Adopted

If your Bible's with you, open them to Romans chapter eight, if you would, Romans chapter eight. And I want to do a couple of things here tonight. One, I want us to focus on the doctrine of adoption, this lost doctrine, if you will, when you talk about the order salutis or the order of salvation, kind of an order of operations, if you will. We may not be familiar with that term. We usually don't talk in those terms anymore, but it's a very common term in the study of theology, the order salutis or the order of salvation. And if you want to understand why this is important and how it works, just think about trying to put together a child's swing set. How many of us have done things like that, or even if it's not a child swings at, it's something else that you put together. And you have these directions, and if you're anything like me, you have a tendency to look at the picture and go, I can figure that out. And then you do something and all of a sudden you realize you have to undo the last fifteen minutes of work because this should have gone on before that, and because it didn't, I've got to go all the way back to the place where it should have gone on so that I can put this in so that the whole thing will work together. Or you could be like I have been a time or two in my life. Just don't tell the truth and shame the devil. You can say, probably don't need that anyway, right, Probably we're just fine without that on there. We just it's just which usually doesn't in well, the order salute. This is like that. We we not only need to understand those theological elements of our salvation, but we need to understand the order and how they work. And so we're used to talking about justification and sanctification and glorification, and what we forget is that adoption is part of the order Salutis as well. It belongs right between justification and sanctification. We're justified, we are adopted, we're sanctified, we're glorified. And that adoption piece is essential for a number of reasons, and I'll talk about those. And as we understand why that adoption piece is so essential, and once we understand the consequences of us as believers not grasping that reality of this piece of the order Salutis, we'll also understand the significance of horizontal adoption as we do that. That's my goal. So let's look here in chapter eight, let's go back to verse one. We're gonna look at verses really fourteen to seventeen, but we're gonna put this in context. In chapter eight, Paul is really giving us sort of a treatise on the Holy Spirit's work in our salvation. It's an amazing treatment of the work of the third person of the Trinity. It's really an amazing treatment of the whole Trinity at work in our salvation, as we'll see. But there are special emphasis here on the spirit. Verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I just feel like you always need to say amen after that verse Just I'm going to Paul, so we can just say, man, that's one of those verses. Anytime somebody reads it, you just need to interrupt them. So excuse me. Can you stop reading for a minute? Can you stop reading for a minute? Why do I do something wrong? No? Amen just belongs right there after verse one. Then you can go on and do whatever you need to do for the law of the Spirit of life. I set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done with the law weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. We've already seen the whole Trinity in there. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. Please don't miss that. Please don't miss that. If the pastor just alluded to that that this work of adoption is the sovereign work of God, this whole work of the order, salute it is the sovereign work of God. Paul is not saying here, you got two choices. You can either go over here and live this life with the flesh. You can go over there and live that life of the spirit. You choose, and you work at it. Two dogs, one you feed, gonna grow. Not what he said, it's not what he said. He's explaining after the fact, what the fruit of our salvation actually is and what it is that actually allows us to pursue this life and the spirit. You see, it is not that people who are outside of this life and the spirit aren't working towards something and we are, or that they aren't, or that they are working towards something and that we're not. We're both at work. But the fact of the matter is the one who is outside of Christ, the one who does not have the spirit of God, as hard as he works, he can never work righteousness. Because in order for something to be righteous, it has to be the right thing, done the right way for the right reason, and the only right reason is the glory of God. And if my reason is to satisfy God's wrath, that's not the right reason to do the righta thing, because God's wrath is satisfied by the person and work of Christ. So if I'm working to satisfy God's wrath, those people outside of Christ. I'm working legalism. That's the flesh, and I am actually compounding my guilt because I'm negating the only one who can make me righteous in my pursuit of it, in my flesh. The one who is part of the family of God, who has experienced this justification, filled with the Spirit of God now is able to pursue righteousness because of the presence and power of the Spirit in his life in her