The Joy Of Justification - [Romans 5:1-11]

Christmastime, Crass Materialism, and Losing Joy

Christmastime is upon us and often I get caught up into kind of Scroogeville, losing my joy around Christmastime. We were in the mall yesterday, parking lot up in Sears Town, and kind of stuck, can't get out because of the craziness.

All kinds of people running around and crass materialism and parties everywhere, celebrating everything except Christ's birth, and sometimes I just lose my joy. I don't want to though, I want to have a joy that transcends all earthly issues and to remember that Jesus is Lord at His birth.

And then I read things like this from Upton, California, from St. Mark's Church. There are few causes to which I'm more passionately committed than that of Santa Claus. Santa Claus deserves not just any place in the church, but the highest place of honor, where He should be enthroned as the long-bearded Ancient of Days, the Divine and Holy One whom we call God.

Santa Claus is God the Son. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why. Simply refers to God the Son slipping into the secrets of the heart as easily as He slips down the chimney of a house.

Santa Claus is God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, and whose hand is a pack bursting as it seems with the gifts of His creation at the seams. Santa Claus is God the Holy Spirit who comes with the sound of gentle laughter with the shape of a bowl full of jelly to sow the night with seeds of good humor.

Santa Claus indeed deserves the exalted enthroned place in the church, for He is God the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. Makes you want to lose your joy, doesn't it? How could someone do that? So I thought, well, what should we do today to kind of restore our joy, to make sure our perception is right so we see God for who He is on this Christmas Eve?

Romans 5 and the Joy of Justification

If you'll take your Bibles and open them to Romans chapter 5, I want to show you a passage that should give you joy. Maybe the to-do list hasn't given you joy, maybe the busyness hasn't given you joy, maybe people writing crazy things about Santa doesn't give you joy, but we can go back to the Bible, that's what Bible believers do, evangelicals do, back to the sources, ad fontes as they used to say, to see what God's Word says so that we could have joy today.

And we will see, not necessarily Jesus' coming to the earth, but what He did to guarantee us joy. And we'll see six things that should spur our hearts and stir our hearts to have joy, as we see not Jesus, the warm, soft, cuddly baby, but Jesus, the one who secured salvation from sins for His people.

And by the way, Jesus did what no one else could do. Who else was sinless? Who else had the power of death? Who else could come save sinners? If He was a sinner Himself, He'd have to save Himself. Who else loved like Jesus would love, with a motive of just pure love?

And what we see in Romans chapter 5 is the end, the fruit, the result of what Jesus came to do. In eternity past, there was a pact between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, that had nothing to do with Santa Claus, by the way.

The Father, Son, and the Spirit had a pact to redeem people, to save them, to go on a rescue mission. He could have just let everyone alone, but no, God in His love decided that He would send His Son.

And you know the verse, for God so loved the world, what did He do? He gave His only Son. He sent Him. Verse 17 says of John 3,. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

And so before time began, God had this plan to rescue people, to rescue certain people to please the Father and glorify the Father. The side benefits of salvation certainly. And we see Paul in almost like a hymn, a praise song practically, in Romans chapter 5 extolling the fruit, the effects, the consequences of salvation.

And I just love this passage. I was taught in seminary that if you're a good theologian, and you open your Bible at random, just naturally and normally, it should fall open to Romans chapter 5. So like a good seminary student, I opened it to Romans chapter 5 and just put a huge crease in that thing.

And so it opens up to this marvelous chapter. And what's so marvelous about it is we will soon see that what Jesus came to do, it had many spillover benefits, blissful consequences, one man called them, for Christians.

Yes, God the Father was pleased by the Son's work. He was pleased by the Spirit's work. It was something to glorify God so everyone would say, God alone deserves the glory. But we, thankfully, receive the spillover benefits.

It's not just something that pleases the Father, but it is something that affects us in a very real way. Romans chapter 5 is this great chapter, maybe the best chapter in all the Bible, that shows God's excellence in saving people.

And our response should be joy. That's what I'm after today. I'm after not, well, you know, I'm happy. I'm not after, well, you know, I'm kind of encouraged. Those would be fine. But I'm after something that's deeper.

