Romans: Righteous In Christ

Good morning, Watermark.

My name is Chris, for those of you who don't know me.

I help oversee the community groups at Watermark.

We've been looking over the last six weeks at the Book of Romans,

and we've seen how Paul has dealt with three different kinds of people.

First of all, he proclaimed that he was not ashamed of the gospel.

He was going to preach the gospel wherever he went.

But then he talked about these three types of people.

He talked about the Gentiles, the kind of people who don't care about God.

They go at the weekend to Lan Kui Fong to sleep with whoever they want to,

to drink as much as they want to, to feel good about themselves.

He's then talked about the moral people,

the people who at the weekend go and do charity work

or go and be good family people to make themselves feel good about themselves.

And then he's talked about the religious people, the kind of the Jews,

the people who maybe go to church at the weekend

to make themselves feel good about themselves.

And Paul has basically leveled the ground, and he said,

it doesn't matter what are the kind of people you are,

before God, none of you have any standing.

Last week we saw how just when we'd reached the bottom of the pit,

then Paul says,

but now God has come up with a different way that you can be right with him.

Now in Christ, through Jesus' death and resurrection,

you can be right with God.

And today we're looking at chapter 4 of Romans,

where basically Paul is going to give the example of Abraham

to show exactly what he means by what he's been talking about in chapters 1 to 3.

So we're going to look at the story of Abraham.

We're going to look at it in three different parts.

We're going to look at justification by faith in Christ.

We're going to be saying how justification liberates you,

how it means there's no spiritual hierarchy.

And fourthly, we're going to say,

how do we live by justification in Jesus?

So firstly, justification, being made right,

declared right in God's eyes, is by faith in Christ.

Abraham is, in the Jewish faith,

the founding father of the Jewish faith.

Every good Jew, and also the Christian Gentiles,

would have known that Abraham was the creme de la creme.

He was the model of obedience for every Jewish person

and every Christian who had come into the faith.

They knew that Abraham was right up there with the big guys.

And Abraham was there because God had promised to him

a promise of blessing which ran through the whole of the Bible,

a promise that God was going to bless his descendants,

and he was going to fill the nations with blessing through Abraham.

And in Genesis 26, we read this.

I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens,

and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed

because Abraham obeyed me and kept my commandments.

Seems pretty clear, Paul, doesn't it?

Abraham obeyed.

That's why he was blessed.

That's why he had this great relationship with God.

So, Paul, what you've been saying in chapters 1 to 3,

I think you better rethink it because look at Abraham.

And, I mean, you can remember the stories about Abraham.

If you know the stories where he went and sacrificed,

was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.

I mean, he showed incredible obedience to God.

Surely that's why Abraham was given this promise.

That's why Abraham was the man.

And Paul, basically, in chapter 4, is saying to any of his readers

who are thinking this about Abraham,

guys, you don't know the story of Abraham.

Let me tell you some of the story of Abraham to make it clear.

So, let's just refer back to that passage we read, first of all, in Genesis 15.

God basically comes to Abraham and he says,

I'm going to reward you.

I'm going to bless you.

And Abraham says to him,

Thanks, God.

But what's the point?

Because I don't have any children.

Someone else is going to inherit everything from me.

And basically, my life was a waste of time.

Because what you've got to remember,

in that culture, your sense of validation,

your sense of who you were worth,

came through your family.

Who you were a son of,

and who was your son,

was an important status in society.

It mattered.

And so, when Abraham had no children,

what that meant in society was,

he was useless.

He was a failure.

No one to carry on his name.

He'd failed.

And God then comes to him and says,

Go outside and look at the stars.

If he'd been in Hong Kong,

it wouldn't have taken him very long to count them.

But he says,

Count all the stars out there.

That's how many children I am going to give you.

And do you know what it says?

It says,

Abraham believed God,

and it was credited to him.

It was reckoned to him as righteousness.

In other words,

he trusted what God said,

and God said,

Now you're right with me.

Now we're in right standing.

But surely there was more than that.

I mean,

didn't Abraham have to go on a five-week course

to be how to be a good Jew?

And then God was going to say,

Okay, now you're good.

Didn't Abraham have to kind of spend three months

going to the synagogue children's ministry,

and then afterwards he'd say,

Hey, you're a good Jew.

No.

He just believed what God said.