life, and we bear the right kind of fruit. This is important because sometimes you see people doing things and you go, well, you know that person. Might I be saved, but they live more righteousness unsaved people I know know they don't. No, they don't because their deeds are done for the wrong reason. Therefore they are not righteous. You're in a foxhold. The grenade comes in the foxhold, God jumps on the grenade. Was that an act of valor? Maybe maybe not? Could have you said I'm through with this, I give up, there's my way out. It's not an active valor. So you can see the same action done for two very different reasons. And if all you look at as the is the action, are you smelling what I'm stepping in righteousness? Is the right thing done the right way for the right reason. If you do the right thing the right way for the wrong reason, it's not righteous. If it was not for the glory of God, was it righteous? Verse six? For to set the mind in the flesh as death, but set the mind of the spirit. Okay, no, we already head that we looked at verse seven. It cannot Man is not able. He is not able. There is nothing he can do. Something has to be done to him first. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In case you didn't understand what he meant by that last phrase, he gives you another phrase, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This is why I'm always amazed when I run into people and they say, get their life together so they can go to church. Help you. If you get your life together, you wouldn't need God. Amen. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. I'd love to read that to these people who ask me if I got the Holy ghost. Yeah, I'm a Christian. Now I didn't ask you if you're a Christian. I asked you, if you got the Holy Ghost, you can be a Christian. And I have the Holy Ghost. Lord Well, Romans eight nine said, you don't have the spirit. You're not his. That ain't no second blessing, that's salvation. Amen, you don't have the spirit, You're not his. There is no such that I'm a spirit filled Christian? Is there another kind? Verse ten? But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit, it's life because of righteousness. 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. There's the spirit of the flesh that's death. There's the other spirit that's life. That's the spirit that right. If the spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you, he's the one who gives you this life. He's the one who does this. This is why it works. Righteousness is so deadly. This is why we need to be reminded of the Gospel all the time. Now, let's get down to verse twelve. This is the sort of bridge. After this bridge, you get down to verse eighteen, and Paul's talking about suffering and the whole creation groaning and anticipation of its deliverance. Then you get the verse twenty six and he talks about the Spirit interceding for us, and we get that picture of you know, those whom He four knew, he predestined and justified, so and so on and so forth. We get that section, and then there's that final section. What shall we say then, if God is for us, who can be against us? And that gives us that whole what can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. But in the middle of all of that there's the glue that sticks it together. So we start with this contrast between life and the flesh and life and the spirit, and we end with what can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. We start with there is therefore now no condemnation, and then we end with there's nothing that can separate us. But why is there nothing that can separate us? The answer is in this bridge. So then, brothers, we are deadors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Notice, he says if by the spirit, not if by your will you put to death the deeds of the body, your will can't do that. If by the spirit you do that. If by the spirit you do that, you cannot do that apart from the spirit. And you can't have the spirit apart from belonging to Christ. And you can't belong to Christ apart from repentance and faith. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry Abbah. Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Why is there now therefore no condemnation for us because we're adopted sons? Why is it that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, because we're adopted sons. That's why, that's why. Now, what I want us to do is look at that sort of middle section and I want to highlight these areas of our theology that are impacted by the doctrine of adoption and point out how the horizontal reality of adoption. And you understand what I mean by that. The horizontal, the vertical reality is the doctrine of adoption, our adoption by God in Christ through the powerful Spirit. That's vertical adoption. Horizontal adoption happens when one human being adopts another human being. This is an amazing thing about adoption. In the Order Salutists, I cannot justify another person. I can't declare another person righteous. I can't sanctify another person. I can't make another person positionally or actually righteous. I can't do it. I can't glorify another person. But I can adopt another person. This is the beautiful, mysterious aspect of the Order salutis that we get to walk in and understand in very unique ways. First, we go back to