God's Message to Dead Men — Major Ian Thomas

Yesterday evening in our consideration, we saw that all are not dead because Christ has died. In this particular context, though that in one sense is true. But in this particular context, in this passage, Christ died because all were dead.

Spiritual Death Through Adam's Sin

Because all that man is by nature and because all that man does by nature in his fallen condition is worth no more than the sentence of death imposed upon the Lord Jesus who took our place in our guilt.

We saw how that because of Adam's sin, man had become totally destitute of divine life, totally destitute of spiritual life, totally destitute of that quality of life which in the Bible is always described as eternal, everlasting life.

That by nature, born of the fallen seed of a fallen Adam, we are spiritually dead. And because of that fact, the Lord Jesus, in the beginning with God and who was God and by whom all things were made, came to this earth in the fulfillment of a plan which had been agreed upon as between himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the triune deity, for forever the world was.

And he became man in utter, absolute sinlessness. And accepted in his person all that man, by virtue of what he by nature is and by nature does, deserves death. And because of his substitutionary, vicarious and atoning death, on those grounds alone, God in righteousness and without doing violence to his righteousness, is able to restore to repenting men and women and boys and girls, who humbly accept the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.

God is able to restore to such a quality of life that was forfeited by Adam in his sin. And that this ultimately is the purpose of God in the preaching of the gospel. That the good news is God's message to dead men.

Physically alive, soulishly active, but spiritually dead. God's message in the gospel to you and to me, in our natural, fallen, degenerate, unregenerate condition, is that he is prepared to restore to us life.

And that's why, of course, it goes on to say in this fifteenth verse of the chapter that we've read, he died for all who were all dead, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for him.

So that all those who live, in other words, so that all those who have been lifted out of this state of death, to whom life has been restored, might behave according to an entirely new principle of life.

So you see in the fourteenth verse, a universal condition of all men everywhere, dead, by nature, by natural birth. This is what Mr. Kirkby referred to yesterday afternoon as being in Adam. You and I are born by our physical, natural birth of our physical, natural parents in this particular condition, in Adam.

And in Adam, all died. In Adam, all forfeited God. In Adam, all became empty of that divine content which alone enables man to behave as man, as opposed to behaving as an animal. God's own gracious presence.

But verse fifteen tells us of those who live. Verse fourteen speaks of all men everywhere. Verse fifteen speaks of those who, by faith, have appropriated the consequence of Christ's atoning death. That those who live, who were dead, but who have been made alive again, might live in an entirely new quality of life that is God-given, God-breathed, God-restored.

And that is what Mr. Kirkby meant when he said that we could be in Christ. All born in Adam, by faith we may be lifted out of Adam into Christ. Of course, this is what Paul refers to in the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.

Christ the Last Adam and the Gospel of Life

1 Corinthians chapter fifteen, verse forty-five. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul, and he died. All succeeding generations of men have been dead in Adam. Spiritually destitute and alienated from the light of God.

But the last Adam, a title given to the Lord Jesus. The perfect man, the word incarnate, who came to walk and live on this earth for thirty-three years and demonstrate all that man was intended by God to be.

Behaving, playing the role of man in perfection. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. One who brought to life, who raised the dead. The perfect man, verse forty-seven, is of the earth's earthing.

The second man, the last Adam, is the Lord from heaven. And the Lord Jesus, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven, came into this world to raise the dead. As a quickening spirit. One by whose obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, whose substitutionary and atoning death would make it possible for a holy God to restore life, to those who obeyed the gospel would receive what guilty men do not deserve, but what grace gives guilty men the right to have.

Forgiveness. Now this is the nature of the gospel. And you will see at once that the gospel is an offer of life. It isn't even just an offer of forgiveness. It's an offer of life. For which forgiveness is necessary.

But forgiveness is not the end. Forgiveness is the means to the end. The end is life. The means is forgiveness. So the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the means, the re-imparting of his presence by the Holy Ghost is the end.

And it's very important that we should understand that. Because there are all too many who confuse the means for the end. And think that all that the Lord Jesus did when he died historically, 1900 years ago, was to make it possible for a holy God to forgive sinners.