And that was it.

He was right with God.

Accepted.

In good relationship with God.

Now,

does that mean,

what does that mean for us?

Because what Paul is saying

is that the same way Abraham was made right with God

is the way that you

and I

are made right with God.

We trust,

we believe what God says

through His Son

dying on the cross

and you're right with Him.

You're right with Him.

Does that mean your behavior is not important?

No.

Your behavior is important,

but your behavior flows out

of your standing with God.

Your behavior,

your standing with God

is not based on your behavior.

your standing with God

flows into your behavior,

but your behavior

is not the basis

on which you're right with God.

Now,

if you look in verses 4 and 5,

Paul is now going to say,

give a comparison.

He says,

Now to the one who works,

his wage is not credited

as a favor.

but as what is due.

But to the one who does not work,

but believes in Him

who justifies the ungodly,

his faith is credited

as righteousness.

You see,

Abraham could live

by vindicating himself

through his family,

but he'd failed.

He'd failed.

Or he could trust God

and His vindication

and he became righteous.

You see,

there are two ways to live.

Either you trust

in what God says

or you trust in what you say

or what others say about you.

Either you trust in your performance

or you trust in God's performance

through Jesus.

What I mean by that is this.

Last week,

Tobin talked about faith

as being like a chair.

He said,

when you believe,

it's not just

you believe the idea

that God makes you right

through trusting

in what Jesus has done

on the cross.

It's not just the idea.

You've got to put

your full weight

on that.

And you've got to say,

this is where

I am trusting.

My full weight.

Not just kind of

half weight on.

You put your full weight

on what God has done.

But you see,

there are two chairs in life.

One chair is yourself.

One chair is God.

Now,

as you look at them,

they both seem to be pretty equal.

They both seem to be pretty good.

Maybe this one's got a back.

Maybe it feels

a little bit more comfortable.

But,

when I come to sit on this one,

I'd just like you to have a look

at what's on the bottom of this.

You see,

if I was to put my full weight

on this chair,

what is going to happen?

I'm going to fall through.

And it might be,

you could sit on the edge

for a few minutes,

but sooner or later,

it's going to break.

That's what Paul is saying

about what it means

to trust in your performance.

Because,

you are broken.

You are unreliable.

You

are bankrupt.

If you want to use

a financial term,

you are bankrupt

spiritually.

What that means is,

you have no credit rating

before God.

You are in default mode.

Your payments have been,

you have not been able

to pay back

any of your debts.

And so,

if you trust in yourself,

listen,

you've got no standing

before God.

But then there's one

who's got a perfect credit rating,

who's never defaulted once,

who is totally solid,

totally secure,

totally trustworthy,

and he's the one

that we lean

and put our full weight on.

Now,

let's think about

what that means.

So secondly,

let's think about

what does it really mean

to trust

that Jesus

justifies you.

Jesus,

through trusting his word,

makes you right.

Let's think about that.

Secondly,

justification,

it liberates you.

Now,

Paul says,

him who justifies,

justifies,

we trust,

believes in him

who justifies the ungodly.

Now,

I want you to think

for a moment,

because the word justification,

we've talked about it,

it's a legal word.

It's a legal term.

It's a picture

of a courtroom scene.

Now,

I want you to imagine

that when I was younger,

me and my brother

go to a restaurant,

and we order

leek and potato soup.

And my parents

are there,

they're chatting away

in the corner,

and I've got my lovely

leek and potato soup.

And then,

just at that moment,

my brother

knocks the soup,

pours it all over me.

I now look like

a soup monster.

My parents turn around,

they look at me,

and they say to me,

what happened?

At that moment,

I look at my brother

and I say,

he did it.

My brother looks at me

and he said,

it wasn't me.

Now,

at that point,

my mother or father

becomes the judge

in the trial.

One of us

has to be declared

in the right.

One of us is going to be

declared in the wrong.

One of us

is going to be

justified.

One of us

is going to be

condemned.

And you don't want

to be the one

who's condemned

with my mother.

But in the same way,

the Bible says,

we stand before God

and he is the offended party

guilty.

And we stand before him

totally guilty.

All the evidence

is there.

It's not a,

oh, he said that,

she said that

kind of situation.

No, it's as clear

as clear can be.

That's what Romans 1-3

is about.

You stand

utterly guilty.

