In the midst of his sufferings,
Job cries out and asks the question, the answer to which is at the
heart of the Gospel. Job, that upright man whom Satan
hated, whom Satan caused to be brought under great trial, when
Satan came unto the Lord God, And God said unto him, Consider
my servant Job. There is none like him. And Satan
mocked him and said, He only serves thee for what he can get.
So God allowed for Job to be brought under great suffering
that he might use Job as an example to show that Job did not serve
God for what he'd get, but Job served God for whom he was. Yet Satan brought these trials
upon him. He took his family away. He took
his children away. He took his riches away. He took
his health away. And he tried him beyond measure.
And Job knew what it was to be brought down to nothing. And
to feel the hand of God, as it were, gone out against him. And
Job recognised in such a state the depravity that lied within
him as a sinner. Though he may outwardly have
been considered upright, though he may have been a man who worshipped
God and served God, he knew there was no good in him. And knowing
this, Job cries out in chapter 9, I know it is so of a truth,
but how should man be just with God? How should man be just with
God? If he will contend with Him,
he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty
in strength, who have hardened himself against Him and have
prospered. which removeth the mountains,
and they know not, which overturneth them in his anger, which shaketh
the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
This God which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth
up the stars, which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth
upon the waves of the sea. which makes Arcturus, Orion,
and Pleiades, and the chambers of the South, which doeth great
things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. Lo,
he goeth by me, and I see him not. He passeth on also, but
I perceive him not. Behold, he taketh away. Who can
hinder him? Who will say unto him, What doest
thou? God will not withdraw his anger
the proud helpers do stoop under him how much less shall I answer
him and choose out my words to reason with him whom though I
were righteous yet would I not answer but I would make supplication
to my judge what a God this is and Job knew
what a God this is and he knew what he was as a man And he cries
out, how should man be just with God? Well, do you know what you
are as a man, as a woman, as a child, as a sinner before a
holy God? Do you know what your heart is
like? Do you know the rebellion within?
Do you know the state of corruption in which you're born, in which
you live? which deserves the wrath of God
for your rejection of Him, for your lack of worship, for your
selfishness, for your self-seeking, for the way in which you've turned
your back upon your Maker and Creator and Sustainer and sought
your own glory and your own pleasure and your own way. You're a sinner
from head to toe, a leper, full of rebellion, full of pride and
God's justice, God's righteousness demands a penalty to be exacted
upon you. God's holy law demands a sentence
If you offend under God's law in one point, though you may
keep all the rest, if you break God's law, if you do not serve
God with all your heart, mind and soul, every day, every hour,
every moment, break God's law and His wrath and justice demands
your death, then surely you must ask How should man then be just
with God? How can I stand before such a
holy God as one so full of sin and rebellion, as one who has
never worshipped God with all my heart, soul and mind, with
all my strength, with all my being? How can I stand just,
righteous before such a God? I cannot. And that's the force
of Job's question. He knew naturally speaking, he
knew in his own strength, he knew even should he live as righteously,
as zealously as he could with all his might and power, he knew
he could not stand in the presence of a holy God. He knew that God
had the power to crush him. to destroy him unjustly. He knew he had no answer for
God's demands of righteousness. And yet he knew that his salvation,
his only hope, he knew he needed to stand before God. He knew
he needed to be righteous before God. Without righteousness he
was lost. and yet in despair as it were,
he throws out his arms and cries out, but how should man be just
with God? Have you been brought to that
point to ask that question? How can I be just with God? How? When I'm so full of sin,
so corrupt, so worthless, so rebellious, so incapable, So
dull of hearing, so hard-hearted, so apathetic, so careless. How can man be just with God? How can such men be just with
God? How can such men be just with
God? even if they could stand before
other men and justify their actions and their deeds before others. How can you justify what you
are and what you have done before a holy God? Well the answer to
that question, which must be answered, is at the heart of
the Gospel and at the heart of the message of salvation. Unless
that question be answered and unless there be a means of making
man, sinful man, righteous and just in the presence of God then
there is no possibility of salvation. We must be just. We must be justified. There must be a justification
of the sinner in the courts of God. led into the trial room
led into the courts of justice in the presence of almighty God
if you're to be spared his judgment if you're to be spared his wrath
there must be a declaration of not guilty just there must be
a justification For the gospel and salvation
stands in the sinner being declared just, it concerns righteousness. Righteousness, the heart of the
gospel is righteousness. It is not love, it is not mercy,
but righteousness. It is the love and the mercy
of God that He should make sinners righteous. But His love and His
mercy is expressed in making them righteous. The heart of
the Gospel is righteousness and the revelation of the righteousness
of God. The heart of the Gospel is justification. I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, for therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. There must be righteousness.
