Why and How the Law Was Given

Transcript

GR 1154
05-30-1999
Why and How the Law Was Given
Galatians 3:19-22
Gil Rugh

Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Galatians and the third chapter. We’re making our way piece by piece through this closely reasoned, closely argued letter of the Apostle Paul. And again, I remind you of how blessed we are to have a copy of the Scriptures in our hands to hold, to read, to look at, to follow along and to carefully consider. The members of the churches of Galatia, as this letter was sent to them, would have come together and listened as someone stood before them and read this crucial letter from the Apostle Paul. And they would have had to pay very close attention to follow along as it was read to them. They wouldn’t all have a copy to take home with them and reflect upon. Yet they were expected to pay heed and follow accordingly.
You know the unique character of the Scripture is emphasized numerous times in the Bible itself. Leave a marker in Galatians and turn over to II Timothy, II Timothy chapter 3. II Timothy is Paul’s last letter before his execution and he writes to Timothy and says in chapter 3, “All Scripture is God-breathed, is inspired,” literally God-breathed. It comes out from God. It has its source in God. The Scriptures are the very words of God. God has spoken and this is what He has said.

The fact that the Scriptures are the words of God makes it imperative that we interpret them correctly. You know most Roman Catholics, most groups of Protestants, many cults would all agree that the Bible is the word of God. However, there would be major differences in what these various groups would say that the Bible teaches. And it’s a reminder we must carefully and accurately handle the word of God.

You’re still in II Timothy back up a page or so to chapter 2 verse 15 where Paul says to Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Be diligent, means to be zealous, to eagerly pursue something. And we’re to be a people who have a focus. We desire the approval of God on our lives and that means we must apply ourselves to handle accurately, literally cut the word of God straight, to know what God said, to understand it in its context. And there’s no shortcut. We must labor through the details. But what a blessing to analyze the words of God so that we might understand and know what He has said.

You know, most of the error that confronts the church, and we’ve been through this many times, does not come from outsiders who attack the church, but from insiders who claim to believe the Bible but at the same time they are guilty of altering and corrupting its message.
Turn further back in your New Testament to the book of II Peter, through the book of James, which is after Hebrews, I Peter and II Peter. II Peter is the last letter of the Apostle Peter who is in the shadow of his own execution as he writes this letter. And in II Peter chapter 3 Paul is referring to the writings of the Apostle Paul. He refers to “our beloved brother Paul” in verse 15, who in verse 16, “also as in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

You see here that it is absolutely crucial that we not only have the Scriptures, but we correctly understand them. Because those who distort the Scriptures do it to their own destruction. Eternity is the issue in handling the word of God. There are things hard to understand. There’s no easy way to do it. I’d just like to sit back and have someone present it to me in a nice palatable, uh, way. I’ve worked hard all week, uh, it’s hard for me to come and concentrate and, uh, you know, go to work now on the Scripture. But there’s no other way to handle correctly the word of God, to work through the hard things, and to recognize those who distort the Scripture to their own destruction.

Back in Galatians, this is the very thing that the Apostle Paul is confronting in the churches at Galatia. Chapter 1 of Galatians verses 6 and 7 he says to the Galatians, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.” This ch, these churches are in danger of deserting Christ. Now be sure here, they didn’t think they were deserting Christ. The false teachers who were influencing them did not deny the Scriptures. Rather they were telling them they could be more faithful, more righteous by not only believing in Christ but also submitting themselves to the rest of Scripture, the Mosaic Law. But Paul said it’s a desertion of Christ, it’s an abandoning of the gospel and it brings the curse of hell upon you.

We’re in chapter 3 and Paul has clearly shown that salvation is by faith apart from works. The Abrahamic covenant was given by promise. God gave a promise. Abraham believed it and he was justified, declared righteous by God. The Mosaic Law came four hundred or more years later and it cannot alter in any way the provisions of that covenant.

