Confident.Faith

The Jews were incensed: ‘We have never been enslaved.’ How could this Man tell them that He could set them free if they were not slaves? Surely some heard His words as holding the promise of deliverance from Rome — surely a sentiment with which we can nearly commiserate on Reformation Day. Others seemed to call to mind more literal, physical chains than those that bind Satan in the pit. Undoubtedly, they recalled to mind the slavery of their ancestors in Egypt, but they had never — themselves — been slaves. How could this Man set them free from a slavery they had never known?

"Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." Christ immediately clarifies the matter for them. They are not slaves in irons — at least not physical ones; they are spiritual slaves — slaves to sin. All men are slaves to sin. This is what the Law — as mirror — shows us. Lex semper accusat. (Do carefully note that that is semper, not sola — always, not only.) As slaves, we could not remain forever in the house — in this case, the Kingdom of God. The Son remains forever, and we must be reborn — adopted by the Father through the blood of the Son — to remain in the House.

‘We have never been enslaved.’ He went to His own people, but they received Him not. The Jews rejected the Messiah — they still do so today. They were judged temporally for their faithlessness in AD 70 when Rome sacked Jerusalem and burned the Temple. Could the symbolism be more clear? The curtain rent in twain upon Christ’s death — He bridged the divide between God and man; the Temple destroyed in AD 70 — God dwells in the hearts of believers, not in a house of stone, and the apostate Jews are judged and condemned. To this temporal judgement will be added eternal damnation for all who do not repent and believe.

And yet, do we not hear the same refrain from many today? ‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ Ah, but you are a slave. Irony upon irony, many, today, who are slaves are slaves to ‘freedom’, to ‘liberty’. But let us be more specific: Many today are slaves to the idea, to the concept, to the abstraction of freedom or liberty. There is nothing of freedom or liberty in what many advance as an unfettered good. Is it freedom to believe a lie? Is it liberty to be damned for eternity? Fool, do you believe that the laws of men will carry any weight in the Courts of God? ‘Lord, Lord, did we not preserve ‘freedom of religion’? Did we not uphold ‘freedom of speech’?’ You who would elevate the laws of men to idols, who would raise the Constitution above the Second Commandment may one day pay the price for your sins.

‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ Fool, you are enslaved to a thousand desires, serving a thousand different masters. You are a slave to the device in your hand and the views in your heart. You are a slave to your unbiblical ideology and your venal desires. You are a slave to worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, and despair. You do not trust God as you ought. In what do you place your hope and your trust? What do you fear, love, and trust? Those are your idols. It is from those that Christ would set you free.

‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!.’ When you think of slavery, you almost certainly think first of irons and slave ships. You are a product of the Enlightenment and you do not even realize it. Search the Scriptures for a condemnation of chattel slavery — you will not find one. Do you believe that chattel slavery is a moral evil? You expose your slavery to the spirit of the age. Fool, would you set the things of men above the things of God? His thoughts are higher than your thoughts and His ways higher than your ways, and yet you would elevate your ways and your thoughts above His? What you call ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ God calls slavery, and the slavery you call a moral evil God does not condemn. The sons of God have a different Spirit from the spirit of this age. Which one do you have ears to hear?

‘How can you set me free? I have never been a slave!’ And that is the problem. Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ. Can you, with Paul, declare — truthfully, honestly, earnestly — that you are a slave of Christ? (Let us not engage in the modern nonsense of "bondservant".) Of course you cannot, because you believe slavery to be a natural evil. How could you possibly be a slave of Christ if slavery is an inherent evil? Fool, you have chosen slavery to the world and her ‘god’ over slavery to the one true God. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but the devil and the world appeal to your sinful flesh with the appearance of wisdom and promises of pleasure. Our culture has chosen ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ over God, lies over truth, and Hell over Paradise. What we see around us today is only the beginning of the judgements to come. The Israelites were not special — the Jews are not special. Jerusalem was not special — no city build by human hands is. Do not fall to idolatry in believing that your tongue or your hands will save you — vain are the works of men.

