By Faith Alone (Galatians 2:11-21)

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Good morning church and go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Galatians, chapter two. Galatians two, we’ll be starting in verse 11 this morning. Galatians 2:11. As you’re turning there one time when we were at our summer home up in upstate New York, when I was a child, I was fishing and caught a duck. So that was fun for me. It was less fun for the duck. He was not at all happy to be caught in my fishing line. I did manage to reel him to the dock, and when we got there, set about trying to extricate him from the fishing line. Was a slow process. It was a slower process than it should have been, because the duck was against me. I kept wanting to tell the duck, like, just chill, like I’m on your side here. If you hold still, this can go a lot faster, but the duck was not listening to me. I would make fun of the duck for its lack of intelligence, but the truth is, we’re not any smarter than the duck, really, because we could also be still and trust the God who saves us. But so often, instead, we struggle and strive to save ourselves, getting more and more tangled up in the process, in fact, getting tangled up in what not fishing line, but in guilt and shame or pride when we think it’s going well. Carl Menninger, who is a renowned psychologist, said some years ago that he felt he could empty 70% of psychiatric wards if he could just convince people that their sins were forgiven, they don’t need to strive any longer. It’s done. So how do we overcome the guilt of our sins? Is a pressing question for all of us when we all need to answer urgently, because we feel it so urgently, we’re constantly wondering if we measure up or not, and that’s what leads to all that frenetic striving and struggling. And by the way, this can look religious. Certainly, we can picture all sorts of things that people do religious deeds to try to prove themselves and save themselves. This can also take on an irreligious like a secular flavor as well people trying to prove themselves in the eyes of the world or in their own eyes through their acts of compassion or kindness, through achievement winning the approval of others. My hope for us this morning is that we understand and feel the freedom of salvation by grace, alone, through faith, alone in Christ alone. That’s what Paul teaches in our passage this morning as he continues his narrative. If you haven’t been with us for the last few weeks, Paul has been giving us his autobiography to show that the gospel he preaches is, in fact, God’s gospel. He didn’t get it from anyone else. He received it by revelation. He didn’t learn it from Jerusalem. And so if he and Jerusalem are in conflict, then Jerusalem is going to have to give and that’s exactly what happens here in our story when he confronts Peter, because the gospel is at stake. So I’m going to give us our big idea up front. You can have it in your mind as we go through it, but we’re actually going to unpack it as we go as well. So the big idea is, don’t set aside God’s grace. Don’t set aside God’s grace, but instead, we can get these three ideas as we go. So don’t set aside God’s grace, but first of all, contend for it. Contend for God’s grace. From verses 11 to 14, we read it for us. When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Pause there. So the gospel is so important, it demands that we defend it. There can be no place for compromise when it comes to the Gospel itself, and that’s why Paul is willing to rebuke Peter, called Cephas here in this story, why he’s willing to rebuke Peter again. This is the gospel he received from Jesus Christ. And so it is not under Peter’s authority or anything like that. This is directly from God. In fact, his rebuke of Peter substantiates his authority. Mean he is saying, even Peter needs to submit to Paul’s Gospel, because Paul’s gospel is the gospel, and so Paul rebukes him publicly because, of course, he’s sinned publicly as a leader, and it has had a very public effect on the church. Now this is a tense moment in the life of the church. Of course, there are some encouraging pieces to this. I don’t know about you. I am a little bit encouraged by the fact that even apostles fall, that even apostles stumble. I think it was Luther who said something like, no one is so secure that they can’t stumble, and at the same time, no one is so fallen that they can’t get up. And that’s the encouragement that we see here. So when we stumble like Peter does in this moment, what do we do? Well, what Paul helps him do in this moment, which is return to the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace, His mercies truly are new every morning. But let’s break down the story a little bit. What exactly happened here. We’re listening in to one end of the phone conversation. So we don’t have all of the details. So what I’m going to say here is conjecture. For sure, there’s probably a pretty good construction of what happened certain men from James