Full stop. But that would be a very inadequate salvation. It is gloriously true that because he died 1900 years ago historically, there was executed in his sinless person all your sinfulness and mine.

All our guilt was atoned for in his one sacrifice for since forever. That is gloriously and eternally true. But that was not the end. That was the means. By means of his atoning death, you and I may become the recipients of his resurrection life.

The life that he lived in his sinlessness qualified him for the death that he died. For by virtue of his sinlessness there could be imputed or credited to him our sinfulness. So the life he lived qualified him for the death he died.

And that of course is why he was born miraculously. To come into this world uninhabited by sin as you and I are inhabited by sin. And to be inhabited only by God as you and I by natural birth are not inhabited by God.

And for 33 years he lived the kind of life that qualified him for the kind of death. An atoning, saving, reconciling death. Where he took your place and mine. Because the sinless saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free.

And God but just is satisfied to look on him condemned and pardon me. This is the language of forgiveness. He knew how wicked man had been. He knew that God must punish sin. So out of pity Jesus said, I'll bear the punishment instead.

The life he lived qualified him for the death he died. So that we might have forgiveness. But listen, the death he died that we might have forgiveness qualifies you and me to receive the life he lived.

That's the gospel. The life he lived qualified him for the death he died. But the death he died qualifies us as forgiven sinners to become the recipients, to receive the life he lived. And the moment you and I by obedience to the gospel, in repentance to God, in repudiating our pig-headed, upon self-will and independence, the moment we repent and say, God I need you.

And I want to get back to you. And I know that sin separates me from you. But your son died for me to remove my sin and to cleanse me with his own precious blood. And I'm coming back the way that you have provided in him.

In that moment of time you become accepted in the beloved. There is credited to you the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. You are found and accepted in him, in the rock of ages, blessed for you and for me.

And in that moment of reconciliation there is re-imparted to you by the gift of his Holy Spirit the very resurrection life of the one who died for and rose again for you and for me. That's why if you turn to Romans chapter 5 and verse 10, a verse from which I can never stray along, as some of you may have discovered.

Reconciled by Christ's Death and Saved by His Life

We have the whole fullness of God's redemptive purpose and regenerative plan in a nutshell. Romans 5 and verse 10. If when we were enemies and our condition as enemies in Adam was a condition of death, lifelessness.

If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more, something infinitely more than the means used. This is the end desire. We shall be saved by his life. Now isn't that wonderful.

If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled. We shall now be saved by his life. It is the re-imparted life of the Lord Jesus. Inhabiting your humanity.

It is this life that saves you. Because this is the true life of a true Christian. And the life of a true Christian is simply the life of a normal human being. For God's redemptive purpose was to restore fallen man to normality.

To make man, man again as God intended man to be. The human vehicle of the divine life. So the whole redemptive purpose of God in a crucified redeemer was that he in the power of his resurrection might come and re-inhabit the redeemed humanity for which his blood was shed.

So to receive salvation is not simply to receive forgiveness because he died historically in the past. To receive salvation is to receive the risen Christ. To dwell within you and live his life through you.

To behave in other words in terms of your human personality. So that all he is is displayed to the world in terms of your conduct and character. It is to receive him made possible only by virtue of the fact that his death has cleansed you from your guilt and reconciled you to God.

Reconciled by his death you are now to be saved as a continuing process by his life. By his gracious presence within you. This is the wonderful good news that God brings to us and which has been consummated in his son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians: Made Alive in Christ

In the Ephesian epistle in the second chapter and reading from the Amplified New Testament. We read this verse 1 of chapter 2. You he made alive when you were dead slain by your own trespasses and sins.

Verse 5 even when we were dead in Adam slain by our own shortcomings and trespasses. He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. He gave us the very life of Christ himself. The same new life with which he quickened him.

Now that is what happens when a boy or a girl or a man or a woman convicted by the Holy Spirit. Awaken to the fact that they are spiritually dead. Repents of their condition. Turns in childlike faith to the Lord Jesus and says I may not understand how it happened.

But I thank you for dying for me. Cleanse me now through your precious blood and come yourself and live within me by your Holy Spirit. For it is in the person of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus presents himself within you.