that first line in verse twelve. So then, brothers, we are detters not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. If you don't understand the doctrine of adoption, you don't understand our unity in Christ. Let me say that again. If you don't understand the doctrine of adoption, you don't understand our unity in Christ. Why do we refer to one another as brother and sister because we're all the adopted sons and daughters of the same Father. If you don't understand this, you don't get our relationship to one another. It is only when you get this doctrine of adoption that you get why we refer to one another. It's not just a slang term in the church. It is a theological term that is rich and deep with theological meaning. And the theological meaning is that because of the doctrine of adoption, you and I are connected as brothers and sisters with every other adopted child of God. Adoption makes us family. And by the way, all God's children are adopted children. Amen, all God's children are adopted children. We are adopted into the family. Now, in order to understand this, grasp this for a moment in eternity past, there is the covenant of redemption between the Father the son and the Spirit and the Covenant of Redemption. The Father bequeaths to the Son of people. It is a gift, an expression of the Father's love for the Son Folks. Creation doesn't exist because God was lonely. God has always existed in perfect harmony with Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God and three persons, perfect unity, without any needs. If God needs something, he's not God. God never needed human beings. God never needed anything, and he never will need anything. God doesn't need the world. God didn't create the world because he was bored. He didn't create the world because he was lonely. God created the world because he's God. And in the Covenant of Redemption God, the Father expresses the magnitude of his love by bequeathing to the Son before the foundation of the world, a people that will be a trophy to the Son of the Father's love for the Son. The Son expresses his love for the Father in that he dies to pay for the redemption of the bequeathed people. The Spirit demonstrates his love for the Father and the Son in that he applies the redemption that the Father has bequeathed and the Son has purchased to every believer through his presence and work in their life, so that our redemption is an expression and expansion of the love of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So that when we are redeemed, our adoption actually envelops us into this eternal love relationship that God has with God. That's what we're adopted into. If you don't understand the doctrine of adoption, you don't get this. I wonder if God really loves me. If you wonder if God really loves you, don't look at your feelings, look at the cross. It is not about what you feel. Again, on the horizontal level, this is the reality with which people struggle. People will often ask about the love for a child who came to your home through adoption. Is it hard to feel the love for that child? Well, there's a couple of things wrong here. There's a theological problem here. We don't understand what love is theologically if you're asking that question. But secondly, there's also a worldview problem. You see, that world is rooted in Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Darwinian evolutionary thinking that says the love between parent and child is a biological bond forged in the womb. That's Darwinism. Love is not a function of biology. Family is not a function of biology. My next of kin is not related to me biologically. She's my wife, Amen, somebody. So when people say that to me, I just don't know. You know, we've thought about adoption. But can I love an adopted child? Or can I? Do you love your life? Do you love your husband? Well? Of course I do, really how because you're not related biologically? And if you believe that love is a byproduct of biology, then your marriage must be terrible. Well no, but I well see what? Oh? Do you see this? Folks? And we express we express this in the way we talk about horizontal adoption. It seees with our children, or see a picture of our children? Which one are your real children? It's like they're all real, Well, which one are your own children? They're all ours? Well, which one are your natural children? I love natural? But you know you realize what we're saying when we ask these questions. An adopted child is not a real child. An adopted child is not your child. An adopted child is not a natural child. They're unreal, unnatural outsiders. No wonder we ask whether or not we could possibly love an adopted child, if that's what you think of adoption, and no wonder we struggle with whether or not God loves us if we're his adopted children, and that's what we think of adoption. I'm God's child, but I'm not his real child. I'm God's child, but I'm not his natural child. I'm God's child, but I'm not his own child. Amazing thing happens with horizontal adoption. You talk to you families who've adopted children, and I haven't met a one who hadn't had this experience where something's happening, either they're having a discussion with the child about something, or discussion with somebody else about the child, and the fact of the child's adoption comes up and