Now the first eighteen verses of Galatians 3 have contained Paul’s argument showing that the Law is not necessary for righteousness. And it may seem that Paul’s argument was so strong, so airtight so to speak, that it means the Law has no purpose. What good is the Law? Why was it even given? And so now he is going to proceed to answer that very question, one that we must understand today. There’s quite a bit of confusion on the place of the Law even in the church. And one thing this discussion does is clarify the whole issue of works. Because if you cannot be saved by keeping the works required in the Mosaic Law, you cannot be saved by any kind of works anywhere. So even though he’s focusing on the issue of the commandments of the Mosaic Law, he establishes a foundation here that rules out works as part of salvation and becoming righteous before God.

Look at verse 19 how it opens. “Why the Law then?” All parties would agree, Judaizers and non-Judaizers, God gave the Law. Why did He give it? If it wasn’t possible to become righteous before the Law, if it didn’t alter, add to or take away from the Mosaic covenant, what was the purpose of the Law? It must have had a reason. Well, “it was added because of transgressions.” Sin is the reason for the Law. And the Law was given to magnify sin, to reveal sin, to make Israel aware of how sinful they were and how much they needed the grace of God. The Law showed the seriousness of sin, the hopelessness of the sinner.

Romans chapter 3 verse 20 says, “For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Now men were sinners before the Mosaic Law was given. But what the Mosaic Law did was show how great their sin was. It showed them to be transgressors of the will of God, of the Law of God.
In one of our states they did away with speed limits. It meant there was no speed limit, 65, 75. But I read an article that the police were giving tickets to some people for driving too fast. Well how can you drive too fast if there are no laws regarding speed limits? Well, certain conditions and circumstances meant that it was wrong to be driving that fast. That’s a little bit of what it was like before the Law was given. Men were doing wrong, but it was not as clearly defined, as it would be when the Law was given. Now the law is given, 65 is the speed limit, it’s clear to all when it is being broken. So when the Mosaic Law was given with its six hundred plus commandments, it became clear how serious man’s condition was, how hopeless he was in his depravity and it’s sin.

So the Law was given because of sin, because of transgressions, to reveal the sinfulness of man. The Law was never given to provide righteousness. Important to understand this.
Now I want to jump down in verse 19 to the last part of the verse. We’ve rearranged it in English. In the Greek text it goes, “Why was the Law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” It was added because of transgressions. So a reminder, the Law came later, much later. It was added, came later. And it was of temporary duration. It was added until. It had a terminal point, an ending point.

The Law was “added until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.” The seed is a reference to Christ. Back in verse 16, the end of the verse, “to your seed, that is Christ.” The Abrahamic covenant, with the promise of justification by faith, had its prime focal point in Jesus Christ, the one who by His death would make possible justification by faith. And all the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant can be fulfilled because of Jesus Christ. So He is the promised seed.

So the Mosaic Law began with Moses on Mt. Sinai and would last until Christ came. That’s not so difficult to follow I don’t believe. I’m amazed at how many commentators, in writing on this, said, “Well, this means that at least some part of the Mosaic Law ended with Christ. Or at least certain provisions of the Law would come to an end now. Or in a certain way the Law ended.” That’s not what it says. Remember the Law is a unit. The Mosaic Law is a whole. You cannot break it up into pieces. It was given until Christ would come so it’s of temporary duration. It came later. It will stop earlier, if you will.

All right, now let’s back up in verse 19. “It was added because of transgressions.” How was it given? “Having been ordained through angels.” The Law doesn’t say much about the Law at Mt. Sinai being given by angels. Just one passage you might turn to. In the Book of Psalms chapter 68, Psalm 68, look at verse 17. “The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness.” Now the chariots of God, innumerable, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them just like He was at Sinai. Chariots of the Lord, the thousands upon thousands present are the angelic beings. And here we are told these angelic beings were present when the Lord met with Moses at Sinai to give the Law.