The Holy Spirit dwelling within you is Christ dwelling within you. For he is the Spirit of Christ. And that is why the stamp of genuineness, the hallmark of a born again Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit.

Crediting the forgiven sinner with nothing less than the life of Christ. The very divine nature of God himself. That's why in the same epistle, the Ephesian epistle and in the first chapter and in the 13th verse we read.

In him you also who have heard the word of truth. The glad tidings of your salvation and have believed and adhered to and have relied on him. Was stamped with the seal of the long promised Holy Spirit.

That Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. The first fruit, the pledge, the foretaste, the down payment on our heritage. In anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring complete possession to the praise of his glory.

The moment you obey the gospel and put your faith in Christ. You are sealed, stamped, guaranteed as the blood bought possession of Jesus Christ by his presence within you in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Examining Whether We Are Truly in the Faith

Therefore this is the hallmark, this is the stamp of genuineness that must be sought. As we examine our own hearts to know whether we are in the faith. Turn with me again to the second epistle to the Corinthians and the very last chapter.

And having written these two epistles to the Corinthian church. And having given them much instruction, not to say rebuke, Paul the apostle now sets them in examination. That's quite a normal procedure.

When instruction has been given we anticipate that an examination will be set. And everybody always looks eagerly forward towards the examination. Every schoolboy looks with eager anticipation and obvious enthusiasm to the end of terms or the end of his school year.

Now he's just on tiptoe for the examination, isn't that right? Well here it is. After the two epistles to the Corinthian church Paul says, verse 5 of the 13th chapter, examine yourselves. Whether you be in the faith.

Prove your own selves. You've had much instruction and being a good scholar it may well be that you have memorized everything that I ever said to you. It might well be that you are competent to answer correctly every question that I might pose.

But he says examine yourself whether you be in the faith. And remember what faith involves as we discussed faith last evening. It isn't just believing facts. Faith involves a dependence that gives itself expression in obedience.

Faith is always active. That's why you can never have faith in a chair standing up. I can believe that it's a chair standing up. But I can't have faith in a chair standing up. You may instruct me as to the purpose for which a chair was made.

I might have come from England or somewhere where we don't have chairs. And you demonstrate the thing to me. That's to keep you awake. So we are given to understand. It has four legs and a back and a seat.

Now I know all the theory of a chair and the purpose for which it was designed. And I believe you. I give complete mental intellectual credence to everything you say. But I still don't have faith in that chair.

In order to have faith in that chair I've got to do something more than believe. Academic. In order to have faith in that chair I now have to go to that chair and sit in it. And if I have complete faith then I take my feet off the ground.

And now I'm totally committed. And I'm putting to the absolute test the validity of what you have claimed about that chair. Now that's the nature of faith. And that is why it's so possible for you to be Christianized without being Christian.

And maybe without any deliberate intention of being less than a Christian. So Paul says examine yourself. Lest you've been confused by knowledge that hasn't been translated into experience. Know ye not your own selves.

Verse 5. How that Jesus Christ is in you. Except you be reprobate. A word that simply means counterfeit. Tested and rejected. Know ye not your own selves. Not how that Jesus Christ was crucified for you.

Not how that he was the incarnate word that came into this world on that first Christmas day. And lived a sinless life and died a vicarious death and rose again from the dead. And ascended to be with the Father and share his glory again as he always had from the foundation of the world.

So these things you know in your mind. But he says if you're in the faith you know something more than that. You know that the Jesus Christ who was born, who lived, who died, who rose again and who ascended.

And who now sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. You know that he, if you're in the faith, that you have become a partaker of his divine nature. That your humanity has become a habitation of this God Jesus Christ by his spirit.

That your body is now a temple of the living God. That you have been added to the Lord. That you have been baptized by the receiving of his spirit into body membership. That you are now a member of the ecclesia.

You've been added to the body corporate of which he is the head and the life content. And he now has the right himself in terms of all that you are to behave. In the world in which you live with your two feet still firmly on the ground.

Not in heaven yet. But on earth. You have been raised from the dead. How did the Lord Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead physically? By re-imparting to him that which he had lost. Physical life. And the man whom they had buried because he no longer had physical life.