Lex semper accusat. Hear the voice of the Law and tremble. See your sins and despair. Recognize the wickedness of our culture and fear. God will not be mocked and His patience can be exhausted. How long do you think He will bear with a nation that murders tens of millions of children, that produces countless hours of pornographic so-called ‘entertainment’ (and it matters little whether such is sexual, violent, or both in nature), that pursues foreign policies that are — at best — at odds with Scripture, that sexualizes and mutilates those children it does not outright murder, that not only tolerates but promotes — at home and abroad — all manner of sexual and other perversions, that deifies freedom and liberty, that tolerates an endless array of false teachers, that calls evil good and good evil? Do you presume upon the mercy and forbearance of God? The axe is laid to the root of the tree and the fire is kindled — repent, turn, and live, or follow our culture into the abyss, into the outer darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Do you tolerate false teaching? false teachers? Our culture — under the old refrain of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ — calls this good; Scripture would call this a violation of the Law. Tolerance is not a moral good. God alone is good, and God is Truth. All false statements — all lies — about God’s Word or God’s Creation are pernicious, vile sin, and to tolerate such sin is to become complicit in it. Do not fall for the siren song of our culture; do not follow the devil and the world into the pit; do not obey your sinful flesh; do not enter into the fire that does not consume; do not choose eternal death.

The lies of the world seem, at first, pleasant. ‘You can be free.’ ‘You can be liberated.’ ‘You don’t have to be a slave.’ ‘You can forge your own path.’ Ultimately, all such lies boil down to one central, false claim: ‘You can be your own god.’ or, in the original Snake: ‘You [can] be like God.’ A truly ridiculous lie. God is the one true Infinite; you are a finite. He is the Creator; you are a creature. You would make more progress trying to extinguish the sun by spitting at it than you will make if you try to elevate yourself to God’s level. What became of the last creature to mount such an attempt? »"I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven."« The last creature to attempt to rise to God’s level was cast down from Heaven — and took many with him. It was for Satan and his fallen angels that Hell was constructed, but many — most, even — men will join him where the fire does not consume and the worm does not die. There is only one God, and you are not He.

We are fallen; we are sinful; we are doomed to die; but thanks be to God that we are men and not angels, for Christ has died for us. By the Passion and the blood and in the waters of Holy Baptism we are made sons of the Kingdom, coheirs with Christ, our one true Head. Do not reject the gift of faith, do not neglect the Word or the Sacraments. Christ comes to you as He has chosen to do so — in Word and Sacrament. Many listen to the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh, but the sheep hear the voice of their Shepherd. Do not attempt to work your way to God, "[f]or by the works of the Law no man will be justified in His sight[.]" Yes, you must do good works, but these flow from faith — they do not justify you. In fact, you cannot do good works except in faith. Hear the words of Christ: »"Apart from Me, you can do nothing."« And do not make the Roman mistake — good works are not such things as pilgrimages, monastic life, and other such nonsense. What does Scripture say of good works? ‘God has prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them.’ God, in HIs perfection, does not need our good works — He is never hungry or cold or in prison, but our neighbors are. Feed the hungry; clothe the cold; house the homeless; visit those in prison. Do these according to your vocation and your means. Talents, abilities, gifts, resources are not distributed evenly, and this is according to God’s wisdom; use what you have been given to serve your neighbor — and ‘neighbor’ does mean neighbor, the man beside you. If you have been given the ability to teach, then teach the things of God, teach the truth. If you are a parent, then raise your children well and instruct them in the things of God. If you are a tradesman, then do good work for a fair wage or a fair price. If you are a magistrate, then seek justice and do not show partiality. If you are wealthy, then care for the poor and provide for the Church. Do according to your station, your abilities, and your resources. Serve your neighbor, and, in so doing, serve God.

Above all else, hold true to God — uphold all truth, for all truth is one. Do not teach falsely and do not tolerate those who do so. Remember your Baptism — you are a child of God, a sheep of His pasture. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep; by His blood you have been cleansed, you have been made whiter than snow. »"It is finished!"« There is nothing you need do for your salvation: "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." He was perfect because you could not be; He performed the work you could not. That is freedom and that is liberty. You are no longer a slave to sin, death, and the devil. You are a child of God, so: »"Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His Judgment has come, and worship Him Who made Heaven and Earth, the sea and the springs of water."«

Amen.