In the New Testament, in Acts chapter 7 verse 53 Stephen speaking before the leadership council of Israel in Jerusalem shortly before his stoning referred to the Law as “ordained by angels.” Same thing Paul says, “the Law ordained by angels.” Hebrews chapter 2 verse 2 refers to the Law as the “word spoken through angels.” So the New Testament does make clear that the angels had a particular role to play in the giving of the Mosaic Law.
All right, come back to Galatians chapter 3. We’ll pick up another piece here then we’ll put them together. “Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator,” and the mediator here is Moses. He stood between God and the people. This is very important. Follow along here because the next verse that we’re coming to in Galatians many commentators feel is the most difficult verse in the New Testament. In fact, they noted that there are over four hundred interpretations of this one verse. We’re only going to look at a hundred or so of the most important of those. I just say that because I want you to follow what we’re saying here, otherwise we’ll get to verse 20 and you’ll say, “I don’t, I don’t know what he’s talking about.
The Law was ordained by angels mediated through Moses, “by the agency of a mediator.” Come back to Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20 verse 19. “Then the people said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.’” Verse 21, “So the people stood at a distance while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.” Then God spoke to Moses. Then Moses would go back to the people.

Back up to Exodus 19 verse 7. “So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him.” So you see, God spoke to Moses. “All the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do!’ And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.” That’s why the Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant. It’s conditioned upon the agreement of the people. God spoke to Moses. Moses took what God had said and presented it to the people. The people said, “We agree to this. We will do it.” Moses goes back to God and says, “They have agreed. They will do it.” See it was conditioned upon the agreement of the two parties. It was mediated by Moses.
All right, I’m looking at the bulletin to see if, no, no white space. Well, a little bit on the bottom of one page. If you need a piece of paper take it out. I want you to write this down or you can do it in your Bible if you want. That’s always risky. At the top you put God. Then under God, little arrow, to the next, you put angels. Then a little arrow down next you put Moses. Then a little arrow going down you put Israel. So you have God, who is the source of the Law, He gives it first to angels, who are used to speak to Moses, who then goes to the people. Now what you want to see here he is building is you have layers in here, Moses being the mediator. That shows the inferiority to the Abrahamic Covenant because the Abrahamic Covenant you have God, arrow coming down, you have Abraham. There are no intermediaries. There’s no mediator. It shows the inferiority of the Mosaic covenant to the Abrahamic Covenant. Even in the way it was given.

Also, and this is most important, with a mediator you have two parties involved and he is a mediator to bring the two into agreement. Now this argument will become crucial to what he is going to say. A mediator involves two parties. The Mosaic Law was mediated by Moses. The Abrahamic Covenant did not have a mediator.
All right come back to Galatians to see the importance of this. Verse 20, now this is the verse that’s so difficult to many commentators. “Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.” And there’s an abruptness to it. You note in your English Bible, there’s some words in italics, mean that they’re not in the original text but they’re there to smooth is out for us in English. Its “Now a mediator is not for one; whereas God is one.” And the contrast is when you have a mediator; you have more than one party involved. That’s why you have a mediator, right? You have two parties. You need a mediator. And involved here was then the agreement of the two parties. But God is one. And I say, “Well, I can understand why people have a problem with this.”
Well, keep your finger in Galatians, jump back to Deuteronomy chapter 6. We will look at the Shema, foundational statement of Israel’s faith. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4, and the first word in the Hebrew text is Shema, the word hear. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!”

Now it’s a very interesting and striking argument that Paul is using in Galatians. His argument is: with the Mosaic Law you have a mediator. That means two parties are involved. But God is one. In His very character and being salvation, redemption must be a unilateral activity on God’s part alone. The Mosaic Law, God gives it to angels who give it to Moses who takes it to the people of Israel for their agreement. Its two sided, if you will. God gave it originally and Israel consents to it. Remember the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15? God gives it. What’s Abraham doing? “Amen, Lord. I’m with you on that. I agree!” No, if you remember Genesis 15 Abraham is asleep. God puts Him in a deep sleep and then God cut the covenant. He walked through the divided animals. The redemption promised in the Abrahamic Covenant rests on God totally and completely. So Paul is using that fact here to show that the Mosaic Covenant, the Law was never a salvation covenant because redemption is always a work of God alone. It’s part of His very being as God. He is one. So the salvation or redemption that God provides must exclude any works of man or it would involve a violation of His character.