And just as the judge

is about to pass

sentence on you,

something extraordinary

happens.

the judge

comes down

and he

takes

the punishment.

He says,

he declares

his son

condemned.

Even though

he is innocent

of all crime,

he declares

him in the wrong

and declares

you,

the guilty one,

in the right.

Righteous

before him.

You see,

at that point,

there is no,

it's not a suspended

sentence for you.

God hasn't got you

on probation

just to see,

well,

how are you going to do

over the next little while

because maybe I'm going

to revisit my verdict.

At that moment,

he has declared

your past,

present,

future sins.

declared,

wiped away,

innocent,

justified

in his sight.

There's no probation

period with God.

You're justified.

But what that means

is this,

you need to hold

two things together.

One,

you need to remember

that you

are personally

responsible

for your sin.

You are worse

than you could

imagine

that you are.

You've got to hold that.

God's not saying

your sin doesn't matter.

He's not saying,

oh,

your sin doesn't exist.

He knows it exists

because it matters

so much.

Jesus had to die

for you.

That's how much

sin matters.

You are personally

responsible.

You are sinful.

But the second thing is,

Jesus

has taken

your punishment,

which means

you are accepted,

dearly loved,

more than you can

possibly imagine

you are.

Two things.

Nothing

can make God

love you anymore.

Nothing

that you do

can make Him

love you any less.

Justified.

Righteous

in His sight.

That's why

in the passage

it then says,

blessed

are those

whose lawless deeds

have been forgiven

and whose sins

have been covered.

Blessed is the man

whose sin

the Lord

will not take

into account.

You're blessed

through justification.

Now there are

two implications

of this.

Because,

yeah,

I know that.

There's two

implications of this.

One is,

it brings

incredible humility

to you

because you can

own up

to your failings

and your sins

without excuse.

Because,

think about it,

every one of us

goes on trial,

probably daily,

in our offices,

in our families,

in our workplaces,

in our schools.

Imagine,

if you're one

of the youth,

let's say,

your youth leader

or your parent

suspects

that you have been

looking at pornography.

And they bring

the charge against you.

And so the trial begins.

They bring out

the witnesses

and the evidence.

Exhibit A,

dodgy websites

on your browser's history

on your phone

or your computer.

Exhibit B,

a guilty look

on your face.

Exhibit C,

avoiding answering questions

about what you were doing

ten minutes ago.

The verdict,

guilty of looking at porn,

ready to be sentenced.

Or maybe,

at work,

you have the same trial.

Exhibit A,

you forgot to do

a piece of work.

Exhibit B,

you left work early.

Exhibit C,

you failed to say,

to tell anyone about it.

What's the verdict?

Guilty of being

a useless employee.

And you see,

your accuser

is your judge.

If it's your employer,

the punishment,

there's going to be,

he's going to look down on you.

There's going to be

tension in the office.

If it's your parent,

your mother

or your father,

there's going to be trouble.

If it's your spouse,

there's going to be

even more trouble.

And all of us

live under these

verdicts

of useless,

failure,

guilty,

not good enough

in our lives.

Sometimes daily.

And sometimes

they may be fair.

Sometimes they may be unfair.

But the thing is,

when you understand

what it means

to be justified

by faith,

it changes your response.

Because

if you're going to trust

in your own performance,

you're going to respond

when you fail

in some different ways.

I don't know if you remember

last year,

I talked about

some friends of mine.

How they respond

when they fail.

I talked about

defensive Diana.

You see,

when she

comes across

with

her guilt,

her sin,

her mistakes

are exposed,

she says,

why do you always

pick on me?

It's always me

who's got the problem,

isn't it?

What about you?

What about what you

did the other day?

That's defensive Diana.

Or

you have

blaming on anything

but me,

Brenda.

You see,

when you come to her

with her fault,

she says,

sorry,

I was tired.

I was having a bad day.

It's my genes.

I'm just naturally

bad at those kind of things.

She made me do it.

Anything

but her.

Or then,

it's not just

defensive Diana

or blaming

anything but me,

Brenda.

There's minimizing

Martin.

You know,

he says,

well,

it's not that bad.

Haven't you seen

what Tobin did

the other day?

It's much worse.

Defensive Diana,

blaming on anything

but me,

Brenda,

minimizing Martin.

And then finally,

beat yourself up,

Bob.

