John chapter 3 and verse 18,
as I think about these verses, it's so central to what the gospel
is that it's worth spending a little more time on this one verse here
in verse 18. John chapter 3, verse 18. I'm
going to read verse 16. Yeah, verse 16 through 18. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And I want to focus especially on verse 18, but it's here we
have in these verses of Scripture, a testimony from the very words,
the very mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, of the
grace of God that He would send His Son into this world, not
to condemn this world at His first coming, but to save the
world. Not the entire world, but those
in the world who are given this grace to believe in Him, They
will not perish. They will not be condemned. They are not condemned. They
have everlasting life. And the Lord Jesus is going to
raise them up at the last day. They are the ones loved of God.
That's the world here spoken of. Those who are given grace
by God to look to Christ and trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so in verse 18, this is what it says, he that believeth on
him is not condemned. It's incredible to me, and it
is incredible even if it's not incredible to me, that God the
Father would entrust all judgment of all men to his Son. We find
that recorded in scripture in John chapter 5 in verse 22 and
23. It says, For the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, that all
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. And
so this is incredible to me. It's incredible that he would
entrust to his son the salvation of all those he chose before
time and adopted to be his sons before time by Jesus Christ. It is incredible to me that God
would be so gracious to sinners. It is incredible to me because
God the Father gave His Son and made sons to Himself by Jesus
Christ from the children of men, even sinners, who in themselves
were the enemies of God, and like all the rest of humanity,
were by nature children of wrath, even as others, as it says in
Ephesians chapter 2. Those things are incredible,
isn't it? That God would give His Son. We think it incredible
if a man were to give his son, but for God to give sinners anything
is incredible. mostly that God would give them
His Son. And so, it is incredible that the Father would give His
Son for any cause or for any reason, but it is especially
incredible that He would give Him for the salvation of those
who are so unworthy, so undeserving, so ill-deserving of all favor
from God, and yet that He would give His only begotten Son, the
Son of God, for them. This is grace beyond all comprehension
and beyond all measure. That's what the scripture itself
uses words like that. We know God doesn't use hyperbole
He doesn't stretch the truth, but he calls the love of Christ
the love that passes knowledge or the Immeasurable grace of
God So it is it is instructive it is telling to me that God
the Father would give His Son and ordain and tell sinners to
believe His Son. It's instructive to me that He
would do this. It teaches us that the Son of
God is God over all. When He says to sinners to believe
His Son, it shows us that the object of our faith is the Son
of God. Who but God only is the object
of saving faith. Because, if you think about it,
to direct us to one, to believe, God is directing us to one who
will receive the glory, who is able to save us to the uttermost.
And yet, And yet, it is not God as God only that the Son of God
is, but God as God-Man. God the Son is the Son of Man,
the Chosen of God, the One who is set up by the Father as Christ,
who is by God the Father set up as the Head. of all of God's
eternal purpose, for all of creation, and for all of time and eternity,
and especially for the salvation and for the blessing of His people,
and for the judgment of all others. That is what God has done for
His Son. It says in John chapter 3 and
verse 35, the Father loveth the Son and has put all things under
his feet. That's an incredible statement.
He says in the next verse after that, the one that says, the
father loveth his son and hath given all things into his hand.
He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life. He that
believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. You might ask yourself, what
does God think of me? What does God think of me? Or
you might ask this of a person. What does God think of that person?
You can answer that question by asking this, what does that
person think of God's son? Because he that believeth on
the son hath everlasting life, he that believeth not the son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. The Lord
has told sinners to believe on his son. What a gracious command! God has told sinners to believe
on His Son, to believe the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 3.23 says, this is His commandment. God's commandment that we should
believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another
as He gave His commandment. What a gracious, what a blessed
commandment this is, and what volumes it speaks of the trust
given to the Son by God the Father, of the love of the Father for
the Son, and of the divine nature of the Son of God, because to
believe the Son is to give the honor to the Son of God that
is due to the Father, the honor of utter dependence and of worship
of looking to Him, and coming to Him, and relying on His Word,
and coming into happy alignment with the purpose of God, the
purpose of the Son. His thoughts, and His ways, and
His will, and trusting are all to His wisdom, to His saving
power, to His grace, to His love. So that to trust the Son, to
uphold all justice, and to establish all righteousness according to
the will, and the approval, and even the delight of God the Father.
What a momentous thing it is that God the Father would command
us to believe on His Son. In utter dependence, looking
to Him, ascribing to Him all ability and faithfulness, all
righteousness and justice, all mercy and grace, all of God's
power to save. This is amazing. You can see
the honor that it is when a sinner believes the Son that we're giving
to the Son of God. So there's no question but that
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the object of all saving faith. This is very, very important.
