Festival of Philip Melanchthon, Confessor
Posted on April 19, 2023 by under
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:22-25 (NKJV)
1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25 “But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
Devotion
When we were born, we were born in sin. We were born of a corrupted seed. We inherited this sin from our first parents: the original sin. Their seed—their offspring—ever since have been born of a corrupted seed. We have lost the image of the Lord God with which we were created. We have inherited death. We sin daily and deserve its penalty. But our Lord Jesus came into this world to take upon Himself our flesh. He purified our flesh by sacrificing His innocent flesh upon the altar of the cross.
We are baptized into this sacrifice through the waters of Holy Baptism. The corrupted seed in us was drowned and killed. Through water and the Word of God we have been declared to be a new creation. We have been born again. This new birth is not something that we do. St. Peter in his Epistle makes it clear that it is the Lord God who makes us alive again. It is His Word preached into our ears that creates faith and life in us. The Word connected with the water washes away the stain of sin and makes us a new creation; a creation born of an incorruptible seed.
Prayer: O God, who didst give Philip Melanchthon as a teacher unto Thy Church, grant zeal unto Thy people for the study of Thy holy Word, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Quasi modo geniti
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s Resurrection, may, by the help of Thy grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conversation; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
