Justification By Faith

discussions on topics of law and morality and faith.

And in Jesus' case, this was often done in the form of parables, which we're going to see today.

Now, in the West, we're conditioned from a very early age that when someone asks us a question,

we should respond with the best answer possible.

However, as you look at the Jewish model of teaching, that wasn't the case.

Your understanding of a topic wasn't based on the answer you would give.

Rather, it was often determined based on the question you would ask about the question you had been asked.

So, being foreign to us, let's take a look.

We'll just dive right into our text in Luke chapter 10 that Alex just read for us.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And we'll see an example of this right off the bat.

It says, on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

What is written in the law, he replied.

How do you read it?

So, right here, you can see Jesus doesn't just come right out and answer his question.

He asks him a question about his question.

And if you follow through scripture, you're going to see that over and over again,

especially in conversations with Jesus.

We obviously know that we are going to be working through this passage in Luke,

this very well-known parable.

Now, the thing about parables is that if you go through and teach about them,

you can make a parable say a whole bunch of things that it was never really intended to say.

The idea behind a parable is to connect with this teaching style,

is to connect with the people that you're talking to,

which is why Jesus would use this form of teaching so often.

So today, we're going to spend some time understanding the context of what's going on,

understand the setting of the story and the people that are involved in it,

so that we can get a better understanding of what they might have been thinking

as they would have heard this.

And I think as we do this, it'll shed some new light on this amazing story.

One of the interesting things we see about this passage

is that while it's often taught as a parable,

many scholars would actually say that this was probably an actual occurrence.

Whether or not it did, whether or not it was,

won't really affect the outcome of the story.

But the nature of the story suggests that it probably did happen

because if Jesus were to have told a story like this about a Samaritan to a Jewish audience,

they wouldn't have given it any credence because they didn't like the Samaritans.

And they probably would have just dismissed it as outrageous had it not actually been true.

So, the story takes place on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Jerusalem to Jericho.

So this is a stretch of road that traverses a patch of land that's about 17 miles down this road,

and it actually travels down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

You descend about 3,400 feet in elevation as you go down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

So, it's a very rocky stretch of road,

and it's changed very little in the years since Jesus would have told this story.

To give you an idea, it takes about eight hours to travel down by foot on this path of road.

So, if we go to the next slide,

you can start to see it travels down the side of that road,

and it really winds down and descends down all this elevation.

And if you go to the next slide,

you can see there's not a whole lot out there.

It's very barren.

It's very rocky.

If you're traveling down,

you would have been able to see for miles and miles ahead

because it would have kind of wound down.

And so you could see what was going on on the road in front of you.

Well, it was a very heavily traveled road,

and during Jesus' time, it was known also as the Way of Blood.

Because it wound down through these craggy hills,

there were several places along the road that made for a good ambush spot.

So, robbers and thieves would commonly hide out,

and as they were traveling along this road,

they would ambush people and steal their things.

And that's the backdrop for this story.

In fact, roughly halfway down,

there's still a massive boulder to this day

along a narrow pass in this road,

and it's very possible that that was the actual setting for this story.

Now, the last thing to note about this location

are the cities that lie on either end of it.

So, obviously, Jerusalem was the site of the temple.

That was the place where the Jews would flock to worship.

And Jericho, at this time,

was kind of a bedroom community to Jerusalem.

There were thousands of temple workers

that served on a regular basis in the temple,

and many of them lived in Jericho.

So, it was very common for them to travel up and down this road

in their service in the temple.

So, now that we have a better idea of where the story transpired,

let's dig into the various people mentioned in the story.

Now, the reason I want to talk

and spend some time on the background of this,

that with a story like this,

it's very easy to just kind of read it

and say, well, yes, of course, as I read this,

I understand that I'm supposed to love my neighbor.

But as we better understand who the people in the story are

and where it's taking place,

all of a sudden there are nuances to this

that bring depth and meaning to the motivation behind what's happening.

And I personally believe that God cares more about why we do things

than he necessarily does about the particular things that we do,

and I think that's very much at the heart of this story.

So, if we open back up to Luke chapter 10 and verse 25,

Luke 10 · chapter mention

the first thing we're going to see is that Jesus is speaking to an expert in the law.

Now, so the NIV calls him an expert in the law.

Other translations would simply call him a lawyer.

