What Jesus Said Before He Was Born - [Hebrews 10]

I have a question for you, listen to it very carefully please. What did you say when you were born? What did you say when you were born? I did not say what did you shriek, what did you scream, but what did you say when you were born?

I did a quick calculation, it was approximately 18 ,418 days ago I was born. What did I say? Some of the kids looked at me like, my daughter's gone. We don't usually talk that way, what did you say when you were born?

Nobody talks that way. What words did Jesus say when he was born? I've got a better question since Jesus is the eternal son of God. What did Jesus say before he was born? What did Jesus say before he was born?

That's what we're going to look at today in Hebrews chapter 10, please open your Bibles as we look at this eternal son of God and upon his incarnation, upon this God who would one day die on behalf of sinners and be raised from the dead, this God had something to say before he was born.

As it were, upon his descent there was something said, and it was not said to other people, it was said within the Trinity itself. The Father, Son, and the Spirit talked to one another before Jesus was born.

I wonder what they said. By the way, I can't wait to preach this sermon. Some sermons I'm preaching through 1 Corinthians and I just think it's great, it's the Word of God, it's inspired, and I will dutifully preach it, and once I start preaching I have a great time and I enjoy it and it's a privilege to be able to preach.

But this one here, this one's been kind of bubbling and churning, and as we say in the Midwest it's been percolating a little bit, and it's just great to consider the eternal son of God and that he existed before he was born.

No one else can make that claim, existence before they were born. After all, this is the God that, speaking of Jesus in John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word Jesus and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. The eternal, creator, sustainer, sovereign king existed before he was born and he said things and Hebrews 10 tells us some of those things that he said.

Don't you want to know? If I was you, I'd probably quick read ahead, pretending like you were trying to fight Hebrews 10, but quickly reading because I couldn't hardly stand myself. What did Jesus say before he was born?

And this morning we'll look at this passage because it really has everything to do with the incarnation. Of course, Luke 1 and 2 are beautiful passages about Christmas. Of course, when we look at Isaiah chapter 9 and Isaiah chapter 7 and Micah chapter 5, we've got all kinds of passages we could go to when it comes to Christmas or the incarnation.

But I think this is fairly underpreached and so I'd like to preach this morning Hebrews 10 with the effect of these effects, one, that you'd understand it better, two, your awe quotient would increase, that you'd think Jesus existed before he was born.

He said things. He fulfilled promises. And then thirdly, if you're here and you're not a Christian, for you to consider this great God and consider your sins because one day you'll meet this eternal God.

I want you to meet him forgiven. That's what I want. And so we'll look at Hebrews chapter 10 today asking this question, what did Jesus say upon his arrival to birth, to earth? What did he say when he was born?

And we will look at Hebrews chapter 10 and we won't go through every verse, but we'll look at enough. So you'll say to yourself, Jesus, along with the author of Hebrews is majestic. He's superior. The often quoted word in Hebrews, perfect.

He is the excellent savior. No one is like him. No system of religion, no person is like Jesus. And so that's why we're here today to celebrate Jesus Christ, the eternal God. Now let's go to Hebrews chapter 10 and let me give you a quick outline.

The outline will answer this question, why was Jesus born? In other words, why did Christmas have to happen? And I'll give you several reasons. The first reason why Jesus was born, number one, Christ had to be born because all other sacrifices for sin were inadequate.

Verses one through four, every other way for sacrifice, for forgiveness of sins was inadequate. Jesus had to be born because all other sacrifices for sin were inadequate. Now, before I jump in here any farther, remember the writer of Hebrews is painting this picture that no matter what you've got, Hebrew Christians, Hebrew believers who are thinking about Christ, Jesus is better.

He's better than the prophets. He's better than the angels. He's better than Aaron. He's better than Moses. He's better than the old covenant. He's better. What you have might be okay, but it's going to be obsolete because Jesus is better.

We now dive into chapter 10 and we see in the first four verses, every other way to try to get rid of sin is not adequate. Now, as I read the first four verses, I want to ask you this question to think about as I read these first four verses.

