Well, in his first letter to the Corinthian church, the Apostle Paul, he answered an implied accusation that his preaching was foolish and uninteresting. He wasn't original. He wasn't especially dynamic. He wasn't very skilled or creative in oratory, and yet he gladly admits to it. He tells them in 1 Corinthians 2, when I came to you, brethren, I did not come to you with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. And then he communicates the focus of his ministry. He says this, for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, it wasn't that Paul didn't know anything else. In fact, he was a highly trained Jewish rabbi. But when it came to the Christian ministry, Paul was determined in his heart by firm conviction that compared to everything else, the preeminence and importance of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross was gonna be the focal point of all of his labors. The sense is this, by comparison, I have determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now, over the years, popular preachers have endeavored to try to shift the focus of Christianity away from the cross and toward the resurrection. It's a very popular mode of today. You see a lot about the risen Christ and the resurrected Christ that the people don't want to hear sermons about the agonies of the cross. We really want to hear about the victories of the risen Christ. But here's the thing, without the cross, the empty tomb is meaningless. Because Jesus never said the son of man has come into the world to emerge victorious for his people. He didn't say that, he said this, he has come to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus Christ was born into this world for the purpose of dying. However, once his atoning death was accomplished, he was resurrected on the third day. And then, and only then, was he raised victorious. But Christianity cannot be understood without looking at the cross. Why? Well, because our greatest need is to be rescued, redeemed, and restored to a right relationship with God. And people ask all the time, well, why? I didn't realize I was in a bad relationship with God. What happened? Well, sin happened. But more than simply sin happened, we are kept at war with God because of our sin. We're kept at war by something I've been thinking about this week and I'm calling the sin-holiness barrier. The sin-holiness barrier. What is that? It is a double-walled barricade that exists between us and God that consists of His infinite holiness and righteousness and our detestable wickedness. There is a divide, there is a barrier. And it's not merely that we're separated from God by this sin-holiness barrier. Rather, we are, because of our selfish nature, we are objects of divine wrath. The Bible teaches that God is storing up fury and divine wrath against all ungodliness and immorality and wickedness to be unleashed on the day of judgment. And on that day, every single sin will be judged to the fullest extent of God's law and every sinner will suffer the flames of eternal punishment. However, there is one way. to escape judgment. There is one way to be forgiven, one way to be restored, one way to find life. And it is through the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And that is the focal point of all of Christianity, all of our life as believers, and frankly the focus of this pulpit. is on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so turn with me to Matthew chapter 27 in your copy of scripture, Matthew 27. At this point in our narrative here, it is Friday of Passover week, or Passion Week, as it's known to become in Christian tradition. We're in Jerusalem at this time in Israel, approximately the year 30 AD, even though some scholars have perhaps dated this to 33, but the general consensus these days is that it's around the year 30 AD. But Jesus has preached and healed and ministered to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he says. He's now been arrested, tried, pronounced guilty by the Jewish authorities, and then he's been condemned by the Roman governor. He has been mocked. He has been beaten. He has been scourged. And then he's sent to a place called Golgotha, outside the city walls, to be crucified. And we read about this death march in Matthew 27, verse 33. When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall. And after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink. And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. At that time, two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel, let him come down from his cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now. If he delights in him, for he said, I am the son of God. Robbers who had been crucified with him were also insulting him with the same words. And so Jesus has endured the persecutions and the agonies throughout the entire night, and Mark 15, 25 tells us that at that point, right around the third hour of the morning, so nine o'clock in the morning, Jesus is nailed to the cross. He is crucified at the third hour, 9 a.m., and it's there he's gonna remain on the cross for the next six hours until he dies. Of course, the first three hours were horrifically eventful. He has been stripped naked. with no more than a small cloth around his waist at best. His back has been torn open by the brutal lashes of scourging. His head is bleeding from the crown of thorns. His face is swollen from punches and slaps. Furthermore, the soldiers have affixed him to a cross, not with ropes as the popular convention, but with nails in his hands and feet. And as he hangs there, his arms are upstretched, and he struggles to breathe as his chest cavity is strained and stretched. And so from a human experience, crucifixion was an agonizing death. A word has been invented for this, excruciating. That after three hours of tumultuous events, Jesus His suffering got infinitely worse. Verse 45. Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, labba sabachthani? Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of those who were standing there when they heard it began saying, this man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave him a drink. But the rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Matthew notes that something happens here at the sixth hour around noon. It's the middle of the day. He notes that darkness fell upon all the land. It would remain dark for three hours until the ninth hour or 3 p.m. And the question is, well, what caused this darkness? Some have pointed out that maybe there was a naturally occurring solar eclipse, but the astrological calendar does not support this phenomenon. It was certainly more than cloud cover or a gathering storm. There was something else going on. Luke actually records that the sun became obscured. It became terrifyingly dark. And the darkness extended to all the land. Now certainly this includes all of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, but even other historians, secular historians, have reported darkness in other regions of the land. But regardless of the depth of the darkness or the breadth of it, it was a singularly definitive point in history where darkness fell upon all of the land. But the bigger question here is what did this mean? Now, in biblical history, we know that darkness is always a visible sign of God's judgment. If you think about this in your mind, before the Exodus, God sent the ten plagues in Israel as judgments, and the ninth plague being that of darkness. Joel 2.2 calls the day of the Lord's judgment a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, when the sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness. Zephaniah 1.15 repeats much of the same language, connecting darkness with God's judgment. Even Amos 8. Verses nine and 10 vividly portray God's act of divine judgment when he says, or he shall, the Bible says, make the sun go down at noon and the earth dark in the broad daylight. And then he continues, then I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentations and I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins and baldness on every head, and listen to this, and I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son. And the end of it will be like a bitter day. Prophecy regarding darkness as God's judgment. These passages, they're ultimately talking about final judgment at the end of the age, but it's most certainly prefigured here in the death of the Son of God. Now, for the bystanders who are just watching all this take place, they don't really know what's going on, but they can sense that something is not good. Why was the sky dark? What did this mean? The cry emanating from the cross gave the meaning to it all. Verse 46, again, the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, labba sabachthani, which is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? After suffering under the cloak of divine darkness for three hours, Jesus suddenly cries out with a loud voice. Even that detail is remarkable because at that point, this is an uncommon thing for those who are hanging on a cross, dying of asphyxiation. Usually, you barely have enough oxygen in your lungs to keep your heart beating. And yet Jesus, somehow, miraculously, is able to cry out with a loud voice. Jesus, who is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, according to Isaiah 53, he cries out to heaven. And the verse is untranslated at this point, Eli, Eli, labba sabachthani. Matthew records this in Aramaic, but later translates it for the reader and we have the translation, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a direct quote from Psalm 22, verse one. It's a cry of abandonment from the Psalmist. Now, as you can imagine, there's been a lot of discussion about this cry. What does this cry mean? Some have looked at this text and argued that Jesus in his cry is intending to make a reference to the entirety of Psalm 22, from the despair, to the trust, to the deliverance, and it's really all about just salvation and being delivered from the salvation or into salvation. But here's the thing, there's really no way to prove that. We don't know what Jesus is doing textually with quoting Psalm 22 one. And frankly, I don't think that biblical exegesis is on his mind while he's hanging on the cross. He's pulling from language that he's familiar with. He understands the language of suffering and abandonment and turmoil. He knows the Psalms in the back, like the back of his hand. He divinely inspired the Psalms. These are his words. And so all we have here are the tortured words of the Savior as he's being crushed to death by the wrath of God. Others are quick to argue that Jesus in this moment of suffering is merely expressing the feelings of forsakenness, that he feels as though that God has forsaken him, but they argue that for the Father to actually forsake the Son would effectively sever the eternal triune relationship that he has with the Father. So, theologically, it's impossible for the Father to forsake the Son. But here's the thing, I think that just goes a bit too far. Because all of this is shrouded in mystery. In the same way that we don't understand the full magnamities of the Incarnation, or the hypostatic union, or the Trinity, or any of these things, there is a great mystery of what's taking place here between the Father and the Son while He's on the cross. But I would contend here that Jesus is crying out. He's not calling God Father here. He's referring to Him as Almighty God. My God, my God. In submission to the deity of the Father. But He's expressing the absolute horrors of being forsaken. And the question is, could the Father who loves the Son forsake Him? Not only could He, He must. Why? The Bible teaches on the cross, Isaiah 53, it tells us that Jesus was the suffering servant. Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, 53, these are all servant songs of Isaiah, the suffering servant, submitting himself. And it says in Isaiah 53 that this suffering servant was despised and forsaken of men. So it starts with the forsakenness of humanity. And keep this in your mind, so far we've seen the son has been forsaken by the disciples, he's been forsaken by Peter, by the Sanhedrin, by the Jewish people, by the Roman army, by the governor at this point. Even the criminals who were crucified with him all have forsaken him. And then Isaiah 53, 4, the very next verse, tells us that he, Jesus, was also smitten of God and afflicted. That the Father crushed him. The Father smited him. He pours out his full cup of divine wrath. It's the very thing that Jesus was praying about in the Garden of Gethsemane. The very thing he was begging God not to do. Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. He knew what he was praying about. He knew it was coming. He knew the scriptures. He understood the forsakenness and the judgment he was about to receive. But then we read in places like 2 Corinthians 5.21 that God, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we would become the righteousness of God in Him. I have always struggled with the language of that verse. I understand conceptually, but I've struggled. What does it mean for God the Father to make Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin? What are we talking about? Now certainly we understand this does not mean that Christ became a sinner on the cross, nor was he turned into a sinner, because remember, it's he who knew no sin. Jesus is sinless, faultless, righteous to the perfect degree. And so it's not that Jesus became a sinner, but rather it means that on the cross, Jesus Christ took on all the sins of humanity and bore them on himself. Wrapped himself with all sinfulness, all wretchedness, all wickedness. And when God looked down upon the sin bearer, covered and wrapped and drenched in our sins, He saw sin incarnate. Jesus at that point was the substitute and the fulfillment of all of this judgment poured onto one person. He was the embodiment of sin, nailed to the cross, and at that point, God the Father unleashed the full terror of his abject hatred for sin onto him, and the Bible says he crushed him. Galatians 3.13 says that on the cross, Christ became a curse for us. This is more than simply Jesus feeling like he's been forsaken, feeling like he's been cursed. The Bible says he became a curse. He became sin incarnate. Not in and of himself, but as the sin bearer. Because Deuteronomy 21, 23 says, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. The father hurled every curse on the son. as he hung there. Friends, Jesus Christ became the visible incarnation of sin and was cursed by God. In fact, compared to the horror of divine wrath that he experienced that day, Jesus couldn't even feel the nails. That wasn't the greatest agony of his experience that day. The physical was nothing in comparison to expressing and feeling the full weight of God's wrath on him. The cross didn't kill Jesus, the wrath of the Father did. And Jesus felt every agonizing second of that. And that is what caused him to cry out from the pit of his heart, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But he knew why. He knew exactly what he was doing. He did this to save His sheep. He did this to save us. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed. The Lord crushed his son like he was his enemy so that we who were his enemies would be adopted as sons. How is this even possible? It happened because Jesus acted as our substitute. He took our place. He took the place of sinners. He bore the cross that belonged to us. And so in the punishment of the son, God's justice is satisfied. The sin debt has been paid. And once that debt has been paid, the sinner whose debt has been paid is now credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. His perfection, His righteousness, His holiness, His loveliness, His obedience is now accredited to you by faith in Him. Jesus Christ who knew no sin was made to be sin so that we who knew no righteousness would be counted as righteous in His sight. It is a remarkable, miraculous, awe-inspiring miracle A divine grace, a divine mercy that God would inflict such horror on his beloved son so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. We gloss over verses without pondering assiduously what they mean sometimes. This is the only way, beloved, that sinners can be reconciled to God. There's no other way. No other way. And that's why Isaiah 53 10 says, the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. What do you mean the Lord was pleased to crush his beloved son? How could a father do that to a son? Because in the action, the son functions as the only perfect offering for sin. He knew what he was doing. And he knew that by doing this, by crushing his son with wrath, meant for us that we would be saved from his wrath. John 10, 11, Jesus said the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He knew what he was doing. Had it been us on the cross, we wouldn't have survived. There's no way. Our sins would have been too great. We never would have been able to satisfy the wrath of God and live. But Jesus, who is called the Righteous One, the Sinless One, Hebrews 12.2 says that He endured the cross, despising the shame, and that after resurrecting and ascending, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. But