He says,

I know I'm

a terrible failure.

I'm a bad parent.

I'm a useless employee.

I'm hopeless.

I'm a bad Christian.

I know.

Things,

all four of those things

are the responses

when you're trusting

in your performance.

And sometimes,

all of us do those things.

Sometimes we don't do it verbally,

but sometimes we do it

in our minds.

When you're faced

with failure,

when you're faced

with criticism,

you're in the dock.

And the question is,

where are you going to put

your trust at that moment?

If you put it

in your performance,

you're always going to be

in denial.

You're always going to be

blame-shifting.

You're always going to be

trying to minimize it.

Why?

Because you've got to

justify yourself

as a good,

upstanding person.

Because you've got to prove

that you are worth something

from your own performance.

You see,

the boss who always

blames his employees

for his mistakes.

That's a man

who's putting his trust

in his performance.

But when you realize

that you are sinful,

ungodly,

you've got nothing

in your bank account

except sin and shame,

it gives you a freedom

to admit

and to confess

when you're wrong,

when you've sinned,

without excuses,

without minimizing,

without trying

to defend yourself.

There's no mitigating

circumstances.

Because churches

are filled with people,

including myself,

who are pretending.

We're trying to hide

and trying to pretend

that we're okay.

We look good

on the outside.

We're trying to make sure

everybody thinks,

yeah,

he's a good family person,

she's a good mother,

he's a great son,

he's or she,

they're good Christian.

We all want to put up

these appearances

so that everyone

sees we're okay.

But what we need

in our church

is a greater realization

that we are all

a broken chair.

We're all like that

by ourselves.

And the moment

you're willing

to see that,

it is liberating.

It's so tiring

putting up a pretense

all the time.

It's tiring.

Because you've got to be

a schizophrenic.

You've got to be

two people.

You've always got to

put up the mask.

But when you know

that you're a broken sinner

and need of grace,

it liberates you.

That's when you've messed up.

But what about

when you succeed?

Because the other thing,

knowing that you're a sinner

and the depth

of your sinfulness,

it humbles you

when you think

you are good enough.

You know,

this is my friend,

Superior Sam.

You see,

he's competent.

He does things well.

And when he looks

at other people

who don't do things

as well as him,

he looks down on them

because he thinks,

why are you so slow?

Why can't you do it

like I can do it?

And maybe he looks

at other Christians

who are struggling

and he thinks,

well,

they're a useless Christian,

aren't they?

You know,

the kind of people

they exchange

knowing glances

in the office

when the colleague

makes a mistake.

Oh,

did it again.

Yeah.

They laugh

at other people's expense

because what you're doing,

you're trusting

in your own performance.

And what you'll become

is the judgmental hypocrite

that Paul talked about

in chapter two of Romans.

You become the judge,

but you don't realize

that naturally

you're in the dock.

You see,

when you understand

God's justification,

it humbles you

to be real

about who you are.

You don't have to hide.

You don't have to pretend.

Neither do you need

to feel superior.

Secondly,

it brings you confidence

because at the moment

you recognize

that you're sinful,

it hasn't actually helped

beat yourself up,

Bob,

because he already knows

that he's sinful

and he's being very honest.

Now,

in our society,

what we do is

we diagnose

beat yourself up,

Bob,

as having

lower self-esteem.

That's his main problem.

He just needs

to have more

esteem

in himself.

And you know,

when Beat Yourself Up

Bob comes to you,

he says,

I'm such a bad Christian.

I'm so terrible.

I can't,

I don't know

if God will love me anymore.

And often,

what I find

people say

to that kind of say,

they say,

hey,

you're not that bad.

Don't you remember

you helped your grandmother

over the road

the other day?

But,

but what we're doing there,

when you try and

massage people's ego,

all you're doing

is trying to get them

to justify themselves.

You're putting their trust

in their performance.

Because,

when somebody comes to me

and says that,

usually I say to them,

yep,

you're a total,

complete failure.

Listen,

you're even worse

than you could imagine

you are.

Now,

at that point,

they weren't expecting that.

But then I say to them,

but you know what?

It's not based

on your performance.

It's based on

Christ's performance.

Because,

and this is the amazing thing,

he declares you

completely right

in his sight.

Acceptable,

dearly loved.

When you see his face,

you don't see a frown,

you see a smile.

