Well, if you have your copy of God's Word, turn with me to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, verses 3-14. Ephesians 1, verses 3-14. Hear now the word of the living God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ. both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Amen. Let's pray. Almighty God, we pray now that on this Saturday morning the preaching of the Word of Christ would be the Word of Christ to the people of Christ. We pray that you would give us aid by the Spirit in both the preaching and in the hearing of your Word. Lord, cause us, we ask, to rest firmly in who Christ is and His securing of sons and daughters for the triune God. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. My task this morning is simple. Well, rather complex. The task is to introduce the idea of the grace of adoption. The confession, which you have on the back page of your program, reads this way in its first sentence. And those of you that are new to the confession, we don't put the confession alongside the Bible and say that they're equal. We confess the words of the confession because we see them rising out of the pages of God's holy and precious Word. Chapter 12. Sentence or phrase 1 reads this way, all those that are justified, God vouchsafed in and for the sake of His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption. Now I am sure most of you do not regularly use the word vouchsafed. So to be clear, this could be defined this way, to grant something in a gracious and condescending way. That's not my definition. That's the definition of others. However, when we hear the word condescending, we often think someone was being rather condescending to me. But what this is saying is the word vouchsafed means that God in this sense has granted us something in His grace and He has condescended. He has come down to us. And what is it that He has condescended by His grace to give us and to do for us? Well, adoption. So a translation could be this. All that are justified, God graciously grants adoption to in Jesus Christ. If you are here, brother and sister, and you are a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, then you have been justified, you have been declared righteous before the tribunal of God, because God is not looking at you, but looking at His Son. And He has declared you righteous based solely on the merits of Christ. This chapter then picks up and says, if you are justified, then God, by His grace, through His grace, in His Son, adopts you. You don't just have a judge who declares you righteous. You have a Father who calls you child. And so this is what our confession begins with in chapter 12. Well, then what is adoption? What is adoption? Undoubtedly, our other brothers will be speaking to this this week. I mean, this this day. But adoption could be defined in the following way. Literally, it means making one your son who is not your son. making one your child who is not your child. Sam Waldron in his work of the exposition of our confession says that the word adoption appears just five times in the New Testament. Many words appear a lot more times. Grace, other kinds of words. But the word adoption only appears five times in the New Testament. But it is a very crucial doctrine for us to understand. John Owen, the great Congregationalist Puritan, defined adoption this way. Adoption is the authoritative, and cling to that word, the authoritative translation of a believer by Jesus Christ. From the family of the world and Satan into the family of God. With His investiture in all the privileges and advantages of that family. I said, hold on to the word authoritative because our text today in Ephesians boldly proclaims that without really using that word. The adoption that we have as sons and daughters is the authoritative work of God. Thus, it is irrevocable. God does not disinherit sons. God does not disinherit daughters. You will be disinherited when the Father is no longer pleased with the work of the Son. So, Owen is right. Adoption is the authoritative translation movement of a believer by Jesus from this family of the world and of Satan to the family of God. Which is why it really is a precious thing when you, on your Lord's Day morning, in the commons or fellowship hall of your church, pass another believer and you call him or her brother or sister. That is a precious, Christ-bought reality. Well, for us to understand adoption, specifically from Ephesians chapter 1, we need to look at one other area from the pages of Scripture which come before it, by way of context. Paul, the writer of the letter to the Ephesians, begins by saying God has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. But this is not the first time that sonship has appeared in the Scripture. You might be thinking if you're new to the Bible and you pick up this book, you begin to read it, you think, okay, well, now here's something new. God has adopted sons. But the idea of sonship really is all over the pages of scripture. Luke chapter 3 verse 23 and then 38 give a genealogy and at the very end we see that Adam was a son of God. Adam was a son of God but sonship was lost in the fall. Were there other sons of God? Well, the nation of Israel was said to be adopted by God as sons. Romans 9.4. Exodus 4.22 says that Israel was called God's son. Isaiah 45. Malachi 2.15. Israel was like a type, a shadow of that which is to come. So you have Adam, and then you have Israel, but then tucked away in Isaiah 56. Turn there with me. Isaiah 56. Verses 4 and 5, we see something absolutely astounding. Adam's children, who are not of Israel, God's adopted son, if you will, in the Old Testament, are referenced, are prophesied as those who will have sonship. Listen to this. Isaiah 56, 4 and 5, For thus says the Lord, To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them, those who didn't have a place, those who could not come near, even to them I will give in my house within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will bring in those who are not sons and daughters and make them Sons and daughters. And of course, Isaiah 56 is in that wonderful grouping of chapters from Isaiah that points to the work of the coming Messiah. So sonship is not new in Ephesians. Do we see the prophecy of Isaiah 56, 4 and 5 coming true? Of course, you know the answer, don't you? We do. John's Gospel. John chapter 1. John chapter 1. You often hear this read, perhaps, in December. But there's a glorious reality to this idea of adoption found there. And it's a completion of Isaiah's prophecy. John chapter 1, verse 12 and 13. