Published: March 8, 2026 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 86 | Scripture: Romans 15:7-12
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15. As we resume our journey through the latter chapters of Paul's letter Paul's letter this morning, we'll be looking at verses 7-2 of Romans 15.
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Paul writes, "Wherefore, accept one another just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of
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God to confirm the promises given to the father and for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy as it is written.
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Therefore I will I will give praise to thee among the Gentiles and I will sing to thy name. And again he says rejoice, O Gentiles with his people. And again,
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praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him. And again, Isaiah says, "There shall come, there shall come the root of Jesse, and
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he who arises to rule over the n the Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles hope." Let us pray.
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Father, we thank you for this word, for your word, your word, the hope the hope that a hopeless race,
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your great creation, your image, willfully rebelling and falling into corruption and sin.
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But even more so, the Gentiles who are without God and without hope in the world, you have redeemed
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through your son Jesus Christ. It is indeed a great mystery what you have done, what you have revealed that you have done. And we ask
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not that we understand all points, but rather that we stand in awe of the majesty of the mystery. and understand what your spirit reveals to us that we
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might grow in adoration and praise of our great God and that we would might walk in a manner worthy of the name that we bear those who are in Christ that of
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Christian. We pray that you would open our eyes even this morning to your word for your glory and for our good we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
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You read through the scripture, you find uh unlike the religious books of all other religions, we we have a very personal God. We have a God who who gets angry. We have a God who who rejoices.
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We have a God who has a sense of humor. We have a God who also has a sense of irony. And I don't think there's any place where that irony is more exhibited than
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in the person of Saul of Tarsus. He tells us himself in his letter to the Philippians that he had the the trifecta of Jewish
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nationalism, what we might call today Zionism. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, which means he was not one of the henistic Jews. He
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did not adopt a henistic lifestyle or henistic philosophy to his Judaism. He was a hardcore Hebrew of Hebrews. He was
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a Pharisee and he was a zealot. Now, it's hard to imagine a more potent combination for
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anti-gentile bigotry and hatred than those three characteristics of which Paul refers to himself. A
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Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and a zealot is not likely to be made the apostle to the Gentiles. And I imagine when that calling was
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given to him, which was, if you read the book of Acts, pretty immediate as soon as he became a believer, he was commissioned with that particular charge
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that he would carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. I imagine Paul wondered, "Why me?
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"Why me? What in my background? What what talent do I have?" have as the word is often misused today. What native ability do I have? What what in my heritage would make me the right choice to be an
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apostle to the Gentiles? And God would say, "My strength is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you because in
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your weakness, I am glorified. I am strong." So when we look at what Paul says here, I think it's important occasionally to remember who exactly this man was
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and to realize what he had to go through internally in order to become what he did become. And that is not only the apostle to the Gentiles, but the very effective apostle
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to the Gentiles. And theologically speaking, I think it wouldn't be too much to say that he became the architect of the church in which we now worship,
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in which we now believe. And so we wonder, I wondered as I was looking at what he was saying here, quoting the Old Testament, talking about the Gentiles,
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the Gentiles, what would happen in the church today if someone like Paul were converted? I I think that he would immediately become an object of celebrity
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testimonials and and we can almost think back to that day when when word came to the to the apostles in Jerusalem of of Saul of Tarsus's conversion on the road to
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Damascus. They would bring him down to Jerusalem and Peter would be up on the stage at the camp rally of course and he would introduce. This this hater of the church.
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This this man who was breathing threats and murder and pursuing Christians to their death. their death. This man who stood guard over the cloaks of those who stoned the martyr Steven
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has now become a believer. In the modern church, we would want to capitalize on that right away. And it has been done sadly with very bad
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results. When a celebrity professes faith in Jesus Christ, they're immediately put on the stage somehow as vindicating the gospel because if such a famous person would believe, why don't you?