came. James is Jesus’s brother, half-brother, and he is the head of the church in Jerusalem. And so the Jerusalem church has sent some guys out to Antioch, where they are at this point, which is Gentile territory. These men came, and they’re bringing some sort of report about the circumcision group. Now the circumcision group could be James and kind of those Jewish Christians, I don’t think so. Though, I think what we’re talking about there with the circumcision group would actually be the Jews in Jerusalem who are persecuting this new church, who are persecuting the church of Christ. So what happens? And his men from James come and they say, look, the Jews in Jerusalem, they’ve heard that you guys are messing with Judaism so that you’re not keeping kosher anymore. You’re eating with Gentiles. They’re so angry about this that they’re actually persecuting us. Would you stop, please, so that we don’t get persecuted any longer. By the way, that reconstruction changes Peter’s response a little bit, doesn’t it? We give a little more sympathy for Peter in this moment. If I were to get up front here and say, Hey, if you would just stop eating at your favorite fast food restaurant. You know, the church in North Korea wouldn’t be persecuted anymore. How would you respond? Matt would almost say, in that case, it would be sin not to respond like, stop going the broccoli cheddar soup of Panera is great. It’s not so good that you should be okay with your brothers and sisters in Christ being killed for it. And that’s basically what the people from James are saying. I love bacon wrapped scallops too, but if you don’t eat them, we won’t die. And so Peter pulls back so he doesn’t. It’s not just that he continues to eat kosher, but part of eating kosher means he won’t even sit at the table with Gentiles any longer, so you understand his heart, but in the process, he has destroyed the gospel, and that’s why Paul rebukes him. He seems like he’s helping persecuted Christians, but he’s actually denying the gospel. He’s saying you’re not saved by grace alone. You’re saved by grace plus the works of the law. You need to keep kosher, for example. So he’s denying the gospel, and he’s drawing others away from the gospel too. This is why Paul rebukes Peter for hypocrisy in particular. Now, hypocrisy is a challenging word. It gets tossed around a lot and usually not well, not correctly. Hypocrisy doesn’t mean you’re a Christian who sins. By the way, Christian means you’re a Christian who sins. Because we all sin. We all continue to struggle with sin. Hypocrisy is when you pretend to be something that you are not. I’ll try and give you an example make it clear. So let’s say somebody’s going on a business trip. Man’s going away on a business trip. He’s there. He’s in the airport. A really attractive woman not wearing enough clothes, walks by and his head is turned and he has a thought in his head. That’s not hypocrisy, that’s sin. Now, if that same guy takes his wedding ring off, puts it in his pocket and enters into conversation with him, that’s hypocrisy, because he’s pretending to be something he’s not single available. So that’s the difference, right there. Peter is pretending to be something that he is not. He’s not acting in line with the truth that he knows. Keep in mind, Peter is the first one to convert a Gentile to Christianity. God sends Cornelius, the Roman soldier, to Peter. And right before he shows up in Acts chapter 10, Peter has this vision of this sheet being let down from heaven, and it’s got unclean, non-kosher foods on it. And Peter is directed to eat the unclean foods as really a symbol. He is okay to welcome unclean people, Gentiles. So Peter knows, he knows that’s not what’s required of him. He’s pretending to be something that he’s not. He’s implicitly saying that these Gentiles would need to become Jews in order to fellowship with Him, and that is a terrible sin, because he is, as one commentator put it, rebuilding a separating wall, rebuilding a separating wall on the ground where Christ set a table for any and all his people. And how dare we refuse fellowship with those with whom God enjoys fellowship. That would be shocking. I was just this past week. I was driving out in Wheaton, and drove by a sign, you know, directing me down to a Second Baptist Church. And like, I was reminded of the horrific legacy we have in this country, even, of denying fellowship to those that God has welcomed into his people. First Baptist Church is for the white people, and Second Baptist Church is for the black people. You’re not welcome in white churches way back when. I mean, thankfully, we’ve left that behind. But this just shows you how often the Church of God has struggled with this. What about you? Have you erected boundaries that Christ died to erase? Maybe these are ethnic boundaries, but could be political boundaries. Could be class boundaries, social boundaries, you know, a little too much mess for you to be welcome in my life. Okay, have you erected boundaries that Christ died