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." There is that authoritative translation. There is that movement of a person from being a child of the world and of Satan to becoming a child of God. So sonship is a movement that we find all throughout the pages of Scripture. And its height, its greatest fulfillment, is the adoption that believers, both Jews and Gentiles, black and white, men and women, boys and girls, have when they trust in Christ. So we've read our text, we've looked at what our confession says, we've defined some words, we've laid the context. Now let's dig in for just a few moments to what Paul says about the grace of adoption. Our scripture comes from Ephesians. Interestingly enough, Ephesians 1, verses 3-14 is one long sentence in Greek. We break it up in English. But it's one long sentence. Paul is just overflowing, if you will, riding under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Surrounding the glories of the Gospel. The glories of the God who has made a people His own. It's one long sentence, and if we dig in, we'll see that it's also a Trinitarian sentence. Verses 3-6 really highlight the person of the Father. Verses 7-12 highlight the person of the Son. And verses 13 and 14 highlight the person of the Spirit. And we'll speak later today, Lord willing, about the sealing of the Spirit of the believer. That we serve a God who is one God. One being. Boys and girls, not three gods. One God. Existing always and forever as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Paul brings the Trinity to bear when he says, look what our one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done in making orphans His own. Now in our passage, there's a phrase that keeps repeating itself. I hope you heard it when we read it this morning. In Christ. In Christ. It appears 11 times in just these verses. And in the book of Ephesians altogether, the phrase, in Christ, occurs close to 30 times. Why is that important? Because Paul is repeating a very important reality. You are not a son or daughter of God in yourself. You are not redeemed from your sin in yourself. You are not seated in the heavenlies in yourself. You are not serving a God who has made works for you to walk in, in yourself. Every aspect of your spiritual life is in Christ. You are united to Christ, and Paul boldly proclaims the doctrine of union with Christ. Every aspect of this whole discussion centers not on the adopted believer, but on the rightful son, Jesus, our Savior. So let's look at our text. Having laid the groundwork, three simple things that I want us to see about the doctrine of adoption, and we're finished. Number one is this, brothers and sisters. Adoption is entirely God's doing and is secure. You becoming a son or daughter of the Most High God is entirely God's doing. And therefore, it is secure. Malachi 3.6, I the Lord do not change, therefore you are not consumed. The unchanging God who predestined believers from all eternity Entirely and completely is the One who brings about adoption. Let's look at the text. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. In other words, God is to be praised because He has blessed us in Christ. When you're looking for a reason to praise the Lord, Here is one. He has blessed you in Christ. What are your blessings? Just in this verse alone. Well, you're in Christ. You are in Christ. You stand before God clothed in the righteousness of another. And not only this, you are given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Here at the beginning, God is seen as the rightful recipient of all praise and as the origin of every blessing in Christ. Now, how has He done that? He's to be praised because He's blessed us. How has He done it? Well, v. 4 picks up there, doesn't it? Look at v. 4. Just as He chose us in Him. That is so crucial. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Jesus, of course, in John 6, v. 44, boldly makes the claim, the truthful claim, that no one comes to Him unless the Father draws them. God chose us in Christ. The verb used there signifies a calling to something and a calling out of a group or a number. You were chosen to something and out of something. And the text tells us about God's choice, and we're literally going to look at a few phrases. In Him, God's choosing is connected to Christ. Christ is the one in which this entire choice is centered. We often think of the doctrine of adoption, if we ever do. It's really, I think, the shortest statement in our entire confession. If we think of it, think about it as sort of God making me and myself his son or his daughter. But really, adoption is always centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He has done this in Christ. And he did it before the foundation of the world. This was God's plan from the beginning. And notice there's a purpose. That we should be holy. and without blame before Him and love. Brothers and sisters, adoption comes with a call to holiness and to rejecting of sin. Now, holiness and the believers rejecting of sin is not the basis by which God justifies someone. It's not the basis by which God says, you can now be my son or my daughter. It is out of a righteous standing with God, and it is out of adoption, if you will, that we then pursue lives of holiness. Friend, as Christians, we are called not only to eternal salvation, but to present holiness. But God is described as doing this in love. This work of God is one where