Poor, Blind, Beggarly Believer — Major Ian Thomas

As the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher, once more tonight will delight to take us into the treasure house and boast, boast of God's Son, so that he may become precious and real and vital in our experience.

Jesus’ Hour of Glorification

Tonight we're going to turn to one of the simplest illustrations that the Lord Jesus used, and of course he delighted to illustrate the most profound spiritual truths in the simplest possible way. And this is one of them, and it's found in John's Gospel and the twelfth chapter.

John chapter 12, verse 23,. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Admittedly, from that introduction, we recognize that this is to be an hour of unusual significance, which at first we might find a little strange, because the testimony of the Lord Jesus was this, I do only, always, those things that please him.

In other words, there was never a moment at any time, on any occasion, in the thirty-three years in which as God incarnate, he walked this earth as perfect man, in which everything that he ever did or said or was, was anything but an absolutely valid expression of his Father's mind and will and purpose.

Therefore, at first we might think it a little strange that there could be any moment of time of greater significance than another. But this is an hour to which reference is made on several occasions.

For instance, in the seventh chapter of John's Gospel, in verse 30, they sought to take the Lord Jesus, but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. In the twentieth verse of the following, the eighth chapter, these words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet come.

In the thirteenth chapter, and the first verse, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

And in his prayer, in his prayer recorded, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. And of course in the same chapter, the chapter from which I quoted the first verse, and the twenty-seventh verse, 12, 27, said the Lord Jesus, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?

But for this cause came I, unto this hour. So quite obviously, this hour was to be one of unusual significance, and of course the Lord Jesus, as you know, leaves us in absolutely no ambiguity as to what was to occur on that occasion.

For he goes on in the twenty-fourth verse of that twelfth chapter of John, Verily, verily, I say unto you, accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground, and die. It abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

I'd like to read you those two verses out of the amplified New Testament. In the twenty-third and the twenty-fourth verse of John 12, Jesus answered them, the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted.

I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains, it remains just one grain, never becomes more, but lives by itself alone. It remains and lives, will never ever become more.

But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. Now, there, in all its sublime simplicity, is the illustration used by the Lord Jesus to comprehend the total purpose for which the Father God in heaven, together with the Holy Spirit, sent him as the Son incarnate into this world.

What's the main thrust of the illustration? Not his death, of course, though his death will be imperative, for without it, he will live and remain alone. The main thrust of the illustration is this, that when a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it is not that it might perish, but that through death its life might be released in resurrection to be shared with countless others.

And in this marvelous, simple way, the Lord Jesus spelled out loud and clear the purpose for which, as God incarnate, he came into this world, lived that sinless life and then died that atoning death, which was to the end that through death, in resurrection, he might share his life with you and with me.

Without which death he would live and remain to be eternally lonely. You see, it's sin that separates man from God. The wages of sin is death. So that had the Lord Jesus never ever been God, as God he was, but just supposing he had never ever been God, but just man, man as God created man to be, man so perfect that the Father God from heaven could look down with utter satisfaction and find in the person of the Lord Jesus the kind of man that in the counsels of eternity God intended man to be.

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, of whom we read in God's word, in him there was no sin. So that had he never ever been God, but only, always, only man, he would have had the absolute right to enter into God's presence and stay there forever as God, as man.

The inalienable right to live and remain forever, to be eternally lonely. You see, there are some folk who would have us believe that the Christian life simply derives from our ability or attempt to emulate the beautiful life that he lived.

That there was no particular significance in his atoning death. They would have us believe that his death was simply the unfulfillment of the life of a noble idealist who philosophized and who paid ultimately the price of being too progressive for his age.

He died the death of a martyr. There's no particular atoning efficacy in the blood that he shed. The significance of his coming was simply the life that he lived. There was no particular significance in the way he was born and there was no particular significance in the way that he died.

In point of fact, there are some who will go so far as to say in point of fact it wouldn't really have mattered whether he was born or ever died. For he is the composite man, he is simply the one upon whom we gaze and in our noblest endeavors and motivated by the sincerest desire we seek to copy the life he lived and the measure in which we emulate his example, that is the measure in which we have become Christians.