So, obviously, he is well-versed in the Old Testament law, the Jewish law,

and he would have been learning this his entire life.

So, at this point in Jesus' life,

he's come into regular opposition with the Pharisees.

So, this lawyer was probably a part of the religious sect called the Pharisees

that were part of the Sanhedrin, the larger Jewish governing body,

and they were not real happy with Jesus.

They were becoming increasingly upset with him

because of the things he was teaching.

For example, if we turn to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I'm going to just turn back a little bit.

Now, Jesus has been teaching.

By the time we get to this point where he's talking about the story we're going to read today,

he's been teaching for some time now,

and he's stirred up a very emotional response,

and you're going to see why.

If we look at chapter 5,

and we're just going to come in, let's see,

we'll come in at verse 21.

So, Jesus has been talking to a group of assembled believers here,

and he says,

You have heard that it was said that

to the people long ago,

do not murder,

and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother

will be subject to judgment.

Verse 27,

You have heard that it was said that.

Verse 28,

But I tell you that.

Verse 31,

It has been said.

Verse 32,

But I tell you.

Verse 33,

You have heard that it said that.

34,

But I tell you that.

38,

You have heard that it was said that.

39,

But I tell you.

And he keeps hammering this point home

to the audience,

and the Pharisees are hearing this,

and he's saying,

All this time,

for millennia,

you have been hearing these things.

You have been taught these things.

You have been told these things.

But what you have been hearing is incomplete.

Listen to what this really says.

But I tell you that.

And you can imagine how these teachers

and the experts in the law

might have started responding to this,

that they'd been teaching it wrong all these times,

and the people who had taught them,

and the people who had taught them

had been wrong all this time.

It had been incomplete.

But the thing that really gets them

is what he says in verse 17.

Do not think that I have come

to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them,

but to fulfill them.

Now the fact that he says

that he's come to fulfill them,

to fulfill the law,

is blasphemy to the Pharisees.

But he goes even further

in verse 20.

He says,

Now you see,

the Jews largely believed

that the kingdom of theirs

was theirs alone by their birthright,

simply because they were Jewish.

They were born into that.

And they've been living their whole lives

under the assumption

that if they simply follow the rules,

they'll be in.

But now,

Jesus,

this blasphemer in their eyes,

comes onto the scene

and says that he is

the fulfillment of the law

and that no amount of clean living

is going to get them into heaven.

Well, again,

you start to see

why he's probably not

real well liked by the Pharisees.

So as we think about

that mindset,

that's kind of the backdrop

of what this lawyer,

this expert in the law,

would have already been thinking

as he comes into this conversation

with Jesus.

So let's turn back

to Luke chapter 10 now.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Sorry, you're going to have to

flip around a little bit with me,

so stay with me here.

So back to Luke 10, 25.

The lawyer stands up

to test Jesus,

which is never really a good idea.

And he says,

teacher,

which I can imagine

he was just kind of

scoffing this word teacher.

You know,

I don't think he really believed

that Jesus was a teacher.

What must I do

to inherit eternal life?

Well,

if you remember

what we talked about before,

Jesus isn't going to come right out

and give him an answer.

He responds with a question.

Well,

what is written in the law?

How do you read it?

And the lawyer answers

in the way you would expect.

He quotes the law.

He cites Deuteronomy chapter 6

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

and verse 5

and Leviticus 19, 18.

And he says,

love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind,

and all your strength,

and love your neighbor

as yourself.

He was clearly

a very good Hebrew school student.

He knew the exact two verses

he should cite.

It was the right answer.

In fact,

if you read later

in Matthew chapter 22

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

and there's a passage

where they try

and trap Jesus again

and they ask him

what the two greatest commandments are,

these are the two

that Jesus would answer.

He clearly got the answer right.

But he didn't stop there.

And this is what's really interesting

about this passage.

If you remember back to me

saying that God is more concerned

about why we do things

or another way,

he's concerned about your motivation,

he's concerned about your heart.

Jesus says to the Pharisee,

yep, you got it right.

Do that and you're going to live.

But the lawyer then,

and this is a really pivotal verse here,

says he wanted to justify himself.

He wanted to justify himself.

This is at the very heart

of the problem

for the lawyer

and for the Pharisees

and for much of the Jewish generation

at this time.

They'd become so wrapped up

in what they did

and how they did it.