And who after four days they said, stank. To him the Lord Jesus restored physical life. And by restoring life to the lifeless he was physically raised from the dead. And don't you see that by the restoration of the presence of the Lord Jesus to you.

By the person of the Holy Spirit indwelling your human spirit. And seeking to re-invade your soul to re-establish the Christ rule within the area of your total personality. So that your whole humanity becomes available to God.

By this process you too are raised from the dead. Life imparted to the lifeless. This is what in the Bible is called being born again. The spiritual regeneration which is the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

And Titus reminds us in verse 5 of the third chapter of Paul's epistle to Titus. Not by any works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his mercy he saved us. By the washing of regeneration, new birth, a second birth.

The renewing of the Holy Ghost. Whom God sheds abroad upon us abundantly. How? Through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Because the death he died as our Saviour qualifies us to receive the life he lived as our Lord.

The Good Man Who Needed Salvation: Cornelius

So it's incumbent upon me essentially tonight to ask you the question that Paul asked these Corinthians. He asked them to examine themselves. Whether they were in the faith. And this evening meeting is specially designed to help some who are not completely certain about their position in the Lord Jesus.

You see the fact that you may be a reprobate it sounds rather an ugly word. The fact that you tonight sitting here in this Katoomba convention. Maybe within your own family circle. Side by side with genuinely converted parents or brothers and sisters.

Or alongside some friend of yours whom you have accompanied here. Maybe just up for the day. The fact that you are a reprobate. The fact that you are a counterfeit. Who were you to be examined not by your own heart but by God himself at this moment.

Would inevitably be rejected. Because there's no spiritual content to you. Because Jesus Christ does not yet live within you. That fact in itself does not mean that you're a hypocrite. It doesn't mean that you're bad and hostile.

And deliberately repudiating God's word to your heart. It doesn't mean that at all. It could mean that. But it does not of necessity mean that. Indeed I would be extremely surprised tonight. If there were anybody sitting in this gathering who was hostile.

I can't think why you would come if you were hostile. I can imagine lots of other places you could go to tonight if you were hostile to God. And hostile to the gospel. And hostile to the Christian faith.

But I can't see why you would come here tonight. No there are many who are not in the faith. In whom the Lord Jesus Christ does not yet live. And yet they are genuinely seeking after righteousness. And genuinely seeking after God.

But this wonderful miracle hasn't happened yet. And I think that it's far more likely that you're in that category. If you're not yet truly born of God. I think that's why you're here. In other words.

Using the term in its comparative sense. It's very possible for you to be a very good person. And yet not to be saved. And by way of illustration. I want you to turn with me. To the Acts of the Apostles.

Cornelius's Faith, Prayer, and Need for Christ

And the tenth chapter. And examine just such a case. A good man. A very good man. In the comparative sense of the term. In its human context. A good man. Who desperately needed to be saved. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius.

A centurion of the band called the Italian band. And this is how he is described. A devout man. One that feared God. Not only so. But his fear of God was so patently genuine. So obviously real. So convincing.

That he feared God with all his heart. Now that says a lot for a man. When a man's devotion to God is of such a genuine character. That his own children subscribe. That tells me a whole lot about the character of that man.

There's nothing that grieves me more than to see. The children of converted parents growing up indifferent to the things of Christ. And sometimes hostile. It wasn't so in this man's case. With all his house.

And from the context we may also understand that there were those of his household servants. Some of the soldiers who were under his command. Who had been equally impressed. He was a devout man. He was one that feared God with all his house.

He gave much alms to the people. He recognized need and want. Where he founded and took such means. As were within his material power to put it right. And he prayed to God always. Was he a good man? Well I think he would pass muster.

I think this man could have slipped into this convention. And we might all well have accepted him. By virtue of the reputation that he had earned. By his devotion to God. By his practice of religion in its truest sense.

And by the wholesome, healthy, invigorating influence that he had upon his own family. And upon those of his own household. I think that if he had had the opportunity as so many of us have had. Since our earliest days to learn the language of the saints.