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Well, it seems that more often than not, they had the faith of Simon Magis. It did not last and great harm and blasphemy was done to the church. It
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seems to me that there is a healthy skepticism that the church must have really in a sense toward all conversion. And Paul says in his pastoral letters that that
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novice should become an elder lest he be seduced by Satan. That we shouldn't necessarily, how do I say this? I think we should
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embrace the profession of faith of any sinner and yet hold judgment in terms of the reality of that faith until it bears fruit. And I think that's what we see in
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the in this man Saul of Tarsus because he tells us in Galatians in his letter to the Galatians that when he became a believer he did not immediately consult
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with flesh and blood. In fact, if you if you do the math, and I've done it several different ways, it seems like he did not enter into any meaningful
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apostolic mission for at least three years and possibly as long as 17 years. He tells us that he went off into the
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desert of Arabia. He he went off to to Syria and and eventually because of the controversy surrounding him, he went back home to Tarsus.
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So what did he do all that time? I think that he studied the scriptures, what we would call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. I think he spent a great deal of time trying to understand
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his new calling, his new life. But I think he was he was immediately convinced that Jesus was Israel's Messiah. I I don't think he had to study
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that because the Old Testament clearly taught him that there were two things that were associated with the messianic reign. One was the resurrection. The other was the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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He experienced both of those on the road to Damascus and in the days following when he saw and heard the risen Lord as he would refer later and when he
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received the Holy Spirit. A Jew like him steeped in the scriptures would understand that the Messiah had come and
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he was Jesus. So, so I don't think that he spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how God did it. I think he was amazed at how God did it. But I
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think based on his letters and especially what we read here in Romans 15, I think he spent the lion share of that time and trying to figure out the
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impact of that appearance of that revelation on the nations. What relationship does Israel's Messiah
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have with the nations? Now, Paul uses Gentiles here in this letter, but if you go back to the actual text of the Old Testament that he's
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quoting, your Bible will probably have nations rather than Gentiles. That's because the word for Gentiles is ethnoi, from which we get ethnic or
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ethnicity. In other words, other nations. That's what the word literally means, nations. And so when a Jew like Paul looked out at the world, he would
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see the human race divided into two groups and only two, the Jews and everybody else who fell under the name
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of Hebrew goim or Greek ethnoi, the Gentiles. You weren't a Jew, therefore you were a Gentile. You were not part of the commonwealth of Israel. Therefore,
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you were cut off without hope and without God in the world. Those were the only two divisions of humanity that a second temple Jew would realize or understand. And now all of a sudden,
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Paul has a commission laid upon him to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, Israel's Messiah, Israel's Messiah, to those other people.
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What does Israel's Messiah have to do with those other people? Was he sent out to procilitize? Was he sent out to to convert Gentiles
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to Judaism? to Judaism? Now, that would have been a logical thought for a Pharisee to have, right? But then we also have to remember what the Lord himself thought about
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pharisaical evangelism. pharisaical evangelism. The Lord says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one procelite, and when he
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becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." Is that what Paul was called to do? To go into the world and make gentile converts to
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Judaism? It seems that he understood right away that that was not the mission, the ministry that was being laid upon his shoulders as the apostle to the
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uncircumcision. It is quite apparent that he did not go around preaching circumcision among the Gentiles. Contrary, he preached against it and boldly would say that
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circumcision means nothing and uncircumcision means nothing. It it seems that as we as we read, it would do us well
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us well to remind ourselves of what a radical change in mindset
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Tarsus. And this is why he was so vehemently opposed by the Jews of his day because he was not going around procilitizing. He was preaching the gospel of Israel's
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Messiah to those other people. Those other people who to a Jew were not a people at all. And yet, as Hosea says, where they were called not my people,
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they shall be called the people of the living God. This was the message that Paul was given. And this is the message that we I think most of us don't really have much Jewish blood in our veins.
