In today’s Resurrection Sunday sermon, Pastor Babij teaches on why Jesus’ resurrection is foundational for the Christian faith and for salvation. The biblical reasons include:
1. To show the Father’s justice satisfied
2. To prove Jesus is the Son of God and has the full authority of the Godhead
3. To display the power of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
4. To fulfill Scripture
Full Transcript:
Turn to Luke 24, where I will highlight some passages in
this gospel. I will look at other passages, which will be on the screen. If you
notice in verse 27, 44, it says:
Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He
explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Now He
said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with
you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the
Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day.
Now from those passages of Scripture, there is something
very important that you need to consider. When the Lord talks about Moses and
the Psalms, etc. He is talking about the entire Old Testament. In the Old
Testament, there was the message that the Messiah would suffer, rise again from
the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be
proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning with Jerusalem.
From that passage of Scripture and from what the Lord said,
He is explaining what happened in the Old Testament. The centrality of the
gospel is the death of Christ. The most glorious aspect of the gospel message
is justification by faith. But the most incredible thing about the gospel
message is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The raising of Christ from the dead is pivotal upon that
which all the evidence of Christianity turns. By His resurrection, Jesus of
Nazareth has proven to be all the He claimed to be, that He accomplished all
that He undertook and that His work is complete, and that His sacrifice is
accepted.
But if Christ had not risen from the dead, His death upon
the cross, rather than being the ground for our salvation, would have been the
ground for our despair. If death had been able to keep Him, sin would not have
been conquered. Therefore the resurrection is the very foundation of the
church. Everything hinges upon it, and without it everything would be empty, in
vain, and meaningless.
This Lord’s Day, let us consider some of the reasons why
Jesus had to rise from the grave. There are many of them, but I am only going
to highlight nine. If you notice from this passage of Scripture, Jesus
explained His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection from the Word of God.
So we are going to look at all nine of them.
Let us pray. Lord, this morning as we look upon Your Word, I
pray that it would be grafted on our hearts. I pray that You would impress the
truths of Scripture on our souls, our wills, and our minds. Lord I pray that it
would grab hold of us, like You did in the Word of God to open minds to
understand the Scripture. Do that for us so that it would take hold of us and
show us that the only way a person can be made right with You is through Jesus
Christ. And Lord, give us the will to live for You all of our days. I pray this
in Christ’s Name, Amen.
The first reason that I have why Jesus had to rise from the
dead is because it was foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. It was
typified by Noah’s departure from the ark alive, by David coming out of the
lion’s den alive, by the dismissing of the scapegoat into the wilderness, by
Isaac’s deliverance on the third day alive, and by Jonah’s coming out of the
belly of the great fish on the third day alive. Even Matthew’s gospel mentions
in Matthew 12:40:
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly
of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.
We know that Jonah was spewed out on the shore alive.
Because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead proves that we have a sure word
of prophecy from the Word of God. Look at Mark 12:26-27:
But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not
read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke
to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly
mistaken.
The people thought something other than what the
resurrection should be and tried to trip Jesus up. But the quote by Moses comes
from the Old Testament.
A second reason why Jesus had to rise from the grave is because
He said He would. The passage of Scripture that points this out is from John
10:17-18 which says:
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My
life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay
it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.
Jesus simply said that He would be raised and He was. This
proves that Jesus’ life and words are sure and true.
A third reason that Jesus had to rise from the grave is that
in order to show that the justice of the Father was satisfied, someone had to
take the hit. Romans 3:26:
For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the
present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has
faith in Jesus.
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross met all the claims of God’s
justice. Without His death, our salvation would be absolutely impossible. Let
us just think about that, the necessity of justice. We do not think about it
that much, but try to remember back to your college philosophy class. Sift
through all of those philosophers and thinkers and just listen to what one said
about life beyond the grave. Immanuel Kant observed that all humans have some
concern for right and wrong, some sense of moral duty. He asked what would be
necessary for that innate sense of duty to make any sense at all. For a sense
of duty to be meaningful, there must be justice. Why do right at all if justice
does not prevail?
He noticed, however, that justice does not always prevail in
this world. Too often he said that those who seek good suffer, and those who do
evil prosper. His practical reasoning continued by concluding that since
justice does not prevail in this life, there must be another time and place
where it will. In other words, he reasoned that justice demands life beyond the
grave.