And that would be joy that no matter what is going on in your life, family, health, relationships, finances, no matter what it might be, that here is the kernel, here is the essence again of salvation.

And this is what we are all about as Christians, Christ followers. Romans chapter 5 has it all. If you've got one chapter to take to a deserted island, what chapter do you think that might be? Well, last Sunday, it was Matthew chapter 5.

But this Sunday, it's Romans chapter 5. This is it. It's just one of those things that when we look at it, we're not going to say, wow, it was me and God on our way to heaven. It's not going to be like my brother says, when you get to God after reading Romans 5, you're going to, Romans 5, you high five God in heaven and say, we did it, God.

We saved ourselves. No, here you can almost see the lens just focusing right as it should to extol Christ for what he has done. If you've ever seen a big telescope, there's an end to look in and there's an end not to look in.

You're supposed to look at the small end, yes? Because then you can see with the lens on the farther end, just the glories of heaven. This chapter will not let us flip that thing around so we just see the reflection of our eyelid in the big lens.

It just magnifies and glorifies God so that no matter what you're going through, you can say, you know, I have joy. I have joy that I'm a Christian, that God did this for his glory with the spillover benefit for me.

And here's this book about being right with God. And if we just jump into Romans 5, if you don't have a pew Bible, there should be one right in front of you, a black pew Bible that you'll need this morning.

If you look at Romans 5, you see this umbrella statement. You see Paul saying, through the Spirit's inspiration, God the Spirit writing through Paul, therefore having been justified by faith. And here's this big word, justification.

I always find it strange that almost in every area of our life, we can know big words. When you go to work, you go to school, you have a new hobby, there's big words associated with things and we just naturally and normally learn them.

But some, when they come to the Bible, are saying to themselves, oh, there's another big word, I can't. The joy of justification. No, God told us this word because He wants us to know it. And here's a word where it describes like a judge and the judge based on the work of another, based on the work of His Son, Christ Jesus, dying for sinners, confirming that fact by raising Him from the dead.

God, like with a gavel, He takes the gavel and He looks not at the sinful one, He looks at Christ and says, based on your work, I'm declaring you what? Not guilty. The gavel comes down in this judicial, this kind of pronouncing way.

Not liable for the law anymore. A verdict of what? Guilty of acquittal. And that's really what this whole chapter is about. That's why Jesus came, by the way, He came to save His people from their what?

Sins. We need the righteousness of God. If you look back two chapters, look at Romans 3, verse 2. If God declares us righteous, it's a big deal, yes, but it's a big deal more so if you realize Romans 3, verse 20 tells us who we really are.

If Jesus wouldn't have come, where would we have been now? Romans 3, verse 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be declared right, can be declared not guilty, be justified, maybe in other people's sights, but not in God's sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

You want to know what chapter 1, 2, and 3 of Romans is all about? That's the summary statement. You can't be good enough for God. You can't try hard enough for God. You can't approach God on your own merits.

You can't saunter into God and say, God, I'm here. No, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be declared right. And then all of a sudden, there's a glimmer of hope. There's a crack. There's a ray of light in this dark room.

Look at verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God, God's righteousness has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. God steps in for the rescue. God is going to do something.

And God is going to say, I know you humans. You're all acting like you're from New England. I got your attention, didn't I? You just all looked up. Where it's kind of the work ethic. I'm going to pull myself up by my own what?

Bootstraps. For those of you who know your Latin a little bit, sola bootstraps, as our pastor, associate pastor would say. Somehow contributing to God. I have this God, this offering, or this worship service, or my Bible reading.

I'm good to my neighbors. I'm offering this to you. But we forget that we've been tainted by the fall and all our works to God have been tainted. We offer nothing good to God. We forget that if Jesus Christ work paid for our sins, how are we going to add to that?

When Jesus said it is finished, we're going to say, well, it's almost finished, but I've got something to add. It's like the illustration I often use. A boy swimming in a lake. One day he yells for help.

The illustration goes, another young man on shore ran to the water and swam out to rescue the first man. In the process of saving the life of the boy who was drowning, the young man lost his life. The two families who had been observing all this were overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of events.

The father of the youth who had been saved approached the father of the dead young man to offer his sympathy. I really can't express how much I appreciate what your boy did and how sorry I am that he lost his life, but I just happen to have a dollar and 83 cents on me and I want to offer this to you as an indication of my feelings.