God places His affections, if you will, on undeserving sinners. Notice what chapter 2 says, picking up on this theme. Your resume, if you will, is laid out here. Here's your description. Here is what you have in your own strength to present before God Almighty. You were dead in trespasses and sins. in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." That's your resume. Save the next two words. But God. who is rich in mercy, and then here it is again, picking up from chapter one, because of his great love with which he loved us. Brothers and sisters, I don't know how to convey this any clearer than to say it this way. God does not save you and then decide to love you. He just sets His love on an undeserving people and brings them forever into His home. Because of His great love, He gives us mercy. Even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved. And the text continues. The work of God and the saving and justifying and sanctifying and adopting and glorifying of believers is out of God's love. Adoption then is entirely God's doing and it's secure. It's secure. Some of you have spent time doing foster care or doing adoption, literal adoption. And you know in training you often hear, depending on how you go through it, that sometimes when you bring orphans into your home, there may be a situation where an orphan for a long period of time doesn't really allow themselves to get comfortable because they know it's only a matter of time. It's only a matter of time before they go to another home. They're not sons and daughters. their foster care kids. I guess we could use that really as an analogy to say that Ephesians chapter 1 says something startling of you. It says of you, you're a son and a daughter. You are never, ever in foster care. You see, adoption is entirely God's doing and it is secure. That's why Owen uses that word authoritative. God just makes it happen. And he doesn't change his mind. Well secondly, our text points to this reality. That adoption is through Jesus Christ. Adoption is through Jesus Christ. And is irrevocable. Look at verse 5. He's just said that God has done these things in love. And then in verse 5 he says, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself. So God has chosen a people and he has adopted them and the means by which this occurs in Ephesians chapter 1. It may not be popular in evangelical Christianity, but it's by predestination. He has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. Now, we need to be clear, and I know in a room like this, you might be thinking, why is He telling us this? We know this. But to be clear, predestination is not what some have called it. That God looked down the corridor of time to see what you and I would do when offered a choice. Either to trust in Christ or to right behavior. And so he looked down the corridor of time and he chose those that he saw would ultimately choose him. But friends, that is not at all what this text says. God predestined us to adoption as sons. The previous verse says, before the foundation of the world. Now just think about that. I know it's early and we haven't all had our coffee. But if God looks down the corridor of time in order to do something and declare it, who is the ultimate basis for God's action? Not God. And I would commend to you that puts your adoption in a shaky place. Because if you are like me, you are fickle. and you change, and your affections for God wax and wane, and your faith in Christ waxes and wanes. God does not do anything by looking down the quarter of time and saying, well, this is what these circumstances are going to be like, this is what they're going to do, so I'll take that one and that one and that one. Your adoption is meritless. It's meritless. Besides Romans 3.10 tells us what? There is no one who seeks after God. If God adopted those that He looked down the corridor of time and saw would seek after Him, no one would be adopted. So what has He done? 1 Corinthians 1.27-30. He's made Christ our everything. So we perhaps need the subtle reminder this morning that our adoption as sons and daughters is nothing to boast in unless we're boasting in our God. We bring nothing of merit to the table. Therefore, we ought not be prideful as if all of heaven should rejoice that we will be in the number because it's us. You see, God predestined a people because of His love, by His Son, before the foundation of the world, not based on anything in them. And then look at this predestining work. He's predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. Again, a reminder, in Christ occurs multiple times. Now this word adoption is an important one, and I would submit to you that some translations render it adoption as sons, and other translations just render it adoption. And without trying to step on too many toes this morning, Paul actually means adoption as sons, but he means no disrespect to our sisters. There are indeed places where we might say brothers or brothers and sisters when Paul is addressing a congregation. We do have to be careful though that when in our quest for making Bibles gender neutral, we take out theological meaning. Adoption as sons is something that was a reality in the first century. Paul is not saying, hey, it's the men that God wants to adopt. So I'm going to say adoption as sons. Adoption of sons was a Roman reality. A head of a household. wanting to spread his own name and have an heir would bring oftentimes adult men. We often think of adoption as little children, but a lot of times it was 20 year olds, 30 year olds. Perhaps he didn't have an heir. He would bring in a Roman citizen and there would actually be a ceremony. And in some of these ceremonies, not all of them, but in some of these ceremonies, there would be a symbolic back and forth. And the old father, would be there and the new father would be there. And there would be this symbolic back and forth to demonstrate that this one is leaving this household and coming to this household. And it was called adoption of