Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 5:2 | Date: March 21, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. We’re taking a very big topic this morning. We’re continuing our series on the doctrine of salvation. We have seen redemption planned in the electing, sovereign electing work of God. And now, last time, we began this broad section of redemption accomplished in the saving death of Christ.

Now, that works its way out into a number of particulars that we will take the time to chase. It involves a number of concepts and vocabulary terms that I promise you you want to know and you want to be familiar with, and we’ll chase them down. But this morning, we start with another broad category that umbrellas over all of them, and that is this matter of sacrifice. Christ’s death as sacrifice. It’s an all-inclusive term under which we will look at various concepts like substitution, propitiation, redemption, reconciliation. But all of that fits under this broader umbrella of sacrifice—Christ’s death as sacrifice.

And what I’d like to do this morning is look at just broadly a theology of sacrifice. And so we’ll look through, in just a glancing way, through the entire Bible—in a very glancing way through the entire Bible—at this theology of sacrifice. I was talking to my mother last night on the phone and she asked me what I would be preaching on. I told her it was a theology of sacrifice. And I said, “I’ll give you a hint. It has something to do with Jesus.” She said, “I never would have guessed.” But it’s an important term, and it’s an important concept for us to keep in mind as we try to understand the work of Christ.

And I’d like to begin with Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 and 2: “Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Notice that Paul here defines the death of Christ in this way. He gave himself up for us, that is in his death, and that death constituted a fragrant offering—keep that language in mind, we’ll see that as we go through—a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, there is hardly a subject we can imagine more central to our faith, more enriching to our hearts, and certainly no subject more fitting as we come to observe the Lord’s table this morning than this great subject of our Lord’s death as sacrifice for sin. Give us a clear understanding of it, we pray, and help us by it to have a firmer, more deeply rooted faith in Christ to recognize the all-sufficiency of what he is for us. We pray in his name, amen.

The Language Of Sacrifice

One of the outstanding features of Christianity, and surely to the outsider, one of the most curious and one of the oddest characteristics of Christianity, is the emphasis we place on blood. Have you ever thought about how odd that must be to the contemporary secular mind? That we spend so much time talking about blood. Every time the church gathers to observe the Lord’s table, as we will this morning, as churches all over the world do, as churches all over the world have done for centuries, we will say the words, “This cup is the blood of the new covenant in my blood.” We talk about it all the time.

We sing about it. “There’s a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” Again, can you imagine how odd that sounds to the contemporary secular mind? Taking a plunge into a fountain of blood? “And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood?” “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” “Would you be free from your burden of sin? There’s power in the blood.” “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?” We sang it this morning in that wonderful hymn, one of my favorites, number 403. We sang this morning, marvelous hymn: “No other blood will do.”

Well, it is the language of sacrifice. It is odd to our generation, a contemporary secular mind in particular, but it’s the language of sacrifice that is so essential, and not only essential, but I’ll say central to the thinking of the biblical writers as they explain to us what the Christian faith is. It is tied immediately with the idea of forgiveness. And this is what Paul has in mind in verse two: “He gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Or as the writer of Hebrews reminds us in chapter nine, verse 22 of the book of Hebrews, “Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sins.”

In fact, and here’s something I want us to be aware of, that this idea of sacrifice is highly prominent throughout the biblical narrative. We have, I think, our first hint of it in Genesis chapter 3. With the covering of skins for Adam, his sacrifice is not mentioned. It seems to be implied, certainly from the rest of scripture; I think we have to see that. We find it again in chapter 4 of Genesis with the offerings of Cain and Abel. Cain offers from the fruit of the ground, Abel offers from the firstlings of the flock; he offers a sacrifice to God.

We come to it again in Genesis chapter 8 with Noah. We find it in the narrative about Abraham over and again. Abraham went to Ur; he built an altar. Abraham went to Bethel; he built an altar. He went to Mamre; he built an altar. He went to Mount Moriah; he built an altar. We find the same with Isaac. He builds an altar and offers a sacrifice. We find the same with Jacob. Four times in the Jacob narrative, he builds an altar and offers a sacrifice to God.