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This is what we benefit from. Th this is this is in a sense our part of the story. This is where we enter. But for Paul, this could not be where we enter
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for the first time. When Paul spent those years in Arabia, in Syria, in Tarsus, or wherever he went, I'm sure, pouring over the Hebrew
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Bible, trying to figure out what does Israel's Messiah mean to the nations, to the Gentiles. the Gentiles. He realized that they were included all
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the time. the time. That they were included in God's purpose from the very beginning. He would only have to go back to Genesis 12 when God calls Abram
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calls Abram and he says, "In your seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed." It's not hard. And in fact, this this concatenation of of Old Testament
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passages that we read here are really just a sampling of dozens upon dozens, if not scores, of passages in the Old Testament where we read of the benefit
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of the Messiah of Israel to the nations of the world. The trick was and the controversy was
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did they have to become Jews first? That's I think where the early church struggled and then as that was was somewhat solved
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after AD.70 when the church became more and more gentile in its nature. Then the danger was the development of two different gospels
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and that has been a challenge all the way up to our day. One Lord but how many messages? We see Peter the apostle to the circumcision and we see Paul an
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apostle to the uncircumcision. But did they take different messages? When Peter went out and preached, did he preach a different gospel? He was
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preaching to the Jews to whom the promise of the Messiah had been given. been given. Paul would go out and what did he preach? He preached to the Gentiles to
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whom no such promise had been given. And yet he did not preach that they needed to become Jews in order to become saved. How many gospels are there? Now that may
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seem like a foolish question because I think we know the answer is one. But we live in an age where many in the church
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believe that there is one gospel for this age. But there was a different gospel for the age before ours. And there will be a different gospel for the age following
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ours. But there's only one gospel today, and that is you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. But how many gospels are there really?
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How many gospels has God sent into the world? This was the time that we're reading about here in Romans or in Acts. This was the time where that question
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was to be answered. And Paul's answer, I think, was a resounding one, one gospel, the same gospel for Jew or
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for Gentile. And so Paul did not spend that time when he was um in the wilderness when as it were in Syria, in Arabia, back home in Tarsus.
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He wasn't making up a Judaism for Gentiles. He wasn't making up a new religion, which many people over the last two millennia have thought that's what Paul
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did is he was a brilliant philosopher, a brilliant theologian, and he was very innovative. And he took Judaism and he manipulated it and he he wo it around
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this this person called Jesus and he created Christianity. created Christianity. Paul would say, "May it never be. Because for Paul, if he could not find
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a mission to the Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible, he would not have a mission to the Gentiles. He needed to be able to quote Hosea, to
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quote Isaiah to or to quote Hebrews, I'm sorry, Psalms. He needed to be able to quote the Old Testament to show as he does here in Romans that this was always
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part of God's plan. One gospel, one promise for all peoples. So he opens up, for example, he opens up this letter
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back in Romans 1. Paul, a bondervant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. See, there's only one.
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There's not not more. The gospel of God which he promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was born a
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descendant of David according to the flesh who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness Jesus Christ our Lord. through whom we
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have received grace and apostilhip to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for his name's sake. If
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this had not been prophesied in the scriptures of old, then Paul would have no foundation to do what he was doing. He would have no justification to
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proclaim the message of gentile salvation in Jesus Christ if it had not been prophesied in the holy scriptures. And I think this is something that the
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modern church has lost sight of. We've taken the message of Christianity and we have divorced it from its heritage in Judaism.
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I've often told the story when Angel and I were first married living in Oklahoma City and attending a a church and attending the Sunday school of that church. The elder was teaching the
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Sunday school and I I don't think I'll ever forget unless sils in what he said. He he said very very firmly, we have no need of the Old
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Testament today. Testament today. Now, that that was a very bold statement that you probably won't hear, but it is it is representative an attitude that
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you will see, you will experience in much of modern evangelicalism. And I'm not sure we can even call it evangelicalism if we don't start the good news until
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Easter. If we don't realize that the good news had been preached to Abraham, that the good news had been preached and not believed in by the Israelites in the wilderness. That the gospel that that
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brings our salvation has always been the promise of God and the power of God to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.
