(Kersten, Heidelberg Catechism, Vol.1. part 7) The Person of the Mediator Revealed Lord's Day 6 Psalter No. 135 st. 1, 2 Read John 5:1-18 Psalter No. 124 st. 1-5 Psalter No. 333 st. 3, 4 Psalter No. 227 st. 1, 2 Beloved: For those who acknowledge that the old Reformed doctrine is entirely based upon God's Word and is accordingly confessed in Forms of Unity, it is very sure, that no sinner can be saved outside of Christ. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke of Him, when he said to the inimical Jewish counsel, "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The Lord Jesus Himself testified, to quote no other Scripture, that He was come into the world to save sinners. He invites by His Word all those that hear that Word, to come unto Him so that they shall have life in His Name. Notwithstanding the good confession to which we agree, notwithstanding the fact that Christ is presented to us in the Gospel, nobody can or will come to Him. The Lord tells us so in John 5:40, "And ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life," and in John 6:44 Christ says, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him." Our pride, our self-righteousness, our enmity prevent our coming to Christ to be saved by grace. Only by the effectual drawing of the Father shall a sinner who has learned by faith to see his sins and misery, seek refuge in Christ. In the history of the Netherlands there is a clear illustration of this. John Van Oldenbarnevelt, having been sentenced to death by twenty-four judges, refused to ask for pardon when given the opportunity by Prince Maurice. He would rather die on the scaffold than ask for pardon, because that would be an admission of guilt which he would not acknowledge. We also would rather be eternally lost than be saved by grace through Christ, unless by the irresistible operation of the Holy Spirit, we are convinced of guilt and sin. The Catechism then also, after having cut off all hope of deliverance out of the deep state of man's misery by any creature, has maintained the justice and pointed out the only way of escaping the righteous judgment and of being again received into the favour of God. That way of escape is in such a Mediator Who is very man, and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also very God. Who that Mediator is, is shown to us in the sixth Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism, which now asks our attention. Lord's Day 6 Q. 16: Why must He be very man, and also perfectly righteous? A. Because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned, should likewise make satisfaction for sin; and one, who is himself a sinner, cannot satisfy for others. Q. 17: Why must He in one person be also very God? A. That He might, by the power of His Godhead sustain in His human nature, the burden of God's wrath; and might obtain for, and restore to us, righteousness and life. Q. 18: Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very God, and a real righteous man? A. Our Lord Jesus Christ: "who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Q. 19: Whence knowest thou this? A. From the Holy Gospel, which God Himself first revealed in Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and lastly, has fulfilled it by His only begotten Son. In this Lord's Day the Person of the Mediator is revealed, Who has the necessary qualifications, and this is done so that I we are given the reasons why He must be very man and perfectly righteous, II it is explained why He must be very God; III the Person of the Mediator is made known to us; IV Scripture is shown to be the only source of knowledge of Him. I Not until the 6th Lord's Day does the Catechism reveal the Person of the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace. The previous Lord's Day did speak of the possibility of man's redemption by a Mediator, but the characteristic of Lord's Day 5 is that it speaks only of the state of deliverance, but keeps the Person of the Mediator hidden. It spoke of the riches of that deliverance that not only brought atonement for sin, but also would restore the sinner to God's communion. Full salvation was shown us. The soul crushed by the righteousness of God cannot be content with less. Oh, the soul has learned by the light of the Spirit to know its deep misery, as condemned by God's justice, and banned from God's fellowship. Then in the fifth Lord's Day, his hope of perfect restoration in the communion of God was revived. Thus the Lord wishes to restore the weary soul and show him the salvation He has prepared for His church. Those are the encouragements of love by which the soul lives and which causes it to hope, regardless of what condemns it. Oh, there is a possibility for a lost soul, and hope for a guilty soul. The question, how God's justice is satisfied, and by whom salvation is merited remains still hidden. Whenever the law makes the soul feel its condemning power, the soul seems to lose all its foundations, so that no refuge remains. Although the treasures of Christ are shown, yea, given to the soul, as Rebekah received of Eliezer precious gifts from Isaac, as long as He Himself does not come to the soul and enlighten the eyes to know Him, all firm grounds are lacking, and in spite of all instructions, the sinner keeps turning to his own powers. All God's children must experience that historical knowledge of the truth cannot give light. It seems to them as though they had never heard the name of Jesus. Thus the Heidelberger makes you understand what agonies the convicted soul experiences before it goes to Jesus. And all this serves to make us know the greatness of the deliverance and the glory of the Mediator. Notice how the Catechism seems to prepare the sinner according to the Word of God for the revelation of the Mediator. First it shows the possibility, then the greatness of the deliverance as requiring a Mediator who is both very God and very man, and now at last it shows the reasons why those requirements must be met. Thus the seeking soul inquires: "Why must He be very man and also perfectly righteous?" It is more than mere curiosity that prompts this question, the questioner is prompted by his soul's longing after