Now some of you are probably running in your mind a verse from I Timothy chapter 2. I believe it’s verse 5, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” So are you saying, then, that we have two parties here, God and men, with Christ as the mediator? Don’t we have a problem? No!

God is one but God exists in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Who is the mediator between God and men? The man Christ Jesus, who is the Son of God, the second person of the triune Godhead. So it’s not a mediator like Moses, someone outside of God. It is God in the person of His Son who was also God. The Word was God who is our mediator. So again it is God dealing directly with us, unilaterally, by promise. Christ died. The promise is righteousness by faith in Him. Believe Me. That’s different than the Mosaic Law which said here are my commandments, here are all six hundred plus requirements. Israel says, “We agree. We will do them.” The covenant’s in force but it was never a covenant for righteousness.

“For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” You see part of the confusion generated by the Judaizers is a failure to understand the purpose of the Law from the beginning. And I hope you’ll keep this in mind because it’s going to be developed through the rest of chapter 3. The Law never was a way of salvation. There are people who think, “Well, Israel was saved by keeping the Law the best they could. Now Christ has come, we’re saved by believing in Him.” No! The Law was never a means of righteousness, never a means of righteousness of any kind, salvation or sanctification righteousness in that sense. You can’t become righteous by the Law before God.

Well, come back to the New Testament, Galatians chapter 3. So you see the argument of verse 20 flowing out of verse 19. A mediator involves two parties. So in the Mosaic Covenant, the Mosaic Law, Israel and God were both involved with Moses in between mediating. And Israel agreed to the provisions, “All that God has commanded we will do.” But God is one. His salvation, His righteousness comes out of His being, what He is. And that means it must be something He does unilaterally. That means all systems, all religious systems, all churches, all teachers who teach that works are necessary for salvation are attacking the very character of God, denying what is the foundational truth of Scripture: God is one.

This same argument was used in Romans by Paul. Maybe you ought to look at Romans chapter 3 then we have to move on. Verse 30, Romans chapter 3 verse 30. Same kind of context. Verse 28 says, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Is He God of the, is He, is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God is one.” Now you may have this put together in various ways depending on which edition of the Bible you’re using, even the New American Standard Bible. Mine has it “since indeed God,” and then at the very end of verse 30, “is one.” That’s the basic statement being made in verse 30. Same thing we have Deuteronomy 6:4, same thing Paul is saying in Galatians 3:20: God is one. He is the only God. So there can only be one salvation. There can only be one way of salvation whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, one way of righteousness: faith. The very character and being of God requires that and excludes. My works as necessary to acquire righteousness would include me with God in the accomplishing and providing of salvation. That would be an attack on the very being of God as one.

God is one. Salvation is His work, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct persons comprising the one God. Salvation is their work. I do not contribute to that in any way or form. I simply receive it as a gift by faith. That’s Paul’s argument.

Come back to Galatians chapter 3. It seems then we’ve built such a strong case on this, you come to the question, verse 21, “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God?” I mean what you’re saying then is the Law is opposed to the promises. They are in war against one another. They contradict one another.

Paul’s response to that is the strongest negative he could give. “May ganoito – may it never be!” King James says, “God forbid!” That’s not an exact translation of the words, may it never be is, but God forbid gives you something of the emotional impact. Such a thought is inconceivable, impossible, could never be that the Law is contrary to the promises.

Why so strong? Because God did give the Law at Sinai. God did give the covenant to Abraham, in different means with different purposes, but the same God behind both. To say that God opposed Himself, conflicted with Himself, what kind of theology would that be? So you see you have to be very careful. We sometimes think, “Oh, yeah, I’m thinking logically now. This is the next step, this is the next step and we get into theological trouble.” We must think biblically here.