Why do we test God? Has not our Father told us that He watches over and cares for us? And yet we doubt. At Meribah, the Jews grumbled against Moses because they did not trust God. In the words of Moses: “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”

Why do we test the Lord? We test the Lord because we do not truly trust Him. We worry about almost everything. We fear what tomorrow may bring. We harden our hearts and refuse to cast our cares upon our Lord.

We want to have control. We want to believe that what will happen in our lives is in our own hands, and the outcome will depend upon our own efforts — upon our work. More, we want to keep parts of our lives secret; we want to hide — even from God — so much of what we think and do.

Do you not know that what is done in secret will be proclaimed? Before God, deep darkness is as light and night as day. Nothing is hidden from His eyes. And it is not only your actions that condemn you, for God knows also all that you have failed to do and He knows your every thought. He knows the anger and the malice you harbor toward others, and He knows the zeal with which you pursue your own selfish ends. In fact, God knows everything — yes, He has even seen every social media post.

If you were to ascend to Heaven, there you would find Him; if you were to dig to the depths of Sheol, there you would not escape Him. He knows your thoughts before you think them and your words before you speak them. You can hide nothing from Him. So what do you bring before the Judgement Seat?

You cannot plead ‘not guilty’ before an omniscient Judge. You have not yet lived your full life, but His records have everything from your conception to your death. One sin is enough to condemn you. Your situation is hopeless.

Where the worm does not die and the flames do not consume, there will all those who are separated from God spend eternity. There will be no escape — the saints, whether in Paradise or here on Earth, cannot pray for those lost souls and indulgences avail nothing. It is appointed for man but once to die and then the Judgement. All will face Christ at the Final Judgement, and He has only two roles in that court: Judge or Savior. How you will face Him then depends upon how you relate to Him now and, more importantly, how He relates to you.

At Meribah, God stood atop the rock and brought forth water for His rebellious desert children. That same God Who appeared at Meribah would be born of a virgin in Bethlehem and die on a cross at Calvary. His blood has washed away our sins. And He still comes to us today — in Word, in Water, and in Blood.

In the desert, He provided the water that sustains life; to the woman at the well, He offered living water; and today in the cleansing waters of Baptism, He comes to each of us. He is the Rock of our salvation, the firm foundation upon which all our hopes are built. And He did not leave us at the Ascension. In assuming His authority as the Right Hand of God, He has placed all other authorities under Himself. We will meet Him at the Judgement, but not as Judge. In the cleansing flood of Baptism, He washed away all our sins. When the books are opened before the Judgement Seat, a great many of those pages will be blank, for not only have your sins been washed away, but God has promised He will forget them. Your sins are gone, and Christ will welcome you with open arms; you are a child of the Kingdom.

In the desert, He provided manna to sustain His people; to the incredulous Jews, He said they must eat His flesh; and today, He offers us His body and blood in the Sacrament. He is not gone, for He promises to be present where two or three gather in His Name, and He comes to us in, with, and under the bread and the wine, where He gives us His true body and His true blood. He has promised to be with us even to the very end of the age, and His promises never fail.

It may seem, at times, like very little is under control in this world — or at least that very little is under control of the forces of good. We should not endeavor to sugarcoat reality — Satan is allowed a great deal of freedom at present (as are we) and Scripture is very clear that trials and tribulations will come. Many have lost their lives for the faith, and many more will do so before the final consummation of all things. We still live in a fallen world, and a minute or two of news media will confirm as much.

We do not fear though. ‘What can man do to me?’ Those who can kill the body are nothing; they are as we are — dust. As our great battle hymn puts it:

“Nehmen sie den Leib,

“Let goods and kindred go,

The German is more explicit: The powers of this world may ‘take your life, your goods, honor, children, and wife’, but there is no victory for the enemy — the battle has already been won. Christ defeated sin, death, and the devil at Calvary. He bound the strong man, plundered his kingdom, and led a host of captives in His train. The Rock of our salvation stands yet, no matter what the world may throw at us.

