God Who Justifies
Romans 8:33-34 · Roger Henderson · Feb 25, 2007
Romans (2005-07), No. 71
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926018137674

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, this morning we're starting the next two verses, and actually what I thought I would do here is just kind of go back and look at the context here. So, I think it's interesting to kind of point out, and we're studying this whole section here the next several weeks, and last week we covered you know, God is for us, who is against us, or if you come, you know, in the original, it reads, who is against us, and the if is there, and it could be sense, or in light of, or in view of the fact that God is for us. So, once again, I kind of color-coded it, and as you read through here, you'll see that 33 and 34 really are going to give us more definition on who is against us.

And notice it's a who. And that kind of got me going there. And one of the questions we're going to ask is about this who in a little bit. But it kind of traces through it. And look at all the way Paul does this. All these questions, down to about through 35, every verse has a question he poses. And then he answers that question in the verse. Or in this case, he stated it, who is against us? in view of the fact that God is for us. And we're going to see a wonderful expansion of that in 33 and 34, about those bringing a charge against God's elect and those who condemn. So he starts out, he states a premise, and he answers the question as he goes along here.

And I was kind of thinking about this. This is sort of like if you go to websites, other places, frequently asked questions. It kind of reminded me. Well, you know, the Lord says, Have you thought about this? Yeah? Well, I've taken care of that. Have you thought about this? I've taken care of that.

And everything that comes as a thought in the believer's mind that comes up, and we're going to see the wonderful thing, well, what if I'm, can I be separated? We're going to get to that next week. I mean, it's just wonderful. God answers those questions that might be ones that would come to mind. And, you know, also what's interesting is some people who maybe haven't really looked at Scripture carefully, they still see the believer as kind of on shaky ground, and maybe he'll make it, maybe he won't. And it's sad when this declares this wonderful position we have in Christ and what He's done for us, and He's not going to leave us or forsake us, as we'll see later on. So this is just a wonderful section of Scripture. Alright, so we start off with the first part of the first verse here. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

And so I kind of, this is my pseudo-diagram, you know, over the years Hal tried to introduce diagramming, you know, and I always remember listening to it, well, I don't know there, you know. So I just tried to do it maybe in a little more user-friendly way, if you will. So, you know, the verb here is basically bring a charge, basically. That's a verb in this thing.

And then there's a little prepositional phrase, against God's elect. So in its future indicative active, So down the road, who will bring a charge against God's elect? And the word bring a charge is this word encleo, to bring a charge against, or to come forward as an accuser. And in looking at that, it's kind of what they call a forensic term. It's used in legal debates. So actually I found a couple of verses here that would be good to kind of look at that and see how it's used in other parts of scripture. So if I can get someone to read in Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 19, 35 through 40.

And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, Yea, men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of Ephesus is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken again, she ought to be quiet, and do nothing rashly, for you have brought hither these men. which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

Wherefore, if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies. Let them include one another. But if ye inquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called and questioned for this day, therefore, there be no cause whereby we may give an account of this conflict. Thank you.

Actually, in 38 and 40, we have our word appearing. Toward the end of 38, my reading is a little bit different. It says, the very last part is, let them bring a charge, our word in Clao, against one another, and then down in 40, it says, for indeed we're in danger of being accused, same word, of a riot. So basically it's used in a legal context in many cases. And actually the other one we don't have to read right now.

This is the one where Paul is defending himself before Agrippa. And he basically says, I've been accused. A charge has been brought to me by the Jews against me. And he goes on to defend himself to say, hey, He states that he was a Jew from his birth. So accusations are brought. So that's kind of the context here. An accusation is brought against God's elect. So here's my question. This is what I was referring to earlier.

Who is bringing the charge? There's who's in here. And I think actually this question actually maybe falls onto another question. So who is bringing the charge here? And I think there's probably a couple of answers. And you can go for it if you want. What do you think? And this is to kind of help you think through this.