And when you see him,

he says,

I am pleased

with you.

And you say,

how can he be pleased

with me?

Doesn't he know

all that I've done?

Yeah,

he knows all you've done.

It's not about you.

It's about him.

He knows that you are not,

you are not pleasing

by yourself,

but Christ is pleasing.

And you're in Christ,

so you are pleasing

in his sight.

And then others come up

to you and say,

but,

you know,

I wish I had your faith.

I just lack faith

to believe it.

Oh,

I have so many doubts,

and I just,

I just doubt

that God loves me.

And you know what?

It's not about

your level of faith.

Don't put faith

in your level of faith.

That's not what saves you.

Because,

Jesus said,

you only need faith

the size of a mustard seed.

Someone once said,

you can have strong faith

in thin ice,

and when you walk on it,

you're still going to fall through.

But you can have weak faith

in thick ice,

and you're going to be

just fine walking over it.

Because,

it's not about

your performance,

it's about his performance.

It's not about

your level of faith,

it's about his faithfulness.

His work on the cross,

that is liberation.

Which means your problem

is not low self-esteem.

Your problem is low God-esteem.

Because you think

far too much

about what you think

about yourself,

and what others

think about you,

and far too little

about what God

says about you.

The solution is not

to be,

try and be,

think positive,

either.

You know,

I just need to believe

in myself.

You know,

I am really a throne.

You know,

I can take a thousand kilograms,

I just need to believe.

Well,

you can say that

about yourself,

but I tell you,

you sit on there,

and very soon,

you're going to fall through.

What we need to do

is we need to speak

more of ourselves

the truth about

what Christ says

than about what

we say about ourselves.

That is liberation.

And as a church,

we need to be doing

that with each other.

We need to be

reminding each other

of what Christ

has done

in our lives.

That is liberation

in Hong Kong

because we live

in a world

of criticism.

We live in a world

where you're never

good enough,

where 98%

is not good enough

because what about

the other 2%?

But you can walk

into your office,

you can walk

into your school,

you can walk

into your home,

and it doesn't matter

what people say

about you.

It doesn't matter

about what you say

about yourself.

It matters what Christ

says about you.

So you can go

with confidence

for Him.

Thirdly,

and we'll just

do this very quickly,

verses 9 to 12.

verses 9 to 12.

Here,

he says,

is this blessing

then on the circumcised

or on the uncircumcised

also?

For we say,

faith was credited

to Abraham's righteousness.

How then was it credited

while he was circumcised

or uncircumcised?

Not while he was circumcised,

but while uncircumcised.

Now you see here,

what's going on is

Paul's readers

may have said,

okay,

I get that stuff

about faith.

But,

you know,

Abraham,

he just had,

he was just a little bit

of a step up

on everybody else.

You know,

Abraham,

he was already

in God's special people.

He was already circumcised,

the sign of being

part of God's special people.

He was already there.

So he was already

in a kind of

different category

from me.

Now,

did Abraham have

kind of a fast track

to God?

Paul's saying no.

Listen,

Abraham was declared

righteous

while he was a Gentile,

an ungodly Gentile

is what verse 5

is saying.

The most spiritual person

that the Jews

could think of

was classified

by Paul

as ungodly,

but made righteous

by faith alone.

Now,

think for a moment.

What that means is,

I think many of us

have this idea

of a spiritual hierarchy.

We think

that,

you know,

there are good Christians

and bad Christians.

There are,

there are kind of

the Mother Therese's,

the Billy Graham's,

the Tim Kellers,

the Pastor Tobin's,

who are kind of

somewhere floating up

near the ceiling.

And you know,

and then there's me

down here.

You know,

I'm this second class Christian.

I struggle to read the Bible.

I struggle to tell anybody

about my faith.

I feel,

I feel defeated

in all of my life.

And I think

I'm never going to,

I'm never going to reach up there.

Because we think

maybe they,

they received a kind of,

a take 10 spaces

forward card,

you know,

a kind of

VAP past

God's ear.

And,

and you come away

struggling and thinking

I'm just not good enough.

And you think,

well maybe,

maybe if I just get

some more knowledge,

I need to,

I need to know more

of the Bible.

Once I know more

of the Bible,

then,

then I'll be able

to kind of float up

somewhere out there.