It says in verse 18, John 3, 18, he that believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. To believe in the name means
to believe in the person, to believe in his offices, to believe
in His work, to believe in all that He is. If there are such
high stakes placed on faith in Christ, and so great a blessing
from God that all who do believe are not condemned and have everlasting
life, whereas all who do not believe are already under the
condemnation of God's judgment and wrath, then the Son of God
must be preeminent in all of our life, in all of our salvation,
for all eternity. And He is so by the will and
appointment of God the Father. Therefore, He is able to save. Therefore, He is worthy of our
trust, worthy of our worship. He is to be trusted. He is faithful. He is all wise to save and to
keep and to present us and give all that God has as our inheritance
and all eternal blessings to us. That's what God has laid
on His Son. And He did it to His honor. So
that all that is the father's has been put into the hand of
his son. All of the adopted sons of the
father are also the brethren and bride of the son. There are
none saved but those who belong to the father and to the son.
And there are none who belong to the father and the son who
are not saved. Is that clear? It's like if I
had a room full of oranges. And there was one special basket
that belonged to me. And I said, everything in that
basket belongs to me. And everything in that basket
also belongs to Denise. All that belongs to Denise is
in that basket, and all that belongs to me is in that basket.
All the rest of the oranges, we don't talk about them, because
it's all what's in the basket. And so in John 17, so I can state
that as clearly as Jesus did in his prayer to his father,
he says in verse 9 of John 17, I pray for them. Who are those
he's praying for? For them. I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. All the ones that he prays for,
not all the world. See, I don't pray for the world,
but I pray for them thou hast given me. They are thine. The ones the father gave to him
are the father's. Now notice in verse 10, and all
mine are thine. Everything that belongs to the
Son was given to him by his Father, and those are the Fathers. All
mine are thine, and thine are mine. I am glorified in them."
So there's no people that belong to the Father that don't also
belong to the Son, and there's no people that belong to the
Son that don't also belong to the Father. And there are no
other people saved and prayed for but those that belong to
the Father and to the Son, given by the Father to the Son. And
so we see that that's the way that it is. That's why it pleases
the Father to give them to Him to save. All of the adopted sons
of the Father are the brethren and the bride of the Son. There
are none saved but those who belong to the Father and the
Son, and none who belong to the Father and Son are not saved.
They are all saved. There is only one people that
are chosen, one people redeemed. They are the sons of God. They
are the heirs of salvation, the heirs of eternal life and eternal
glory, and they are those that belong to the Father and to the
Son. But it pleased the father to
place all honor on his son. This is important. It was his
will that all men should honor his son even as they honor the
father. All who are saved honor the son,
how? In believing him. They honor
him by honoring his word. They honor him by believing him.
and believe in His word. The two are interchangeable.
If we believe the Son, we believe what He says. If we believe what
He says, we believe Him. If we believe Him, we trust Him.
And if we believe Him, we honor Him and we worship Him. These
things are inseparable. You can't have one without the
other. You can't say, I believe His words and not also believe
Christ. You can't say, I believe Christ
and not also believe His words. We don't know who Jesus is without
His word. And we can't believe His word
and not believe He's the Son of God, the Sent One of God,
the Christ, the One who is the only Savior, the One to whom
all honor and glory belong, the One in whom our salvation rests.
And so we can look at verses like this. Who worships? Who
receives worship? Remember when Thomas said to
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he considered the fact that his
nails were pierced and his feet were pierced and his side was
pierced for him, he said, my Lord and my God, And in Revelation
chapter 5, all of heaven, the redeemed of the Lord, are singing
praises to the Lamb who is worthy, who alone is worthy. And in Psalm
chapter 2, verse 12, the Lord says to us, kiss the Son. Kiss
the Son. Worship the Son. John the Apostle
fell on his face and worshiped Christ when he saw Him in the
book of Revelation in chapter 1, verse 17. The plain statements
of God's Word are these. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Jesus said, He that has seen
me has seen the Father. He also said this through the
Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 4 verse 12, Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. That's ascribing the
honor of salvation to the Son, isn't it? And if the Son is the
one alone through whom we're saved in all of the statements
of Old Testament scripture saying, I'm the Lord, I'm your Redeemer,
there is no other God but me, no one else can save but me.
They have to be ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Son.
Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
the way to the Father, the truth from the Father concerning our
salvation in all things and life. All life is in the Son, and no
man comes to the Father but by me, the one mediator. the one
who alone can save us from our sins. Again, in Isaiah 45, 22,
Jesus Christ himself said this, look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Jesus spoke to Paul when he saved
him on the road to Damascus when he was going to persecute and
kill Christians. Jesus spoke to him this way.