If something needs constant repetition, just how good is it? If something needs to happen all the time, can it be effective? Don't you think if something was really effective, it would be one and done?

So the writer here is going to try to paint the picture in the first four verses. Repetition means something's deficient. So let's look at this and we'll see how the Old Testament sacrificial system was not adequate to deal with sin.

Verse one, Hebrews 10, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

Now, if you look back at verse one, continually offered, the word means without interruption. Talking here about the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, sacrifice year after year, day after day when it comes to this feast, this festival time, it can never take away these sins.

There must be some kind of insufficiency if you have to keep doing it every year. There must be some kind of lack or deficit there. Oh, it's another Yom Kippur. Daddy, I thought sins were dealt with last year.

Well, we have to do it again this year. True or false? Animal sacrifices don't make the conscience completely clean. The answer is, found in these four verses, they don't. And don't you want a clean conscience, the writer says to the readers of Hebrews?

Old Testament animal sacrifices were ineffective, listen to this, by design. They were purposely meant to be ineffective. People would still say, you know, but my conscience is still killing me. It was all for the pointing to a greater sacrifice that was once for all.

These sacrifices serve a purpose. Look at verse three. There's a reminder of sins every year. A perpetual reminder. Yes, we're sinful as individuals, as a nation. Yes, we need forgiveness. Yes, we need our conscience cleansed.

But that reminder also was, and yes, this system won't do it. It's inadequate. We can't get there from here. It's interesting, chapter eight of Hebrews, it says, For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

For the real sacrifice, Christ Jesus. No sins to be remembered at all. In this system, yep, we keep on being reminded that we're sinful. Sacrifices were like John the Baptist. Sacrifices were like John the Baptist.

They pointed to a greater reality. John the Baptist didn't come and say, everybody look at me. Hi, I'm the one. Myself and I, thank you. No, what did he do? He was the forerunner. He was pointing to a greater one.

And so, too, these sacrifices pointed to a greater sacrifice. They did help in one regard. They showed how bad sin was. The wages of sin is what? Death. Something had to die. Blood had to be shed. Can you imagine just how serious sin is?

If even a temporary, temporal covering of sin required a sacrifice. God is holy and God is righteous. A sacrifice is needed. But a sacrifice that will last. The built-in obsolescence of sacrifices were to point to something so someone would say, you know, we need some sacrifice that will last, that will count.

I was thinking about modern day sacrifices. How people try to get rid of their sins. I'll sacrifice some time during the holidays. I'll sacrifice some money. Maybe I'll go down to the homeless shelter.

I think these are all fine things, but if you think those are going to get rid of your sins, I'll give up something for Lent. I remember we had a, I know this is not a Lent message, but we had a friend come over to our house and he said, it was Luke's friend, he said, what are you guys giving up for Lent?

And I said, well, you know, the Bible doesn't say you're supposed to give up anything for Lent. So I eat extra things during Lent just because everything God has given us is for consumption. If you're thankful to God that you're not supposed to give up things for Lent, you're supposed to be eating extra things for Lent.

But anyway, this isn't a Lenten service, so let's just keep going. But that's the human condition where you say to yourself, you know, if I just refrain from something, I sacrifice time, money, my goods, my service, I'll give something up, therefore I'll be pleasing in God's sight.

And here with these Old Testament sacrifices, it was built in the system. Yes, there had to be a sacrifice. Yes, there had to be death. But who could save themselves? Who can make the once and for all sacrifice?

My question is this, how can sinful mankind solve his own sin problem? How can you say, well, my heart's wrong because of the fall and my own sin, but my hands can solve my own problem? Can't do it. That's why we need a Savior, Christ the Lord.

Why was Jesus born? Number one, because every other sacrifice wasn't good enough. Number two, now we start getting into the question, what did Jesus say upon his arrival? The second reason Jesus had to be born is that only Christ's sacrifice obediently fulfilled God's plan.

Verses five to seven. Only Christ's sacrifice obediently fulfilled God's plan. And we're going to move into the sacrifice, and it's going to have the character and nature of once for all. Sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.