We just would never do that except when it comes to somehow making ourselves right in God's eyes. Yes, Jesus died, but I've got to do something too. Paul said that just won't work. We need something else.

We need God's righteousness. That's why if you look in your Bibles in Romans 3 .24, we are being justified as a what? Gift by His grace. God does it because He's kind. He's generous. The same God that sends His Son saves people through the redemption which is found in Christ Jesus.

This is the gospel. This is what Luther stood up for. This is the hinge of salvation as Calvin called it. This cannot be underestimated. By the way, it helps me in my own mind if I think of Christ's work this way.

What is the opposite of the word to justify? If the gavel goes down and says not guilty, what would be the opposite of that? The opposite word, the antonym for justification is condemnation. We have no condemnation now because Jesus has paid for our sins and God doesn't require double jeopardy.

God says this based on Christ's work. He says, I'm going to treat you like you've never sinned because my son never sinned. He's also going to say, I'm going to treat you like you perfectly obeyed because my son perfectly obeyed.

And basically, you just have three transactions for this great doctrine that should give us joy. Christ's perfect obedience gets put to our account. Our sin gets put to Christ's account. And God says, that's a wonderful transaction.

Christ, you're in the tomb for three days. I do what? I raise you from the dead. He justifies us. Skip down to verse 27. We haven't even got to the six joy givers yet because we're just giving a little background.

Where then is boasting? I got to heaven on my own. I'm better than you. Why is your friend not a Christian and you are? Because you tried harder. You're better. No, there's no. How can we boast by what kind of law of works but not a law of faith?

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. The old song says, when I survey the wondrous cross, I pour contempt on all my pride. Our lips are zipped. God did it all.

That's why we celebrate. And Paul gives us umbrella statement. We've been justified by faith. And then he gives six reasons to have joy. And let me give you those six. If you're taking notes, these first 11 verses of Romans chapter five.

Now we're up to chapter five. We see these blessed results of justification, six presence, if you will, that we're just going to unwrap that all come from Christ's perfect work at Calvary. His perfect life, his perfect resurrection.

And I love all these blissful consequences. Consequence number one, joy giver number one, really because of justification, because of what Jesus did, you should have joy because Christ came to give you peace with God.

Because Christ came to give you peace with God. Do you see that in verse one of chapter five? Basically what we do here at the church, if you're new is we just preach through the text. Just let the text speak.

Do you want to know the outline to my sermon? It's the outline of Romans chapter five. We have peace with God. Well, that's amazing. Paul says we have peace. In Romans chapter one, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

In Romans chapter two, it's you Jews are sinful. In Romans chapter three, it's they. And all of a sudden now in chapter four and five, it's we, Paul includes himself. And he says, we have peace with God.

We have a different relationship with God. What's the opposite of peace? You almost don't want to say it. Wednesday night, we had an Iwana class. And who was the one teaching Iwana? I think it was, who was it?

There's so many people here. They said to one of the students that because of the fall, because of Adam and because of our own hearts, oh, I think it was Gladman. Maybe it was Gladman who was telling me the story.

I don't know who was telling me the story. And they said, we were enemies of God. And here God comes rushing in to say, there was some kind of difference. That difference was caused by sin. And there was a problem.

And Christ comes to give us peace with the father. What he did gave us peace with God. Jesus is called the what? The prince of peace. Now, I never, when I was younger, thought I'm at war with God. I'm somehow trying to get God.

I've got a sniper rifle. If it could go far enough, I'd shoot after God. Somehow I need peace with God. What I didn't realize is it wasn't me necessarily at war with God. It was God was at war with me because his nature is so holy.

And Jesus came to give us peace. Not like two nations fighting, but like a king and someone in their kingdom. And here comes Jesus. Jesus takes the wrath of God that we deserved. And then now God says what?

Cease fire. Putting down the guns. There's no hostility anymore. You know what a rainbow is, don't you? This is the best illustration I could think of, of having peace with God. We walked out here maybe two months ago.

We saw this double rainbow. Just amazing and awesome. Rainbow consists of two words, doesn't it? Put together, rain and what? Pretty sharp. Okay, bow. What's a bow? Here's the bow, right? Here's the arrow.