the parent goes, oh, yeah, we did adopt that one. Adopted children are children, for real. There are natural children there, our own children. My children who came into my family by adoption are as much my children as the children who came into my home by biology. In fact, some could argue more so because we chose them. The other ones would just foist it on us. One of our adopted sons is several years ago, and he was just sort of getting in his mind around this whole thing. Another child was about to be adopted, and you know, because that he had seen pregnant women before, and we had a baby coming and mama wasn't pregnant. So how how are you? First of all, I want to know how that pregnancy thing works. But you know this, that's that's a baby in there. Yes, and then that baby's gonna come out and they're gonna have a baby. Yes, we're gonna have a baby. Yes, but there's not a baby in it. No, it's not a baby. And we're gonna adopt a baby and adopt. Okay, So then the baby goes so he finally got adoption, he goes, okay, Okay, Wait, so so I was adopted, yes, and Aligic was adopted. Yes. And Jude was adopted yes, And Trey was adopted. No, Trey wasn't adopted. What's the matter? Tray wasn't adopted. It's okay, So we love him too, like poor guy, you know. But when you understand theologically that this is what makes us family in Christ, it changes everything. There are so many barriers that are destroyed by this reality. How can you be a racist if you understand the doctrine of adoption. Huh, how can you do that? When you understand the doctrine of adoption, how can we have some of the attitudes that we have toward believers in other parts of the world If we understand the doctrine of adoption, they were part of the family of God. There's a second thing here. We need to understand that the doctrine of our adoption is linked inexorably to our sanctification. So I was justified, declared righteous, adopted, brought into the family, into the number of God's children, and I'm sanctified in two ways. Number One, I'm made positionally righteous, but I'm also made actually righteous through sanctification. Righteousness is actually increasing in me. In this sanctification process, I'm being conformed to the image of Christ, just like a child who takes on the characteristics of the parents. You see my sanctification. We can't think of sanctification as just here is a set of rules out there, and I'm going to become better at keeping those rules. So we line those rules up, and we set up rules as to how we keep the rules, and then we see day by day how we're doing it keeping those rules. Well. When you understand the doctrine of adoption, you understand that sanctification is not about a list of rules being kept, but it's about our character being shaped and formed and molded so that we are becoming like God's perfect son, Jesus Christ. And Jesus was not righteous because he had to think real hard about what rules to keep. He was righteous because He's righteous. Amen. When we understand the doctrine of adoption, we understand what it means to be sanctified, in that we are being conformed to the image of Christ. We are being made more like the Son. We are bearing the family resemblance. There's a huge difference between lists of rules that we try to become better at keeping and the person and character of Christ that we pursue. Huge difference between those two things. And when you understand the doctrine of adoption, you get that there is a third piece. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abbah Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. This transforms our understanding of our relationship with God. Listen, folks, if God had redeemed me from my sin and brought me in as a slave, it would have been more than I deserve. Amen, Thank you Lord. I serve you the rest of my days. But I want you to get something here. The doctrine of adoptions says this. Your salvation does not just consist in you having been on your way to hell and God superimposing the person and work of Christ on the cross so that you are now going in a different direction to just end up in heaven. That'd be enough, amen, But God has actually adopted you as his own child. God loves you because you're his child. Now the slave mentality, and many of us as Christians that we have that mentality, it's kind of the slave mentality, and there's always I did this, I did that. God must have stopped loving me. But when you understand the doctrine of adoption, then you understand that God would no more stop loving you than you'd stop loving your child son. I love you, or at least they used to. But then there was that day when you did that thing, and it was so monumental that that's just gone. Now, how foolish does that sound that's your child. They hurt us, they disappoint us. Amen. There's no pain like kid pain. Amen. Like Grandma said, they when they grow up, you don't stop being a parent. They just go from being on your knee to being on your heart right, but they never stopped being your child. Please hear me because there's some people out there, there's many of you out there, especially women. Has been my experience in pastoral ministry who struggle, struggle deeply with God's acceptance and with assurance of God's love, and struggle with a performance oriented view of God's love, a performance oriented view