We know that all injustices are not taken care of in this
world. Some people get out from under the law and some people are never caught
and they think that because that is so, there is no justice. We know that that
is not true because God is just. The reason why they think they got away with
it is because the do not think that there is a God. They think that they will
simply be passed over. Look at Hebrews 9:27-28:
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after
this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins
of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to
those who eagerly await Him.
So if Immanuel Kant carried his logic one step further and
reasoned that for justice to truly prevail, there must be a perfect judge. One
who must know all things and have all the evidence. He must also have all the
power to ensure that the verdict for reward or punishment is properly carried
out. Thus Kant’s practical ethics requires life after death and a judge whose
descriptions sound very much like the God of Christianity as described in the
Bible.
Now whether Kant actually believed in Christ, I do not know.
It does not seem like the philosophers ever conclude their thinking. It is so
frustrating, even with all their thinking and intellect. The only way we can
conclude is to go through the Scriptures.
Every sinner will be brought before the judge. Jesus Christ
came as a Savior, offering salvation from the condemnation of sin. All the
wicked will bow the knee before God, confess their sins to Him and confess that
Christ is Lord. If God cannot be glorified in the salvation of sinners by their
surrender to Him, He will be glorified in their damnation. He will get the
glory.
But God tells us that on the cross Christ bore our sin,
endured our punishment, and laid down His life as a sacrifice so that justice
would be satisfied, and we would receive mercy. We know that justice was
satisfied because Jesus rose from the grave. That is what it tells us in Romans
1:4:
Who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.
That means because Christ has been raised from the dead, it
proves that the Father’s justice has forever been fulfilled and is satisfied.
The sacrifice of Jesus was accepted by the Father so that Jesus could be
declared the justice and the Justifier, from the Romans passage I read.
A fourth reason that Jesus had to die was that it proved
that Jesus was the Son of God. Look at Acts 13:33-34, which is quoted from
Psalm 2:7:
God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He
raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.” As for the fact that He raised Him up from the
dead, no longer to return to decay.
Jesus was walking with the disciples and talking about the
passages of Scripture that they were very familiar with, and which all pointed
to His death, burial, and resurrection. Because Christ has been raise from the
dead, it proves that He is more than a man. He is God.
A fifth reason is that it displays the power of the Godhead.
We are going to look at a few different passages of Scripture. Look at Acts
2:24, who exactly raised Jesus from the dead? God the Father, Jesus the Son,
and the Holy Spirit all raised Him from the dead. It is all recorded in
Scripture. Look at the verse:
But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of
death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Next look at John 2:19-22, where God the Son raised Himself
from the dead. Notice what it says:
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build
this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of
the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples
remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word
which Jesus had spoken.
The Holy Spirit of God also raised Jesus from the dead. Look
at Romans 8:11:
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
This proves that our God is one of indescribable power. The
Father, Son, and Spirit were all involved in the raising of Christ from the
dead.
The sixth reason why Jesus had to rise from the dead was
because it was necessary to fulfill Scripture. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:
For I delivered to you as of first importance 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.
The importance of the Bible is stressed in the passage for
the Apostle Paul said, according to the Scripture, when referring to His
death and resurrection. Jesus died for our sins, it was a real bodily
sacrifice. He was buried, and He was raised on the third day, meaning there was
a real bodily resurrection. Acts 2:24 again says:
But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of
death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Because Christ has raised from the dead, it proves that
Scripture is true, completely trustworthy, and accurate.
Another reason why Christ had to be raised from the dead, is
because we could not be forgiven for our sins without it. Look at 1 Corinthians
15:13-14:
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ
has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain,
your faith also is vain.
Christians are no longer in their sins, and they no longer
die in their sins but they die in the Lord. This means that they have been
cleansed and forgiven of all their sins because of the complete and finished
work of Christ. Because Christ has been raised from the dead, we have been
forgiven. And because of that we will also rise again. The thing, sin, that has
kept us out of the presence of God is now washed away.
It is also necessary for our justification. I have already
mentioned that, that Christ was raised from the dead so we could be justified,
declared right and saved before God. It is also for the Christian’s hope.
Christians are now living as a people who do not have to be miserable because
they do not have a future. 1 Corinthians 15:19 says:
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all
men most to be pitied.
It is not the vilest of the vile, of the lowest of the low,
or the poorest of the poor that should be pitied from that passage. Christians
should be most pitied if Christ did not rise from the grave. But He did! If He
did not rise, the best we can get from life (according to this passage) is to
eat and drink and die the day after.