and justification stands in righteousness. How shall man be just with God
if he's declared to be righteous? And no other way. It stands in
us being declared righteous. It stands in our sins being blotted
out. It stands in us having no sin,
no cause of offense. No cause for God's wrath to burn
against us. We must be righteous. But how
can we be righteous when we're not? And how if we were to change
the way we live and to begin to live righteously, how can
we be righteous? How can we stand just before
God when our past is so unrighteous? Even if we were righteous today,
even if I got through one day without falling into sin, what
can I do about my history? About the record books? about
my past it's like a weight tied around my feet which should I
be dropped into an ocean would sink me to the depths I cannot
escape what I've done and I cannot escape what I am for even though
I should set my heart righteousness. Even though I should set my heart
to seeking God and to living before him as I know I should
do, I can't prevent the sin within me from bubbling up. I am what
I am and you are what you are. A sinner in need of righteousness. God's law given to the Jews of
old declared unto them a standard of righteousness which should
they keep they were promised to have continued life in this
world but should they break in any point they were promised
they would meet with the penalty of death. It demanded that they
loved God and served God and worshipped God and it demanded
that they loved their neighbour as themselves and not one of
them ever kept it and you can go to that law and not one of
you will ever keep it. It's beyond our capability because
of the sin that lies within our heart. When we go to that law,
as Paul makes clear in Romans 7, in his own experience of it,
when we go to that law, sin taken occasion by the commandment produces
in us all manner of concupiscence, for without the law sin is dead. Paul says, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died,
and certainly it does. And if you put yourself under
that law, and if the law is ever brought to you, if the Spirit
of God applies that law to you, and shows you its effect upon
you, you'll find that the law comes and stirs up the sin within
you. such that instead of becoming
better you become worse and instead of that commandment that law
which is holy and just and good as Paul says of it being to your
good it becomes a danger an enemy to you. was then that which is
good made death unto me God forbid but sin that it might appear
sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful the law itself was good
but because of the sin that dwelt within Paul it became his enemy
it worked death in him by that sin the combination of that good
law with the sin within wrought death and so it will with you for we know that the law is spiritual
but i am carnal sold under sin that which i do i allow not For
what I would that I do not, but what I hate that do I. If then
I do that which I would not, I consent unto the Lord that
it is good. Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is
present with me. But how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. That I do. O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? How shall man be just with God? Paul knew by bitter experience
that it could not be through the law. It could not be by his
own strength. It could not be by his own will
or his own works. How shall man be just with God? By the law? No. By our works? No. By the works of the law?
No. You can try, you can strive, Paul strove and the law which
was good wrought in him death by that sin within which is why in the epistle to
the Galatians he could write and state in verse 16 of chapter
2 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by
the faith of Jesus Christ Even we have believed in Jesus Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by
the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh
be justified. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Paul knew that justification,
that righteousness would not be his through the law. He says
in verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He knew it could
not be through the law, but he knew in the gospel that righteousness
and the answer to justification and the answer to Job's question,
how shall man be just with God, lay not in himself. Not in his
own works, not in his own will, not in his own strength, not
in the law, but in another. In Christ. In the faith of Jesus
Christ. His justification was in Christ
and through Christ. Christ was the one that could
make him just. Christ was the one who could
make him righteous. Christ was the one in whom there
was salvation and none other and by no other means. How shall man be just with God? By the faith of Jesus Christ. We cannot cleanse ourselves.
We cannot wash ourselves. We cannot improve ourselves.