He said, I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to make thee
a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast
seen and of those things in which I will appear to thee. delivering
thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I
send thee, the Gentiles, to open their eyes, to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. This is
the Son of God from heaven, having accomplished our salvation, sending
Paul to open the eyes, and turn from darkness to light, and from
Satan to God, these that he's sending him to, through the preaching
of the gospel. He says, he goes on, that they
may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which
are, notice, sanctified by faith that is in me. Who is the object
of saving faith? Jesus said they are sanctified,
which is our regeneration by the Spirit of God. We're set
apart to God in the act of the regenerating work of the Spirit
of God when He directs us to Christ and gives us this saving
faith through faith that is in me. That's what Jesus said. So
all faith is directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. All saving
faith Romans chapter 3, it says this, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The redemption
is what? It's all that Christ did. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. His life for ours. He gave Himself
a ransom to redeem us by His precious blood. In verse 25,
Romans chapter 3, it says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Listen, through faith in His
blood. To declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say, at this time in history, at the
writing of the epistle of Romans unto our present time until the
Lord comes again to declare this at this time his righteousness
Christ's righteousness as ours that he might be just and the
justifier of him which what believeth in Jesus so the faith we have
that God gives to us if it's saving faith It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, as I was about to
read in Acts 20, 21, I kept back nothing that was profitable to
you, but have showed you and taught you publicly and from
house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we turn to God in believing
Christ. Repentance is the change of our
minds by the power of the Gospel with the Spirit of God attending
that preaching to turn us from our unbelief to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus in all these things and so many more we see that salvation
is in Jesus Christ alone. And He alone, He is the alone
object of our faith, of saving faith, which is given by God
the Father, out of pure grace, and is given to us because of
the life, the death, the resurrection, and the reigning power of the
Son of God, Jesus Christ, as our Mediator, and also by the
power of His Holy Spirit. Remember in Hebrews 12, 2, Jesus
is called the Author, and the finisher of our faith. Philippians
129 it says unto you it is given unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for
his sake. Notice the underscore there.
It's given by Christ on his behalf because of his life, death, resurrection
on the basis of his reigning authority and power as the Son
of God the mediator between God and men for His people to believe
on Him. Our faith in Christ is not an
accident. It's not something that we produce,
not something that comes accidentally. It's by the sovereign will of
Christ on the throne of heaven. Therefore, in summary, it is
immeasurably wonderful and gracious of God to give His Son, to deliver
Him up for us all in substitution, and to provide Him as the representative
head of us all, so that He is our salvation and the object
of all our trust. God's command to us is to believe
His Son, and it therefore proves that Christ is all of our salvation. He is equal with the Father and
with the Holy Spirit as a divine person, and that He alone is
appointed and able to save to the uttermost all who come to
God by Him. What grace, what undeserved grace,
and what a provision in God's own Son. What love of God to
give His Son. Now I want you to remember back
when Jesus walked this earth. Did you notice that all who needed
healing and all who were forgiven their sins while he walked this
earth, all who were saved, all who were given to him by the
Father, they all came to Christ. They believed on Jesus as the
Son of God, as the Christ of God, the one God sent to save
them from their diseases and from devils and sin. and from
death, remember, all throughout His ministry. They came to Him
to learn of God. They came to Him to learn His
doctrine, the Gospel. They followed Him. He healed
them and taught them and fed them. And so it is, only much
more now, we come to Jesus, believing Him for all. God sent Him to
do all for us, and so be all to us. just like the bread, just
like the healing power he had then, just like the life he gave
to dead people then, just like the forgiveness of sins he gave
then, he's all from God to us, all from God for us. All who
believe on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have eternal life. Let me read this to you again.
Verse 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned. Not condemned. That's amazing, isn't it? Think
about what it means to not be condemned by God. God cannot
tolerate sin. He can't look upon sin at all.
If he finds sin, he must condemn it. It's God's glory to forgive
sin, but it's also His glory that He will not clear the guilty. But here God says, He that believeth
on the Son is not condemned. So, this is a stupendous promise
of God. The word believeth here in John
3, 18 is in the present tense. It doesn't refer to what we did
in the past. as we tend to do that. I remember
back in 1972, I believed on Jesus. It doesn't refer to what we shall
do someday. Someday I'm going to trust Christ.