When God says, based on what Jesus has done, it's a good illustration. I know it's before Jesus with the rainbow, but it's a good idea of peace. I've got this bow and arrow and it's shaped like this. And I'm going to put it away.

We have some bow and arrow shooters here, don't we? How do you store your bow? Well, that's a good question. I could ask Charlie or Mike or others. Here's how God stores his bow. This way, pointing down, ready to shoot those people on earth.

No, he hangs it up. The bow's placed. It's not aimed towards us. There's perfect peace. We see that in a rainbow. We have peace before God. Colossians 1, verse 19 says, This is not peaceful feeling. You can have a peaceful feeling and still have God angry with you.

This is a status. This is now we have peace with God, not some internal feeling. The word peace means something was apart and now God binds it back together based on Christ's work. We have peace before God.

That's why Peter preached the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. He's Lord of all. That's why Ephesians 2 says, Is Christ our peace? And if you're a Christian, you can say to yourself, I might not have peace with the government.

I might not have peace at home with my family. I might not have peace with my neighbors. I might not have peace with some people in the church. But God looks at me in a whole different way because of what Jesus has done.

I have peace with God. Joy giver number two, found right there in Romans chapter five. If the first one was great, this one almost seems better. You can have joy because he gave you peace with God. That's why Jesus came to on earth.

Number two, you can have joy because he gave you permanent access to God, the father. If you're a Christian, you have permanent access to the father. Still to this day, there are a few people in the church that don't knock when they come in my door.

And I'm always thinking that they're going to be little because my kids and Kim aren't required to knock. Except the secret code knock. Now they can just come barging right in. Some of you still come to my office and you think that you can just walk in at any time and you just kind of saunter right in.

Oh, hi, how are you? Now you know why my door is locked off. It's like Fort Knox. But can you imagine knowing a little bit about the Jewish background with the walls and the courts of the temple, the veils of the temple?

How do you approach this God? When Isaiah sees God, he can't even really look at God. And we can just saunter right on in and say, hi, God, I'm here. You know, we're able to do that because of what Christ has done.

We might not saunter, but we have access to the father. Look at Romans five two. I love this. Not based on what I have done, I get to go to God anytime. Through whom, Romans five two, also we have obtained our induction, introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

God brings us facing himself, access to him anytime we want. I thought about a book this week. I thought I should write a book called God, Our Monarch. That if we understood a king, we could understand God a lot more.

People just didn't walk right up to the king. Hi, King. How you doing? Want to play some tic-tac-toe? I mean, you had access to the king only through one way. And here that one way is Christ. We have entree.

That's what the French would call it. We have a relationship with God. It's shocking to a Bible reader to say we have peace with God and now we have access. Fill in the blank. First Peter 318. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God, that we could have access to the father.

What's the opposite of access? You can just drive down the street and find one of these signs. No, what? Trespassing. How'd you like it? There's this great God of the universe up there and you're not allowed to even enter into his presence.

That's why some people say, well, if somebody who's not a Christian, if he prays to God, does God listen? Well, I'm sure he does because he can hear everything. But he doesn't have to grant the requests.

But we're children. We're adopted. Adam and Eve driven out of the garden of Eden, Cain driven far from the side of Eden. And for God, the father now based on his son's work, he says to Christians, come anytime you like.

It's a throne of grace. It's no longer a throne of judgment. I love that. And we're not brought to God for like a quick interview. The friend back in Nebraska, and he said, I'm interviewing for different jobs.

And this last interview was five minute overview of the company. And then they said, do you have any questions? I said, didn't go well. You're not going to get the job. This is any time we want to behold his face as it were to walk in his presence.

How can a sinner stand in the presence of a holy God? Because Christ is the one who came on a rescue mission to let us do that. And if you see the text, it's this grace in which we stand. Here's the way I like to think about it.

Occasionally I have a stationary bike here and I'll ride the bike. And then I'll say to myself, you know, I've just ridden for an hour and a half or once in a while, three hours, and I'm soaked with sweat.

And I'll say, you know, I've got a soda in the car and I want to get the, I want to get the soda out of the car because I just don't want to drink some water. Then I start walking outside the door, December 30th.