In other words you do your best to be like Jesus. Alright let's examine that for a little while. Born as he may have been, and there being no significance in the death that he died, the only important thing being that he lived that kind of life as a target that we should aim at, just supposing the Lord Jesus did only come into this world to live that kind of life and then return to be with his father in heaven.

What could the life that the Lord Jesus lived then, in its perfection, in its sublime majesty and beauty, what could that life have done for you and for me now? Now that's an important question because if you and I are going to stake our eternity upon our capacity to emulate the example that he set and copy the standard that he established, we need to know, for our intelligent satisfaction, what actually his life then purely as an example could do for you and for me now.

Is it a solid, genuine premise upon which we can establish our claim to be Christians? I am a Christian because I'm making Jesus Christ my example, he is the one whom I emulate, it is the life that he lived I try to copy, and I believe that I am a Christian because to the uttermost of my ability I am trying to do just that.

Alright? Then if that is going to be the ground upon which I ultimately expect to stand before God and find acceptability in the presence of my creator, I need to have some solid substantiation of that hypothesis.

Therefore I suggest that it would be very intelligent, a very sensible thing for us to do, to take a few minutes of research and discover what in point of fact the life that he lived then could do for you and me now.

Human Righteousness Cannot Save

Let's turn to the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans as a starting point for our research, Romans and chapter 10. And here the Apostle says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is this, that they might be saved.

His prayer and concern for his own kith and kin in Israel, says the Apostle Paul, is that they might be saved. And of course, that presupposes that they're not, but his concern is that they might be. For, he continues in the second verse, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, they practice religion, they're found regularly in their place in public worship, they testify of their faith, they conform to the requirements imposed upon them by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, they practice their religion with no little sincerity and no little integrity, says the Apostle Paul, I have to credit them with this, they practice religion with a zeal of God, not according to knowledge.

So he is concerning himself here with sincere men and women who practice religion with a zeal of God, but they're not saved, and the reason is that they are practicing religion, not according to knowledge.

I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Now if you do something which is not according to knowledge, of course you do it being uninformed in ignorance. So there must have been something of which they were ignorant in the practice of their religion, which disqualified them from being saved.

Now what was the nature of their ignorance? They practice religion not according to knowledge. What then was the nature of their ignorance? Well we're not in doubt about that. The next verse goes on to tell us, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness.

They were ignorant of God's righteousness. Well what did that do for them? If they were ignorant of God's righteousness, what was the damage that that did to them in their practice of religion? Well being ignorant of God's righteousness, in other words the minimal requirements that he as their creator has the absolutely reasonable right to make upon them as creatures, made in his complete and total image, being ignorant on the basis of their practice of religion to settle for a standard of righteousness that fell tragically short of the standard of righteousness that God as creator has the right to demand of them.

That is the nature of their ignorance. They were ignorant of the righteousness of God, and being ignorant of the demands of that righteousness, were prepared to settle for another kind of righteousness that in God's eyes is totally inadequate.

Let me read the total verse of the third, verse there of the tenth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and in that ignorance going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

You see, if you're ignorant of the demands that God's righteousness makes upon you, then you will go about to establish your own righteousness on some standard that is other than God's standard. And of course, the standard by which they evaluated themselves and established their own righteousness was a standard that was being arbitrarily set by the ecclesiastical authorities of their day and generation, the scribes and the Pharisees.

In other words, respectable religion. Because the scribes and the Pharisees had presumed to substitute their procedures for the demands of a holy God. Now, they were ignorant of God's righteousness because from their earliest days, from their earliest childhood, they had been taught by the scribes and the Pharisees that so long as they attended church on so many occasions, so long as they paid their tithe, so long as they did this and they did that, so long as in other words they conformed to the requirements of their local church as such, that in itself would be equated with the kind of righteousness that would be acceptable by God.

You do, said the scribes and the Pharisees, your stuff, and we'll take responsibility of getting you into heaven. Now, bear this in mind, if you had been a little child, and for the earliest days from the year dot, you'd been taught that all you had to do was to go to church, pay your tithe, do this, do that, exactly what the priest said, and that would represent righteousness, and God would accept you on the basis of your performance, well wouldn't you expect to get to heaven?