It speaks of those who in their present lives actively believe
on Christ. Believing Christ is an ever-present
action of believers. He that believeth We who first
believe now believe, and we shall continue believing. And this
faith of believing is all of God. Underscore that. It's all
of God. It is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. We cannot
see, we cannot know, we cannot trust Christ until it is given
to us by God to believe Him. It says this of Lydia in Acts
16, 14, whose heart the Lord opened. And as I mentioned before,
Philippians 129, unto you it is given to believe. And then
in 2 Peter 1, verse 1, first verse of 2 Peter, Simon Peter
said this, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that
have obtained. The word obtained means to have
received by divine allotment as an inheritance to them that
have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ or in Either one is acceptable. It's either through Christ's
righteousness that we receive faith as an allotment from God
or we receive faith as an allotment from God and that faith is in
the righteousness of God. Both are true from scripture
and either one could be understood from that verse. We depend, we
depend on Christ presently, daily. Why? because we need him daily. Isn't that true? Psalm 86 verse
3, Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Why? Why do the psalmist cry
to the Lord daily? Because it's the Lord. Notice
in the scripture of Psalm 86 verse 3 is capital L, small o-r-d,
which means, speaking of Christ, for I cry unto thee daily, Psalm
86, 3. Why did he cry daily? Because
he needed mercy daily from the Lord all the time. Jesus said
in John 6, 56, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh That's
a present activity. My blood dwelleth in me and I
in Him. Those who are eating and drinking
of Christ and His sin-atoning blood and sacrifice for us are
those who are eating and drinking spiritually. His blood cleanses
us before God, doesn't it? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. His body is the food of our souls,
His broken body. His blood also cleanses our conscience
in believing Him, so that the bread of Christ's broken body
and the drink of His shed sin-toning blood is all of our life and
sustenance in our spirits and souls, therefore in our own body. For as the body faints when the
heart faints, so our souls and spirits faint due to lack of
hearing Christ, lack of believing Him. This is a fundamental principle. We have to continually take in
the doctrine, the hearing of the gospel, so that our souls,
by faith, will feed on Christ and Him crucified. That's why
it's so essential that we preach nothing but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He's our life when we first believe,
our life now, and He will be our life forevermore. In Luke
chapter 10, Remember the account where Martha was up serving and
Mary sat at Jesus' feet. It says in verse 39, Mary, which
also sat at Jesus' feet and listen, heard his word. And then Martha complained and
Jesus said to her, one thing is needful, one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good part
which shall not be taken away from her. What's the one thing
that's important in our lives then? It's faith in Christ. It's knowing our salvation by
Him. It's honoring Him, believing Him. And how does that come?
By sitting and hearing His words, sitting at His feet, as we're
trying to do even now and praying the Lord would give us that grace
to do. Sometimes we think in our minds, I could believe I
was saved if I saw the work of the Spirit of God in me. Don't
we think those things sometimes? Or we might think, I could believe
I was saved if I had more victory over sin. Or I could believe
I was saved if I acted more like a Christian is supposed to act.
Maybe we think those things. I have a question for you. What
do you call a man who finds himself to only be a sinner and yet who
trusts Christ? What do you call that? You call
that faith. You call that grace. A man who
thinks himself to be only a sinner and yet he trusts Christ, that's
grace. All these things we talk about,
if I could just see these things in me, this evidence in me, then
I could be confident I was a Christian. All these things is not believing
the Son of God. To think this way is believing
in ourselves. To believe on Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is to leave all other confidence and to find all of
my confidence in Him alone. And so finding in Him alone,
finally, to find the basis of the one true confidence that
will enable me to endure the day of judgment. I was reading
an article this past week about a man who teaches the following
heresy. He teaches that we're justified
by the work of Christ alone. But when we reach judgment, we'll
be justified by our works. That is heresy. Believing that
is what the men in Matthew 7, 21-23 believed. And Jesus said
to them, depart from me, I never knew you. We have to be very
careful and very guarded that we believe on the Son of God.
not on ourselves. Remember, the Father loves the
Son. He has therefore given all things
into his hand, and he that believeth on the Son of God has everlasting
life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him. What does God think of a man?
God thinks of a man as a man thinks of his son. You can know
what God thinks of you by what you think of his son. If you
believe Christ, the Son of God, to be all of your soul's cleansing.
all of your covering and righteousness and all of your standing and
acceptance and blessing from God. And if you call on Him and
come to God by Him alone, then according to Christ's own words,
you have, right now, everlasting life. God has justified you by
the shed blood of His Son. We must believe on Him. We must
not believe on ourselves. We have no ability, not any,
to do what God requires of us or to cleanse ourselves from
our sins, do we? We must believe on Him in spite
of ourselves, don't we? Believe Him in the full acknowledgment
and confession that I am a sinner and condemned and without His
saving work and gift of faith, without His goodness to save
and give this faith, without His faithfulness and power to
save, I can neither believe nor live nor continue believing on
him. This is the fundamental principle
that what God requires of us, we must look to Christ for. Don't
ever think that God says, do something and then you're going
to get busy in doing it. You better look to Christ for
it and come to God for it. And especially in this faith.