the only Mediator, Who must be very man and also perfectly righteous: "Because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned, should likewise make satisfaction for sin, and one who is himself a sinner cannot satisfy for others." The Mediator must be very man, hence he must possess all that belongs to the human nature, that means both body and soul, like unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted. God's justice required it. "The same human nature which has sinned must make satisfaction for sin", says the Instructor. Does not God's Word say, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die", and again, "They know the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death." Therefore, according to Gods immutable justice, the human nature which sinned must be punished, and it would be unjust and therefore entirely impossible for God to punish any nature other than the one that sinned, even if that could be done. Hence the Mediator must be very man. Moreover, He must be a man out of men, out of the race of Adam. No, He did not bring from heaven a human nature formed by the omnipotence of God, without man's intervention. Then He would have been outside of the human race, and would have had no fellowship with men, and hence could not take our guilt upon Himself. He engaged His heart to approach unto God for His elect, to take our nature upon Himself from a virgin in the fulness of time, and to be the matured fruit of Mary's womb. He showed Himself to be very man during His sojourn upon earth from day to day. He ate and drank and slept; He was tired and hungry; He wept. In short, He was like unto men in all things, sin excepted; according to body and soul He was one of us, very man. I will not now speak of the fountain of comfort that lies in Him as the sympathizing High Priest, Who knows our wants, and can now sympathize with us in all things, Who understands His people in whatever circumstances they may be. In this Lord's Day, just the necessity of Christ's truly human nature to satisfy the demands of God's justice is shown. "Forasmuch then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." He must then be very man, according to Paul's explanation, in order to conquer in our nature death and the devil, and to deliver His people out of their claws. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Only in the true human nature could sin be avenged and God's justice satisfied. The Mediator was also promised as such; He was the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; He was the kinsman Redeemer, the High Priest, taken out of men. "Wherefore in all things it behaved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Hebr. 2:17) Oh that our soul might see that Mediator by faith. In paradise, man blinded by Satan's deception, aspired to the glory of God. God spoke, "The man is become as one of Us." But in the Mediator, the second Adam, God became man, to be subject to the law which man is obliged to obey, and to bear the punishment that rests upon us, and thereby reconcile us to God. Because of God's justice the Mediator had to be very man, that is, having body and soul, as we, a man taken from men, the true seed of David. Only thus can He be our High Priest. "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God." (Hebr. 5:1) But He must also be a perfectly righteous man, that means He must be without sin, without original and without actual sin. How could the Divine nature enter into such a close union with the human nature, that they are united into one person, if that human nature of the Mediator were not entirely sinless! How could the Mediator approach unto God if He had sin! Indeed, how could He be a Mediator for others if any guilt rested upon Himself! Then He would be subject unto death for Himself. To be able to plead for hell-worthy creatures, the Mediator had to be very man and perfectly righteous. Moreover, as we have already heard in the fifth Lord's Day, the Mediator and Redeemer must also be very God. Let us then give ear to the instructor, as he declares, II why He must be very God. The punishment of sin is an eternal punishment, that is, punishment without end; there is no completing of it. Supposing that a mediator came who was a real and righteous man, he would have had to suffer eternally. Never, no never could he have cried out, "It is finished", never would God's justice be satisfied, never would salvation be accomplished for God's elect. Although it is necessary that the Mediator be very man and perfectly righteous, He must also be more than all creatures. He must also be very God, in order to bring His work to completion. How clear, how understandable the lesson of the Catechism is in Qu. 17: "Why must He in one person also be very God?" "That He might by the power of His Godhead, sustain in His human nature the burden of God's wrath; and might obtain for and restore to us, righteousness and life." Because of His Godhead, His human nature was able to bear the burden on God's wrath. He suffered only in His human nature; God cannot suffer, nor die. In soul and body, hence in His complete human nature, but in His human nature alone Christ bore the burden of God's wrath. His divinity sustained His humanity and therefore He could finish bearing it. How could He have withstood Satan's temptations after forty days of fasting in the wilderness, if His divinity had not sustained His humanity? How could He have left Gethsemane where His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, if He were not very God? How, let me conclude with this, could He arise from the dead if His divine nature had not given to the human nature such a victorious power, that death nor the grave could bind Him? Only as God could He give eternal value to His suffering which (figured from birth to death) lasted thirty three years, so that this temporary suffering would be sufficient to remove the eternal punishment of sin and to bring life and immortality to light. Moreover, the Mediator had to be very God both to merit life, and to restore life. Not only must the punishment be removed, and life brought in, but that life must be brought in both by meriting and by application. We