Superior to the Levitical system. Superior to Moses. And he's going to use a psalm for his point. And the psalm is chapter 40 in the Psalms. And you know what we get to do? You ever eavesdrop on someone?

You ever kind of listen in a little bit? I used to do that with kids a lot of time. They're in their rooms talking. I want to just kind of listen for a couple reasons. One, I want to make sure they're saying the right thing.

And number two, if they say something wrong, I want to prove to them that I am omnipresent. And when you're a kid, you're like, my dad, there's nowhere I can run from God. Yes, I am a father figure. I'm like God to you.

I can hear everything, see everything. So you kind of just eavesdrop. We're now going to eavesdrop on the Trinity talking to one another. How about that? I've heard about FBI people tapping into phone lines before.

We get to overhear, as it were. We have the occasion to kind of put our ear to the wall with a little glass and say, what was the Trinity talking about before Jesus was born? Now, if you're bored right now, I don't know what to tell you.

I have nothing else to offer. This is amazing. Right from Psalm 40, we overhear Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, talking to the Father, the first person of the Trinity. Verse five. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, that's just a Jewish way, a Semitic way of saying when Jesus was born.

When Christ came into the world, he said, he's not saying this to the world. He's not saying this to his father, Joseph. This is the Eternal Father he's speaking to. When he came into the world, he said, he probably said a lot of things, but this is what we have written.

Sacrifices and offerings you, Father, have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. It's the Incarnation. In burnt offerings and in sin offerings, offerings from A to Z, you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, O Father, as it is written of me in the scroll of... How about that? Before Jesus was born, there was an inter-Trinitarian conversation that we get in on, and that inter-Trinitarian conversation was this.

Let's go rescue some people. Let's go rescue some sinners. How do we rescue sinful people? Well, God is a spirit. Men have flesh. So how do we represent them? How do we identify with them? Well, one of us has to take on a human body.

One of us has to take on human flesh. And so the son said to the father, I'll do that. You've commanded me to do it. I'll gladly do it. I'll take on a body to go live the perfect life and the perfect death.

I'll die. Far from, well, this is kind of plan B. This is kind of, you know, flow chart. This didn't really work well, so Jesus was over there. No, this is before Jesus' birth, this conversation. And of course, Jesus had this attitude his whole life.

But here the text is, when he came into the world. Why was it a body? Why did God the Father prepare a body for the son? Well, you sacrifice bodies of animals. You sacrifice the body of the son. It was not an animal body.

It was Jesus' body. A person for the people. A living sacrifice. Literally, the text says there, a body was fashioned. A body was sculpted for Jesus so he could come and fulfill the divine purposes for humanity.

Because Adam, he failed, and all in Adam, they failed. They couldn't live up to the standard of God, perfect righteousness. Everyone has failed. And so there was a system of sacrifice for sins, for temporary covering, but it didn't cleanse the conscience.

And so every year we have to do this. Yes, every year you have to do it. But then one year, it didn't have to be done. Jesus took a body so he could die for people. The Father designed the perfect sacrifice.

The divine body. A human to represent humans. But a perfect human so he didn't have to die for his sins because he didn't sin. A perfect human so he could die for other people's sins. And a perfect human that was also God so he could have enough goodness, enough righteousness, enough holiness to give to everybody that he would like to give.

Not just one, not just two, but all those who would ever believe. Jesus, the eternal God, had to become the God-man so that he could fulfill the Father's will and so he could die for other people, other humans.

Now let me ask you this. This gets very interesting. Do you think there were Jewish people under the Levitical system, their hearts were wrong, they were disobedient, but they'd make sacrifices anyway?

Well, you know, that's what God said and we'll do it, but it was an angry heart, a wicked heart, a disobedient heart. They just got done sinning the day before. We don't care. I don't believe you. I'm glad for what you give the nation and I'm kind of part of the nation, but if you think I'm going to give an obedient sacrifice, a humble sacrifice, a sacrifice from the heart, no, God.

Do you think there are people who sacrifice with bad hearts? So what had to be designed by God in eternity past? In the Trinity. A sacrifice for sins, the wages of sin is death. Someone had to die, but also a sacrifice that was given with a perfect heart, an obedient heart, a righteous heart, a willing heart, a holy heart.