Would Satan be bringing you trouble? Okay, I think that was my first thought, exactly. I said, wait a minute, isn't Satan, isn't he the accuser of the brethren? That's what I was going to say, we already know that Satan accuses the body of wrongdoing to try to discredit them in front of God.

Absolutely. The other thing I saw and maybe it is I went first went through I thought boy is Satan I can and you'll see I went down that path and I think we need to do that, but I thought also is this is this a Rhetorical kind of thing is he saying, you know, is there anybody out there and there's and there's not I mean There's not anyone that can bring any accusation and what we're going to see is God puts up an accusation is put out and God says I These are my elect. I mean, it's really cool. He comes back with, these are my elect, and he's going to go on and expand that.

But he comes back just, you know, really interesting. So I thought that, you know, it's certainly Satan, and you look in Scripture, he's a focus, and we're going to see he's a focus of, his name is the adversary, or an adversary. He's the adversary of the believer. And he's the one who we see in Scripture recorded as being, bringing a charge against God's elect. But I like your other thought, Roger, because really no one can bring the charge against the elect to God. No one.

Absolutely. Since God is perfect, righteous, and holy, and it's incredible. He lays out the resume of us, the believer, in these two verses. He says, here's the resume. I mean, in today's vernacular, bring it on. I mean, it's a little irreverent, but God doesn't do that. He just says, here's what I've done. But that's kind of the popular thing. There is none. There is no counter to what He's done. And here's where the wonderful security we have. God, if you say this in terms of the believer, wow, all I can say is thank you and praise you for what you've done. Sure. Exactly. Actually, we're going to go there. We're heading there. We'll get a chance. That's good. Well, thank you. Excellent. Excellent. OK.

So basically, who will bring a charge against God's elect? And actually, I want to go first here, and this is what was mentioned about Satan be our adversary. In Revelation 12.10 it says, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and authority of his Christ has come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. He who accuses them before our God day and night.

Just look at that. How often is it? Is this just kind of an occasional thing? So in a way, maybe that's not, you know, when God says Who will bring it? I mean, Satan is a focus, but we're going to see shortly that Satan is really, he's moving and shaking in this world. He's a mover and shaker in this world. It seems Roger, if Satan is answering, he brings accusations, but they're They're meaningless. If Satan can't do that, who else can do it?

Absolutely. I agree with you. I agree with you. And that's a wonderful thing. We can have confidence. And I was kind of thinking, and we'll get there shortly, in terms of the world system, about the world system. And you think, well, and we'll see about that in just a second. I kind of had myself for a little bit.

It turns out this word for accuser is not exactly the same word. And it seems like this possibly – and I didn't try to compare these words – this may be a more general term of an accuser to speak against. The other one was kind of the law setting or the court setting. This is more maybe a general term just to speak against or accuse. And that certainly – I didn't see any disconnects between – there wasn't any additional information other than the fact that this is another word in the Greek.

So now what I want to do is... Okay, so now, before we get to Job, test your memory here. I didn't read it yet. What are Satan's accusations? And you can... I don't... That we're not worthy, we're sinful, we're... I mean, all the things that we are. There's a lot of things by implication that we know about Satan, but I want to go and directly look at Job and we'll see exactly. I'm just curious what kind of came to your mind. Other things that come to your mind about Satan? The idea that we constantly fall short of what we've got. And once again, we're critical, we're position and condition. And that's what I think many believers kind of get wrapped up in. They realize in their condition that they sin. And then they say, well, I'm in this hopeless... Satan's going to have a field day with me, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go after Satan. Huh? God declares he's already taking care of Satan. Satan, it's a done deal.

He's taken care of, but for some reason they're in their condition and they're thinking, well, I've got to do something here. It's so critical to remember our position, who we are in Christ. It's kind of foundational. So let's go look here at Job. Actually, I want to start in verse 6. Job chapter 1. Actually, there's two parts. If you want to add a little note here, the first section in Job 1 is 6-11. Could someone read 6-11 for me?