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Not a different message. We have a great heritage. The heritage that that we have been
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grafted into has become ours. And and I I often again allude to the fact that that so many of our people here in the United States are and not
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too distant descendants of immigrants. My grandfather was an immigrant to this country. And so my family has been grafted in. Of
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all people in the world, we may be the the the most susceptible to understanding that concept of becoming a different people than we once were. We
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were once again without God and without hope. But by God's mercy and grace through Jesus Christ, we have been grafted in not to a new tree. Oh, here's
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the Gentile vine and here's the Jewish vine. No, it's the same root of Jesse. It is the same seed of Abraham because
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it is the seed of woman. And it has always been God's intention to redeem the entirety of his creation, not simply a Jewish people.
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This is where dispensationalism goes so horribly wrong. And that is to establish two different salvations, two
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different gospels. One for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and another for the other people, everybody else. That is not Paul's
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gospel. And I say Paul's gospel because he says my gospel. But his gospel was no different than Peter's or John's because it was the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus
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Christ. in whom we have received the spirit of adoption and have been brought into that heritage that did first belong
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to the Jews. And for that reason, Paul honors his countrymen and he laments their unbelief and he wishes that even even he himself could be accursed that
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his brethren could be saved. He does not diminish the importance of their part in God's redemptive history. nor does he establish a separate story for the
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Gentiles. It's all one story that begins at the beginning of Genesis. And so And so Romans as a whole, and we're coming to
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the end of the book, but Romans in in large part is a very condensed and a very dense summary of what Paul discovered concerning Christ and the
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nations. one Lord, one gospel. Way back in Romans 3, he he takes those two people groups, the Gentiles and the
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Jews, and he brings them together under the wrath of God because of sin. And so he indictes both Jew and Gentile
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so that he might proclaim the gospel of which he is not ashamed the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.
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He needed to see from the scriptures and he did in abundance that his ministry to the Gentiles was not some new venture on
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God's part, not some plan B church age. No, it was part of the plan all along that in the seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed. And it was
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never the plan that the salvation of God was intended only for Israel. It was intended for the world through Israel. A huge difference.
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huge difference. We can honor the position in which Israel stood as the instrument of God's revelation and of redemption. Salvation, as Jesus said to the woman at the well,
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is from the Jews. He said to her, "You speak of what you do not understand. We speak of what we know." But then he says, "Neither in Jerusalem nor on Mount
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Garazim will worshippers be found." He say, "There's a change coming. Israel had its place. Israel had its part. And when the Messiah came and fulfilled that mission,
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then salvation went forth from Zion, as Isaiah says, it went forth from Zion into the world. And Paul, I'm sure, rejoiced that he should be humbly
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charged with that mission. That's our mission as the nations, as the ethnoy. And perhaps we should reverse even that
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two-fold distinction that the Jews had between Jews and Gentiles. With what God has done in Christ, it is
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hard for me to understand how a believer, a disciple of Jesus Christ, can have in his or her mind any thought of distinction
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between his fellow men. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2 and see if my comment isn't justified.
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Starting in verse 11, therefore remember that formerly you the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you
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were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
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in the world. But now, But now, okay, there's his twofold division. Okay, you the uncircumcision,
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not the circumcision. The uncircumcision, that's everybody except the Jews. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly
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far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the
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dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in himself he might make the two
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into one new man, thus establishing
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How many people can we divide the human race into as Christians? as Christians? I think perhaps two believing and
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the idea of of racism, the idea of ethnic purity or superiority should be abhorrent to any believer in Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ. Now, unfortunately, it is still natural to our flesh. And often when we look inside ourselves, we do see a law at work in our members whereby we look at someone else and we immediately judge or
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fear or hate or hate on the basis of their skin color which has been given to us I guess as a marker of our ethnicity.
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Even though that modern science has shown that below below the skin, there is no difference among us at the level of the DNA. We are all the same.