first, before He could do any of that, resurrecting, ascending, reigning, interceding, Before any of that, Jesus Christ had to first be forsaken. And so in the throes of this terrible agony, the bystanders, they respond to the cry. They hear him crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Verse 47, and some of those who were standing there when they heard this began saying, this man is calling for Elijah. It's a very curious thing for someone to say. Elijah, we know, was one of the great prophets of Israel. He'd been taken up to heaven without dying. He'd been taken up in a whirlwind, according to 2 Kings 2. But Jewish tradition believed that Elijah was able to come back anytime he wanted and rescue the righteous when they were in distress. He was sort of a Jewish saint, if you will, that would do favors for the people of Israel. Again, that's not taught in scripture, but that was a popularly held belief. And so apparently, some misheard Jesus uttering the name of God. The short version of it is Eli, but it's Elohim. And they assumed he was calling for Elijah to come and help him. That's what the people thought. So verse 48, immediately one of them ran. And taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and then gave it to him for a drink. This appears to be an act of mercy. One person realizes how much suffering Jesus is in and decides to bring him this sour wine. Whereas earlier he had rejected a similar gesture because that wine was mixed with bitter herbs and John tells us he doesn't accept that, but we know that he accepts this drink instead. This gesture here, he sips from the sponge. And John 19.21 tells us that the only reason he does this after saying, I thirst, is because he knew in that moment that everything had been accomplished. And so in that moment, even in that moment, the crowds are still taunting him because even in the face of that kindness, look at verse 49. The rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will come and save him. Don't give him the sponge, don't give him the water, the drink. Yeah, don't feed him now. Let's just wait and see if Elijah shows up. That'd be pretty cool. Even in the final moments of his agony, they're still taunting him. This is still sport. This is still a show. They have no idea what's happening right now. But the next words are not recorded by Matthew. But by John, John in 1930, after receiving the wine, Jesus says, it is finished. The Greek word is tetelestai. It literally means paid in full. It is finished because that's what he's done. He's paid for everything in full. He had shed his blood to pay the cost of our sin. He had satisfied the wrath of God to enable forgiveness and reconciliation. He had fulfilled his role as the servant to bear the penalty due all sinners. He had paid the redemption price to ransom his people. But most of all, as he had prayed in the upper room, he had glorified the Father. And in turn, he had received glory from the Father. Everything that had to have been accomplished at that point had been accomplished, and there's only one thing left for Jesus to do. Verse 50. Jesus cried out again. with a loud voice. Again, something that was not supposed to happen with crucifixion victims. But Jesus, in his final moments, he cries out with a loud voice. What does he say? Luke records it in Luke 23, 46. Jesus bellows out, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And then at that point, the Bible says he bows his head And Matthew records, he yielded up his spirit. Notice that Matthew does not say, and he died, and he was killed, and he expired. It says he, active voice, yielded up his spirit. The articulation supremely is important here because John 10, 18, Jesus had said earlier, no one has taken my life away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. He told the disciples, I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I have received from my Father. And so when Jesus dies on the cross, again, it is not from the nails. It is not from asphyxiation. He proves that. He can breathe. He's able to do it miraculously, even when his ribcage is being stretched to the limit. He is God in human flesh. And yet he decided the very moment that he was going to die and give up his spirit and return it to the Father. The death of Jesus Christ, although carried out by the hands of sinful men, it was not a tragedy. He didn't just lose his life. Even in death, he was victorious. He gave up his life. The kingdom of sin and darkness had reigned on earth for 6,000 years. It was destroyed by Jesus in six hours. On Good Friday, Jesus put death to death. He freed spiritual captives. He destroyed darkness. He put an end to condemnation. The opponents are standing there, snickering and sneering and cheering and berating him, but they have no idea that the powers of hell, the demons in hell, Satan himself, are crying out in despair because that has been lost. The war was lost. that moment. Jesus knew it, the Father knew it, the Spirit knew it, and we can read the scriptures from the vantage point of all the biblical history and see the moment when hell lost and Jesus won. What does that mean for us? Turn over to Romans chapter eight. So often we read crucifixion texts, and I think it's easy for us to misapply or struggle to apply. Yes, this is where Jesus died. Yes, this is where he saved us. But what does it mean? In fact, one scholar has said that we need the New Testament, the epistles and beyond to clearly explain to us the theology of the cross. And so in Romans 8, We have concluding verses to a very long argument put forth by Paul in chapters one through seven. And the issue is this. What do I do with my sin? What do I do with my shame? What do I do with my guilt? What do I do when I feel condemnation? When my