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, From where do you come? And Satan answered the Lord, And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. Then Satan answered the Lord, Did Job fear God for nothing?

Hast thou not made a hedge about him and his house, and all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, as his possessions have increased in plenty. So the first accusation that he brings is that, hey, you've got him kind of protected. You take that away and he's going to show his true colors.

So the first accusation is, hey, you know, you haven't protected your, you know, and actually it's, it's kind of, in verse 9, does Job fear God for nothing? Basically, he's expecting, he's expecting God's blessing, or he's expecting God's, it's kind of a conditional thing. Well, if God doesn't bless me, then, you know, So, that's the first one. The second one is in the second chapter here, and this is the second time that Job comes before the Lord, in verses 1-5.

Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, Where have you come from? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, for moaning about on the earth and walking around on it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant's goat? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.

And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin, Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. However, put forth thy hand now, and touch his bones and his flesh, you will curse thee to thy face. So the second charge is, it's skin for skin.

His life is the most important thing. Following and worshiping him has no meaning. It's just preserving his life. So basically, God allows that the next stage, short of his life, And there's just so much more in Job, but I just want to kind of look at what those...

And they're not exactly... We're going to see that this is a different dispensation, if you will. We're in the age of grace, and God will declare all the things that He's done for us. Here, it's not... You think, well, did Job have some self-effort in this? I'm not going to try to go through and... delineate that, but it is a different situation. But I thought it was worthwhile doing that.

One thing I also wanted to do was just to look at the fact that Satan, of his control, what is Satan in control of here? And let's look at 1 John chapter 5. I think this is important to remember. This is kind of back to the question about bringing a charge against God's elect. 1 John 5. And if we look at 1 John 5 and look at verses 18 and 19, we know that no one, this is verse 18, chapter 5, we know that no one who is born of God's sins But he who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. So there's a believer's place, the evil one does not touch him. And this is the one that I really wanted to focus on.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So the whole world system could be bringing a charge as influenced by Satan against God's elect, kind of answering the The bigger question, there are many who's out there under Satan's control. I also thought that man's sin nature is in there too, and that unbelievers' sin nature may also bring a charge against God's elect, because it's sinful. So just trying to maybe wrap it up a little bit.

So the first answer to that, really, that God gives is that that the believer is his elect. And this is the word electos, to pick out or choose. And actually it's used of Christ as being chosen or elect, the angels and the believers. And actually I have a series of verses here that just kind of give our resume in terms of being the elect of God. And if you think about this, this question comes to mind sometimes. The term elect or chosen is really only spoken of believers. The unbeliever, that term is not used.

So this is one of our wonderful positions in Christ, like being elect. We're elect, we're redeemed, we're reconciled, and so on. God lists the resume of the believer, and this is one of the ones that... Actually, this is interesting. In Dr. Schaeffer's writings, this is the first one he has, that we're elect or chosen. And then he lists the other 32 or 33. So it's just a wonderful fact about the believer. So this is God's first response to the charge against His elect. The charge is that we're God's elect.

So in Colossians 3.12 it says, So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. So basically because we're chosen, because we're in Christ, He calls us the holy and beloved. And in Titus it says, Paul a bondservant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. So we're talking about the faith of the chosen. And the last one here.

1 Peter 1.1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered through Pontius, Galatia, I shall practice some of these pronunciations here, and the rest of those places, who are chosen. Asia I know. All right, so this is our wonderful resume.

So the first answer to who will bring a charge against God's elect is just a very comparison that's in there that Paul does. It's against God's elect. And then the second part is God's going to say, God is the one who justifies. And this is a God is something that's a little participial direct object here. And this actually could be rendered I think I have it here. God is described as justifying. He's the one that's justifying. No one else is. So that's part of his declaration.

Just to remember back, what did God say about Job? What was Job's resume in terms of where he was? What did he point out to Satan about Job? He had integrity. Right. Basically, he was a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. So, he points it out to Job, and then this leads to my next question.