He could have come and spoken it. And prayed it and sung it. And nobody would have doubted for one moment. But that this Cornelius was one of us. But he wasn't. He wasn't saved. God recognized that he was a man who was genuinely seeking to be saved.

He wanted with all his heart to be at peace with God. A God whom till then he had never come to know in any real personal sense. And yet a God whom he worshipped with genuine devotion. And God says, I'm not going to despise you, Cornelius, for your ignorance.

If a man seek, he shall find. Now send for Peter. Here's his address. And when he comes, he'll tell you what you ought to do to be saved. Now isn't that simple? And isn't that wonderful? The Lord Jesus gave this pledge that if a man seek, he'll find.

Now just imagine that God looks down from heaven. And he sees you sitting in this building tonight. You've been a faithful, loyal churchgoer. You have subscribed to the Christian creed. You've recited it without hypocrisy Sunday by Sunday.

Insofar as it's been within your capacity, you have sought to do good. You've wanted to be saved. You've wanted to know God. You've wanted to be acceptable by God. You have a personal affection, maybe in love and admiration for Jesus Christ.

And yet God sees deep down in your heart that the miracle has not yet taken place. Whereby the Lord Jesus has been enabled on the grounds of redemption to come and take up residence within you. Christ is not yet in you.

Now what will God do? Well I want to say this. With the utmost conviction, God will not despise all your sincere endeavours of the past. He does not despise your ignorance. But he will take every measure necessary to make it quite certain that you know how to be saved.

And that may well be just precisely why you're here tonight. By divine appointment. It's a very thrilling and a wonderful process. I never cease to thrill at this. That if God looks down from heaven anywhere at any time in any nation.

Under any circumstances, however unlikely. Into the heart of a boy or a girl or a man or a woman and sees them hungering after God. Hungering after repentance. Hungering after salvation. Hungering after the certainty of sins forgiven.

He will move heaven and earth to make quite sure that that individual comes to the knowledge of the truth. And I want you to know and understand this Christian friend. That to you and to me has been given the priceless privilege of being mobile for God.

Let this be a word to you who are already redeemed. And whose humanity has already come to be inhabited by the Lord Jesus. Now directed by his Holy Spirit as the hallmark of your sonship. You are to be available to him day and night.

That he may move you as he will to cross the path of the seeking soul. Now isn't that a priceless privilege? And this of course is the secret of it. Soul winning. Simply being available to the Holy Spirit to be brought into contact with those whose hearts God knows are as genuinely questing as was the heart of Cornelius.

Following the Spirit to the Seeking Soul

I can remember. Told some of you this down in Sydney. Driving along an outer barn in Germany and I saw a boy of 17 years of age about. Standing on the side of the motor road trying to hitchhike back north up to Hamburg.

And I passed him because the car was so full. Having a number of passengers, my wife and her baggage. And for that reason I thought well now don't squeeze anybody else in. The springs already were in reverse.

But about 300 yards beyond something inside said go back and pick that boy up. And I'm so thankful to God for the obedience that was granted to me then to that tiny voice. It always rebukes me for the occasions, the multitude of occasions when I've probably been too stupid, too dumb, too lazy, too idle or too busy to hear that voice.

But that occasion I did hear it and I did obey it and I went back. And I picked him up and that very evening he received the Lord Jesus. That was eight or nine years ago. He's on our evangelistic staff today in Germany.

Has been my German assistant for the last three years in our conference grounds in England. But that always thrills me. Here's the boy standing on the road. And God looks down into his heart. A boy who sees.

He told me when he stepped into the car I belong to a Lutheran church on the outskirts of Hamburg in Großglockenbeck. I belong to the Evangelische Jugend which is the youth organization of the Lutheran church.

But he said I don't know God. And I don't know Jesus Christ. I ask questions and I get a cold, complicated, philosophical, theological, impersonal answer and it doesn't mean a thing to me. And then rather wisdomly and quietly he said I'd like to be a Christian.

Long before he'd ever said that to me he'd said it in his heart. And when God looked down and saw him standing on the side of the road, do you know what he did? He watched all the cars going by. That's a fact.