But we do not have to be pitied or miserable, because Christ
has been raised from the dead. We have a sure hope in Jesus Christ!
The seventh reason why Jesus had to rise from the dead was
because the resurrection showed that Jesus obtained victory over death, the
tight grip of sin, and Satan’s power and death’s sting. Death comes to all
alike. It plays no favorites. Being righteous or religious does not exempt
anyone from death. It is an intruder and does not fit into the scheme of human
existence. As Paul says in Romans 5:12:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Sins are the cause of people’s alienation from God. The
resurrection of Jesus changed all that. Because there is a resurrection, the
victory in Christ is ours. It says this in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
O Death, where is your victory? O Sheol, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to
God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ has dealt with the root infection that all of has
had. Death has had its daily sting precisely because of sin and the law. Through
His death on the cross, sin is paid for, the law demands are satisfied, death
is abolished, and as it says from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, death is
swallowed up for all time.
Here is another prophet telling of what would partake in the
life of the Messiah. By Christ’s death and resurrection, already the sting of
death has been removed. This sting is not some mild irritant. But it is like a
scorpion’s sting that results in death. Christ has drawn out the poison by
bringing it into Himself. Christ has destroyed him who has the power of death.
In Hebrews 2:14-15, it says:
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He
Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render
powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free
those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
So death can already be mocked by us here and now as a
defeated enemy. In other words, death has lost its poisonous fangs because
Christ has been raised from the dead. It proves that all of our enemies have
been completely and forever defeated.
The eighth reason why Christ has been raised from the dead
has to do more with the believer. The very fact that we cannot even live our
Christian lives unless Christ has been raised from the grave. The eighth reason
is so believers have the power to live the Christian life. Paul dealt with this
in the book of Ephesians. It is the basis of resurrection life in Christ for
the believer that they can live right now and here for Christ.
God is not doing something towards everyone, He is doing it
towards us who believe. The resurrection power of Christ is in us. We used to
be in spiritual darkness and dead in our trespasses and sins, but now our
hearts are being flooded with light so that we can understand. The prayer
request that Paul offers up in Ephesians is that your eyes may be open more and
more to spiritual knowledge and that you would understand what God has done and
your new identity in Christ Jesus.
In the passage of Scripture in Ephesians 1:19 it says this:
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of
His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.
In this passage of Scripture, it is simply talking to all
those who are believers that God gives you resurrection power to live your
Christian life and without it you cannot live it. What a display of power the
resurrection of Christ was, when all the forces of evil and hell, when death
and the grave were trying to hold Him, He was raised by the mighty power of
God. Death could not hold Him. He rose triumphant over the grave.
God’s power is life giving and it is put to use towards us
in several ways. The first way is that believers are made alive. It says in
Ephesians 2:5:
Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).
The very fact that you and I are believers is entirely by
the demonstration of God’s might. Many things have been overcome and conquered
by the strength of God in order for you and me to be believers. The flesh,
world system, and Satan’s power all had to be overcome. In fact God had to make
us alive in order to overcome that.
A second thing is that believers have the power working in
them now. If it were not for the power of God working in believers, we would
have no desire to read the Word of God, to pray, or even have the strength to
put off sin and put on righteousness. We would not be able to be strong in the
Lord in the midst of the spiritual battle.
That is why some people who make professions of faith for
Christ do not really live for Him. It is because they do not have any power in
them to do so. They think it is something you believe or do not believe and
that you have the choice to do with it what you like. But the thing is that
people make choices all the time on whether they should follow Christ or not.
But the bottom line is that if someone is not truly born again does not have
the Spirit of God living in them, they cannot live the Christian life, no
matter how much they want to.
Only those who know Christ can do so. The Apostle Paul is
not praying that the believers see that they need this power, nor is he praying
in Ephesians that believers would have more power. He is in fact praying that
believers would realize the greatness of the power of God that is already
working in them. That is one of the keys that Paul was getting at in this
passage of Scripture. It says in Ephesians 3:20:
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all
that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
That is the key to the Christian life: the Spirit of God
working in us and taking the Word of God to transform our minds and hearts to
give us the desire to serve Christ, and to give us the affection to love
Christ. That is the key to living a faithful Christian life, you learn to love
Christ in every aspect of your life. In Philippians 2:13, it says:
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work
for His good pleasure.