to erase? But here’s the other question, how do you know? And here, I think we see how we know by looking at this passage, who’s Welcome at your table. Who do you have over to your house for meals? The answer is, no one. That’s a different issue. We talk about that one a lot here. We’ve done a whole series on that one. I can’t help you. I’ve said it all right. We’ll talk about that one again later. But if you have people over to your house, are there people as you’re looking at it, you’re going they kind of all look like me, kind of all sound like me. We’re kind of in a similar stage of life. And check your heart, check your heart, check it, especially because of the effect it’s having on others. That’s what we see here as well. Because sin always impacts others negatively, like we do not get to sin in a vacuum. So it’s always going to touch other people. And you see it, others are drawn away, to the point where even Barnabas is led astray. This is Paul going full. Julius Caesar at this moment, like “et tu Barnaby”. Why? Because Barnabas was the one who went on the Gentile mission with Paul. Like this is his co labor in Christ of the Gentiles, even Barnabas is doing this now. And so we need to take a look at our lives then to see how our sin is affecting those around us, and in particular, how our hypocrisy would be affecting those around us. It’s true for all of us, but let me speak to parents here in particular, because I think parents need to be especially sensitive to this. What is your example teaching your kids? Do you see hypocrisy in the relationship that you have with your kids now, again, it’s probably good. The teens aren’t here because the teens are all like set to talk to their parents now afterwards, but they’re on the retreat. That’s good. The question is not, do you sin in front of and against your children? You do, I promise. The question is, do you demonstrate repentance when you sin in front of and against your children, do you seek forgiveness? And of course, the question is, are you a hypocrite? You talk about how important the Word of God is and neglect to open it with your family? Do you talk about the dangers of just putting anything into your mind in terms of media consumption and that go on and consume whatever you want in terms of media. Are you a hypocrite? This is a serious issue. All this is a serious issue. In fact, Paul says it’s so serious that Peter stood condemned already, that word condemned is every bit as strong as it sounds. It is only ever used of condemned before God. And so we’re talking about he he’s damned at this point. If he continues down this road, of course he is. That was where we started. Galatians 1:8-9, if you preach a different gospel, let him be accursed. And Peter is preaching a different gospel, he’s perverting the gospel. And that’s serious. I came across this Spurgeon quote just this week. In fact, he says the gospel is perfect in all its parts and perfect as a whole. So it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and a felony to take from it. And Peter just committed treason because he’s altering the gospel of Christ. So this is too important not to be taken seriously. We need to be willing to contend for the sake of the Gospel, even if it’s awkward, painful in a relationship. Do we have Paul’s tender boldness? Are we willing to rebuke lovingly, of course, when we see the gospel being perverted and it’s hurting others, we get to chapter six, we’re going to see that when we see somebody else in sin, we’re to restore them gently, and that’s what what Paul has done for Peter here, gently, not sneeringly, not arrogantly, but ourselves, acting in line with the truth of the gospel, which is probably a helpful way of thinking about it. We’re going to confront somebody for not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. We probably want to act in line with the truth of the gospel as we confront them, which means looking at it, going there, but for the grace of God, go I. I am also a sinner in need of grace. But even the rebuke itself points to the gospel. Notice, Paul doesn’t say to Peter, you’re breaking the rules. Paul says to be Peter. You’ve forgotten the gospel. That’s what rebuke looks like. That’s where rebuke should always land. If you’re in Journey groups, you know we do the the gospel, waltz here, waltz, meaning three steps, repent, believe, obey, and those need to be present in our rebukes as well repent. Yes, we are calling somebody out for sin. Obey. Yes, we are calling them to a new obedience. But have you gotten to the gospel motivation for that changed life as Peter receives from Paul here, don’t set aside God’s grace. Don’t let anyone else set it aside. Either. Rather contend for it in love. Second, don’t set aside God’s grace, but act on it. Act on it. From verses 15 and 16, we, who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. Talk about a preacher trying to beat it into somebody’s head three times in these two verses, Paul says, we are justified by faith alone