What would God say about the believer to Satan? Go ahead. What you pulled from 1 John 5, 18 and 19 really, I mean one thing when you asked earlier what could Satan accuse the elect of, and I thought that it would be an accusation and it's all a lie. I mean, think about the world system which Satan controls.

I mean, the believer is looked at as you know, living under a lie. In other words, all this stuff that we claim and believe in, espouse, is really just a big lie. And when we all die, we're all, you know, dust goes to dust, etc. But I think in this 18 and 19, it really speaks to this question.

It says, we know that whosoever is born of God sins not. What do you mean sins not? I mean, don't we sin on a daily basis? How about every minute? But yet God says we sin not. Isn't that what God says to Satan? That I've placed the elect in a position where I see them as sinless. So get out of my way. Right? I mean, the rhetorical nature of this.

Because then in verse 19 it says we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness under his power. We not only lie on the wickedness, in fact it's all a lie from his perspective anyway, right? So the idea here is we're positioned sinless in God's just view. So it's really neat because we know we sin, but God sees us as sinless. I know, isn't that incredible? Isn't that incredible? Actually, I was looking, this is somewhat a trick question here for you.

I was looking at just what it says in this verse and what he says. is, he says, we're justified. And so I was going to ask you, what does the word justified mean? Next page tells you, but just kind of off the top of your head. So basically, the answer to the middle question is, in the immediate context, Bob is right on. I agree with that. In the immediate context here, he answers, he says, God says that we're justified. That's his answer to this charge. We're justified. And so the question is, what does justified mean? Right on. Good.

Okay, so justify to be deemed righteous, shown to be righteous, declared to be righteous. So there's various verses that kind of speak to that. So here's just a set of verses again that talk about the fact of the believer's justification. One of the most wonderful ones here is that there's kind of a past aspect of justification and a present aspect and a future aspect, in a sense. Therefore, having been justified, speaking about the past, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then Titus 3.7, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And then 324, being justified as a gift by His grace. So it's a gift, and it's by His grace. Through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. All these wonderful doctrines, all these wonderful words, are all kind of tied and interlinked together. So God's declaring what He's done to those who would condemn us, or those who would accuse us.

Romans 4.25, He who delivered over He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. This is our resume that God presents to Satan.

Verse 34. The first verse asks about those who bring a charge. Who is a one who condemns? It's the next kind of question. And condemned here, let's just look at it first here. So this is another who is, and it's a one condemning. And actually, in looking at it, it has a presence. It's one of these ones, if you look in your In your parsing guides, it has both. And my Greeks a little bit rusty here.

So I couldn't decide whether it was present or future. And neither could the people in the parsing guide. So I left it alone. So I'm not sure I can comment to myself. I think it certainly has a present and future aspect. I mean, I think it condemns. Basically, to give judgment against. Basically, condemn is another kind of court situation or legal situation. To give judgment against, to pass sentence upon. When a person is condemned, usually there's immediate consequences.

And we're going to see so with this too. This word is used, it was used of Christ. I want to look at a couple of places where prior to going to the cross, Basically, he was condemned to death, is what the idea of this word is. He was condemned to death. And in Matthew 20... Can I get another person to read 20.17-19? So this is Christ's words here. and they will condemn him to death."

So, when a person is condemned, being condemned and death seem to be linked together. And that's going to be really interesting when we see what God's answer to this is. That's a good point. Our fallen court system is... Okay, let's look over in Matthew. Matthew 14. I'm sorry. Thank you. I looked at Mark and said, Matthew, thanks very much. Mark 14, 61 through 64. Thank you. So you see the result. In this case, basically, He says in verse 64, you have heard the blasphemies. How does it seem to you?