sons. This isn't meant to leave out our ladies. This applies to you just as much as it does to the men. This formal ceremony was a ceremony whereby a head of a household would bring an heir in by which his name would be spread, and he would lavish upon this heir all blessings. Does that sound familiar? God does not need an heir as if he needed anything, but he chooses to adopt a family. And through them make them heirs, that His name, as the text says, might be praised." Well, Ephesians 2 later on picks up on this, doesn't it? In verse 19 of chapter 2, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household. Now, if you're living in first century Ephesus and you hear that, you have the Roman context, the Greco-Roman context in your mind. Yes, it's a true spiritual reality. Don't mishear me. But you also hear in the back of your mind, you mean the sovereign God of the universe, the great Potter Familias, the great head of all families has brought me into his house and made me an heir. You see, adopted heirs regularly became those who were now the chief inheritors, even if they were biological children. So adoption as sons is not just Paul grasping for something to kind of help us see that God loves us. He does love us. But theologically, he is saying, God has done this. He has predestined us to adoption as sons. And why? And here is the other bookend of what I was saying a moment ago. Not because he looked down the corridor of time and saw that you were prettier than anyone else. That you were more astute. That you were more reformed, given the opportunity, than anyone else. Why does the text say that he did it? According to the good pleasure of his will. This work of predestination originates completely in the mind of God and according to his will, not ours. That's why John and his gospel can say not of the will of man. Oh, friend, if you were offered in your flesh, without the work of the Spirit, the opportunity a million times over to choose the God of the universe every time in your fallen flesh, without the aid of the Spirit, you would say no. Come into the family. I'll adopt you. I'll make you my son. I'll make you my daughter. I'll give you all spiritual blessings. I'll put you in my son." Without the work of the Spirit, he would say, no, it is not God looking at you and saying, I want to bring you in my household because you of all the orphans in the orphanage would offer me the best. God just loved you. and lavished the grace of adoption upon you in Christ." Now notice that. Adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 2 calls Jesus our elder brother. All of this occurs by Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. Our adoption is never separated from Jesus Christ. And thus not only is point one did we see that it is God that authoritatively does it, and it's secure. It's in Christ, and therefore it's irrevocable. The Father will never reject the work of the Son. And we are in the Son, including our adoption. Well, quickly, let's look at a third point, and that is this. Adoption is granted freely by grace, not earned. Look at verse 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. That phrase there, to the praise of His glorious grace, there it is again. God's goal is that He and His grace be gloried in. God gets glory in the adoption of sinners. God gets glory. And that's the goal. But notice what the next phrase says. Now, are you ready for a little bit of work in the weeds this morning? Our confession seems to argue that adoption is by grace. And we have a variety of translations here. But the majority of Greek manuscripts that we have, and a few of our English translations render it this way. When it says, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which, or wherein. Other translations kind of leave off the by and the wherein. It's a one word change. And I understand that. But I want you to see that I think that the way that God has given us His Word is that we see the phrase, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which. It is by grace. He hasn't just lavished grace upon you. He has done that. But it's by His grace that you are adopted. Adoption is of grace. Literally, we could say, that God has bestowed favor or grace upon us in the Beloved. This work of God brings us into community characterized by love. So yes, there are a lot of wonderful English translations, but I think if you can just see as you press into verse 6 that it is actually by grace that you have adoption. Yes, you have grace. Yes, He's lavished grace on you. But adoption is by grace. It's not by works. Well, quickly, Paul continues, and he gets to verse 11, and he picks this adoption back up, and he says, in him, verse 11, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined. And in the middle, there are a few phrases which we'll only briefly look at. Redemption, verse 7. A word which means deliverance from slavery and guilt by the paying of a ransom. Jesus says in Mark 10, verse 45, that he's come to be a ransom for many. So this text picks that up, doesn't it? And he says he's a redemption. He's a ransom for us through his blood. The forgiveness of sins. We are delivered from our slavery to sin. A debt which we owed against a holy and just God. And it comes through the blood of Jesus. which is the means of God forgiving sins. Friend, maybe you're here and you got invited today by a friend and you're thinking, this is really exciting that you all believe that God adopts. Or maybe, could I be adopted? And let me just take a moment to tell you that we're talking about one of the components that helps us to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ a little bit better. That message which declares to us that Christ is offered to all who will receive Him. That we are sinful. That God created us in our parents fully pleasing to Him. And gave us in the garden a task to enter into glory. And our first father, Adam, fell and broke a covenant of works with God. See, God and man are not equal. So even before the