“Is the Law contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.” “If a law had been given which was able to impart life” the grammatical construction here in Greek is called second class condition. It is a contrary to fact condition. In other words, even in reading this or hearing it read, they would recognize Paul is raising here an impossible question. So it’s not as a possibility but to show the impossibility, something that could not happen.

“If a law had been given which was able to impart life” an of course that’s an impossibility. But if it had happened “then righteousness would have indeed been based on law.” The point is that couldn’t happen. It’s already dealt with this back in verse 10 for example. “As many as are under the works of the Law are under a curse.” Then he supports it with a quote from Deuteronomy; “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.” I mean the Law was never a way of salvation. Verse 19, “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions.” The Law has to do with sin, revealing sin, making sin known, showing how sinful Israel really is. There was no law that was able to impart life.

You note certain things here are interchangeable: life and righteousness. To have life from God is to have His righteousness, talking about the same thing. If that could have happened then righteousness would have been based on the Law. But it’s not possible.

So you have verse 22, “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin.” The Scripture here, the Law, we just read from verse 10 where he quoted from Deuteronomy. I mean there is no doubt. You have the sacrifices required in the Mosaic Law, many of which are pointing to what? Sin! You have the sin offering. You have the reminder constantly going on that they’re sinners. The penalty for sin is death. They deserve to die. Their only hope is to cast themself on the mercy of God, place their faith in Him. It’s part and parcel of the Law.

“The Scripture has shut up every one under sin.” One of our previous studies we looked into the Book of Ecclesiastes which said what? “There’s not a just man upon the earth who always does good and never sins.” We looked at Psalm 14, which said, “God looked down from heaven on the human race and found there was none who does good, not even one.” I mean it’s relentless. The Scripture demonstrates we are all sinners. Do you understand as soon as that point is established it rules out any possibility of you being saved by what you do? Why? You’re condemned! The wages of sin is good works. Not what the Bible says. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” The Law permeated with the truth, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”

So the problem comes, people say, “Oh, yes, I’m being saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. Or I’m going to be saved by keeping the sacraments or by joining church or by being baptized or fill in the blank.” You haven’t come to grips with the problem. You are a sinner. I am a sinner. That means you can’t be saved by the Law. It’s too late!

You know it’s like, “Well, I stole from 35 people. I’ve cheated on my income tax for ten years. I killed 14 of my neighbors. But I’m going to straighten out.” Well you say, “You’ve got a problem: you’re guilty, you’re condemned.” “I know but you don’t understand. I’m going to do better. Right now I’m going out to cut my lawn, to make my place look better so the neighbors can appreciate me more.” “You don’t understand. You’re condemned.”

You know it seems like a simple concept, doesn’t it? Average person in church this morning doesn’t understand the issue. I watched one of people we would call a religious leader, being interviewed on television last night. Perhaps some of you saw it, a white-haired heretic. Through his whole program, an hour’s interview, you know what? His purpose is to give hope to people. You know he never did talk about their sin. He never did talk about their lostness, their hopelessness apart from Christ. Why? People don’t want to hear that. I don’t mind being told to think positively but don’t tell me I’m a sinner lost on my way to hell. Tell me how to make molehills out of mountains, stars out of scars. So cute, huh! Sells book, sends people to hell. Why?
“The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin.” This is strong. That word translated “shut up” not like we tell our kids shut up. It means to imprison, to convine, confine. We are imprisoned. The Law, you want to know what the Law did? It locked Israel up in its sin.

Let me read you from Romans 7. You don’t need to turn there but Romans 7 verse 12 and 14. “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. For we know that the Law is spiritual” but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” “Is the Law contrary to the promises of God?” verse 21. No! It complements it in the sense it simply shows you how sinful you are so that Israel should have been ready for the coming of the Promise in Christ. Because “Oh, I’m sinful. There’s no hope of me digging myself out.” But they became self-righteous the way we like to think, “God will put the good and bad on the scale. The good, hopefully will tilt it in my favor and I’ll go to glory.” And God will sacrifice His holiness, His righteousness, His justice so I can get in. It will never happen!