Once you'd done your stuff? After all, you've put the penny in, you ought to get your gum! How tragic that there are tens of millions of people today in the world who are reared in the same abysmal ignorance of God's righteousness, and in their pathetic ignorance are settling for a righteousness which is abysmally inadequate.

Do you know what the Lord Jesus said about the righteousness to which they submitted? He called it the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. The respectability that was credited to those who were good churchgoers, and conformed to reasonable ecclesiastical requirements.

Said the Lord Jesus, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Any ambiguity about that? Could the Lord Jesus have spelled it out more categorically than that?

Except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise, under no circumstances, enter into the kingdom of heaven. They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.

Of course, if in the ignorance of God's righteousness and its demands that that makes upon you, you go about to establish your own righteousness on some other basis of evaluation, all that you produce by virtue of your behavior is not God's righteousness, but self-righteousness.

And self-righteousness is hopelessly inadequate. For, verse 4, the same chapter, Christ is the end of the lawful righteousness to everyone that believe it. In other words, the Apostle Paul, as we shall discover in a moment, recognizing that there is no boy, girl, man or woman who has ever been born into this world since Adam fell, who could ever, on their own, satisfy the minimal demands of a holy God, of a man made in his own absolute image, recognizing that fact, sees as the only possible hope for any boy, any girl, any man or any woman to enter acceptably into God's presence, is that that boy, that girl, that man, that woman, should be clothed upon with a righteousness that is not inherently their own, but which has been credited them in the infinite mercy of a holy God, in the beloved Jesus, wearing the wedding garment of his sparklessness, as the Lord Jesus indicated in his parable of the wedding breakfast.

And you will remember, the invitation was given to all in the highways and the byways and the alleys to come to the wedding feast. But in the parable there used by the Lord Jesus, of course, as the custom was, there were servants at the door, equipped with the wedding garments that each guest must receive, placing it over their own clothing, so that each might find equal acceptance in the presence of their royal host.

But here's a man who comes and says, I don't need that. I consider that I'm completely adequate. I'm offended at the suggestion that I am not adequately attired for such an occasion. And the faithful servant at the door says, I'm sorry sir, but I have received strict instructions from the king, that no boy, girl, man or woman invited to this wedding feast is to be allowed in other than clad in the wedding garment that he by royal decree has made available for those who have been invited.

I am sorry sir, I do not have the authority to let you in other than wearing the wedding garment. And that man, in proud indignation, considering himself completely adequate, incensed at the suggestion that he needs anything other than what he is and has got, stalks off in a rage.

But in the parable you remember that the Lord Jesus told, marvellous illustration, an unfaithful servant, runs up, taps him on the arm and says, sir, I understand exactly how you feel. If I were you, I would be just as angry as you are.

I think it's preposterous that a man in your position, your standing, your financial backing, your family pedigree, your culture, your education, should receive such an insolent rebuff. But I'll tell you what sir, I'll get you in, I'll get you in, come with me.

So he takes him round the back. I don't know how he got him in, but he got him in, he got him in, the unfaithful servant. That's really the name of the parable, it's the parable of the unfaithful servant who defying his king, lied to a man, and said he could get him in, and he got him in.

He was just as pleased as punch. All these stupid simpletons, who at the door had received the wedding garment, and here he was, stalking around, advertising his own adequacy. Yes, everything was fine, until the king came, and there was a strange hush.

And every eye followed the gaze of the king. As he focused upon one man, without a wedding garment, and there was a hush, every heart beat that little bit faster as the king, never for one moment shifting his gaze, walked straight across to that man, and he said, friend, how camest thou in without a wedding garment?

And the story tells us that though this man had so much to say to the servant at the door, in the presence of the king he was speechless. And the king said, bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into outer darkness.

Yes, a marvelous picture, you see, of a man who practices religion, not according to knowledge. Who insists on parading himself in the presence of a holy God, in a self-righteousness that he considers he has achieved, in his ignorance of the minimal demands of God's righteousness.