We come to the book of Job. We find at the very outset of the book Job offers a sacrifice on behalf of his children. We get to the end of the book of Job; Job offers a sacrifice because his friends had sinned. And we come to the book of Exodus, of course, and we see it over and again. Even in the early chapters of Exodus, we find Moses going to Pharaoh: “Let us go so that we may offer sacrifice to our God. Let us go so that we may offer sacrifice to our God. Let us go that we might offer sacrifice to our God.” I think four times over in the early chapters of Exodus. And then they go, and they offer sacrifice, and they offer sacrifice again, and they offer sacrifice again.

And then we come to Exodus chapter 25 and following, we find these detailed instructions of building a tabernacle, the whole purpose of which is to offer sacrifice to God. And then we get to the book of Leviticus, and the theme just explodes, and we’ve got personal sacrifices, we’ve got national sacrifices, we’ve got daily sacrifices, weekly sacrifices, monthly, yearly sacrifices, we’ve got sacrifices everywhere. And then we come to the New Testament, and we find the sacrificial language used over and over again, specifically now with reference to the death of Christ. Clearly, we are to understand the death of Jesus in those categories.

Why Are Sacrifices Significant?

Now, one thing I want to spend a little time with this morning, and that is exploring specifically this question: why are sacrifices significant? What makes them significant? Or simply, what do they mean? What’s the point of it all?

Now, some scholars have suggested and attempted to argue that the offering of sacrifice was simply an expression of homage to God, more or less like offering flowers in adoration to God. The traditional view is that sacrifices are to be viewed as the victim in sacrifice bearing sin, taking the punishment of sin so that the offerer receives forgiveness from God. And I think that is just abundantly clear throughout the teaching of the Old Testament, as well as the New, with reference to sacrifice.

And I want to highlight that for you to cement it in our minds. It’s progressively revealed. We have it in, I think, in chapter 3 of Genesis, as I mentioned, with the offering, the coats of skin that God made for Adam and Eve. I don’t think it’s explicit there, but we can see that the covering for their shame that Adam and Eve had made, the fig leaves—the covering for shame that they had made—was not sufficient. God had to do it and he did it in a way that presumably entailed the sacrifice of an animal.

We get to Genesis chapter 4, and we have Cain and Abel offering their respective sacrifices, as I mentioned a minute ago. We have to assume, I think, that Cain and Abel learned of offering to God from their parents, Adam and Eve, in chapter 3. And given that, we have to assume that Cain’s offering of the fruit of the ground was a departure from the norm. Abel offered a sacrifice from the flock, and his sacrifice, we read, was accepted. We find in Hebrews chapter 11, or verses back in Genesis itself, actually, that God had regard for Abel’s sacrifice, that is, he accepted it. And then in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4, we read that Abel’s offering was accepted because Abel offered it by faith, and it was commended to him as righteousness. That seems to me to be, in a nutshell, Paul’s entire doctrine of justification by the blood of Christ.

Genesis chapter 8, we come to Noah’s offering that he offers. He’s come out of the ark. There’s been this judgment of the flood. Noah offers sacrifice to God, and again, not a lot of detail is given. This is the first mention of the word altar that is built. But what is significant about Noah’s offering is here we come to a terminology that’s actually reflected here in Ephesians 5 and verse 2. Noah offered his sacrifice to God and it says, “The Lord smelled a sweet smelling savor,” or he smelled a sweet aroma, translated different ways in our Bibles. Now, how we’d understand that, God smelled a sweet aroma—I don’t think the idea is that God likes the smell of roasting meat. The idea is that what that sacrifice signified pleased God, and so he accepted that sacrifice for what it was intended to signify. I think we’ll see that as we go further.