And it's usually two feet of snow by now, super cold. Nobody else is around. And we leave the doors locked here most of the time. And I start walking out the door and I think to myself, if I walk out this door and I shut it and it locks me out, here I am.

It's 25 below windshield. And I'm standing here with a t-shirt soaked to the bone. The Nelsons moved far away. They don't live right next door anymore. What am I going to do? So what do you do? It puts a little doorstop in.

You put a little foothold there. And that's almost the terminology here, where because of what Christ has done, the door to God's presence doesn't slam all the way shut. There's a little doorstop there that makes it open that you can go in anytime you want.

But with the grace of God, he just doesn't leave a little bit open. The door is flung wide open so we can come to God at any time we want. We don't deserve it. We don't merit it. But God said, I love you, and I'm going to do that because my son, the Christ, did that.

And that's why Jude says that Christ can make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy. Well, number three, can it get any better? We have joy because we have peace with God. We have access to God.

Number three, we have the hope of heaven. You should have joy if you're a Christian because you have the hope of heaven. Obviously, if you're not a Christian, you have all the opposites of these. We have the hope of heaven.

I see it in verse 2 of chapter 5. We exalt in the hope of the glory of God. This is not hope so, hope the weather's good, positive mental attitude, PMA, I hope it's going to work out. This is hope based on the sure promise of God that we get to enter in his splendor, his radiance.

We have peace with God. That was something that was in the past for us. We have access with God. We can, present tense, now have access. And now Paul moves to the future and says, salvation, what Jesus did doesn't just affect the past for a Christian, doesn't just affect the present, but also the future.

There is a real hope in the heaven that contains God. And here the text basically is we get to share in his glory. One day we get to share in the glory of God and see him in his full glory. The other day I got a great letter in the mail and it was for a teaching opportunity and I was really thanking the Lord and so happy that I got this opportunity to go teach.

And I was half happy and started to cry. And I was half happy and started, half sad and started to cry because I wanted to call my mom and tell her, hey mom, I got this opportunity to teach at this seminary.

For those of you that are wondering, it's a local seminary. We're not moving away anytime soon. I said, oh, I've just, Kim looked at me and if I cry, Kim's sweet and she cries along with. I thought if I could only tell my mother.

It's like a dream and I could go teach and I just began to cry. And then I said, in my tears, I said, but she doesn't even care now. My wife, my wife, my wife cares. She was happy. My mom doesn't even care.

She's beholding the glory of God. All the trials, self-inflicted trials, all the trials that come because you're a Christian, all the things about work and school and home and all those things, they will end one day.

If you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, it's just beginning for problems. But for the Christians, it's gone one day and then glory and then heaven and then beholding Christ Jesus face to face.

And we partake of that. And Paul is trying to say, you want a reason for joy? God's not at war with you anymore. You have peace. God's not holding you off anymore. Stiff arming you like a football halfback does.

He says, come into my presence anytime. And also there's this future hope where you think I get to go to heaven one day. It's amazing to be in the presence of God rejoicing only through Christ. Number four, we need to speed this up.

Joy giver number four. Peace with God. Number one, access to God. Number two, hope of heaven. Number three, based on what Christ has done. And number four, we can have joy. You should have joy because you can see God's hand in your suffering.

You should have joy on earth because you could see God's hand in your suffering based on what Christ has done. And to have a joy that transcends. Walking into Children's Hospital last Wednesday and just seeing all those children.

How do we make it in this world? Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation. And just because you have peace with God doesn't mean it's going to be a peaceful world. And look at verses three, four and five.

It's gonna be a whole sermon right here. And not only this, but we also exalt our rejoice or have joy in our tribulations. Not because our tribulations are joyful. We're not masochistic. We're not. Oh, yeah, this is great.

But because God does something with the trials in his people's lives. As Jesus is suffering, servant suffered. So to do his followers. We exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about what?

Perseverance and perseverance, proven character. See, God is working in your hearts and proven character. Hope hope doesn't disappoint. How can hope not disappoint? I'm in a trial. I'm laid low. What is happening, God?