It was a sacrifice for sins, yes, but an obedient sacrifice. It wasn't just sacrifice. Who cares about godly living? I'll just make a sacrifice. No, it had to be godly living and the sacrifice. True or false, or ask yourself the question, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15, 22. I guess you have to say true, it's right from the Bible. True or false, do you believe this Bible quote? That's what I was doing.

Theologically, you think about obedience. There's two kinds of obedience theologically. Active obedience of Christ. He perfectly lived the life we should have lived. Obeyed his parents, obeyed the government, obeyed the law of God.

That's called active obedience. And then there's something called passive obedience that he died on the cross for our sins. So God before time gives the son a charge and that charge is go take a body so you can live the active obedience, be baptized, obey all the law, once a year fast, et cetera, celebrate the Passover and you had to have a body for passive obedience because the wages of sin is death.

There needs to be a sacrifice. A lamb has to be slain so to be slain how can an invisible spirit God be slain? He can't unless he has a body. God says, I want the sacrifice but I want devotion too. I want a devoted servant who sacrifices, a perfect servant who sacrifices animals.

Who can be the perfect servant? So now Jesus is the perfect servant and he is not just the servant but he's also the sacrifice. He's the obedient one and he's also the one who is the sacrifice. Now here's my question.

When did God devise all this? When Luke 22 it says, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined. When Jesus says, yes this is all going according to plan, when was this plan instigated? When was this plan initiated?

When did it start? Well, you know, poor Jesus he started off kind of as a messiah complex he had and then he kind of went south and he couldn't overthrow the Roman government so he got, you know, sadly killed on a cross.

When did this all start? Acts 2, Peter says, Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan of God. He was already planned in eternity past. Listen to Jesus in John 10 talk about eternity past conversations.

I have, John 10, 18, authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father. I got a commandment from my father in eternity past to go live a perfect life and lay down my life as an offering for sinners.

When was that? It was in eternity past. And you said, Mike, you've already said that a half dozen times. I know, but it's so mind boggling I'm going to keep saying it. The reoccurring theme in the gospel of John is Jesus was sent by the Father.

I was going to have you look them up but I'm just going to read you a few. Sometime type in sent, John's gospel. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

For whom God has sent utters the words of God. This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He has sent. God the Father sends the Son. My question to you is, when? And the answer is before Genesis 1.

How about that? I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. John chapter 6. Jesus said to them if God were your Father you would love me for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord but He sent me. He sent Him into the world. Jesus had to be born. Why was Jesus born? Number one, all those sacrifices were inadequate. Number two, because He had to obey the Father.

Number three, Christ had to be born to save people from their sins. Verses 8 to 10. Lots of reiteration there but we will read verses 8 to 10 and talk about this great salvation. Verse 8, when He said above, excuse me, when He said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, offerings from A to Z.

These offerings are according to the law. Then He added, behold I have come to do your will. You see the reiteration there? He does away with the first sacrificial system in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The Son says, I've come to do your will. What was the will of God for the Son? Perfect life including redemption.

I've come to redeem people. By the way, I'm sure glad He did because I can't redeem myself and no other spiritual leader can redeem you from your sins. One man said, consider the fact that if it's God's provision for man's redemption was through the agony of His beloved Son, God will not be impressed by any other means of salvation which men may devise or in which men may put their trust.

Father, you've sent me on a mission. I'll obey. I'll go redeem the people that you've given me. Titus 2, and He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession.

Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. The Father and the Son and the Spirit had this great plan before time began and certainly there were two or three witnesses there within the Trinity and Jesus went and obeyed.

He took on the body that the Lord had fashioned for Him and He perfectly lived in that body as a human and then He died on the cross for It happened. It worked. That's why they sing in heaven even now.

Worthy art thou to take the book and break it sealed for thou was slain and did purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. B .B. Warfield said there is no greater title of Christ more precious to human hearts than Redeemer.

Look at verse 8 and when He had said above you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings. He's just trying to add these all up so we know they're all insufficient.