So let us worship, let us bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker. Let us not harden our hearts, for He replaced our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. “Is the Lord among us or not?” He is with us now and He will be with us always. He brings to us the living water that grants eternal life.

But surely there is something we must do? No. The work of Christ was necessary, and it is sufficient and complete. We have been justified by faith, so we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is by God’s grace that we are given the faith through which we are justified and receive salvation. All who drink will thirst again, but those who receive living water from Christ will have eternal life.

So come what may. We do not fear suffering, because it produces endurance, which produces character, which brings forth hope. When we were weak, dead in sin and trespass, Christ died for us. We were sinners held captive, but we have been freed by His work.

There are countless systems that will tell you what to do to get to ‘heaven’ — Christianity is not one of them. Are good works good? Of course; your neighbor needs them and God commands them, but they will not — cannot — save you. If you try to work your way to Heaven, all you will succeed in doing is filling those books that will be opened at the Judgement. Our great comfort as Christians is that many of those pages will be blank. Works righteousness, so called, fills pages; Christ’s blood wipes them clean. I know in which one I will place my trust.

The Good Shepherd has promised me that I shall not want. All of Creation rests in His hands, and yet we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hands. At the last, we know, that He will again stand on the Earth, that we will see Him with our own eyes and embrace Him, and He will welcome us, not as Judge, but as Savior and King.

Amen.

Abram was called forth from Ur of the Chaldeans; he was called to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house; he was called to sojourn in a land he would never own, except for a small plot of land with a cave — a cave in which he would bury his wife, and in which his children would later bury him. And what did he find in this land? Canaanites — the cursed progeny of cursed Ham. Although their iniquity was not yet “complete” in the time of Abraham, they would later be sentenced to annihilation. Does that mean these tribes were good in the time of Abraham? Were they more Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner or were they more Sodom and Gomorrah? From God’s words to Abraham in Genesis 15, we must presume the latter.

For their iniquity, God burned Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven. For their iniquity, God sentenced the Canaanites to be devoted to destruction. For our iniquity, what will God visit upon us? Are we better than Sodom? Are we more moral than Gomorrah? Are we spared like Zoar due only to some small number of saints? Let us not delude ourselves by closing our eyes to the reality of our culture. Pornography is rampant, and children are increasingly exposed to it at younger and younger ages. Promiscuity is now not only ‘normal’, but even promoted as healthy or good. An incredible number of marriages end in divorce, and a significant percentage of children — a majority, in some communities — are born out of wedlock. Our ‘entertainment’ is increasingly explicit both in terms of sexual content and in terms of violence. We worship the gods of the marketplace — we pay greater attention to the Dow and the NASDAQ than to our neighbor, we care more for our 401(k)s than for our communities, and we decline to take God up on His outright invitation to test Him with regard to tithing. More than sixty million children have gone to their graves — or, more likely, the incinerator or even the research lab — in the name of ‘convenience’ and ‘privacy’.

Pick an empire, or a political entity, from history — any empire, or any political entity. With vanishingly few exceptions, what we do on a daily basis would make even history’s most despised and depraved blush. Our god is not El Shaddai — not God Almighty; our gods are Mammon and Moloch. We worship our wealth and sacrifice our children to ensure GDP continues to grow.

We live in a dark and blind world. The natural man is spiritually dead — totally unable to move toward or even to respond to God. Yet think of that call of Abram. He was called forth from dark Ur — a center of moon worship, which included human sacrifice. God gave Abram the faith to respond to the call, and that faith was counted to Abram as righteousness. Like Noah, Abram found favor with God — he did not win it with works. For what came first: The faith of the works? Only after he believed did Abram leave Ur, sojourn in Canaan, circumcise himself and his household, offer up Isaac, and otherwise obey the Lord. Works follow belief.

When Christ came in the flesh, He found a world just as dark and just as blind as ours. The Jews, despite having the Scriptures, did not recognize the Messiah. Nicodemus, a well-known teacher, did not recognize Christ, and could not grasp how one could be born again; he went so far as to ask how one could return to the womb to be born a second time. But what does Christ say? The Greek is deliberately vague: It can mean one must be born ‘again’ or ‘from above’. These are, of course, both true, and Christ further clarifies: One must be born of water and the Spirit. What is this other than Holy Baptism?