We cannot keep that law blamelessly, perfectly, every day, every hour,
every moment. But Christ, who was without sin,
who was born a man under the law, in whom the law never found
fault, Christ himself came to lay himself under the axe of
God's justice in the place of Paul, in the place of Job, in
the place of sinners that he might deliver them from the judgment
and the penalty of that law that they broke. from the wrath of
God that they might, through Him, be made to be the righteousness
of God. He came for them as a substitute. He came for them as a saviour. He came to take away their sin
and to wash them and to cleanse them and to cleanse them in His
blood and to make them to be righteous. How shall man be just
with God in Christ? By grace, through faith, only
through another. How shall man be just with God? Only through another. Only if
someone else makes us righteous. only if someone else blocks out
our sin, only if someone else takes our place under judgment
because that judgment has been wrought, has been earned, that
judgment is deserved, that judgment must be paid. There is nothing
we can do about our past sins, we cannot go back in time and
undo them and those sins must be paid for. God's justice demands
that they must be paid. Then someone must pay. And if you cannot pay, and if
you will not pay, then another must pay in your place. And in
the Gospel, there is another who comes into this scene of
rebellion. who enters upon this stage of
darkness and sin in this world, who comes where the sinners are,
who comes into the midst of sinners and says, I will pay the price. Those without hope, those without
money, those without strength, those without love, those without
righteousness. He comes into their midst and
says of these, who all around looked upon him in disdain, with
hatred, who all to the last rejected him, he says of a people amongst
them, I will pay the price for their rebellion. I will pay the
price for their sin. I will pay the price for their
hatred. I will pay the price for their
apathy. I will pay the price for their
unbelief. I will die in their stead. Judge me, not them. Slay me, not them. Crucify me, not them. for I have loved them with an
everlasting love and I will not let them go he comes onto this
stage where every other man is full of hatred and rebellion
undeserving, wretched and he says I will save a people and
I will change their heart and I will take away the thorny heart
I will take away the hard heart I will take away the rebellion
and I will put a new spirit within them I will put love within them
I will put righteousness where there was sin I will put love
where there was hatred I will put beauty where there was wretchedness
I will cleanse them and wash them and make them anew I will
put a new spirit within them I will die for them and he came And he placed himself
under judgment for his people. He placed himself under the wrath
of God for his people. He placed himself under the penalty
of the law for his people. He went for his people as a substitute
to the cross. And when that people cried out,
crucify him, away with him. When you said of Christ in your
heart, away with him. when you looked upon Him with
disdain, when you sat and listened to the Gospel and shut your ears,
when you rejected, when you treated His Word with apathy, when you
turned your back upon that Saviour, if you are His, He took your rejection. He took
your hatred. He took your apathy. He took
your sin, all of it. And he took the wrath of God
against it. And he took that sin and bore
it. And he took the cup of God's
wrath against it and drank it. and though you may have hated
him and though you may have been born hating him and though you
may have lived years with disdain and disinterest for Christ he
drank that cup to the dregs that you if you're his that all of
his people should be washed and cleansed and delivered from their
sin from their sins from God's justice, from God's penalty,
from the wrath that he drank for them. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. When he
went to that cross, hated, despised, rejected, flogged, taunted, spat
upon. When he was nailed to that cross,
when he was lifted up in the heat of the day when the light
of the sun was taken away and there was darkness upon the earth
and he was alone upon the cross and knew that God's wrath was
upon him he never ceased to believe and
to trust in his father and their covenant and the promise that
all for whom he died would be justified. All for whom He died
would be cleansed by His blood. All for whom He died would be
delivered of their sins. All for whom He died would be
set free from their captivity. Through those hours upon the
cross Christ's faith never wavered. He trusted and believed and looked
unto His Father, knowing that all those names written upon
His heart All those who went down into the grave with him
spiritually would be delivered and would rise again with him.