They all condemn him to be deserving of death. So, when there is condemnation, the result, without grace, without mercy, is death. So here's my question again, and keep it in the context of the verse. What is God's answer for those who condemn the believers? It's the rest of the verse, basically. Basically, he'll condemn his son. Think about it. God's answer to those who condemn us is, I condemn my son. He's going to show what Christ has done. Kind of in a summary format. He doesn't state everything. I thought that was kind of interesting. The answer to that is, he says, my son will be condemned rather than you.

Pretty incredible stuff. So Satan comes to him, and in a way, to answer Satan's question, the whole concept, that's why people say that our faith is foolish. They say, God's going to put his son to death? God's going to die for you? It makes no sense to the human mind.

So the first part of this is, He makes two statements here about Christ and what he's accomplished. So I got carried away here. Christ is he who died, or actually this is a participle, and participles have verb tenses. And it's actually in the Aorist, he who died, past point fact. And he doesn't give the whole picture. He doesn't say, died for our sins. He just said, he who died, past point fact. Or having died, actually, is another But rather, He who was raised. Another Passpoint fact. He who was raised. So basically, He makes a declaration. His answer to those who would condemn us to death is the declaration of what happened at the cross to secure our not being condemned.

And you know, there's actually, if you look in 1 Corinthians, Christ died. I'll just go ahead and read that. That gives kind of the full picture, whereas this is just kind of like a summary, if you will. And this is just a wonderful, several verses here. In 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, it says, For I delivered to you, as of first importance, that what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." So he kind of gives a summary. In defense of this condemnation, he states what his son has done. So that's kind of the past point fact, Now he's going to give the present answer to this question.

Who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us? Who is at the right hand of God also who intercedes for us? So basically the right hand speaks of Christ is at the right hand, which speaks of authority and power. And then also, not only is the one who died, who was condemned on our behalf, also who intercedes for us.

So my question here, actually, I have a question coming in a second here. So basically, this is a declaration of what Christ is doing now on our behalf. in heaven at the present time. And that's the interceding part. The first part is when he rose, he was without the right hand of God. So this is the present aspect of that. So the question is... Do I have a question? I do have a question.

We covered earlier about the Holy Spirit's intercession in Romans 8.26. Let's just read that.

Romans 8.26. And 826 is, "...and in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." So that was the Spirit interceding for us, and now it says, who is Christ? Christ intercedes for us.

So are there similarities and differences? What do you think about this? One observation is, isn't it incredible? We basically have the Godhead. It says the Spirit's interceding for us, and we have the Son interceding for us. I bet if I looked a little bit more, I probably could find the Father's interceding for us. I didn't do that, I just thought about that. Pretty incredible. So many truths, if you go through Scripture, so many truths are actually, you can find verses that attribute them to the, even though there are specific Christ came as the Savior and the Spirit is to focus us on Christ and so on.

So what do you see here is the differences between the intercession of the Spirit and the intercession of the Son here? Well, the Spirit seems to be interceding on behalf of my prayer. So we don't know who to pray for, therefore we intercede. And then Christ seems to be interceding when the condemnation comes.

Excellent. That's what I kind of saw too. One is maybe a little more personal with our prayer life. This is sort of almost like a In the courtroom of heaven, this is a public thing, on the courtroom of earth, you never see it. In the courtroom of heaven, because Satan says it's day and night, it's incredible that Satan is still doing that.

Go ahead. interceding for us is His will. And then it also says here in 27, that the Holy Spirit is interceding according to His will. So in both cases, it's all, it shows you that it is the whole Godhead. Right. That's His will. Right. Excellent. So it's all the same mind. Right. And they're together.

And they're all, if you go back to it, what's the whole In fact, actually, the whole thrust that started out here in verse 31 is, God is for us. So he's showing us, in so many ways, the charges come, the condemnation comes, but God is for us. He is for us, constantly. That's an unending purpose that he has for the believer. Even though we, as we walk in our condition, we see that we fall short of His glory, we do. But that's not to be our focus. Our focus is on what we have in Christ, and where He is, and what He's doing. Isn't it incredible? In the courtroom of heaven, Satan's coming day and night, accusing us, and Christ is saying, I was condemned on their behalf. I took care of it. It's just incredible.