and not by works of the law. Now, justified not a word we use a ton. It’s one of those religious-sounding words, but it’s a courtroom word. You’re standing before the judge. Is the judge going to say guilty or innocent? And so to be justified is to be declared innocent before God. How does that happen? It happens by faith and faith alone. This is the heart of Galatians right here in verse 16, right standing with God comes by grace through faith and not by our efforts. The problem is that the default setting of the human heart is self-justification. We want to make ourselves right. We have the sense. I can fix this. I can do this. I can earn this. Years ago, when evangelicalism explosion was a thing, they would ask the question, if you were to die today, you know, why would God let you into heaven? What’s everybody’s answer? It’s like 90 plus percent. I’m a pretty good person. That’s exactly it, right? You can say it verbatim. We all know exactly what that how that question is going to go. I’m a pretty good person. Now, those stats would probably be lower today, in part because people don’t believe in God, in heaven, as much as they used to, but they would still tell you I’m a pretty good person. Look at my social media feed. You can see what I’m a pretty good person. I can do this myself, but Jews like Paul and Peter knew all too well that it doesn’t work, that really, even these Jews who are not, you know, sinful Gentiles, as he says here. I mean, he’s kind of picking up the Jewish snobbery at this point. Knew they know that even they can’t keep the law perfectly. Like Paul talks about this at length in Romans seven, for example, he says, I tried, like I did my best, to keep the law. You shall not murder. Great. I didn’t murder. Anybody shall not steal. Okay, I didn’t steal, don’t commit adultery. I didn’t commit adultery, You shall not covet. Oh, that one’s harder. All right, we’re starting to look at our heart motivations. When my neighbor pulled in with that new car, or the other guy got the promotion or something. And you just how do I know if that was coveting, that burst of emotion that I had in that moment, we’re simply too selfish. And as Paul and Peter would know, religion can actually encourage our selfishness. Can puff us up with pride if we’re keeping rules that other people aren’t keeping, can puff us up with judgment and self-righteousness. We are not good enough, but we are bad enough to come as we are and we’re. What He has for us, and that’s what we need to do. We need to receive what, again, Luther called an alien righteousness, somebody else’s righteousness. We need that to be given to us what we didn’t earn, didn’t deserve. Now, if the word righteousness is throwing you off, that’s just your performance record. Okay, this is just a list of what you did. So we need somebody else’s performance record, which means faith is taking credit for what you didn’t do. I’ve told this story many times in one of my favorite illustrations, that’s why. But when I was a teacher down in Colombia, we had two students. They were troublesome students, that’s that’s real, and one of them forgot to do his homework, and so he copied his friend’s homework, literally photocopied his friend’s homework, and then just wrote his name at the top. This is not clever cheating kids. Okay, try harder, but it is a picture of what we do. Did you do your homework? No, you’re gonna fail. Yes, absolutely. Here, take mine, okay, but it says your name at the top. That’s fine. Just cross it out. Write your name on top instead. So we hand Jesus our zero, that’s what he takes to the cross. That’s why he’s killed, and we get his 100. We get his perfect record. And the welcome that he deserved faith is taking credit for something we didn’t do. I tell it like that. It sounds like it’s just too astonishing to believe right? Surely I have to do something to earn it right? Not a chance. Not at all. Through God-given faith and faith alone, we receive God’s grace and mercy, then the works follow. That’s not like we go, Great, I got 100 on something I didn’t do. I don’t even need to learn this class now. No, like, as we grow in the spirit, we’ll get there, Galatians 5 and produce the fruit of the spirit. We’re going to learn how to do the homework on our own, sure, but that comes later. Don’t set aside God’s grace, but act on it. Act on it respond. News this important, this good, calls for a response, and we see what that response is, faith, faith, faith which is more than just belief, intellectual assent, but wholehearted, Whole Body Trust, if you are still trying to earn God’s favor or your own favor, favor in the eyes of the world, if you’re still struggling like a duck, here’s your invitation today. Stop stop striving. Stop struggling in vain. The work is already done. It was finished on the cross, put your trust in the one who did it. Like we got three baptisms in coming here in a moment, the stories that we’re going to hear, they can be your story also, even now, turn and trust. If you got