of earning God's love and approval, and never fully resting in the fact that God doesn't love you because of what you do. But in spite of it. There's somebody who needs to hear this tonight. And the way that you need to wrap your mind around it is to think about the way you love your children, because it's fragile and it's flawed, and it pales in comparison to the way God loves his children. So if you understand that, regardless of what your children have done to disappoint you, that you love them, and that as a parent, you know they're going to disappoint you, and that part of their growing process is going through those disappointments, and that you love them not in spite of it, but through it. Here's what I want to ask you to do. Stop blaspheming God by thinking you're a better lover than he is, because that's what you're doing. I can love my children when they disappoint me, but I've disappointed God, and I don't think he can love me as hard I love my babies. Well. I would never say that, not out loud, but it's what you're saying. You're saying you're a better lover than God. You love harder than he does, stronger than he does. Your love is more secure than God's love. I would never say that. Yes, yes, you do. Every time you doubt that He can love you in spite of what it is that you've done. Repent, Repent, and as you repent, know that forgiveness is yours. In Christ. There's a final peace, and that final piece is a sure The doctrine of adoption is huge for people who struggle with assurance. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow errs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. The whole next section, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time, excuse me, are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. It's going to be revealed in us. How do you know, well? Because in that last section, what can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? The answer nothing, nothing, there's your assurance. There's your assurance. Christ. How do I know for a fact that God will accept me? Well? Ponder this for a moment. Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. We read that verse, We hear that verse, but listen to this. There's Christ, and there's his active and his passive obedience. In his active obedience, he keeps the whole law and is actually righteous. This is important because if he's not, he cannot impute righteousness to us. In his passive obedience, he takes upon himself the sins of his people and the punishment due to their sins, so that God propitiates his wrath, satisfies his wrath by pouring it out on Jesus Christ, so that my sin is impure to Christ, so that in this double imputation my sin imputed to him and paid for on the cross, his righteousness imputed to me, so that I stand before God as righteous. How do I know that God accepts me? Because Christ, after he died for my sins, didn't stay dead. He rose again on the third day, which means that God declared, I am satisfied. So I now know that since Christ died for my sins, past, present, and future, and that after he died for them, he got up again, so that the Father said I'm satisfied. That means I'm guaranteed to be accepted by the one who accepted Christ. It's done, it's finished, accepted in the beloved. Well be careful that preacher. You sound like them once saved, always saved. People like you can just go live any way you want. You didn't listen to anything I read for the first part of chapter eight. Remember what the Spirit does. He sets us free from the law of sin and death. He puts to death the deeds of the flesh. There's the beauty of it. We're so afraid of assurance because we think the assurance is going to guarantee that we pursue sin. Paul says in Romans chapter eight, the exact opposite. It's this assurance that allows us to pursue holiness and righteousness. In Christ, it's the assurance that allows an adopted child to flourish. It's interesting, you know, you guess, mean, when is that? When is that adoption thing? When are you really when is it really like your child? When you have to discipline them, that's when it's for real. Judge can't tell you it's for real. You got to spank them, that's your child. Our heavenly father disciplines every son he receives, and it is an expression of their acceptance as sons. I don't discipline other people's kids. Amen at somebody. They're not mine. Somebody else can do that, you know, I look at him and shake my head. I can say, boy, you need a whooping. But when they're mine, they're disciplined. And when they are disciplined and loved, nonetheless, we have a picture a full fledged parent hild relationship. When they disappoint us and we look at them and say, I'm disappointed, and I love you. I'm disappointed because I love you I'm disappointed, and I still love you. I'm not just disappointed. I'm mad at you and I still love you. It ain't nothing you can do about it, not a thing, Because you are my child. You're my real child, You're my own child, you're my natural child. You are as much my child as I am. God's child. God purchased me, He paid a price for me. We had to pay a price for you. You know that, just like God paid a price for us to redeem us as his own. And then after he redeemed us, he loved us and yearned for us, and waited for us, and then brought us home and enveloped us into