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But we judge a book by its cover and in the church. And the church has and and and you've all heard and perhaps read some some abominable things said by
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preachers in the name of the Lord concerning people of different skin color, of different ethnicities. different ethnicities. There is no way that that can be
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justified from scripture though it has been attempted. been attempted. It it is very clear that the anthropology of scripture was temporarily
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was temporarily Jews and everyone else, but has always been unbelieving and believing. The sons of man in Genesis and the sons of God,
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the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth, the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem. It has always come down to one's orientation toward God as master and
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redeemer. And it has always been by grace through faith. And so what Paul is saying here I he's saying to the Jews in Rome, I'm sure,
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but also to the Gentiles. And that is if if God through Christ has reconciled you to himself,
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to himself, on what basis do you refuse to be reconciled to one another? That word reconciliation is a key word
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in Paul's teaching, in Paul's writings. In 2 Corinthians 5, when he talks about the new creation, he says, "Any man be in Christ, behold, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. All things
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are new. And God has given us, he says, the ministry of reconciliation. We've already seen in Romans 5 how those who are in Christ have peace with God.
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Now, what he's saying through these latter chapters of Romans, as he says in all of his letters, if we have peace with God, how can we have anything but peace with
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our brothers and sisters? If God has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, that is arguing from the greater to the lesser. If we
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have been given peace with God whom we have justly have justly earned wrath,
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what do we have against our brothers? Again, I need to be clear, at least as clear as I can make words. That does not mean we agree on everything. We still only see as in a mirror dimly. We will
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have differences of opinion, differences of emphasis. We also still need to be careful that false teaching does not creep into the body. That has always been the
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responsibility, for example, of the elders in Acts 20. There are still dangers. There are still stresses. There are fears. There are
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anxieties. And Paul always go back goes back to what God has done for us in Christ. What has been accomplished for us in Christ is our bedrock. And whatever anxieties, fears or even
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angers we may feel, we can always go back to that truth. He has reconciled us to himself through the blood of Jesus Christ. He has given us the ministry of
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reconciliation. I believe Paul's vision for the church was that it was a haven of reconciliation. That it was not divided by ethnicity or
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socioeconomic level. That it was not divided by white or black. So he says there is no there's no Jew, there's no Greek, there's no barbarian, no schyian, no male, no female. All of those social
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distinctions in which we still live disappear at the foot of Christ. They disappear when the cross appears, when the empty
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tomb appears. That there is no distinction among us because we are one in Jesus Christ. And so, as I said, this
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ministry of reconciliation, we we think of it as as we go out and we preach the gospel. We we emphasize the reconciliation that God has
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managed between himself and sinners and and that's very important. But what really manifests to unbelievers that reconciliation that we have between
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ourselves and God. I think what really manifests that to unbelievers is the reconciliation we have between ourselves. That the love of God pours out through our hearts. Romans 5. through the Holy
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Spirit that has been given to us. And so that in the church there is forgiveness. In the church there is unity, there is peace, there is love. Again, not
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but unity in love and peace. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, that that is today's manifestation of the kingdom of God. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
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And without that reconciliation among men, I think our proclamation of reconciliation between man and God rings
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hollow. that when the world hears us preaching, be reconciled to God, and then sees division and schism and hatred and anger, not only within the church, but from the church toward the world. How
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can they not think hypocrites? You preach peace from God and have no peace among yourselves. You preach the
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love of God but have no love among yourselves or from yourselves to others. And I I want to be very clear that I'm not actually
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not actually talking to you. I we have our disagreements and and you all know I've been around a long time here and there have been a lot of disagreements and yet there is still a
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desire to reconcile. There is still a desire to love one another. Now I don't have a lot of experience having been in this church for 37 years
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but I don't hear that from many other churches and from people who go to other churches including my family members and and many friends. And so I'm not saying, but what I am saying is that we live in
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one of those ages in church history where the church as a collective noun is spewing words of violence and hatred,
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to the unbelieving world. We resent it. We hate it. We hate what it's doing to our country. We hate what it's doing to our society. All that is
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fine. It's true. And yet we are ministers of reconciliation and we reconcile. One of the one of the most powerful witnesses that we have in
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the church toward reconciliation between a sinner and God is between ourselves. We cannot legislate away the evils that
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we recognize in our society today. Only the power of the gospel and the grace of God will arrest the corruption of American society.