They'd completely lost sight

of why they were doing it

and who they were doing it for.

Let's go forward a little bit

to Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse 9,

or actually verse 19.

Now we know that whatever the law says,

it says to those who are under the law,

so that every mouth may be silenced

and the whole world held accountable to God.

Therefore, no one will be declared righteous

in his sight by observing the law.

Rather, through the law,

we become conscious of sin.

So as he would personally say,

the author of this passage, Paul,

was one of the most pious Pharisees

prior to his conversion to Christ.

And he knew the law intimately.

But it wasn't until his eyes were opened

to the gospel that he finally got a hold

of the reality that

no one will be declared righteous

in his sight by observing the law.

Rather, it's through the law

that we become conscious of sin.

There's absolutely a purpose for the law,

but it is not,

however, the means of justification.

So after this,

after Paul tells us this,

he spends the next few chapters

outlining the true source of justification.

If you look at the very next verse in verse 21,

it says,

But now righteousness apart from,

a righteousness from God,

apart from the law,

has been made known,

to which the law and the prophets testify.

This righteousness from God

comes through faith in Jesus Christ

to all who believe.

There's no difference,

for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified freely by his grace

through the redemption

that came by Jesus Christ.

Now in verse 26,

we find out that justification

comes through a person,

not actions.

He did it to demonstrate his justice

at the present time

so as to be the one

who justifies those

who have faith in Jesus.

And in verse 28,

this is really the heart

of the matter in this story.

For we maintain that a man

is justified by faith

apart from observing the law.

Well, now we begin to really see

why Jesus is sharing this story

with the lawyer.

I think on the surface,

it's a great example of a story

that talks about helping others in need.

But at a much deeper level,

it's a story about the source of life

and salvation

and shows the huge gulf

that exists between our ability

to find justification on our own

and our opportunity

to find it in Christ.

So let's keep going.

Paul turns right around

in chapter 4 and verse 1

and he says,

What then shall we say

that Abraham, our forefather,

discovered in this matter?

If in fact Abraham

was justified by works,

he had something to boast about,

but not before God.

What does scripture say?

Abraham believed God

and it was credited

to him as righteousness.

So now he's using

their own patriarchs

as examples

for someone who had lived

as their justification

was not by their works,

but it was in God.

It wasn't Abraham's doing,

it was God's doing.

And if you look at chapter 4

and verse 25,

it says,

He was delivered over to death

for our sins

and was raised to life

for our justification.

Paul just keeps on going back

to this message

over and over again.

Chapter 5, verse 1,

Therefore, since we have been justified

through faith,

we have peace in God

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we see the outcome

of this justification

is peace and joy.

And in verse 9,

since we now have been justified

by his blood,

verse 16, verse 18,

he keeps going back

to this message

and back to this message

because he knew

it was central

to the heart problem

that these people were having.

So now we see

that Jesus has very acutely

identified the source

of this expert's problem

and more generally

the problem of the people

of this time.

And then he proceeds

to tell the story

in Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

I bet when I stood up,

you didn't think

we would spend this much time

talking about the context

before we actually told the story,

but we're going to get on to it.

In verse 30,

the expert has just replied,

and who is my neighbor?

When replied,

Jesus said,

a man was going down

from Jerusalem to Jericho

when he fell into the hands

of robbers.

They stripped him

of his clothes,

beat him,

and went away,

leaving him half dead.

Well, now that we have

a better understanding

of this road

that he's traveling,

we understand that this was

a common occurrence

for someone to be robbed

along this stretch of road.

The point I want to make here

is that not only was he robbed,

but he was stripped

of his clothes,

and it seems like this

is kind of an odd detail

to include.

But the thing to keep in mind

is that during this time,

the way you dressed

had a connection

to your cultural heritage.

And we don't see this much today

in this culture,

but in some of my trips

to Kenya,

I've seen this.

There are several distinct

tribes of people

that live there,

and especially in the more

rural areas,

it's very easy to identify

which tribe of people

somebody belongs to

based on the clothing

they wear,

especially the Maasai tribe.

It would be very easy

to pick them out.

Well, in Jesus' time,

this would have been

much more prevalent.

And this is important

to note,

because if you can identify

someone's cultural identity,

we might be much more inclined

to help that person.

We tend to like people

that are like us.