his family. And that's exactly what we do. We adopt a child, we redeem them, pay a price, and then we anxiously anticipate the moment when that redemption will be consummated. Then we stand before a judge and he says, this thing is done. See, the day is going to come when my adoption in Christ is consummated, and I will be home and it will be done, and the righteous judge will declare not that I belong to somebody else, but that I belong to Him forever. This is what adoption is a picture of It's fraught with difficulty, it's fraught with heartache, hardship, pain, It's filled with what ifs, And yet we walk forward. Why because adoption is a picture of the salvation that we have in Christ. It cannot be and it must not be about me simply feeling a void that I have. It must be about a child who needs a home, and not just any home, but a home in which they will hear the truth of the person and work of Christ, and how their adoption is a picture of what He accomplished on behalf of all of those whom He redeemed for the Father. Not everybody, not everybody, is called to adoption, Not everybody is called to a orphan care. But everybody, everybody who is in Christ, is called to care about it. How can you not? How can you be adopted and not care about adoption? How can you be adopted and know that there are children out there waiting for families and families out there waiting for children. You so, all of us, because because of our adoption in Christ, every last one of us have a vested interest in adoption and orphan care, every last one of us. And though we may not all be called to it. We can all participate. There are people around you who are in the process. They could use your help. There are people around you who are contemplating this right now. They could use your counsel. There are people around you who perhaps work in this industry. They could use your encouragement. They could use your encouragement. And I'll finish with this. There are many things about adoption, obviously that excite me as a Christian, but one of the things that excites me is the way that it fits into our view of the sanctity of human life. You know, I often tell people that basically our journey into an adoption was an extension of our participation in the ministry of life truly being pro life. We're not just the anti abortion, we're pro life. And I tell people, you know, we just went from telling people give your baby life to telling them give your baby to us. Because there is a real sense and I'm speaking more broadly now about Christians in general who are pro life. Not every individual Christian, but Christians in general who are pro life. Listen to me, this ought to be true of us. If we can't say give your baby to us, then we're a bit hypocritical when we say give your baby life. And by God's grace, the most welcoming community in the world to the widow and the orphan, it's Christians. So it is true of us. We don't just stand around and say don't kill them. We stand up and say we'll take them. And that's the grace of God. And it's a testimony. And it's an opportunity for us to talk not just about being pro life, because that's not enough. We can now talk about adoption, the order salute us, the person and work of Christ, the fact that we are adopted sons and daughters of God. And this gets us beyond just a political issue into the gospel. And that's where the robber reached the road. Amen. I know we probably don't normally do this, and I hope I'm not out of line, but you know it's our evening services seven o four and we won't be here long. But if it's all right, can we take a couple of questions. That'll be okay. You may ask some questions about this or about us and our circumstance, and if you do, I'll take the next few minutes here. Again, we're not gonna be here long. We're not gonna do this long, all right, but if you have a couple of questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Nope, all right, Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for your love, your care, thank you for adoption. Lord. We thank you that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, not just to make us no longer sinners on the way to hell, but to make us your children. Grant by your grace that we might embrace and be embraced by that reality that we are your children, which means we're brothers and sisters. That we are your children, which means we're not just growing and rule keeping, but we're being conformed to the image of our elder brother and redeemer, Jesus. We're your brothers, and we're brothers and sisters, which means that we are loved by you like a father who loves his children. Were brothers and sisters, where we are adopted children, which means we have assurance that we are yours and you will redeem us on the last day. Grant by your grace that we might walk in these truths. Father, for the one under the sound of my voice was not come to faith in Christ. I pray that tonight, as they've heard these truths, I pray that tonight their eyes would be open. I pray that tonight you would bring them to repentance and faith. I pray that tonight they would be disabused of any notion of work's righteousness self justification. I pray that tonight they would understand and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is indeed our only hope. And we ask these things his name. Amen.