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American society. Not Congress. Congress is a seedbed of corruption. The church where the hope of the nations
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resides in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ who is himself the hope of the nations. We sang that today. That is where the power of God into
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salvation is. And yet we don't always manifest it among ourselves.
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And so when Paul, who's being charged to go to the Gentiles with this message, a message that had been uh reserved for the circumcision for for thousands of years, now he's to take it to the
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uncircumcised, to the Gentiles. He He had so many passages he could have chosen, but as I as I read through this passage, I couldn't help but think of what the Lord says in Isaiah 49.
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He says, "It is too small a thing." And he's speaking to his son Jesus Christ. It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to
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restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
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That was Paul's mission and through Paul that's the mission of the church today that we take the message of the servant of Yahweh
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of Yahweh that we we not think that oh you know it was really to Israel that he came and really Israel is the only one that matters. God himself said it it's that's too small too small that that's too small a thing. He says
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to his son, "No, that's that's not enough for you simply to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the remnant of Israel." No, that's that's poultry compared to what you will
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receive in glory. I will give you a gift that is commensurate with your majesty. I will give you a reward that is commensurate with your sacrifice. I will
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give you the nations. You will be the light to the Gentiles so that my salvation may extend to the ends of the earth. That's what we have received. That is what we carry. That is what
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we've been given. That is what we bear. As we go into the world, the ministry of reconciliation is also ours. But the judgment of God begins in the household of God.
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of God. And we manifest the grace and mercy of God most when we bestow it upon one another and upon even those other
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people, those Gentiles of today, those people who do not believe. And yet through the love of God manifested in the church, they will be convicted of
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righteousness, of sin, and of judgment. And either by God's grace, they will be saved or by God's truth they will be
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condemned. And yet the church has but one message. I I think as I read through Romans and what Paul has to say about the one and others of the church, I I can't help but
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think that he had in his mind that hymn that he wrote in Philippians chapter 2. And I've I've used this many times.
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He says, "If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy
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complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." I don't
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think anything clearer could be said about our purpose as a congregation. And I think it makes all of our joy complete
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when we live and walk according to these words because Paul says, "Have this attitude which was in Christ Jesus." And so all of this to say back in Romans
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15, all of these verses and so many more that Paul could have said from the Old Testament really just bolster the wherefore of verse 7. And so we end at
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the beginning. Wherefore accept one another just as God has accepted us in Christ
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Jesus. Let us pray.
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apostle when he writes in Romans 7 that we see a law at work in our members that wars against the law of our mind. That we see tendencies and desires, ambitions,
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fears, anxieties, and even hatreds that we know should not be there because we have been reconciled to you. And we have peace with God. And we have the love of
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God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. So, Father, I pray that by your spirit,
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you would manifest that spirit of reconciliation among us and then through us. And not just in this congregation, but in all your people throughout the world. that in a world that is that is
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fraught with corruption and war, hatred, bigotry, prejudice, bigotry, prejudice, we might indeed be a light to the nations. That the church might be a city
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set upon a hill. and that in it and through it the world might see the grace of God through Jesus Christ, the reconciler, the one who has mediated between God and
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man, and who has brought reconciliation and peace. and peace. And in this may we rejoice that we have this firm hope that does not disappoint
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but passes through the veil into the very presence of almighty God. a hope of a glory that is sure and steadfast and cannot be taken away. This is now our
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inalienable right in Jesus Christ that we proclaim ourselves to be the sons and daughters of God and reconcilers, one with another and man with God. We pray
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that you would build up your church for your glory and for the proclamation of the one true gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. in whose name we pray.
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Amen. Well, please rise for the benediction
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from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of
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our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass. Amen.