Because within our hearts, we have the love of God poured out by the spirit's work. He pours out the fact that God loves us in our hearts. That's the spirit's ministry. We're not just we don't just say to ourselves, we're hoping in the future glory.

We can say, you know what? We can glory in today's tribulations. Because God loves us and he'll help us withstand the trials. And it's not this stoic, you know, come what may. It's God is doing something.

There's something beneficial going on. God has his purposes. God's going to give his son to die in my place. And then he's not going to be concerned about my life. Of course not. I love what one scholar said.

The hope of a hypocrite is like the spider's web. The hope of the believer is an anchor to his soul. And this kind of hope doesn't disappoint. My love for God disappoints. God's love for us, it never disappoints.

He pours out his love into our hearts. Can't help to think about it. But when I think of pouring, this isn't dribbling. This isn't dabbing. This isn't a little dabble do you? This isn't kind of just, you know, just a little tiny bit, couple ounces.

The only thing I can think of for this pouring, this dumping, this kind of geyser-like thing, is when some football player is at the end of a game. It's January 20th. And they get one of those big orange Gatorade things and run up to the coach with a couple other really big guys and dump that thing on the coach's head.

They don't pick one with just a little bit of Gatorade. They pick the most. And here's what's happening. Christ comes on a rescue mission. And that rescuing is such a great rescuing. God doesn't do anything half-baked.

God does it all the way to show his glory. And God says, when I rescue you, you have peace with the Father because I perfectly do it. There's no more cessation. There's no more lack of cessation. When I come and rescue you, you can come into the Father's presence anytime because you're coming in with my righteousness.

You can have the hope of heaven. And when you're on earth suffering, you can still glory because I'm in charge. I'm working these things together for good. And you can tell because there's this love subjectively that just pours out into our hearts that we say, you know what?

I know God loves me. There's no doubt. I can rejoice in this trial. God's working in my heart. But there's an objective kind of love too. Number five, the fifth joy giver. Peace, access, hope of heaven, joy, knowing that God's working in your life while you're suffering.

And now number five, you can have joy because God loves his people in a self-sacrificial way. In other words, God has shown his love at Calvary. There's a subjective love. God is pouring out his love through the Spirit in my heart.

I can feel it. I can sense it, if you will. But here it's objective. Oh, how does God love me? I don't know if he loves me or not. Well, here's the way. Verses six, seven, and eight. For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ, the first time you'll see the word died for the ungodly.

For one will hardly, second time you'll see the word, die for a righteous man. Though perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare even to, for the third time, die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us.

And that while we were yet sinners, Christ, for the fourth time, you'll see the word died for us. Here is the external, the objective proof that God loves his people. They're subjective. The Spirit pours out his love in our hearts.

But here is objective. Do you want to know if God loves you? He's proven it 2 ,000 years ago when he sent his son to die at Calvary. He proved it. It cost him. He sent his only son. And he sent his only son for a strange group of people, for helpless people.

Do you see that in verse six? Weak, uncapable of doing anything for God. No power to say, you know what? Let's just scheme this whole thing out. How am I going to go to heaven when I die? Here was my scheme, by the way.

First, I'm not going to die. And so when I was a young kid, I'd get in the elevator and I'd say, all right, I'm on story 38. I'm in some Chicago building really tall. And if this thing starts going down super fast, then what's going to happen before it hits the ground?

What would you do if you were a kid? Well, I'm going to jump. There's always some kind of little scheme. Got to be careful for this. And we could do that instead. And I just thought, you know what? I am not going to die.

Everybody else might die. But I've got my own little Abendroth scheme. So far, it's worked. But it's the same thing. We, before God rescued us, we were in that same boat. And we tried to devise in our minds some little security blanket.

So we could kind of be comfortable knowing that, you know what? If we die, get in a car accident, everybody else dies. But I know I will. But I know I'm going to be right with God. Because I'm not as bad as Hitler.

I'm not as bad as Osama. I'm not as bad as my neighbor or whatever. I've got this little plan. I'm going to say to God, here's my T-sheet. Here's what I did really good. Here's what I didn't do so good.

This one kind of balances out in the scale of things. And got it all schemed out. God would say through his messengers that there is no scheme that you can come up with to get saved. Because if you could, why would God the Father murder his own son if you could get to heaven?