These are offered according to the law. He's not ultimately pleased with those things. He's pleased with what the Son would do and how the Son obeyed the obedience of His Son who never sinned and you know when Jesus came in one of my favorite verses and if you're kind of a young man maybe you'll think this is something the man in me really likes.

I don't know if I'm showing you my further strangeness or not but verse 9 I have come to do your will. Jesus said He does away with the first in order to establish the second by Jesus coming and sacrificing once for sins He gets rid of the old law and now the old covenant and now He starts the new covenant and you know that word there He does away with the first it means to murder or it means to assassinate Jesus as it were takes a knife and comes up from the back of the old covenant and slits the old covenant's throat and says you're done I'm the new covenant.

The men are smiling the women are saying okay no more I said Jesus Jesus. Jesus didn't come and say well you know that was kind of good and we'll take a lot of the principles that are there a lot of the feasts and maybe we can have maybe the festival the booth that's still kind of good and maybe we'll have a little bit of Passover and we'll kind of Christianize it.

Jesus comes up from behind his back and slits his throat it's over there's no kind of co-mingling. No he does away with the first to establish the second and once that second is established you don't go running back to the first by the violence of Christ death he destroys the old covenant fulfilling all the requirements of the priesthood of Aaron Mosaic law, cleansing the consciences of those who believe.

And look at the benefits we get in verse 10. And by that will we have been sanctified. That's positional sanctification. That's justification. That's to be made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Friends, if it's ever in your mind Jesus didn't really have a body, He just kind of was a spirit being. You're instilling your sins because you need to have a God-man who had a real body, not just a spirit.

And by whose will did this happen? The offering of the body. Friends, I've said it a hundred times because I think it's the most God-honoring thing I could ever say. Salvation does not originate in man's will because man's will is fallen and bound and enslaved.

Whose will is the one that saves here? Whose will before time was involved in preparing the body and this plan that had to happen? Yours? Mine? Yeah, it was kind of like the Father, Son, and the Spirit and Mike were there, kind of we're planning it all out.

You know, God said, I don't want you to be like a robot or something, you know, some kind of puppet or anything, so you come here in the councils of the Trinity, the quadrinity, and then now we're here.

Friends, of course our will is involved after we've been saved. In response to the salvation, our will says, God, I believe. God doesn't believe for us. I trust in you. God doesn't trust for us. I repent of my sins.

God doesn't repent for us. But I'm saying, who's the first cause? The first cause in salvation, the initiator of salvation is God. And a passage like this should bear it out because who was in eternity past?

Planning our salvation. It had to be planned because God knew that all our plans would be what? In your face, God, here's a stiff arm for you. I don't want you. I like my sins. So God and his love, who saves sinners like that, by the way?

Might rescue relatives or help friends, but somebody that would spit in my face if I approached them? I remember when I was a lifeguard, they would always say for training, you know, you're going to go save people, swim up to them.

And you have to be very, very careful. First of all, don't take your eyes off of them when you jump in. Don't let your head go under. Swim up to them and assess it. And here's what you need to do. You're going to try to save them, but they're going to try to drown you.

They're going to drown you. So be very careful. And here are the moves that you do underwater, and here's what you do because otherwise you're going to be dead. And you think, why would I want to save somebody who's trying to kill me?

I guess I have to because I'm making six bucks an hour down at the pool. Who's got that long pole instead? But here's my point. My point is this. God loved us while we were yet enemies. We weren't his friends.

I'm going to do something nice to my friends. In the eternal counsels of God, of course he knew Adam would fall. It was part of the plan to give God more glory because it was more glorious for Jesus to come and rescue sinners than it was to make Adam perfect and unable to fall.

If Adam was made perfect and unable to fall, God could have done that to him. But God gets more glory by devising this great plan and having his son go live the perfect life as the last Adam that the first Adam could never live.

Salvation originates not in man, but in God in eternity past. That is mind blowing. And it's a once for all. That's what verse 10 says, once for all. What other religion in the world throughout all the centuries of mankind has a one sacrifice that's effective forever?

