesh.

Jesus walking on the water

¹⁶ When it was evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the seashore. ¹⁷ They got into a boat, and went across the sea towards Capernaum. It was already getting dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ A strong wind blew up, and the sea began to get rough. ¹⁹ They had been rowing for about three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, coming towards the boat. They were terrified.

²⁰ But he spoke to them.

“It’s me!” he said. “Don’t be afraid!”

²¹ Then they were eager to take him into the boat; and at once the boat arrived at the land they had been making for.

²² The next day the crowd that had remained on the far side of the lake saw that there had only been the one boat there. They knew that Jesus hadn’t gone with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. ²³ But other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵ When they found him beside the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Bread from heaven

²⁶ This was Jesus’ reply.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “You aren’t looking for me because you saw signs, but because you ate as much bread as you could. ²⁷ You shouldn’t be working for perishable food, but for food that will last to the life of God’s coming age—the food which the son of man will give you, the person whom God the father has stamped with the seal of his approval.”