any questions about that you want to talk to somebody, I am there after the service, just come and grab me. Grab someone who invited you. Grab anybody. They’d be happy to talk to you about it. Act on it. Though third, don’t set aside God’s grace, but live in it. Live in it. I read the rest of the passage, verses 17 to 21 but if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners. Doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, the life I now live in, the body I live by faith, in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Let’s look at verse 17. The doctrine of faith alone, justification by faith alone, assures us that all of us are condemned. Even studious law keepers like Paul before his conversion and Peter, are condemned. So when Jesus came, he actually multiplied the number of sinners in the world, because all of a sudden everybody was on the same footing, even the people who are keeping the law trying to were failing, and so everybody become a sinner. Does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Of course not. I don’t blame Christ for that. All Jesus has really done is burst our self-righteous bubbles and given us all the reminder that we need, that we could not do this on our own. And Peter and the others, they should know this already, because they already left the law so that they could receive grace instead. But now it looks like they’re trying to rebuild the law, rebuild what they had destroyed, and that’s a bad idea. So imagine 14-year-old Johnny. Is babysitting his younger brother, nine-year-old, Jimmy. And Jimmy’s been playing with Legos all night, and he’s built up quite a tower at this point, eight o’clock comes and Johnny, who’s puffed up with his authority, kicks it over Legos everywhere. Mom said you had to clean up your toys by eight o’clock so you can get ready for bed. Jimmy Scurry’s way cry. Okay. Now if, after Jimmy’s asleep, Johnny comes downstairs and rebuilds that tower, he’s wrong either way, because he’s saying either I shouldn’t have kicked that over. I’m in big trouble, because Jimmy’s gonna cry about it tomorrow morning, and that’s gonna be a whooping for me. Gonna be a whooping for me, so I’m gonna rebuild the tower real quick. So he’s saying I shouldn’t have knocked it over, or he was right to knock it over, because mom really did say clean it up by eight o’clock, in which case, what’s he doing? Playing with toys. These should all be clean now. So do you see how either way, then he’s re he’s wrong if He rebuilds what he destroys. He’s saying, I shouldn’t have destroyed it, or I shouldn’t have rebuilt it. It’s either wrong to turn from the law initially, or it’s wrong to turn back to it. That’s what Paul is saying to Peter. Either you shouldn’t have gotten rid of the law the right you’ve been sinning for a while now, or you certainly shouldn’t go back to it now. And we know that that’s the true one. We know that. That’s what Paul is saying here. You guys are shooting yourselves in the foot because you’re turning away from the assurance of salvation to assured condemnation because you’re not gonna be able to keep the law. Then we finally get to the meat of it all in verse 19. How exactly does this work? These are beloved verses for a reason. Sure. Many of you, if you’ve been in the church for any length of time, probably have Galatians 220 memorized or thought through it many times. Paul says, through the law, I died to the law. It’s an odd phrase. The Law proves that he’s a sinner and therefore condemns him. The Law tells him that he needs to die. But through the law, he died to the law, because Christ died in his place, and Christ died under the law, we’ll get there in the next chapter. In fact, next week, come on back. We’re going to see Jesus become a curse for us by taking on the curse of the law. So through the law, he died to the law. Because if we’re united to Christ through faith, we’re trusting in Him, so that we’re in Christ, that means we died to the law too. We’re crucified with Christ. He says. So with Christ, he’s died to the old order, and then he is raised in the new order. We have to share in Christ’s resurrection as well. It’s actually exactly what baptism pictures. We were buried with Christ in His death. We die through the law to the law, and then we’re raised to new life, this new world that is breaking in that we saw in week one. Now, after he says, I died to the law, we might expect him to say, Now, I live to Christ, or live in Christ, not exactly what he says, though. He says, Actually, I don’t even live anymore like I’m all done. It’s Christ who lives in me. So in dying to sin, he says, we die to self. We die to the autonomy that we’ve all been craving since Eden, since Adam and Eve said, Actually, I would like to be God of my own life whom I have a bite of this fruit. So we die to self when we die, to sin. So that Paul doesn’t even think of himself as living, but just Christ living in and through him, as we just sang a moment ago. Yet not I, but Christ through me. Now he