We too often think of the Christian life solely in terms of
knowing that we are forgiven and then we tend to live the Christian life the
best we can. This is altogether incorrect thinking because it is impossible to
live the Christian life in our own strength. By nature not one of us would be
able to live the gospel. Nothing but the power of God can make us believers. It
is also this same power that allows us to continue in the Christian life. We
continue by God having a hold on us, keeping us, and not letting us go. He does
not let us go because He has sealed us until the day of redemption by the
Spirit of God.
God is taking us to the end of the race that we are in as
Christians. Believers are being urged in this passage to depend upon this power
and to realize this inexhaustible source of strength. So Paul continues to pray
that we may fully appropriate this personally, and that we would learn in
experience the measureless might and the exceeding greatness of the power which
God is exerting towards us who believe.
Because Christ has been raised from the dead, believers have
the power to persevere in the Christian life right to the end. This brings me
to my last reason this morning, but it is not the last one in Scripture. It is
just that these are the only ones I have time for. I could have found fifty
reasons why Jesus had to rise from the grave, but you would have never gotten
home for lunch.
Here is the ninth reason, because the resurrection changes
everything, for everyone, and even for those who do not obey the gospel. The
resurrection is the pointer to the day when God will wind up all human history
and will call all human kind to account. It is in Acts 17:31 where it says:
Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in
righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to
all men by raising Him from the dead.
By Christ’s death and resurrection, believers already have a
hope for a bright future. Everyone will have eternal life. The Scriptures make
a clear distinction in the kind of eternal life one enters into. One is eternal
life and one is as the prophet Daniel says, eternal damnation. There is no in
between or purgatory.
When you die, there is going to be a judgment. If you
trusted Christ, you will have eternal life. If you did not trust in Christ,
there will be eternal damnation. The resurrection will either bring people to a
resurrection of life or a resurrection of judgment. But everyone will be
raised.
What is it that determines destiny? Well let me just throw
out some things that do not determine destiny. The first one is character. Good
character is certainly something that cannot be discounted. But good character
cannot save. Just like morality cannot save. Salvation by character would
demand a perfect character. A person would need to be unmarred by even a single
sin. No one can measure up to that standard, therefore no one can be saved by
character or by a system of morality.
Also, good works do not determine destiny. No matter how
much good a person may do, his good works cannot save him. Sometimes a person
when asked if he is a Christian will reply that he is doing the best he can.
Two things may be said about that kind of response. First, it is not true
because no person can do the best they can. Secondly, no person’s best is good
enough. It would take perfection and no one has that.
Salvation is not something that can be earned. So however
good works may be, they cannot save a person from his sins. Also, church
membership does not determine destiny.
Some people, not many, who are not church members are saved
on the road to Heaven. Many who are members of some church are lost and are on
the road to hell. Yes church membership has an importance place in God’s Word
but it is not the passport to Heaven.
If you go to God and try to present your baptism and church
membership certificates, and say that you have been going to church your whole
life, that does not guarantee a passport to Heaven.
So then what is it that determines destiny? Well, it
includes one’s attitude towards sin and towards Christ. You heard the story in
the gospels of the two men who were crucified next to Jesus. There was one on
His left and one on His right. One of these men was saved and the other was
lost.
It was not because one of them was a good man and the other
was a bad man. They were both bad, in fact the Scriptures tell us in Luke 23:39
that they were criminals, robbers, and perhaps even murderers. Yet one was
saved and the other was lost, why? Because in that hour on the cross, one saw
his past life with all of its sin and his heart was broken over it. He said
this in Luke 23:41:
And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what
we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.
He realized there on the cross and looking at Jesus Christ
that He had saving power. This man lifted up his head and said to Jesus in Luke
23:42:
Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!
And what does Jesus reply? He says in Luke 23:43:
Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
He was saved because he repented of his sin. Could he have
gotten off the cross and gone to do a bunch of good works? Could he have gone
down from the cross and claimed anything for his own part in his salvation? No!
He could only do one thing: repent of his sins and put his trust in Jesus
Christ. Obviously on that cross he knew something of what was going on in
Jerusalem. Jesus Christ was the news of the day, He was on the front page of
all the papers.
There was another man on the other side of Jesus who was
crucified. This man was lost because in the same hour, he looked back on his
life of his sin and felt no need to repent. He looked into the same face of
Jesus Christ and instead of trusting Him, he says this in Luke 23:39:
Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!
He was hurling abuse at Him and he was mocking Him. We may
say then that a person is saved because he or she repents of their sins and put
their trust in Jesus Christ alone. And a person is lost because he or she refuses
to repent of their sins and turns away from Jesus Christ and rejects Him as
Lord and Savior. That is the bottom line, the message of the gospel.