“What benefits does Baptism give?” “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” And do not let the enthusiasts tempt you to doubt: The Word of God promises that Baptism works forgiveness of sins and that the promises are for us and for our children. And how does our Lord and Savior here describe Baptism? As a second birth. Now, you were certainly present at your natural birth, but how much did you actually participate? At most, you may have screamed when it was over, and so some infants do at the baptismal font. But why would you think you contribute any more to your second, spiritual birth than you did to your first? Exactly.

Let the enthusiasts and the devils attempt to strip the Word of God of its promises and its comfort. We will cling to our Lord and His words, secure in the knowledge that He cannot lie, that He is ever true, that His promises do not fail.

Although we, like Abraham, find ourselves surrounded by Canaanites who worship false gods and pursue and commit abominations, let us declare with Joshua and all the saints: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” God has called us forth from a blind world and a dark culture, and, in the cleansing waters of Baptism, placed His Name upon us and made us sons and daughters of the Kingdom. Das Reich muß uns doch bleiben. The final line of our beloved hymn; a more literal translation: ‘The Kingdom must remain ours.’

It is not that we have earned anything or that we merit the Kingdom. No, the Kingdom is and must remain ours because our Lord is true and His word never fails. Not as wages due our works but as an alien and imputed righteousness due His work. There is no ‘merit of Abraham’ as the Jews teach or ‘excess merit of the saints’ as Rome contends. The devil likes to hum the same tune. All our works, and all those of our forebears and our progeny, are dust, ashes, filthy rags. Would you try to earn Paradise? Then the Law is your master and you stand condemned. But the Son was sent not to condemn the world, but to save it.

Your salvation is secure because it is not of works, but of grace received through faith. Who is blessed? Is it the one who labors for a wage — who seeks to climb a ladder to Heaven? No. The one whose “lawless deeds are forgiven”, “whose sins are covered” — he is blessed. Your sins are not counted because they were nailed to a cross with your Lord, God, Savior, and King. He was pierced for your transgressions; He was crushed for your iniquities. His chastisement has brought you peace, and by His wounds you are healed. And so the Lord, Who neither slumbers nor sleeps, Who made Heaven and Earth — He is your help, from this time forth and forevermore.

“For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV). It is that self-sacrificing, all-sufficient love of God for τον κοσμον — for the world — that has set you free. You, who were weighed down with sin, blinded by the world, and dead in trespass, have been forgiven. For the sake of Christ crucified, you are an heir to the Kingdom — and that is the Good News.

Amen.

Why do we baptize infants? We could say that it is the historical practice of the Church, that only a tiny — if vocal — minority oppose infant Baptism, and that Scripture commands it — ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ — and commends it — ‘Baptism … now saves you.’ — but let us go deeper and further back. Let us go back to a Garden, somewhere in the Near East, and a Tree with fruit and a snake. In Adam all men sinned, and do not fall prey to the temptation to minimize this — original sin is not merely a predisposition or the inherited consequences of our forebears’ sin. Original sin is actual sin and it dooms as surely as murder, adultery, and theft. We all die — ‘For thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.’ — because the wages of sin is death, and we are all sinners.

I will not belabor the point, but suffice to say that we all know that children often act — let’s say — less than angelic. As the psalmist cries out: ‘I was born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ ‘For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.’ In that one trespass in the Garden, all stand judged and condemned, for all stand in Adam. He is the federal head of our race, and we are his fallen and sinful children.

But it is not only that one trespass, for we stand doubly condemned — under original, inherited sin and under our own actual sins. Every day, we choose idols instead of God. We are fearful and anxious because we do not truly believe God’s promises — our faith is smaller even than a mustard seed. In envy, we stand condemned of theft; in lust, we stand condemned of adultery; and, in anger, we stand condemned of murder. We sin in what we do and in what we fail to do; we sin with our hands, with our tongues, and with our minds. It matters not if we start at the beginning — we do not love God as we ought — or at the end — we are covetous to our core — or select at random — we do not honor our fathers and our mothers and obey proper authority; we break every single one of the Commandments.