You might think, have I repented enough? Have I believed enough?
You might think, I'm only a sinner. I have nothing to claim but my
sin. So what? That's exactly what you need
to be in order to trust Christ. If you come any other way, you're
going to be trusting yourself. You must look to Christ alone. To believe on the Son of God
is to look to the Son of God, not to consider yourself. Like
Abraham, he did not consider his own body now dead. I cannot
be justified unless he both justifies me apart from my works and in
spite of my sin, and if he himself gives me faith to believe the
Son of God, Christ, as my justification. Romans chapter 4 verse 4 says,
Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace,
but of debt. Go ahead and try to work, try
to do, and all you're going to do is incur more debt. But to
him that does not work, who worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness,
because his faith looks to the Son of God, you see. And so much
more in Romans 5, verse 9, it says, much more than being now
justified by His blood, Christ's blood. We shall be saved from
wrath through Him. Not because of ourselves, but
through Him. Verse 10, for if when we were enemies, That's
where you started. Enemies of God in your mind and
by wicked works. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled
by His blood, we shall be saved by His life. Those verses should
give you great comfort. If you believe on the Son of
God, they will. To believe the Son, we believe that God justifies
the ungodly for His sake. To believe the Son is to believe
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that
I, I myself, am the sinner, am a sinner with nothing in myself
but reason for God to condemn me. I have nothing in myself
by which I can keep alive my body or my soul or my spirit.
I believe on Him, Christ, as my life. Colossians 3.4 says,
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear
with Him also in glory. We look to Him that way, don't
we? Christ is my life. Paul said in Galatians 2.20 that
the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me and therefore
He lives by the faith of the Son of God who lives in Him.
I come, and I look, and I expect all from Christ. I have nothing
in myself to believe Him. Faith is not of yourself, it's
the gift of God. It's not of our works, lest any
of us should boast. And I have nothing in myself
to love Christ, nothing in myself to obey Him. But I am in His
hands to save or to condemn me, because I can't do anything else. That's trusting Him. And yet,
hearing Him, I hold fast to His word as true, and I come to God
by Him, because He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.
He is my salvation. He is my righteousness. He is the cleansing for all my
sins. He is my intercessor, my prophet. who makes God known in Himself
and in His saving work, my priest, who makes my peace with God,
who disarms the wrath of God, who reconciles me to God. He
is my King. He subdues my sin. He subdues
death and overcomes this world, Satan and his kingdom for me.
He is the King who saves and protects and blesses me with
all that is His and orders all in God's providence for my good.
We believe on the Son of God. Believe in him as God. Believe
in him as man. Believe in him as my own mediator
between God and me. Believe in him as my substitute. I'm using the personal pronoun
here, but you apply it to yourself. Believe in his life. Believe
in his obedience. Believe in his death. Believe
in his atonement. Believe in his power to raise
the dead. Believe in his justification. believe His sanctifying and perfecting
work that He accomplished all by Himself. In short, to believe
on the Son of God is to believe Him for all, in all of my life,
in all of my salvation. I hope that helps you to understand
somewhat of what it says here in John 3, verse 18. He that
believeth on Him is not condemned. God has said it. If God's word
fails, then I will be lost, and that will be a great loss, but
it'll be a much greater loss if God fails to do His word,
because God Himself will have failed. We trust Him. We don't
presume. We just say, I am a sinner. Jesus
Christ came to save sinners. I believe the Son of God. Lord,
save me. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word. Lord Jesus, we come to you now,
and as the sovereign of this universe, into whose hands all
things, all judgment and salvation are committed by the Father,
and worthy you are to have them committed to you. You have accomplished
all of the salvation of your people in your one life. and
death and resurrection and now from your throne you send your
spirit to woo them, to bring them, to give them life, to give
them faith, to bring them to yourself and to fall down in
obedience of faith and worship you. Lord, we're sinners and
we find it difficult, impossible to find anything more in ourself
than just that. And so we come to you, helpless
and wretched. We pray, Lord, that you would
clothe us in your own righteousness, wash us with your own blood,
feed us with your own sin-atoning death, and help us to look to
you in all things and honor you in all of our life. And we pray
that you would save us for your glory. In your name we pray. Amen.