He believed and he justified that people. He took their sins
away and made them to be righteous, made them to be the righteousness
of God. He believed knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith. of Jesus Christ, by the faith
of Jesus Christ. And as a consequence, have you,
like Paul, hearing that message, knowing that fact, knowing that
you cannot be just by your own strength, knowing that one must
stand in your place, have you looked upon a saviour crucified
for sinners and believed in Jesus Christ. For salvation, justification,
righteousness is only to be found in Christ. The scriptures speak
of justification and being justified in various ways And the seven
essential ways in which we are justified with a perfect justification
are firstly that we are justified by God. We are justified by the
Spirit of God, not by man. What man thinks of you, what
man says of you, What man sees of you is of nothing worth. You may present a wonderful view
before others. You may veneer the outside. You may say and do all the right
things but one day you will stand before God and answer to him
and all that will matter on that day is whether God has justified
you, is whether God looks and says of you not guilty. He doesn't care about the outward
appearance. He cares about the reality. About what you really are and
what you have really done. He sees within. You may have
men the world over say that's a wonderful upright man. He's
a pillar of our community. You may have men and women in
the churches say oh what a God-fearing gracious man or woman they are. and you may have fooled a lot
of them but you don't fool God who looks within upon the heart
and knows all those thoughts that you have that you keep from
others and knows all those feelings that you have that you keep from
others and knows all that frustration and anger and hatred that bubbles
up within that you may never let vent to that you may never
release and let be seen but He knows what's there And he needs
truth in the inward parts. And in Christ, and through Christ,
when he looks upon his people in Christ, who died in their
stead, and washed them clean with his blood, when he looks
upon that people whom Christ has delivered by his gospel,
and sent the Spirit unto, and sprinkled blood within them,
in their inward parts, upon their heart, he sees righteousness. He sees no more sin and he says,
I am well pleased with my son and with this one in him. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold my Son, in whom I am well
pleased. And He justifies that people. We are justified by God. As 1 Corinthians 6 and verse
11 tells us. And such were some of you children
of wrath, vile fornicators. evil people, thieves, proud,
rebellious, such was some of you. But in Christ, in the gospel,
ye are washed, ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Oh what wonderful
truth, what a wonderful thing to hear. I was like them. I was a sinner lost and barren,
a rebel sinking fast, a child of wrath. I was like them but
now I'm washed. Now I'm sanctified, set apart
unto God. Now I'm justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. God has justified
me. Can you say that? Can you say
that I am just? I am just with God and I am just
because God, the Spirit of God has justified me. He offered
up a sacrifice in my stead. He gave his son for me. His son was sacrificed for me. He was slain for me. He took
my place. I'm justified. If you can say
it, then you will say first that God has justified me. and he will say secondly that
God has justified me through his son Jesus Christ I've been
justified by Christ as we read in Acts 13 39 and by him through
Christ by him all that believe are justified from all things
from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses Christ has
taken all our sin away. If we're in Him, all of it, we've
been justified from all things, every condemnation, every accusation,
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses, no matter
how well you kept the law. But in Christ, we are justified
from all things. Galatians in the next verse from
the verse we read verse 17 Paul says but if while we seek to
be justified by Christ we ourselves also are found sinners is therefore
Christ the minister of sin God forbid for if I build again the
things which I destroyed I'll make myself a transgressor for
I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto
God I am crucified with Christ That's why I'm justified, I'm
crucified with Christ nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ
liveth in me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. He's my righteousness, he brought
in the righteousness of God for me. He justified me because I
was crucified with him. He died in my stead. He loved
me and gave himself for me. We are justified by Christ, not
by the law. Thirdly, we're justified by grace. What brings this justification,
this salvation our way? Do we earn it? Do we merit it? Have we sought it out? No, we
have not. Not one of us sought God. Not one. Paul makes that plain
in Romans. As it is written there is none
righteous no not one there is none that understand if there
is none that seek if after God they're all gone out of the way
they are together become unprofitable there is none that do if good
no not one Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues
they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God. before their eyes isn't that
a description of everyone you and i included there's none righteous
no not one there's none that seek if after god we've not sought
him then how does this justification come unto us clearly not by our
works and not by our will because we never sought it but by grace
God set his love upon a people before the foundation of the
world God looked upon a people and said this one and that one
and this one I will save and before ever they were born he
sent his son into this world of darkness and offered him up
as a sacrifice in their stead and he suffered under the wrath
of God and he cleansed them and justified them and brought in
for them the righteousness of God and in time he sends forth
the gospel that they might hear what he has done and he makes
known by grace his gospel unto them has he made it known unto
you Do you know the reality of what Paul says under Titus? Of
what Paul says in Romans? That we are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. that
we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. And as he goes on to say to Titus,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. It's by grace, not by law, not