Next time we come to Genesis chapter 22. Here we have Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is commanded to offer his son in sacrifice. You remember the story. He builds an altar on Mount Moriah and just before the event, just before he goes through with it, the angel stops him and God provides a ram instead of Isaac to be offered in sacrifice on the altar. So there we have very explicitly, a divinely appointed, a divinely provided substitute for Isaac to be offered in sacrifice to God. By the way, that language in Genesis chapter 22 about Abraham and Isaac is picked up in the New Testament a couple of times. One, I think explicitly: in the aftermath of the sacrifice, God offers a ram, provides a ram instead of Isaac. But God says to Abraham there, “You have not withheld your only son.” We come to the New Testament: God gave his only begotten son. And then more explicitly, Romans chapter 8 verse 32, “He has not withheld his son.” The very language of Genesis chapter 22 given to Jesus.

Then we come to Job chapter one that I mentioned. Again, the sacrifice is not explicitly defined for us, but we do know that the sacrifice was offered to God, and it was offered to God, we are told, because of the sin of his children. In case they have sinned, they must offer the sacrifice to God on their behalf. So the idea of satisfaction, again, is implied. It doesn’t have the language of “God smelled a pleasing aroma,” but the idea of satisfaction and sacrifice offered on behalf of their children in the event that they have sinned. And then we get to the end of the book of Job, and Job’s friends had sinned, and God is angry with Job’s friends, and so Job offers a sacrifice to God because of his friends’ sins, appeasing God’s wrath, very obviously, against their sin.

And then we come to Exodus chapter 12, the Passover. Again, the idea of sin is presumed in all of that. Life belongs to God and the judgment is coming throughout the land and the only way to escape the judgment is for the sacrifice of a lamb and the blood to be taken and painted on the posts around the doorpost of the house. There we have, again, exactly the idea of substitution. Those who offered the sacrifice, those who put the blood as it was told and applied the door posts around the doors of their house, they were rescued from divine judgment through the substitutional offering of another blood in their place. Again, we have the emphasis on the necessity of blood. The idea of substitution is unmistakable, and it is specifically to rescue the people from divine judgment as it comes through. And so by the sacrifice of a lamb in Egypt, each Israelite home escaped divine judgment, and they became the people of God.

And then, as I say, we get to the Book of Leviticus, and the theme just explodes. And here we have the idea of sacrifice more explicitly defined. It’s used for covenant ratifications. Various animal rituals were given. There’s a daily sacrifice, the personal sacrifices, the national sacrifices. We have various kinds of sacrifices that are offered. There’s the burnt offering. There’s the guilt offering. There’s the sin offering. There’s the peace offering. All of these various offerings to be given.

And we have some definition given to us in Leviticus. We don’t have time to chase it through, but look sometime on your own as you go through Leviticus for that expression, “if anyone sins.” So in Leviticus chapter one in verse two, “if anyone sins,” and then he goes on to give instructions for the burnt offering. And then chapter four in verse two, “if anyone sins,” and then he gives instructions for the sin offering. Or “if anyone sins,” and then there’s instructions for the guilt offering. And then sometimes we have the expression that the sacrifice is offered for sin, like Leviticus chapter 6 and verse 26. This is the sin offering; it is offered specifically for sin.

And then you have that curious ritual that they would do in offering the sacrifice, where the offerer would bring the lamb or the animal to the priest, and out of the entrance to the courtyard there, he would lay his hands on the head of the animal. And not just lay his hands, but sometimes specified, lay his hands on the head of the animal, confessing his sins. There you have the idea of a transference of guilt made explicit. And having transferred the sin to the animal, it then is taken and slaughtered and offered in sacrifice. And that then, the sacrifice is given, we are told in Leviticus, for the express purpose of making atonement. Making atonement for sin. A removal of sin, a putting away of God’s wrath by the judgment being borne by the animal that is offered in place of the people.

We find in Leviticus this curious statement: the blood is sprinkled on the altar because—and there he tells us—because the life of the flesh is in the blood. There again is the idea of substitution. A life must be given in exchange for another life going free. And then again in Leviticus we have this curious expression, “a pleasing odor.” The burnt offering is offered up to God and there is a pleasing odor to God. And again, the idea is not that God likes the smell of roasting meat. The idea is that God is pleased with what is signified in that offering that is given. Leviticus chapter 5 and verse 10, I think, summarizes it well: “The priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.” So the animal is brought, sins are confessed over its head, the guilt is symbolically transferred to the animal, the animal is sacrificed, and then the offerer goes free. He does not bear the judgment of God himself. It has fallen instead on the substitute animal.