But let me tell you,

getting Bible knowledge

is great.

But it's not going

to move you

up some kind

of spiritual ladder

in God's sight.

You know,

that is more Buddhist

than the Bible.

That is more Confucian

than Christianity.

Because the way

every single person

has ever got right

with God

is only one way,

through trusting in Christ,

not through trusting

in themselves.

That means

that every single one

of you,

if you've trusted in Christ,

is on exactly the same

spiritual level

with God,

exactly the same

standing with God,

you have his ear

as much as any

Christian hero

that you might have.

That is amazing.

You see his smile

on your life.

So we've looked

at how it's justification

by trusting in Christ alone.

We've seen how

it humbles you.

It gives you confidence

when you hold

those two things,

you're sinful

and yet you're loved together.

And finally,

I'm just going to finish

with this,

living out justification.

Now some of you

may have thought,

I know this message already.

I've heard it before.

But let me tell you something,

there is no one

in this room

who has fully grasped

this idea

that you are justified

by faith.

What I mean by that

is this,

every single day

you are going to be

tempted

through new circumstances

and through new

situations

to put your trust

in yourself.

Every day.

Every day

you're going to be

tempted

when you go

and look on Facebook

and then you see

just how many likes

you've got on Facebook,

you're either going

to become very proud

or you're going

to become crushed

and you're going

to be tempted

to put yourself

in your own performance.

Every time you go

and face criticism,

every time you make

a mistake,

every time someone

puts you in that dock again,

you then have got

another decision,

where am I going to trust?

Faith is not about

just believing the idea

that you are justified,

made right in God's eyes

through His Son.

It's about putting

your full weight

on Him

in the realities

of life.

So every time

you fail

and are criticized,

that's a new opportunity

to understand

in greater depth

how amazing it is

that it's not based

on you,

it's based on Him.

So the final two things,

what this looks like

in practice,

I think it looks like

when you come across

those situations,

people who understand

this idea,

they're people

who confess

quickly and regularly

their sin.

They are happy

to admit

their brokenness.

They don't hide.

They admit

their eating disorders.

They admit

their porn habit.

They admit

their bad temper.

They admit

where they got it wrong.

Not just to God,

but also to other people

in their community groups,

other people

in their church family,

because you've got

nothing to hide.

They're quick

to apologize

to their wife

or their husband

or to their father

or their mother.

because confession

of sins

is a beautiful,

beautiful thing

because it shows you

what we're really like,

but we don't leave it there.

But then the other thing is

we are reminding each other

in the midst

of our brokenness

of how amazing Christ is

and what He's done.

So confession

should be,

now think about it,

when was the last time

that you confessed

your sin

to somebody else?

because that might

give you an understanding

of how deeply

you've really understood this.

The second thing

and the final thing

is people who understand this

are people of thanksgiving.

Defensive Diana,

minimizing Martin,

blaming on anything

but me, Brenda,

beat yourself up Bob,

superior Sam,

they are not people

who are thankful

when they fail

or when they succeed.

But those who know

they're justified by faith,

when their sins

are revealed,

when you show

that actually

you've messed up

and you've screwed up

in so many ways,

and when others

point it out to you,

after the initial shock,

you are thankful

because you realize,

man,

I am such a deep sinner,

but isn't grace amazing?

Isn't it amazing

that in spite of who I am,

I'm totally accepted?

And you give thanks

because you've got

nothing to prove.

It's not your performance.

And when you succeed,

you're thankful

because you realize,

I'm a broken sinner,

but God would grace me

with this amazing opportunity.

This is the gospel

that Hong Kong needs.

This is the gospel

that we need to be sharing

with each other regularly.

It's not about you,

it's about him.

It gives you humble confidence

before him.

He's amazing.

Let's live to glorify him.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you

that we see

that in the cross,

it liberates us.

It liberates us

from the fears

that hold us back.

We fear people finding out

about what we're really like

and what we've really done.

And Lord, forgive me,

forgive us

where we live behind

so many masks.

And thank you, Lord,

that your word

liberates us to see

that we can be honest

about who we are

and we can just be delighting

in who you are.

Please let that become

so much more precious to us.

Let that be a common language

that we talk about regularly

in our community groups,

in our families,

in our offices,

that we proclaim the gospel,

that it's only through you,

only through your death,

that we accept it.

Amen.