I don't know whether mine was the first that had a Christian in. But the moment he saw my car which had a Christian in he said stop! Pick him up. Isn't that what God did for the eunuch in the desert? Except that it wasn't the eunuch that was hitchhiking it was Philip.

It doesn't matter which way round it is. The principle is always true. That God will move heaven and earth. And what a wonderful thing that you're here today. Maybe everybody till now has thought you were a Christian.

Or maybe if they'd had their doubts you thought you were a Christian. And God hasn't despised you. He's brought you here. He didn't send me to you but he's brought you here this time. In this particular instance Peter had to come to Cornelius.

And God gave him Peter's address. I wonder if God knows your address. It's a wonderful thing when God has you on his register. As those whom he can trust. To be dispatched at any time day or night. Under any circumstances.

To make the truth known to the seeking souls. And you'll remember how as God revealed himself in this way to Cornelius and gave him his instructions. To send for Peter. At the same time God was revealing his purpose to Peter as he was there on the roof.

And feeling a bit peckish. He had asked them to get a meal ready down below. And while he was waiting he fell into a trance. And here the sheep came three times as was read to us in the passage from the eleventh chapter.

And there were the unclean beasts. Ceremonially unclean to a Jew. And God said arise Peter slain eat. And Peter said not so Lord. I've never eaten anything unclean. I'm a good strict orthodox Jew. And God said call not thou common that which I cleanse.

There's no room Peter for religious prejudice. And there's no room for national pride. And after the third time. While Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean. Behold the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate.

And called and asked whether Simon which was surnamed Peter were lodged there. And while Peter thought on the vision the spirit said unto him. Behold three men seek thee. Arise therefore get thee down.

Go with them doubting nothing. I sent them. Who was directing Peter's behavior? The Holy Spirit. For they that are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. If you want to recognize a genuine child of God.

It's a man woman boy or girl whose life is disciplined by the Holy Ghost. Discipleship. Disciplineship. You come under the supreme jurisdiction of the Holy Spirit. Who exercises the sovereign rights of Jesus Christ.

And enables you to behave in harmony with his purposes. And Peter filled with the Spirit was available. And you remember having lodged them for the night. He went with them. He asked them why they had come.

Peter's Message: Judgment, Faith, and Redemption

And this is the answer that they gave. I'll read it from the Amplified New Testament because I think it's helpful. In the 21st verse of chapter 10 Peter went down to the men and said I am the man you seek.

What is the purpose of your coming? And they said Cornelius a centurion who is just and upright. Being God fearing. And obedient. And well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation. Has been instructed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house.

And he has received. I want you to notice this in particular. He has received in answer to prayer. A warning. God gave in answer to the prayer of a good man. A solemn warning. He has received in answer to prayer a warning.

To listen to. And to act upon. God has given him a warning. To listen to and to act upon. What you have to say to him. That's why we've come. If you are a good unsaved person. Then it will be my privilege.

And my solemn responsibility tonight. To bring to you as God through Peter brought to Cornelius. A warning. To listen to. And to act upon. And so Peter accompanied. And when he came. He discovered that Cornelius had gathered all his next of kin.

And his closest friends. And there they all were waiting. And Peter said. Verse 28. You know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company. Or come into one of another nation.

But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore came I unto you without gain saying as soon as I was sent for. I ask therefore for what intent you've sent for me. And Cornelius said.

Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house. And behold a man stood before me in bright clothing. Cornelius thy prayer is heard. Thine arms. Are come up in remembrance before God.

Send therefore to Joppa. Call him a Simon whose surname is Peter. When he cometh he shall speak unto me. The way Peter recounts it. In the eleventh chapter. And in the thirteenth verse. He showed us how he had seen an angel in his house.

Which stood and said unto him. Send men to Joppa. Call the Simon whose surname is Peter. Who shall tell thee words. Whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. The message that this man will bring to you.

Which was a message from God himself. Is to tell you what you ought to do. In order to be saved. You've been prayed. You've been devoted. You've reared your family in a God fearing way. You've given money to the poor.

You've earned a magnificent reputation. Even amongst the Jews. Whose office it is for you to subdue. As a member of an occupying army. Of a conquering nation. And yet. And yet. You are to hear words. How you are to be saved.