fall of mankind, God related to Adam by way of a covenant. Obey me and live and turn to my glory. Disobey me and die. We died. Adam died in sin, and we did. And so now Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden, and the priest of the garden, who was supposed to take all of the words of the Father, the promises of God, and make them known in the garden, has now been removed. And every one of his sons and daughters is born in sin. And so we sin because we're sinners. And so the history of humanity is one sin after another, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, he sent his son. From the book of Genesis on, we see the promise, Genesis 3.15, there's going to come the seed of the woman. And the serpent is going to bruise his heel. But he, is going to crush his head. And this has been the movement of Scripture so that it shouldn't surprise us when we get to Matthew 1 and what do we see? We see a list of sons. So and so was the son of so and so. So and so was the son of so and so. We see this seed going and moving until we get to Jesus who is fully God and fully man and He lives a perfect life. And dies the death that we deserve. God, on the back of His Son, body and soul, punishes the sins of all who would ever trust in Him. And so when God offers salvation to sinners, He's not saying sin doesn't matter. He's saying sin has been atoned for. And just like Moses and the serpent in the wilderness, Christ has been lifted up. Look to Christ. Oh, would that you see Christ as Savior today and think tomorrow about adoption. Oh, would that you would see the glorious Lamb of God today and think more deeply about adoption next time. For Christ is offered and it is only by Him that we are adopted into the family of God. Well, Paul says in verse seven, that this is according to the riches of his grace. I love that Paul writes it that way. The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write, according to the riches of his grace, not just grace, it's rich grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will. And here it is again, according to his good pleasure. And then we get to verse 11. And we're back to that idea of adoption, aren't we? We have obtained an inheritance. Look at the tense, no matter what translation you have. In him, also we have obtained an inheritance. In other parts of the scripture, it's almost as if we're kind of waiting to see the inheritance. But here, we've obtained it. It's just like our adoption, it's a done deal. by the predestining will of God. But notice what Paul says in verse 13, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel. You trusted in Christ after you heard the gospel. Oh, that our churches would continue to elevate the primacy of the preaching of the word. Well, he says, and one of our brothers may touch on this later today, that we were sealed. Oftentimes, legal documents in that period of time came with a seal or a mark. And our seal is the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. We have the inheritance. We don't have it all fully realized. It's not all in our hands. We can't see it all with our eyes. But we have it, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise is the guarantee, the down payment, the deposit, the first installment of our inheritance. And then we end where we started. How does Paul begin? Blessed be the God and Father. In other words, God is to be praised. How does he end in verse 14? To the praise of His glory. The bookends of predestination and adoption, and redemption, and sealing, and salvation, and inheritance received, the bookends are the praise of God. Brothers and sisters, for many of us, confessions line our shelves. Theological books abound. And we might pull them off the shelf and read page after page of this systematic theologian or that one, And we might learn all we can learn about all the Greek words surrounding this adoption. We might study this text in detail. We might read what all of the early particular Baptists and Puritans said about adoption. But this is not primarily an academic exercise. This is glorying in the God who is to be praised because He takes orphans and makes them sons and daughters." I pray today that as we walk through the next few messages, each of us would sit back and say with wonder, God be praised! Look at what He's done! Puritan Samuel Willard said this, Am I not still a child? And if so, then I am sure that though He correct me, yet He cannot take away His loving kindness from me. Be always comforting of yourselves with the thoughts of your adoption. Draw your comforts at this tap. Fetch your consolations from this relation. Be therefore often chewing upon the precious gift of it, and make them your rejoicing. Let this joy, the joy of adoption, outstrip the verger of every other joy. Let this joy dispel the mists of every other sorrow and clear up your souls in the midst of all troubles and difficulties. What have I in this life when I walk even through the valley of the shadow of death? I have a Father who has made me His own by His Son, and He's sealed me with His Spirit, and I am not an orphan. But I am a son, and the best news of all is that my sonship is accomplished by the triune God, and not an ounce of it is because of my performance. Because I will fail, but He will not. The calling and election and gifts of God are irrevocable. Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, We're adopted, and we're in His house. And very soon, very soon, He will take us home. Let's pray. Almighty God, by Your Spirit and through Your grace, even today, would You give us the blessing of causing deeper peace and rest in the fact that You've adopted us. That even when we pray and call You, Father, when we look around this room and call our fellow brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, just give us the reminder that for Your praise, by Your Son, and for Your grace alone You have done this. Comfort Your people, we ask. And this we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.