Romans 11:32 says, “For God has shut up all,” same word “imprisoned all in disobedience.” We are confined in the prison of our sin. The Law has locked in people. We say, “Well, I’m not a Jew. I’m not under the Law. I’m a Gentile.” No, but the point is unavoidable. If you can’t be saved by the works of the Law, you can’t be saved by any kind of works. Cause, because God did give the commands of the Law in glorious and awesome circumstances involving angels on Mt. Sinai. If you can’t be saved by keeping those commandments, there is no way that you’ll ever be saved by any other commandments. I mean it is a point that does not even need to be mentioned, if you will. Well, we just come up with a new set of requirements. Do this plus believe and you’ll be saved. What foolishness! You attack the character of God. You deny the reality of sin.

Why has God shut up everyone under sin? So “that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” That’s it. God had a purpose in it. To show Israel how sinful they were, even as the nation God had chosen for Himself, how desperate was their situation in needing a Savior so that they might believe the promise of God. The Law was not in conflict with the promise. The Law just showed how necessary the promise really was. And the promise focuses on justification by faith. Because the Law showed Israel they could not be righteous by the Law. Every time they obeyed the Law and took an offering for their sin they were declaring what? I violated the Law. I deserve to die. I deserve to be condemned. I’m casting myself on God’s mercy believing He will be my Savior. Uh, I mean could you keep the Law and not observe the sacrifices? Could you observe the sacrifices and not be agreeing with God you were a sinner? I mean the picture is so clear. “God shut everyone up under sin, so that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

We’re ready to conclude. Verse 22 makes it as simple and as clear as it could be. Note what he says, “The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin.” Paul made the same point to the Romans in chapter 3. “We have concluded that all, Jews and Gentiles alike, are under sin.” That means there’s no exceptions here. There is not one exception anywhere in the world. There is not one. The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin. So we all share a common disease, the disease of sin. The tragedy is we don’t all share the cure because the cure is limited to those who believe. The promise is by faith in Christ. Justification is by faith in Christ. It is given only to those who believe.

Everyone is shut up in the prison of sin, locked in. Those who are delivered don’t do it by the works of the Law, don’t do it by circumcision, don’t do it by any other kind of works for that matter. That would be an attack on the character of God who is one. You don’t contribute. He did it. We say, “Well, then, everybody should be saved. He did it.” No. because it’s by faith. It’s to those who believe. You say, “Well, I can’t understand. Why wouldn’t everyone believe?” We’re back to the problem aren’t we? We’re enslaved to our sin. I’m sold into bondage to sin. My own selfish pride and arrogance even gives me a foolish confidence that I will be all right. I look around here. People think I’m righteous. People think I’m moral. Doesn’t matter what people think. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart,” Jeremiah 17:9 and 10.

But there is hope. The hope is you realize you are a desperate sinner. And yes, there is deliverance, there is life, there is righteousness. But it’s not found by what you do. It is found by believing what God has done.

Let’s pray together. Thank You, Lord, for abundant grace, grace that is greater than all our sin. So we come. Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to Your cross we cling. Thank You, Lord, for the purpose of the Law as You gave it to Israel, to magnify their sin, to show their hopelessness. Thank You for the coming of the one in whom the promises are realized and fulfilled, the one who is Your Son who is our Savior, who loved us and died for us, the one in whom we find righteousness by believing in Him. How foolish, how hopeless, how sinful that we should trust ourselves and our works. Lord, I pray Your Spirit will convict our hearts that we might see ourselves as You see us and take hold of the salvation that only You can provide. And, Lord, we praise You that You are the God who has done it all so our salvation is complete, it is finished and it is secure, and we praise You in Christ’s name. Amen.