That means that before everyone there are two hugely
different eternal destinies. There is the destiny of disgrace and everlasting
contempt, which means that unbelievers will have great shame and disgrace
before the Lord. Then they will realize the gravity of their sin of rejecting
God’s loving sacrifice.
There is also the destiny of renewal and everlasting life.
This is for believers, for whom God will complete the victory in the physical
and spiritual realms. He will bring all His children to live with Him in glory.
Because Christ has been raised from the dead, He has been
given the authority to judge the living and the dead and to bring all things
under His rightful authority. He is not done with His program yet. All that
Jesus receives He will turn around and give it all back to the Father. And then
everything will come full circle.
This Lord’s Day, we are celebrating the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. I pray that you will believe the truth and trust in Christ as
your own Lord and Savior and enter into eternal life. If you have done that
already, you have a great foundation to praise the Lord about. You have a
bright and great future to live for the Lord with your whole heart, mind, soul,
and strength.
A Christian is a person who has repented of their sins and
has turned to the Father’s only solution for their sin problem, and that is
Jesus Christ. So what do they do? They confess Jesus as their Savior and their
Lord. You know the passage of Scripture that people always use. Look at Romans
10:9:
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Now why is it important to believe that God raised Him from
the dead? It is important because the resurrection is the culmination, the
crowning point of all that God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. In other
words, if there is no resurrection there is no salvation.
So my friend, will you be with Him forever? The resurrection
is promised to all human beings. The just will be raised to glorification and
the unjust will be raised to eternal, conscious separation from the presence of
God. Do you have in your heart that blessed assurance that you are on your way
to Heaven? Do you know for sure if you died right now where you would go? Do
you know today if your sins are washed and forgiven? Which side of the cross
are you on? Are you on the side of the saved man or the unsaved man? Because
there is no other side to be on. You have to be on one or the other.
Now if you do not believe, then there is a reason why and
this is it. Because you are still trusting in yourself. You are trusting
something you have done, some goodness or merit of your own. You are trusting
that there is some morality in you that will earn your passage to Heaven. You
are hoping somehow that when you get to Heaven, the Lord has some divine scales
and your good will outweigh the bad. That is not what Scripture teaches us.
Instead it says that all who trust in Jesus Christ alone for
eternal salvation and repent of their sins to follow Him, are given the free
gift of eternal life. This is paid for with an infinite price by the One who
died and shed His blood in your stead and who promises us that having risen
from the dead, He will take you to be with Him forever in paradise.
While you await His return or your own departure from this
earth, He will give you the power to live the Christian life so that the
direction of your life will be that of increasing holiness. This includes a
growing understanding of the truth and a deeper, more abiding, and more
consistent affection for Jesus Christ. That is where the Lord is bringing us.
So you see from the beginning to the end, all Scripture has
been speaking about Jesus Christ. He had to suffer, die, and rise from the
dead. In doing this, Jesus finished everything necessary to provide salvation
to any lost sinner who comes to ask Jesus to save them. Whoever may come may
come! And I say, come with all your baggage and sin and misery. Come with
everything you have because you cannot clean anything up. Let Him clean you up
and save you. It says in John 6:37:
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who
comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
That is the promise. So Moses, the Law, the Psalms,
pastor-teachers, and all Christians have the same message that we are
proclaiming to the world. The only way to be right with God is to come through
Jesus Christ the Son.
If Christ did not rise from the dead, there would be no
reason for us to even be here. There is also a reason for when we walk out
those doors, to go out and live for Him. We should live for Him every day,
every week, every month, and every year until God takes us out of here. Believe
me, that will be a life that is worth living. Amen? Let us pray.
Lord, this morning I thank You for the Word of God. It is a
Word that it eternal and that accomplishes everything it sets out to
accomplish. Lord, all Your promises contained in Scripture are faithful and
true. I thank You, Lord, that I can come today as a pastor and preach and stand
on the authority of the Word of God knowing that this is the truth. If we know
the truth, it is the truth that will set us free.
So I pray, Lord, this morning. Do Your work, Lord, in Your
people’s hearts. I pray that as You do that, that You would bring those who
desire to come to come and please grant them faith in repentance. For those who
already know You, show them that they already have the power to live the
Christian life and help them every day to depend on the power of Christ and His
Word, to live a life that is worthy and honoring to You. And I pray this, in
the great and awesome Name of our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.