I'm in sales,

and at work,

we have a saying that

says people buy

from people they like,

and people tend to like

people that are more

like them.

And so as salespeople,

we try to adapt

to the people we talk

to on the phone.

Well, here,

this guy has been stripped

of his clothes,

so essentially his cultural

identity has been removed.

And we're going to come back

to that in just a minute

to see why that is,

why that's going to be important.

So,

they beat him

and went away,

leaving him half dead.

So from that,

we can infer that

the guy's in pretty bad shape.

He's probably beating,

bleeding badly,

he's possibly unconscious,

and he's clearly not

in a position

to help himself.

Well, in verse 31,

it says,

a priest happened

to be going down

the same road,

and when he saw the man,

he passed by

on the other side.

Well,

if this is the first time

you've read this story,

or you think back

to the first time

you heard this story,

this is the point

at which you start

scratching your head.

You think,

why would the priest

pass by on the other side

and not stop to help?

Well,

does he just have

a callous heart?

Does he not care?

What's going on here?

Well,

I think there are

a number of factors

that are at work.

Some of these

are very practical,

and some are more

religious in nature.

So,

let's take a look

at practical.

Well,

as we discussed before,

this was a common route

for workers in the temple

to take as they go down,

and again,

it was known

for its violence.

Well,

the priest,

as he's traveling down

and he sees this guy

laying beaten

on the side of the road,

could very rightly

have been concerned

for his own safety.

If he stops

to help the man,

the robbers could be hiding

right around the other side

of that boulder

and come and lay upon him

and beat him

and take his things as well.

So,

he could be thinking,

well,

I need to keep going

or else the same thing

could happen to me.

You know,

and maybe

the guy is in such bad shape

that the priest

thinks he's already dead.

Well,

if he thinks he's already dead,

what would the implication

of that be?

Shouldn't he just

check on the guy

to make sure,

to see if there is

anything he could do?

Well,

this gets us to some

of the religious factors

at work.

Now,

you have to remember

that the Jews

were ultra strict

about keeping the law.

So,

if we turn back

to Leviticus,

Leviticus 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21,

we'll get a little insight

into what he might

have been thinking.

Leviticus 21,

Leviticus 21:1–4

verses 1 through 4,

the Lord said to Moses,

speak to the priests,

the sons of Aaron,

and say to them,

a priest must not

make himself ceremonially

unclean

for any of his people

who die,

except for a close relative,

such as his mother

or father,

his son or daughter,

his brother,

or an unmarried sister

who is dependent on him

since she has no husband,

for he may make

himself unclean.

He must not

make himself unclean

for people related

to him by marriage,

and so defile himself.

Well,

that's a new wrinkle.

Now,

do you see why

the cultural identity

of the man

could have been important?

And you might imagine

the thoughts

that are going

through the priest's head.

First,

he sees the man

lying there badly injured,

and then he realizes

that the guy is naked,

so he can't even identify

if he's possibly

related to the guy,

but then his legalism

kicks in,

and he immediately knows

that he can't

even pass near the man,

or else he would have

been made ceremonially unclean.

Why does that matter?

Well,

one,

in the priest's mind,

he is commanded

not to do it.

And then there's even

a more practical side to it.

So let's turn to Numbers,

Numbers 19:11–13

chapter 19,

verses 11 to 13.

Whoever touches

the dead body

of anyone

will be unclean

for seven days.

He must purify himself

with the water

on the third day

and on the seventh day,

then he will be clean.

But if he does not

purify himself

on the third

and seventh days,

he will not be clean.

Whoever touches

the dead body

of anyone

and fails to purify himself

defiles the Lord's tabernacle.

That person

must be cut off

from Israel

because the water

of cleansing

has not been sprinkled

on him.

He is unclean.

His uncleanliness

remains on him.

Well,

now it becomes

even more complicated.

If he does walk over

to the dead man

and touches him

and he turns out

to be dead,

then he's got to go

through the purification

exercise again.

That means he'd have

to turn around

and walk the four

or so hours

back up the road

to Jerusalem

and begin the purification

ritual all over again

that would take

another seven days.

So not only would he

have broken the rules

that he was expressly

thinking he was

supposed to follow,

but he'd spend

the next week

having to go through

the purification ritual

to become clean again.

And he's probably

also thinking

maybe he's got

other commitments

down in Jericho

and the synagogue there

and all of these

other things going on.