This is most explicit in Leviticus chapter 16, where we have the great Day of Atonement. A priest makes, first of all, atonement for himself and for his family by the sacrifice of a bull, and then he takes that blood from the bull and he sprinkles it on the mercy seat, in front of the mercy seat, before the mercy seat. And then we have this curious ritual that they would do on the annual Day of Atonement when they would cast lots over two goats that were brought forward. It determined which would be sacrificed and which would be sent out into the wilderness. The one that was to be sacrificed, they took his blood and again went in and sprinkled the blood before the mercy seat and on the mercy seat. And then the priest would take the blood of the bull and the goat and then again sprinkle it on the altar to make atonement for sin.

And then finally they would take that live goat that was left and confessing sins over that animal, transferring the guilt to that animal. That animal was taken, hit on the backside, and sent out into the wilderness itself where it certainly met with its own fate. The next hungry wolf that came by had a good meal. And there we are told then in Leviticus 16 verse 22, “He will bear on itself all the iniquities to a barren region.” And that expression, “it will bear the iniquities of the people,” it will bear their iniquities—that’s the idea of taking responsibility for the sins, bearing the punishment of the sins. That expression is used often in the Old Testament, “bearing the sin.” It’s picked up in 1 Corinthians 15 with regard to Christ’s death, where he bears the responsibility of sin in his death as well. So it’s the idea of bearing responsibility or taking the punishment of sin, and so with the sins of the people on its head, it runs out into the wilderness. And the idea there then is of removing iniquity, taking away sin, or forgiveness.

So the Day of Atonement then is explicit. It’s bearing sin in the sacrifice and the removal of sin by a substitute. Now all of that, I think you can see, is much more than just giving flowers in adoration to the deity. What we have here is the offering and a sacrifice designed to secure forgiveness of sins through the offering of a substitute who bears the sin in place of the people and takes the punishment himself. And so the offerer in bringing a sacrifice to God is not just a creature coming to God to worship. It is a sinful creature coming with a sense of sin and transferring that sin to a substitute, and then offering that victim, that substitute, in his place to bear the judgment that he deserves, and the sacrificial victim itself then bears the sin, and the one offering it then receives forgiveness, because the judgment has fallen on a substitute instead.

The Purpose Of Sacrifice

So in all sacrifice then, the victim is offered to God for the purpose of removing sin by bearing the judgment of sin instead of the person. And so we have the offerer himself approaching God with a sense of sin and the desire to remove the guilt of that sin. And then we have the victim given as a substitute, bearing responsibility for the sin. And then the penalty, having been borne by the substitute, the offerer goes free and he’s forgiven of his sin. That’s the picture portrayed in the ritual of sacrifice.

Now what’s enormously important to recognize in all of that is that in all sacrifice, the sacrifice is offered, first of all, to God. There’s a Godward thinking, a Godward direction in offering sacrifice. The sacrifice, first of all, is intended to affect God. He must be satisfied with it if we are to obtain forgiveness. It results in forgiveness, but it results in forgiveness only because, first of all, God is satisfied with it. He smells a pleasing aroma. He’s satisfied with the offering that is given, and because the offering is given, the offerer is able to go free, his sins removed because the sacrifice has, if we can say it this way, affected God in that way. The sacrifice terminates, first of all, on God, offered to him in satisfaction of his just demands. So the purpose of Old Testament sacrifices, the whole rationale of the Old Testament sacrifices is to influence God so as to secure his favor and thereby obtain the forgiveness of sins.