Those minimal demands that have been penned, as I have already reminded you, by the finger of God upon tables of stone that were placed in the hands of Moses in Mount Sinai, in which God plainly indicated, I as God made you in my image, and I expect of you that you give a valid expression in all that you do and say and are of my absolute righteousness.

And when, as I have reminded you, the law says thou shalt not steal, God is simply saying, I as your God made you in my likeness as my creature, and I am not a thief. And when the law says thou shalt not bear false witness, God is simply saying, as your creator I made you in my image, and my controversy with you is that having created you in my absolute likeness so that all creation can look at you and know what God is like, by what you have been doing and what you have been saying and what you have been, you have been telling lies about me.

That's why the Bible tells us, of course, that God isn't measuring how good you are, God isn't measuring how bad you are. He's not particularly interested, because so much of that is the accident of birth, the kind of family you were born into.

He's not measuring how good you are, he's not measuring how bad you are. The only thing that God measures is how good you're not. For there is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory.

And any boy, any girl, any man, any woman who has been instructed in the righteousness of God, knows perfectly well they have come short. And there is only one possible remedy for each one of us who has come short of God's glory, and that is that there should be credited to us something that we do not deserve nor could ever earn, the righteousness of Christ, which satisfies every demand that the law might make upon a man.

For Christ is the end of that law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. Any boy, any girl, any man, any woman who is prepared to admit, I've come short of God's righteousness, I can never attain to it, but I claim by faith what I do not deserve, to have credited to me the righteousness of the one who upon the cross had credited to him my guilt.

And God has pledged his name, his honor, and his glory to accept for his dear sake, who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, who suffered the just for the unjust. Christ, the end of the law for righteousness.

Let's paraphrase that. The Lord Jesus, by the life that he lived, was the last word in righteousness. There was not a single moment at any time, in any situation, or by any act, in which the law in its minimal demands of a holy God upon man, his creature, could point the finger of accusation at Jesus Christ and find him guilty.

For you see, sin is the transgression of that law, and he was without sin. All right? For thirty-three years the Father God looked down from heaven and recognized in the person of his Son, a man, a real man, who by everything he ever did and said and was, gave a valid expression of God's absolute righteousness and said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, who by everything he does and says and is, completely satisfies every demand that we, by the law, make upon a man.

So what could the life that the Lord Jesus lived then do for you and for me now? Well that now is a very simple question to answer. Because you see, if the life that he lived satisfied the demands of the law, then we may say that the righteousness that was demonstrated by his life, may legitimately be equated with the righteousness demanded by God's law.

If the life that he lived satisfied the law's demands, then the righteousness of his life demonstrated the righteousness demanded by the law. There could be absolutely no difference between the two qualities of righteousness.

Because by everything he did, everything he said, and everything he was, he satisfied totally, to his Father's satisfaction, the minimal demands that he has, through the law, imposed upon man. So the righteousness of his life may be equated with the righteousness demanded by the law.

Now we're one stage farther then in our research. Because if the righteousness of his life may be equated with the righteousness demanded by God's law, it is quite obvious that the life then that he lived at that time can do no more for you and me now, than the law can do for you and me now.

Alright? What can the law do for you and for me now? Let's have a look. In the same epistle, but the third chapter. And of course our research is of paramount importance. Because almost certainly in such a congregation as this, there are men and women and young people who are actually expecting to get to heaven on the basis of doing their best.

Of achieving a righteousness that they hope will be satisfying to their creator. And of course nothing could be farther from the truth. What does the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans say? Well, verse 19.

The Law Exposes Sin and Leads to Christ

We know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Well that's reasonable enough. Whatever the law says, it quite obviously says to those who are under that law. In other words, when I walk down the street and I see a speed limit sign, 35 miles an hour, as a pedestrian, I'm not unduly concerned.

I don't usually walk that fast. I say to myself at once, that is for the cars, that is for the motorcyclists, that is for trucks, but that isn't for me. We know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.

In other words, there is no man, no woman, no boy, no girl in this building here tonight, who does not have the inalienable, unchallengeable right, if he, she so desires, to look up into God's face and say, I don't need your Jesus.