By the way, look at the text, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, do you see that? Why would he write that, of Jesus Christ, once for all? Why? Because the body had to be fully human and the body had to be fully divine, human to represent us and divine so he'd have enough righteousness to bestow on all those who would believe.

So he says Jesus, human, it was a human body, and he says Christ because he's God. Jesus Christ. It's there for a reason. Remember when I was a kid I told you often I thought Jesus was his first name and Christ was his last.

It's said here for a reason, Jesus Christ, double name. So we think, yes, bodily sacrifice, but still deity. Christ bore our sins, Isaiah 53. John 1, he took away our sins. Hebrews 1, he purged our sins.

Hebrews 9, he put away our sins. Daniel 9, he made an end to sin. Here's what theologians call it. This conversation before eternity passed where the Father, Son, and Spirit say, we don't have to rescue anybody.

We could rescue them all. We could rescue some. This agreement, this arrangement, this promise is what we call the covenant of redemption. God made a promise within the Trinity. The Son said, I'll fulfill that promise, and you want me to take a body and go, I will gladly go.

Sometimes we think of it this way, that mean father sent the Son to go die, and that mean father kind of punished the Son with all his wrath. That's the wrong way to think about God, because it was the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit who all agreed, one God, three persons of that Godhead.

And they said, you know, give the most glory to us, to maximize our glory, showing kindness and grace and sovereignty and wisdom, holiness. This is the most glorifying thing that we could ever do. Let's make this plan where the Father will gladly command, the Son will gladly go, and the Spirit will gladly affirm.

I hate to say this, especially kind of on Christmas Day, but salvation isn't even really primarily about us. It has nothing to do with us primarily. It has everything to do with us secondarily. Are you glad?

I'm forgiven. I'm declared righteous. I'm going to heaven. I have the hope of heaven. I have a clean conscience. It's all true. But we live in a world where everything's around us, you know. It's this kind of talk where, you know, God don't make no junk, and you're special in His eyes, and if you're the only person that ever lived, you know, He'd still come and die for you.

And maybe there's truth to all that. Maybe there's no truth to all that. Well, here's the truth. As glad as we are that we're saved from our sins because of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. I'm glad.

We sing. We're going to sing about that today. Rejoice. Let the world rejoice, as great as that is. There's something more important, more glorifying, more spectacular, and that is the triune God in the covenant of redemption saying, we are going to go rescue people, and it's not primarily about their salvation.

It's about our glory. Good side benefit, good byproduct. I never want to speak lightly of my salvation or yours, but I will speak more highly of God's glory than our salvation. You say, well, you can kind of put them together because God was glorified in our salvation.

That's true. But my point is, the eternal triune Godhead made a plan, and on Christmas Day, whenever that was back in June, or now, on Christmas Day, the son says, I'll do your will, and I'll take on that body, and I will obey perfectly.

So when it comes to sacrifices, that sacrifice isn't from a sinful person, a sinful priest. That sacrifice is from a perfect human being who offers not just sacrifice, but also obedience. I like that.

You say, yeah, but you know, theology is not very practical. That's just all kind of esoteric, ethereal, kind of, you know, pie in the sky stuff. How dare you say that? Hebrews is written with two sections.

First section, theology. Second section, application. And you know, chapter 10 is the hinge. Chapters 1 through 10, 18, theology, 10, 19 and following, application. So while we're in Hebrews 10, should this idea that we have a great high priest who cleans our conscience, who sacrificed once and for all, who fulfills the word of the eternal God and eternity past, takes on a body, perfectly obeys.

We're made holy. We're made right. We're declared right. We're declared holy. The list goes on and on when you paint the facets of salvation. There's been propitiation. There's been reconciliation. There's been redemption.

Should it change the way you live? I think it should change the way you live, because if your life isn't changed, then you have not experienced this, would be the right kind of question. I have a friend who's a butcher, and he said he's been cutting meat for 30 some years, and he's never made a mistake before, and he said for a quarter of a second, I stopped thinking the other day, and he cut his thumb almost.

Everything should be okay, and he's a Christian man, and I said to him, you know, just think if he had lived as old as Methuselah, you'd have to live with that, he's 60, you'd have to live with that thumb for 900 more years.