We have no way

to know some of that.

So you see,

purity was very important

especially for the priests

and the Levites

that were serving

in the temple.

I read this about

purity this week.

Purity qualified one

to participate in worship,

an activity central

to the life

of ancient Israel.

breaking that purity

was a serious matter.

Blood related

to the mysterious

power of life

and any loss of blood

called for purification.

Ritual impurity

also came as a result

of contact with a corpse

since death

was the enemy of God.

Well, as we begin

to think about

what the priest

was thinking,

hopefully you're

beginning to see

that not only did he

probably not feel bad,

not feel guilty

about not stopping

to help the man,

but it's possible

that he even felt good

about the fact

that he was keeping

the law the way

that he was supposed

to in passing on by.

Now this starts

to feel a whole lot

like he's being justified

by his works.

Now if we flash back

to what the lawyer

was thinking

as he's hearing

all of this,

what do you think

is going through

his mind?

He's probably thinking

through the same laws

and rules

that the priest

was thinking through

in the story

and going through

that same process

of rationalization.

At this point

he's probably still

a little bit bored

with this story

that Jesus is telling him

and hoping that he's

going to get to the point

soon.

Little did that lawyer

know that the ultimate

purification for our sins

was the one that was

speaking to him

at that very moment.

Well then back

to our story,

along comes a Levite.

So to a Levite,

when he came to the place

and saw him,

passed by on the other side.

Now if you remember

the topography of the road

as it winds down,

if you're traveling

down this road

for several hours

on foot,

you would easily see

the people that were

traveling in front of you.

Well the Levite says

people who served

in the temple

would have recognized

the priest and he would

have known that this guy

was in front of him.

So as he comes upon

this man who is lying dead,

there are a number of things

that go through his head.

First, he would have

recognized that the priest

had kept on going

because the priest

was not their stop

to help the man.

Then his religious

and legalistic side

kicks in as well

and he starts going

through the rules and laws

and decides that the best

thing to do is pass by.

And with that additional

piece of information

that the priest

had already done it,

it wiped out any doubt

in his mind

that he should just

keep right on going,

that that was the right

thing to do.

Because when all else fails,

you do what the priest does.

So now we get to the part

in our story

where we actually come

to the Samaritan.

Verse 33.

But a Samaritan,

as he traveled,

came where the man was

and when he saw him,

he took pity on him.

He went to him

and bandaged his wounds,

pouring on oil and wine.

Then he put the man

on his own donkey,

took him to an inn

and took care of him.

The next day,

he took out two silver coins

and gave them

to the innkeeper.

Look after him,

he said,

and when I return,

I will reimburse you

for any extra expense

you may have.

So, this is the part

of the story

we will be very familiar with.

So, the Samaritan comes

and finds the guy

and he helps him.

He bandages his wounds,

he spends his own money

to have the man

taken care of.

And you could preach

an entire sermon

simply on the morality

of an action like this.

But I think that this

could have been

any person

and this story

would have still been

effective on so many levels.

However,

the fact that it's

a Samaritan

just has to grate

on the lawyer

even more.

You see,

the Jews

considered the Samaritans

inferior

as they were

a race of people

who were of mixed

Jewish and Gentile heritage.

Just to give you

a bit of insight

into the Jews'

feelings for Samaritans,

if we look back

at chapter 9,

just before this,

chapter 9,

verses 51 and 56,

we'll get an idea of this.

And if we go back

to our slide,

yep,

one more forward.

Nope,

other way.

Nope,

other way.

That one.

So,

as you can see,

if you're here in Judea

and you're in

Bethlehem

or Jerusalem

or Jericho

or any of these ways

and you need to go

to Galilee,

which was a common

passage for people,

they had to go

through Samaria.

That was the most

direct route.

But the Jews,

most of the time,

wouldn't even travel

through Samaria.

They didn't even want

to defile themselves

by going through Samaria,

so they would take

a much longer way

to go around Samaria

to get to Galilee.

So they wouldn't even

travel through this land.

And if we look

in chapter 9

and verse 51,

it says,

as the time approached

for him to be taken

up to heaven,

Jesus resolutely

set out for Jerusalem.

And he sent messengers

on ahead

who went into

a Samaritan village

to get things ready

for him.