Now there are many entailments to that. We have tied up in that concepts that are taken up, for example, in the book of Hebrews that we will look at next time, Hebrews chapters 9 and 10. If you’d like to look at those this week, we’ll explore them next Sunday. But there are several ideas and concepts tied up in that. One, and very prominent in it, the writer of the letter of Hebrews tells us, is the unapproachableness of God and the holiness of God. Because of who he is, we have no right to approach. We can’t expect his favor. And so there’s also the idea of the wrath of God against sin that is deserved by all sinners. And then there’s the idea of substitution, satisfaction made by the substitute. And because of that, there’s forgiveness and then reconciliation with God.

Now, first of all, in the Old Testament sacrifices, all of this is intended on a national level. Remember back in Exodus chapter 32, the golden calf incident. God is angered by the sin of the people. God told Moses, “You go down there and deal with it. If I go down there, I’m just going to explode in anger. There won’t be anybody left.” That raises the question: how is a holy God to dwell in the midst of a sinful people? How can a holy God dwell in that tabernacle in the center of the camp in the midst of a sinful people and not break out in anger against them? And the sacrificial system is provided to give that answer to that question. The sacrifices are made every day, every week, every month, every year. All of these sacrifice, sacrifice, after sacrifice, after sacrifice, where the victims are given, bearing the sin of the people, appeasing God’s wrath so that the people can live as the people of God.

The question that comes up—and Hebrews 9 and 10 brings up this question explicitly—is that really enough to satisfy God, offering an animal in place of people? Of course it’s not enough. Well then what’s the point of it? Why do it every day, every day, every day, every week, every week, every month, every month, every year, after year, after year? Why over and over and over? What’s the point of it if an animal or any number of animals can’t really make satisfaction for a human being in his sin?

And the answer is, God had a purpose. He’s establishing the structures in which we can understand how we might have fellowship with God. The only way we can have fellowship with God, the only way we can escape his wrath, the only way we can have forgiveness of sins is if—if we can find an acceptable substitute who is willing to stand in our place, bear our sin, take the judgment himself, bear our penalty so that we can go free. If we can find that, we can be safe. And so God established this, as I’ve told you, making the movie ahead of time instead of after the fact. God does it century after century after century after century throughout the old covenant period, offering sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice, establishing the structures in which we could understand how we might be able to have fellowship with God.

And you have a particularly illuminating reference to all of this in Isaiah chapter 53. There the prophet, seeing the coming servant of the Lord who will come, says he will give himself a guilt offering. He will make his life a guilt offering and there the servant will come and he will bear the sin. All of this that’s been portrayed in these sacrifices is pointing forward to the servant who will come and himself become the burnt offering or the guilt offering. So what we have then throughout the Old Testament is an establishing of the structures, the frame of reference in which we can understand how redemption can happen. And so the Old Testament sacrifices were inherently prospective. They were anticipatory, looking forward to someone who might be adequate to stand in the place of sinners so that we can go free.

The Sacrifice Of Christ

And that, of course, is the whole frame of reference then for the New Testament writers when they present the death of Christ. That is why Paul can say here in Ephesians 5:2, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” He offered himself in sacrifice, and this is the frame of reference always in the New Testament when the New Testament writers speak of the death of Christ. When they speak of the death of Christ, the blood of Christ, the cross of Christ, the offering of Christ, or here the sacrifice and fragrant offering of Christ, always, always, always it is pointing to this category of sacrifice that for centuries was illustrating and establishing the structure of how redemption might come.

And so in the New Testament we have Christ presented—and here I can just survey these mentions for you so you can be alert to it as you read the New Testament. Christ is presented as Passover sacrifice, making peace by the blood of his cross, propitiation in his blood. He loves us and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God and an odor of sweet smell. He loves us and washed us with his blood. We are justified with his blood. He’s the lamb which takes away the sin of the world. He is the lamb without blemish and without spot.

And then you add to that all of the specific sacrificial lingo in the technical terminology that’s used throughout the Old Testament. Language like propitiation, redemption, ransom, forgiveness, offering himself, offering himself without spot. In fact, Jesus himself picks up the language when he says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” “I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.” This is sacrificial language. Or when Jesus comes to institute the Lord’s table for us, he takes the cup: “This cup is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” All through the New Testament, we find Jesus’ death—every reference to it placed in the sacrificial category so that we can understand how redemption is accomplished for us.