heart wages war against me? when I believed and yet still I am plagued. The world says, well, just be a better person. The world says, just fixed it, forgive yourself, move on, whatever it is. But that doesn't work for a Christian, does it? Because we inherently know that we're not okay. That all humanity is sinful. All humanity is under divine judgment. And yet we have access to God through Christ by faith, but what do we do? A person who understands this cosmic divide between God's perfect holiness and our wretched sinfulness, we know that something else is needed. Again, our greatest need, and we know this, is Jesus Christ. And that's where Paul lands in Romans 8. Romans chapter 8, verse 1. There is there now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, He condemns sin in the flesh. so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind that is set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And all who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. For if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Mark that. The slavery that leads you to fear and judgment and condemnation and all those things, we have not received that from Him. But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God and have children heirs also. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. It's a remarkable passage, so much truth here, but here's the essence of it. Because Christ was condemned, we are commended. We are in a no-condemnation status because of the cross. Because Christ was made to be sin, we are made to be counted righteous in His sight. Because Christ was punished, we are preserved. Because Christ was cursed, we are loved. And God, through Christ, looks at us and treats us, not as enemies, not as objects of wrath, not as vessels of destruction to be ruined. God looks upon us who believe in him He looks at us as children adopted, sons and daughters, heirs with Christ. That word heir with Christ. As if we deserve life at all and now we get to reign with Christ and be seated with him in the heavenly places. It is blessing upon blessing upon blessing. But all of that could not have come unless Jesus had given his life on the cross as a ransom for sinners. And in that, we have a status of no condemnation. When God looked on his son, he saw sin incarnate. So that when He looks on us who are actually sinners, He sees only the incarnation of His beloved Son. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ? How do we do this? How do we appropriate this? The Bible says that we must come to Him by faith. We must believe the Gospel. The good news. that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, that he was nailed to the cross at Golgotha, bore the full weight of sin and wrath and shame, died and was buried, and rose again the third day, and all who repent and turn away from sin and trust in Jesus will have eternal life and will enter into this relationship with God whereby there is no more condemnation. We're rescued, we're redeemed, we're reconciled. And now when you come to the Father by faith in Christ, now you can behold his face and call him Abba, Father, Dad. We can come to him this way because Jesus gave his life for us. I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Heavenly Father, we lift our hearts and our gaze to you. And we read these verses, oh Lord. And it's so easy for us to gloss over them. And in pride or in boredom, we say, oh, I know what these verses say. I know the story, I know the gospel. And yet to our earthly shame, we don't linger, we don't ponder, we don't meditate, we don't pray through what this actually means. Because Lord, we are pilgrims and strangers and travelers here in this world. This world is not our home. And yet, our lives are being lived here. But our hearts and our minds and our spirit is residing with you in the heavenly places. How do we live our lives in response to your grace? We have to remember what you've done. You've given yourself for us. You made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Let us not gloss over these truths too quickly, O Lord. Let us not forget the day of our salvation. And Lord, when we do sin here in this life, when we do struggle with feeling wracked with shame and guilt and condemnation, oh Lord, have mercy on us. Let us remember the cross. Let us remember the price that was paid. Let us remember that we are not in a transactional relationship with you where we give you our piddly deeds and you give us a little forgiveness. Let us remember that you are a God of infinite grace and mercy and loving kindness and holiness and justice. And yet all of that met with us at the cross at Calvary. Oh Lord, let us remember. And Father, I pray for those who maybe don't yet know you. Maybe they're hearing all this and they're like, I don't know if that's me. I don't think that's me. Lord, would you minister this truth to their hearts? That they would stop running from you. Stop wagging their head at you. Stop assuming that they're okay. Or stop assuming that there's just no hope for them. that they're stuck in this status of being condemned and dragging themselves around until they die. Lord, would you revive and awaken hearts. that they would see their sin and confess and say, Lord, I'm done. I'm done fighting You. I need to unburden. I need forgiveness. That You would forgive their sin, grant them eternal life, belief in Christ, new life in their hearts, O Lord, and reconcile them through faith. O Lord, You are mighty to save. And You save by the cross of Christ unto the resurrection of Christ, and you reign in full ascension. And we know that one day you will return and lead many sons to glory. We thank you for the cross and for the empty tomb. We pray all these things in Jesus' holy name. Amen.