But the people there

did not welcome him

because he was heading

for Jerusalem.

When the disciples,

James and John,

saw this,

they asked,

Lord,

do you want us

to call down fire

from heaven

and destroy them?

But Jesus turned

to rebuke them

and they went

to another village.

So,

these are Jesus'

own disciples

asking if they want

to,

if they want,

Jesus wants them

to call down fire

from heaven

and destroy

this Samaritan village.

So clearly,

they were not good friends.

So,

this is where

there's a school

of thought

that suggests

this was an actual

occurrence,

this story,

because had Jesus

made this up

and taught it

as a parable,

as I mentioned,

people would have

given no credibility

to the story

where it had

a Samaritan

doing the right thing.

However,

had this been

a well-known occurrence,

something that people

would have known

through the local news,

then he would have been able,

they would not have been able

to refute it.

So,

Jesus finishes the story

and at this point

in the story,

he knows full well

that the lawyer

has been now trapped

in terms of standing up

and trying to test him

and now he's kind of

caught in a snare

because Jesus

has told this story.

And he simply asks him,

which one of these three

was a neighbor to the man?

I can only imagine

what's going on

with the lawyer's

non-verbal stuff now.

Because he's kind of

standing there.

By nature of the fact

that it says he stood up

to ask this question,

it suggests that there was

a gathered group of people

that were around

and he was going to try

and be the smart guy

and stump Jesus.

So,

he's standing up

and he had kind of

puffed out of his chest

at first

and now Jesus

has him trapped

and the guy's stuck

and he's standing there

and he's probably

starting to sweat

a little bit

and his face is getting red

and a little bit of steam

is starting to come

out of his ears.

And all he can do,

his response,

is he says,

the one who had mercy on him.

And I'm just sure

this response came

through gritted teeth

because he was just

so unhappy about this.

He couldn't even say,

he loathed the Samaritan

so much

that he couldn't even say

the Samaritan helped him.

He said,

the one who had mercy on him.

And Jesus simply says,

go and do likewise.

So,

what do we take away from this?

Well,

hopefully,

we've unraveled

this fascinating story

enough to see

that it's more

than a simple tale

of morality.

It'd be easy enough

to walk away from this

with just kind of

a feel-good message

about helping people

in need.

But there's so much

more here.

You see,

every time Jesus spoke,

he challenged

everything his audience knew.

He turned everything

that they had been taught

and they had learned

their entire lives

on its head.

And that's the very essence

of repentance.

It's not a slight deviation

from the course you're on.

It's a 180 degree turn

toward something else.

That's what Jesus was doing

over and over and over again

as he taught.

This could have very easily

been taught

with the Sermon on the Mount

where we looked at

all those passages

that says,

you have heard

that it was said,

but I tell you that.

This is what you've learned

before,

but this is the way

it really is now.

Jesus is trying

to help them see

that it's not possible

for them to find

justification

through their own actions.

It's only through faith

in Christ

that we can find

our ultimate justification.

We see clearly

in Ephesians

that it says,

it is by grace

we are saved

through faith

and this not of ourselves.

It is the gift of God

so that no man can boast.

We can't do it on our own,

but fortunately,

we don't have to.

Jesus died

so that we could be

fully justified in him.

And as we read Romans,

Romans 3:23

chapter 3,

verses 23 and 24,

we looked at those before.

It says,

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God

and are freely justified

by his grace

through the redemption

that came

through Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Father God,

you are almighty

and magnificent

in every way.

Father,

we thank you

that you came

into a lost

and dying world

and provided

the ultimate justification

for us all.

That you brought

that amazing act of love

into the world

in the person

of your son,

Jesus Christ.

And through relationship

with him,

we can be reconciled

to you.

We can be brought

into a right relationship

finally with the author

and perfecter

of our faith,

with the God

of the universe.

And Father,

it's just,

it's miraculous

that you even

offer that to us.

It's amazing

that we can come

before you

and speak to you

and we have someone

that will speak

on our behalf

in the form of your son.

And Father,

we thank you

for this story,

for the truth

that's contained in it,

for the idea

that we can't do it

on our own,

that we need help,

that we need someone

to step in

in our place

and do what we

could never do.

We thank you

for the death of Christ

and the resurrection

that means we can come

into that perfect

relationship with you.

And it's in Jesus'

perfect and mighty name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.