does acknowledge bodily life. It’s there, but even then, he says, I live that by faith in the Son of God complete trust, and the God who dwells within me by His Spirit, that literally says the life I live in the flesh, not in the body, but the life I live in the flesh, which is interesting, because flesh, in Paul’s thought is usually where sinful desires dwell. Fact, we’re going to see a little bit later. When we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. They’re in contrast with the works of the flesh in Galatians five. So where there’s this tension within us between flesh and spirit, the old order and the new order, which we’ll get to in Galatians five in particular. But the point is, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, leads to true life because it leads us to understand his love, which is better than life, and that’s why Paul bursts out in praise Christ, who loved me, gave himself up for me. It’s unusual for Paul to say that in the first person singular, usually talks about us, but he’s just over. Whelmed at this moment with a reminder of what he has been saved from a sinner like me, unable to save myself and yet loved this dearly. Love Like that’s enough to change us, to see Christ, learn Christ’s life flourish in us. We know that we’re loved like this. I mean, you think of what that does to sin. There’s no more lying to save face, because the cross has already exposed us. We’re fully known and yet fully loved so we can own who we are. There’s no more hoarding wealth to prove our worth, because God set his love on us. He thinks we’re worth the blood of His Son. There’s no more illicit relationships to gain love, because again, we have the Father’s love freely and fully given. But if we deny this truth verse 21 we deny the cross and with it our only hope of change, because if we can earn it, Christ died for nothing. You think of how pointless Christ’s death is, if we could do it by works of the law. Picture a house that’s burning your neighbor’s house, and you see it, and you see this on fire, and you go, see how much I love you, and you run into the burning house and perish. What have you done? Nothing. Now, if you say, see how much I love you, you run into the burning house and you help get their child out and succumb to smoke inhalation or something in the process, and you give your life, okay, that’s different. But which one did Jesus do? Did he die to save us, or did he die for no reason whatsoever? That’s what Paul’s saying. Don’t set aside the grace of God, but live in it. Let it be the animating force in your life. How do we overcome the guilt of our sins? How can we be put right with God? If God exists as he surely does, that is the most important question we can ask and answer. And Paul gives us the answer here in this passage, not by works of the law, not by striving and struggling and trying to earn it, but by grace, through faith in Christ, not to trust in Christ because we trust in ourselves is an insult to God’s grace and the blood of Christ, but to trust in Christ is to begin a new life altogether. If we’re in Christ, we’ve died with him, we’ve been raised with Him. We live in him, and that is our only hope. I open this series with a picture of us drowning, which is exactly what we’re doing, by the way, on our own, drowning in guilt and shame and sin, drowning a little bit like Noah’s contemporaries. You picture the flood and the ark drowning guilt and shame and drowning, ultimately in the just judgment of God when the rains start falling back in Noah’s day, imagine you’re there the rains start falling. You got two options and two options only. The first option is start paddling furiously as the waters keep rising, the waves are getting more turbulent, the mountains are covered. You got months and months and months of trying to paddle. Good luck to you. You’re going to die. That’s option one. There’s another option. It’s a better option, get on the boat. Get on the boat that’s sitting right next to you. That’s the point. Jesus is the ark. Paul saying, Get on the boat, hide yourself in Christ by grace, through faith, don’t set aside God’s grace. Contend for it, act on it, and then live in it. Let’s pray you. God, Lord, we are overwhelmed with the good news that Your Son Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us to rescue us from our sins. Love like that should change us, and we pray that it would change us even now, Lord, that we would give up our striving, even the striving that we’re tempted to fall into when we’ve given our lives to Christ trying to prove ourselves instead of that, Lord help us to rest, rest in the good news of the gospel. I pray for those who are not resting in it yet, I pray that even now they would get on the boat, that they would put aside their striving and trust in you receive what you would freely give them your grace and a right standing before you, not on the basis of what they’ve done, but on the basis. Basis of what Christ has done for them, we ask this in his name, amen.