Gospel writers, particularly in the Gospel of John, are careful to point out to us that Jesus’ death occurred at the time of the slaying of the Passover lamb. It might be a little subtle for you, but John—Paul makes it explicit in 1 Corinthians chapter 5: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” As I’ve mentioned, John the Baptist introduces Christ: “the lamb which takes away the sin of the world.” And we find all of that blood theology in the New Testament. Romans 5, verse 9: “we are justified by his blood.” Ephesians 1:7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Ephesians 2, verse 13: “we’re brought near by the blood of Christ.” Colossians 1, verse 20: “making peace by the blood of his cross.” Or as we saw recently in chapter 2, effecting forgiveness by taking that “I owe you” and nailing it to his cross. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12: “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption for us.” 1 Peter 1 verses 18 and 19: “we are ransomed not with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 John 1 and verse 7: “the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin.” Revelation 1 verse 5: “to him who loves us and freed us from our sins, with his blood.”

All of this, every time, we are reminded of the sacrificial categories that were established throughout the centuries under the Old Covenant, defining for us the redemptive work of Christ. It’s impossible to miss it. Whenever the biblical writers speak of forgiveness, whenever in the New Testament you read of forgiveness tied together with the death of Christ, the blood of Christ, the cross of Christ, we’re reminded of this category of sacrifice. What those old sacrifices symbolized was actually accomplished for us in the death of Christ. Instead of the blood of animals, we have the blood of Christ, the Son of God who came in place of the spotless, perfect lamb; we have the sinless Jesus Christ. In place of the sprinkling of the blood, we have forgiveness of sins. Instead of a sweet-smelling aroma, we have an actual satisfaction for sin that was offered for us in our place in the sacrifice of Christ. Instead of a sacrifice that symbolizes atonement, we have real atonement through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And just as the Old Testament sacrifices terminated on God, intending first of all to influence him and render satisfaction to him, so also in the death of Christ. And every time the New Testament writers speak of the death of Christ or the cross of Christ, they do it under this rubric of sacrifice and reminding us each time that first and foremost, when Jesus offered himself in death, he is offering himself to God, appeasing his wrath, bearing his justice so that, his justice satisfied, we then can receive forgiveness of sins.

And this, we should understand it, is the heart of the heart of the heart of the heart of the gospel. The gospel in no way is a message that comes to the world saying, “Hey, if you try your best, we know you can do it.” The heart of the gospel is this: we have a Savior who stood in our place and bore the condemnation that we deserve. He offered himself in sacrifice to God on behalf of sinners. There’s the sin bearer taking the sin, taking the punishment, and offering satisfaction to God.

And I love to remind people often that this is what every human heart needs, and this is what every human heart wants, even if that want has been suppressed. Every one of us created in God’s image, we have an awareness of God, and not only awareness of God, but with that, a sense of responsibility to God, that we’re accountable to Him. And with that, there’s a sense of right and wrong. We know that intuitively. We don’t have to be taught that. We know right from wrong. We know that there’s wrong and that there’s right. And because there’s this sense of justice, there’s also, in every heart, a sense of guilt. Because we all know that we haven’t measured up to what we know we ought to have done. And we know we’re accountable. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1, we even know that those who do such things are worthy of death. We know that in the afterlife, there will be an accounting. Every one of us knows that.

And so in the heart of every human being, there’s this recognition that what we need is somehow for this sin problem to be removed. What we need more than anything else is someone who’s qualified, someone who’s willing to stand in our place and do it for us. The last thing the gospel is, is “if you work really hard and do it on your own, we know you can.” It certainly hasn’t come—the Christian message hasn’t come into the world to throw us on the strength of our own efforts. The Christian message is exactly this: that God has sent his son, who has stood in the place of sinners, has taken their sin to himself, and he has offered satisfaction to God in their place. And this is the message of the gospel, and this is the heart of the Christian faith. Forget your feeble efforts, look to Christ, who alone has done for us what God requires. Amen. Let’s pray.