I don't need the cross. I don't need his shed blood. I don't need redemption. I don't need this conversion stuff. I don't need to be born again. I demand as your creature to be judged by you as my creator on the basis of my performance in satisfying the demands of your law.

If your law is what you as God demand of me as man, I demand to be judged on the basis of my performance. Now, my dear friend, I want you to know that you have the absolute unchallengeable right to demand of God to be judged on that basis.

Nobody is going to deny you that right. I certainly cannot, and would not, and will not, nor God himself. If you opt in that direction, God will bow to your choice. But out of kindness to you, out of sheer kindness to you, he tells you exactly in advance what the inevitable consequence will be if you insist as his creature upon being judged by him as your creator on the basis of your performance in satisfying the demands of his law.

Read on. We know that what thingsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Could God in fairness, could God in kindness have spelled it out clearer than that? He says if you want to be judged by him on the basis of your performance in satisfying the demands of his law, you may, but all that the law will do will be to stop your mouth, expose your sin, and prove you guilty.

Here's a simple illustration, just to give you a breather, because I'm asking you to think, and that's always strenuous. I might, and this is a simple illustration I've used many, many times, I might say to you I consider myself to be somewhat of an amateur mason.

In other words, my peculiar hobby is a bricklayer. I build things in my spare time. Now it isn't strictly true, but supposing it were. And so in my backyard I build dinky little things, you see. And when I build some dinky little thing, to satisfy my pride, to satisfy my ego, I invite one of the neighbors, and his wife, to dinner.

I give them a very good meal, and I take them out into my yard, and I say, what do you think of that? And being a good neighbor, and having had a good meal, they say, magnificent. I'd like to congratulate.

Man, he said, that's terrific. I wish I'd got your gift. And of course I agree wholeheartedly with everything he has to say. That was the object of the exercise. But you know, when you've done that enough times, finally it gets a little tedious, a little boring, because you know perfectly well they don't know the first thing about it anyway.

So on the next occasion when I have produced something rather unusual, I decide that I will invite a man whose name is Tops in the trade, one of the finest. And I give him an unusually good meal. And then I bring him out, and I say, now what do you think of that?

And as he gazes at it, and my chest swells, and my chin sticks out about seven and a half inches, I can see him drinking it in obvious admiration. And I say, well, what do you think? Well, he says, that's not bad.

I say, I beg your pardon? Well, he said, I said it isn't bad. I said, what do you mean it isn't bad? Of course it isn't bad. I did it! Oh yes, he says, I can see that. And I'm getting a little hot around the neck, like somebody who's been going to church for years and suddenly is confronted by a man in the pulpit who has the impudence to say that he's a sinner who needs to get saved, ought to be born again, that it's time he obeyed the command of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere to repent and be converted.

And of course if we don't agree with that, then the special services conducted throughout this country yesterday were just a religious facade, and nothing but unadulterated hypocrisy. He says, I can see that.

Well, a little hot around the neck, I say, well, what's wrong with it anyway? Well, he said, please don't get angry with me. He said, I think it's a magnificent effort really, for a beginner. And I'm getting a little hot around the neck.

Now, he says, you see, if you had taken the trump to look at it from where I am looking at it, you would see that in point of fact it's sort of leaning, it's about two and a half inches out from top to bottom.

And not only that, but if you had looked at it from here, you'd see there's a sort of ugly little bulge in the middle. And by this time I'm just about to explode. No, he says, please don't explode. Makes such a mess.

He says, just wait a minute. And he slips back into the house and out of his jacket, maybe you won't be able to see that from here, but he produces a plumb line. And he brings his plumb line against my wall.

And a sort of sickly grin spreads across my face. Because you see it's about two and a half inches out from top to bottom. And when I look at it from the place where he's looking at it, there's a sort of ugly twist and bulge in the center.

And do I hate his plumb line? Say, what has this plumb line done for my wall? Made it straight? No, because no plumb line has yet been invented that can make a crooked wall straight. All that a plumb line can do is prove a crooked wall crooked.