So, why do we baptize infants? Because they are in the same sinking ship in which we find ourselves. Conceived in sin and born in iniquity, they are just as spiritually dead in sin and trespass as once we were. In the waters of Baptism, we drown the old Adam and bring forth the new man in Christ. Though the water is, by itself, mere water and the pastor a fellow sinner, the Word makes the water a Sacrament and the hands of the pastor are the very hands of God Himself. None of us was baptized by a mere man, for Baptism is not a work of man — it is a work of God that offers regeneration, forgiveness of sins, and salvation. We baptize infants because we believe the words of Scripture that tell us the promise is for us and for our children.

Through the waters of Baptism we pass from the kingdom of sin, death, and the devil to the Kingdom of the risen Lord. In the Garden, Satan distorted God’s command: ‘Did He say you could not eat from any tree?’, and Eve was deceived and Adam ate. Many years later, but perhaps not so many miles from that tree in the Garden, Satan tempted a Man in the desert. He (Satan) used the Word of God, distorting it to fit his purposes, to attempt to push the Son of God from the path that would lead to Calvary. Whatever form the temptations took — fleshly pleasures and demands (the food), spiritual conceit (tempting God), or temporal power (the kingdoms) — Christ resisted them all. Finally, He did what our parents did not — He shouted: "Be gone, Satan!"

In the trespass in the Garden, many were made sinners, but Christ’s work is greater than Adam’s, greater than the Fall. Despite many trespasses, all were justified by Christ’s atoning sacrifice. It is that free gift following many trespasses that comes to us in Word and Sacrament. Though your sins are as scarlet, when you wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb, they will be made white as snow.

In the words of Isaiah, Christ bore our iniquities so that we can be accounted righteous. This is not our righteousness or grace infused into us; rather, this is an alien righteousness won by Christ in His perfect obedience — even unto death — and imputed to us. We have been declared righteous by grace through faith on account of Christ crucified. You are a baptized son or daughter of the Father, and Christ will not lose you from His hand.

Before the foundations of the Earth were laid, your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The world, the flesh, and the devil will tempt and accuse you, but the work is done — their argument is with Christ. In this life, you are simultaneously saint and sinner. You will be tempted and you will fall, but those sins have already been forgiven. Your every sin was nailed to a cross outside Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago. In the desert, Christ rebuked Satan and told him "Be gone!"; on the cross, He spoke even more powerful words: "It is finished!"

Christ did not say: "It is begun." or "Almost done!" No, He said "It is finished!", because His work was necessary, sufficient, and complete. You can add nothing to Christ’s work, and that is the Good News — it is the announcement of Christ’s victory, and with it the setting free of those who were slaves to sin. If you believe that you can add something to Christ’s work, you will need to travel back two thousand years to Golgotha, and you will need to pull Him down from the cross and climb up there yourself.

Instead, when you are tempted to doubt or to sin, join with Christ and say: "Be gone, Satan, for it is finished!" Always remember that he would seek to accuse you here because he was cast from Heaven and cannot accuse you there, before the Father. In and under the blood of Christ, God has become our hiding place, our ever-present help in trouble, and our refuge from the vicissitudes of this life. I am a child of God — what can man do to me? Yes, original sin still clings to our nature and the ground is still cursed (and childbirth, I am told, is still rather unpleasant), but original sin is not our nature and it, too, will finally be burned away when we are raised imperishable — to eternal life at the sound of the trumpet. On that glorious day and for all eternity thereafter, we will never again suffer temptation or sin. Our sin is covered and our transgressions forgiven; in fact, God will not even remember our sins.

The world, the flesh, and the devil have their day, but they will not endure. At the consummation, even death will pass away, for death is a consequence of sin and where sin is no more, so also death must be no more. We, however, will be raised in restored, incorruptible bodies. For we know that our Redeemer lives, and as He hung on a cross outside Jerusalem and as He sits enthroned and is here — in this very place — with us unto the very end of the age, so also He will again stand upon the Earth, and in our flesh and with our eyes, we will see God.

Amen.