And this is where our focus is to be. If we focus on trying to control ourselves, it's a losing battle. But if we focus on what God has done, and we see ourselves in Him, and what Christ is doing 24-7, that's where He wants us to be. That's where our focus is to be. It's really amazing, as you start going through this, you just see, wow. In fact, it's going to say it late, you know,

37. But in all these things, we are overwhelmingly conquerors through Him. It's not just a little bit overwhelming. Verse 37, whoever has that, it's just an incredible verse. But He's just kind of building up through all these passages, what He's done for us, what He's continuing to do for us presently.

Well, last thoughts or questions? You know, I think that it's interesting that the one who condemns, sometimes that can be us. You know, we blow it. That's excellent. Excellent. I think that's... So the point is, as you pointed out, to come back to know what it is that Christ is doing now on our behalf and rest in our position knowing He's interceding for us when we blow it and fall in our self-condemnation. No, I think, Jim, that's a really excellent observation. I see myself there.

Many times I say, and you realize what you've done and you say, well, I'm going to go do better next time. And you think, I know I can't do better. But when I focus all on Him and walk with Him and trust Him and by faith, He can live the life that is pleasing Him. I can't do it. That's right. I think Newell said, he who is disappointed in himself is one who is trusted in himself. Right. Right. Exactly. There are no wins. Right. Go ahead.

It's so important that, you know, what Jim said, that now that the world is really seems to be on attack. I think there are three major books out right now. relating Christians to Nazism. And, you know, those things are increasing. We need to know that we are in Christ to blame us in Him. Exactly. Not condemn ourselves and not forget our position in Him. because the world is all too eager.

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. It just seems like we're just a step away from all-out condemnation of believers. Anything that's done righteously, anything that's done for good seems to be put down. And you think, that doesn't make any sense. Well, it makes sense to a world controlled by Satan. But for us who know the Lord, Bob, anything else? Just the point you made before that I thought maybe was not perfect, but then I think it is perfect. In a sense, we need to think of ourselves as not being condemned, but I kind of relate to who I was and not who I am because we're born into sin and condemned by that nature and that sin.

So, in a sense, the whole world is condemned except the believer. Right, exactly. It takes me back to John 3, 18 and 19 just to clarify that. He said, he that believeth on him is not condemned. Right, right. You're right. But he that believeth not is condemned already. because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is condemnation of light came to the world and those who love darkness. I mean, the issue there, though, is Ephesians 2, I think, you know, we all can relate to at least, I don't know, I guess if you get saved as a small child, you can't really relate to Ephesians 2 as well. Does that make the cross any less significant? Tell me what part of you're referring to in Ephesians 2. Just help me. According to the lusts of the mind. Okay, all right. Okay. Okay. Okay. I wasn't sure, you know, Ephesians 2 has a lot.

It leads you up to the, you know, you're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, those kind of theorems. I mean, it's all led up to the fact that he, in times past, walked according to the power of this earth. Right, right. I mean, the idea of we're not being condemned is the platform we stand on and his perfect position that he has for us, correct? So that's the way we should think. Keep reflecting. We were condemned until we believed, right? I mean, we're not condemned now. We all know that. God came to save the world, not to condemn the world.

The judge of the world remains condemned, as far as we can tell. It's interesting, and God says also in there, that all judgment has been, the son is the one who's going to be the judge. I've given all judgment to my son. And he's the one that's condemned. I mean, it just hurts your head. Well, that's great. So there's more wonderful verses to come here in the following weeks.

All right, let's close in prayer then. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this time, Father. We thank you that we can rest in what you've accomplished, Lord, and that there's no accusation or condemnation because of what the Savior has done on our behalf, Father. And we thank you for his work on the cross. In Christ's name, amen.