That's why crooked walls hate plumb lines. That's why you see it's only those who are not good who don't like to read the Bible and don't like to understand what it's saying. The most encouraging thing to me in the Bible is that God makes it abundantly clear that a man who's good enough to know that he isn't good enough will always be saved.

You can check that in the story of the conversion of Cornelius, who was a man so good in the eyes of his fellow man that as an occupying officer of a Roman army, even the Jews whose nation he occupied couldn't help but look upon him with the utmost affection and the utmost respect.

And yet that man was so good that he knew he wasn't good enough. That's why all really good people always get saved. Not because they're good, but because they're good enough to know that they're not good enough.

That they've fallen short of God's glory. Well if the law can only stop your mouth, expose your sin and prove you guilty as God's plumb line. And that of course is why he gave us the law 430 years after God promised Jesus as the seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 17. 430 years after God pledged the birth of his son Jesus, who in my suppress of our redemption, 430 years after that God gave the law to put to pig-headed proud men and women, they were the kindest, who were exactly kind of a savior.

In other words, continuing in that third chapter of the epistle to the Galatians, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That we might be justified, justified just as if I'd never sinned, justified by faith, in the one who bore our sins in his own body on the tree.

So that if the law is our schoolmaster to teach us that we're sinners, and the life that he lived demonstrated the righteousness that is demanded by the law, what could the life that the Lord Jesus lived then do for you and for me now if he did no more than come into this world, live that life and go back to heaven.

The life that he lived then, if he had only done that and gone back to heaven to live forever, would have done no more than the law can do for you and for me now, because if you choose, so choose, to be judged by God on the basis of your performance in imitating his life that satisfies that law, then his life will condemn you as soundly as the law condemns you, because you can no more imitate his life to God's satisfaction than you can satisfy the demands of God's law to God's satisfaction.

Both would condemn you. Message understood? Then why did Jesus Christ come into this world two thousand years ago to live the kind of life that satisfying the demands of God's law can only stop your mouth and mine, expose our sin and prove us guilty?

To depress us? To make us feel miserable? To grind us in the dirt? To mock us? No. It was the life that he lived that qualified him for the death that he died, as some of us saw last evening. The love of God constrains us, for we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.

The only way one died for all was that all, being dead, can't die, because dead men can't die, they can only stay dead or come alive. And that dead men might come alive, there came into this world one who was capable of dying, because he wasn't born dead.

Because you and I were born the fallen seed of a fallen Adam and he wasn't. Said he to Pharisees, you are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. You were born by natural animal birth and as such you were born into this world of the heirs of a fallen man.

I was born miraculously conceived of the Holy Spirit, not inhabited by sin, but inhabited only by God, to present my body in totality, body, soul, spirit, mind and emotion and will, twenty-four hours every day, seven days every week, for thirty-three solid years, to my Father as God, through the eternal Spirit, through whom my Father, having given himself to me without measure, might teach my mind, control my emotions, direct my will and govern my behavior, so that for thirty-three years, by everything I do and say and am, clothed with that flesh and blood, presented to me by my Father on that first Christmas morning, when I was nursed in my mother's arms, I might give a valid, unspotted, unblemished, unsullied expression of my Father's mind and will and purpose.

And then, having lived as man, spiritually and physically alive, to his total satisfaction for thirty-three years, I could look up into my Father's face and say, Father, the hour has come, that this grain of wheat may fall into the ground and die.

Because, Father, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it will remain, yes, it will live, yes, but it will remain and it will live, Father, forever, lonely. And, Father, because they're dirty, because they're sinful, because they've transgressed our law, because they've fallen short of our glory, because as the fallen seed of a fallen Adam, they forfeited our life, no boy, no girl, no man or woman out of any nation, kindred, tribe or tongue, no matter what their culture, no matter what the color of their skin, no matter what their financial stability, no boy, no girl, Father, no man, no woman on this earth, this planet that we made to be inhabited by man in our image, not one boy, girl, man or woman, Father, can ever come alive.

But because, Father, we agreed in the eternal ages of the past, that on the cross you should credit me with their guilt and I would die in their place, forfeiting your presence, Father, that life that they by nature do not possess, you can credit to them my death in full and final settlement of their account.