by works, by grace. God justifies through Christ,
by grace, Through faith. Through faith. Knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of
Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ. You will not know, you cannot
know that you are just before God, that you are justified except
you're brought to believe. except God puts faith within
your heart, except you lay hold of Christ and cry out unto him
have mercy upon me a sinner, except God by grace lead you
unto him and lead you unto the foot of the cross and lead you
unto crying out in your desperation, convicted of your sin, knowing
you're lost, crying out for salvation, and when you do, He puts faith
in the heart to look unto Him who can save, to look unto Christ,
to look unto Christ crucified for you, and to look by faith
upon Him that you may believe, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ. by faith. Paul says in Romans
3 20 28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. We are justified by the faith
of Christ objectively at the cross when he came and died in
our place and laid down his life and shed his blood as an act
of faith on his part, as he trusted in the covenant with his father,
as he knew and believed that God would justify us. Objectively
it's his faith that justifies us. but subjectively when the
gospel is brought unto us when our knowledge is brought to an
understanding when we're brought to that knowledge of his salvation
when God has wrought faith in the heart subjectively we respond
in faith And we in our own experience come to know our justification
and come to know the forgiveness of sins and come to know the
peace of God and the love of God shed within. The Gospel is
from faith to faith. The righteousness of God, as
Romans says in chapter 1, is revealed from faith to faith,
from the faith of Christ in the Gospel objectively, to the faith
of the child of God who responds and believes. There is, as we
said last week, this communication in which God seeks out the sinner
and speaks unto him and preaches his gospel unto him and makes
his grace and his salvation known unto him. And this response of
the sinner as faith is put within the heart to look and to believe. And they are united by faith. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Galatians 3 24. We're justified
by God, through Christ, by grace, by faith, in the blood of Jesus
Christ. We look upon Christ and him crucified. We know that our salvation, our
righteousness, was wrought by Christ upon the cross. And we know that that blood which
was shed is the testament and seal to the fact that in his
death he took our sin away and made us to be the righteousness
of God. We are justified by the blood. As Paul says in Romans
5, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. Because he died, because he drank
the cup of God's wrath in our stead, because his blood was
shed to wash us and cleanse us from all our sins, we are justified
by his blood. And we are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus. In the name. Because his name,
Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a declaration
of God's gospel. Joshua, God's saviour. Christ, God's anointed saviour. who is risen from the dead and
declared to be Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
anointed Saviour, saves his people from their sins. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, Joshua, because he shall save his people from
their sins. Salvation is in him by his decree,
by his electing grace. by His determination, by His
will and we are justified in that name, in the name of the
Lord Jesus. As 1 Corinthians 6 tells us again,
And such was some of you, but ye are washed, ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. He shall save his people from
their sins and that's how he saves. If you're saved it's because
he chose to save you. not because you chose to be saved. If you're saved it's because
he chose to bring his gospel unto you, not because you sort
it out. If you believe today it's because
God brought his gospel unto you and opened your ears and opened
your eyes to see. He's done it all and therefore
you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. And finally
seventhly, we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. It's not
your faith as a natural faith which justifies. Your faith,
if you have faith, is that gift of God which God has given you,
which God has wrought in the heart as a consequence of that
death of Christ, which he died as an act of faith on your behalf. Without his faith, we'd have
no faith. Without his faith, we'd never
be justified. Without his faith, we'd never
be made to be the righteousness of God. Without his faith, we'd
be yet in our sins. We are justified by the faith
of Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ. That
faith, which as Paul says in Romans 3, manifested the righteousness
of God. brought it to light brought it
forth at the cross in judgment against the sin of his people
that they might make be made to be righteous Therefore Paul
says, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Be in witness by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. His righteousness was manifested
when Christ laid down his life in our place, in the place of
his people. Was it laid down for you? For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, you included. But are you amongst those who
are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Have you believed? if you have
and you know that you are justified by God. through Christ, by grace,
through faith, by His blood, in His name, by the faith of
Jesus Christ, then you will know that you have nothing to boast
in, for He has done it all. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified without the deeds of the law. Oh precious
justification. Wonderful gospel. Wonderful righteousness. Wonderful salvation. A wonderful
saviour. Oh what he did on the cross for
sinners. Did he do it for you? Have you,
like Job, cried out in desperation, how shall man be just with God? And has God heard your cry and
led you by his gospel to the foot of the cross to see the
Saviour that made you just? Can you say with Paul, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by
the works of the law. I through the law am dead to
the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ
nevertheless I live. yet not I but Christ liveth in
me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me nevertheless I live yet not I
But Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Amen.