cannot go to Jesus and in our own strength accept and enter into the life He has merited. It is the work of Christ to apply the blessings He has merited. Joshua the High Priest had the filthy garments taken away from him and was clothed with change of raiment; he did not do all this himself. How many want to accept Jesus in their own power! Of how many we fear, that they are accepting Jesus with an historical faith, and are comforting their souls with a fancied salvation, because they do not understand that the Mediator can only be a complete Savior when He not only merits, but also applies eternal life? The practical denial of the Mediator's work in giving life, which is so prevalent in these days, is no less than the total negation of the Mediator's ability to fulfill the demand that He be very God. We are dead in sin, and no more than a corpse can accept, though the whole world be proffered to him, no more can our souls accept the merited salvation. The Mediator must be God, in order that He may merit and apply the righteousness and life that we have forfeited and lost. The Mediator who was to redeem Adam's lost sons had to be God and man - the one Mediator; He must therefore in one person be really righteous man and very God; He must possess both natures united in one person. Hence there are no two mediators, one being God and one being man, no! only one Mediator, Who combined both natures in the unity of His Person; God, the Son, the Second Person in the blessed Trinity Who took upon Himself a human nature, not a human person; one Mediator Who in answer to the question, "*Who* art Thou?" can say, "I am the Son of God," and at the same time to the question, "*What* art Thou?" can say, "Very God and very man." What an incomprehensible mystery! Two natures united so closely in one person that all that is done in the human nature was an act of the Son of God! "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." God was manifest in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen of the angels;" God was seen in our nature, the Second Person in our flesh; God was judged guilty and was justified since He became man; God suffered; God died, not in the Divine, but in the human nature. What He accomplished in the human nature was the work of the Divine Person, and was therefore of eternal value, could therefore pay the eternal debt, and could therefore conquer death, since the eternal One even in death remained united with the human nature. We deprived ourselves of life; He merited life and restored life. Oh, how great is the redemption of the sinner fallen in Adam; it is a work of God. There is no other foundation for reconciliation than the death of the Mediator, Who is in one person both very God and a real righteous man. Now then, the instructor in the third place III reveals the Person of the Mediator. "Who then is that Mediator, who is in one person both very God, and a real righteous man?" "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Up to now the Mediator Himself remained concealed; His name was not given; but now, after the qualifications of the Mediator were determined, after the soul must acknowledge that none other than the Son of God can be the Mediator, now the Catechism tells you, that Mediator is our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how the Mediator is born in the soul of His people as the fully matured fruit of the soul? Oh, how long God's children can roam about without Him, seeking Him for years, for long years in an empty sepulchre, feeling within themselves the insufficiency of all comforts, the consciousness that all is too short to cover them before the judgment seat of God, and feeling also a strong desire to learn to know that Mediator, and yet complaining, "I do not see Him." Now I do not say that all are led in the same way, no, indeed; contrariwise the ministrations of the Holy Spirit are so rich, so manifold, that we should dishonor God if we would attempt to make a model of His organic work. But I do fear for those who, without understanding that the revelation of Christ is a miracle of God's grace, think they possess Him. The saving knowledge of the Mediator is a work of the Holy Spirit, so that the soul shall testify, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." There He stands before us, the Mediator, as He is, very God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ. No, those to whom He revealed Himself will never be able to express what lies in that revelation. John makes you feel something of the wonder of it when he mentions the hour in which it happened. When he with Andrew followed Jesus, saw where He dwelt and stayed with Him that day, when his eyes were opened for His glory, for Him, never, no, never will he forget that moment. "It was the tenth hour." Thus when all hope of salvation is gone, and all that is of man proves insufficient, that people who, when they perished in self, learned to know the Lord Jesus, will never forget the hour. Of Him they must cry out, "He is altogether lovely." In Him there is an all-sufficiency of salvation for lost sinners. He of the Father is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. The instructor has literally quoted what Paul wrote in I Cor. 1:30, where he presents Christ as having been given of the Father. We have a given Jesus, one given of the Father. The Mediator once said, "My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven," and also "No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him." May the given Jesus be our portion, the One given in Bethlehem's manger, One given into death and into glory, also given in our heart. The grounds for all true communion with Christ, not only for the church of God in general, but also for each believer in particular, lie in the fact that the Mediator is given us by the Father. Accepting Jesus by faith is only saying "Amen" to the gift of the Father, and causes us to know Him as He was given by the Father, first of all, says Paul, for wisdom. We are all foolish in the ways of the Lord. However much knowledge we gather, we do not know the way of life. However highly the world praises his wisdom, man could never have devised a way by which the sinner could come to God, and never shall man by himself understand what God has planned for his salvation. Even God's children must ever again bemoan their spiritual ignorance, and they would wander from the right way had not Christ been made true wisdom for them. He is Wisdom itself. He enlightens our darkened understanding, and shows himself to be the light of the world, so that even fools shall not err therein. Oh, precious Savior. Would not everyone who hears the words of life from Him, who is enlightened by His wisdom, answer Jesus' question, "Will ye also go away?" as the disciples did, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life?" We shall be saved as fools; the way to heaven is above our comprehension. The more this secret is discovered to us, the less it is understood, and the more it is adored. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." The Lord Jesus was also given unto righteousness and sanctification. These two belong together. His righteousness covers the guilt of sin and sanctification takes away the pollution of sin. We must be delivered from both. The Mediator of the Covenant of Grace took all the guilt of the elect upon Himself and brought the all-sufficient sacrifice upon Calvary, to be quickened on the third day by the Father, for our justification. By Him the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe, for there is no difference. The original righteousness, therefore, which we had lost in Adam, Christ has restored to apply it to His own. In His name therefore is "preached the forgiveness of sins, and that from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Furthermore, the Father gave His Only begotten Son in our flesh to sanctification. Sin corrupted us. It not only made us guilty before God, but it also corrupted our entire being. And now Christ Who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He is the fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. In Him, in His resurrection and His sitting at the right hand of God, all His people are glorified. In Him they are perfect, free from guilt and cleansed from the pollution of sin, as if they had neither known nor done any sin. Christ is also made unto His people sanctification to renew them by His Holy Spirit, so that sin will be suppressed in the soul, our flesh will be crucified, and we mortify our own will and pleasure day by day. Thus He prepares for Himself a church which shall one day serve Him without sin, and He is glorified among those who are sold under sin, so that as a branch of the vine, bearing fruit, it may be purged that it may bring forth more fruit. He has both the power and the ability to do so. He bowed Himself under guilt and sin, so that His people, reconciled and sanctified, can sing with the Psalmist in Psalm 103: "Far as east from west is distant, He has all our sins removed." By faith God's children learn to know something of this here, either in a greater or lesser degree. No, Christ does not leave His work halftone; His deliverance is complete. For that purpose He was given of the Father, and whoever finds salvation in Him shall have the full salvation. That is the secret in which all the people of God, both small and great, rejoice. If only an eye of faith may fall upon that Emmanuel, our soul has full salvation in Him, whether we are the most timid and fearful, or the most established in grace. And yet, a greater deliverance tarries still. Soon when our race is ended, when we have served God's counsel, and He receives us in glory, then, yea, then the people purchased by Christ shall sing of the complete deliverance, and will glorify the Lamb because He bought them with His blood. In heaven there shall be no imperfection, but the perfect redemption for which God gave Christ, demands also the eternal glorification of our body. Both soul and body must be freed from all bonds of sin and of the results of sin; then in the adoration of Him that sitteth upon the throne and of the Lamb, the church shall receive the complete redemption to all eternity. Although the true knowledge of the only Mediator and Redeemer is experimental, obtained by the instruction of the Holy Spirit, yet that experience does not stand alone. God leads His people according to His Word. If men speak not according to that Word, it is because there is no light in them. God's own Word, the holy Gospel, is therefore shown to be as our final point tells us IV the only source of our knowledge of the Mediator. Question 19 asks: "Whence knowest thou this?" And the answer is, "From the holy gospel." By the law is the knowledge of sin, and by the Gospel we learn to know the only true Mediator as very God and very man. That makes this knowledge so sure. We have not followed cunningly devised fables. They have followed cunningly devised fables who build upon vain philosophy and worldly wisdom; they devise a way of salvation which is nothing but a deceptive path to hell. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." How they are to be pitied that place their hope upon man's imaginations. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." God's Word is the light in which the church of old has walked, "a lamp for our feet." Oh, that our soul also might rejoice in that light, and would not forsake it for the will-o-the-wisp of our feeling. No, there is no life without feeling; everything that has natural life has feeling, whether it be plant, animal, or human; would then God's quickened people be without spiritual feelings? To be unfeeling regarding God and spiritual matters is a product of death. Nevertheless, if we float upon our feelings, and that feeling becomes our foundation and our life, we wander away from the firm foundation upon which Zion is built, for Zion is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This our Catechism tells us: Christ is to be known by the light of the Spirit, through the Gospel only. The more our soul is exercised in the Word of God, the more brightly that heavenly light shines upon us, the clearer our knowledge shall be of Christ, the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace; while leaning upon felt impressions darkens the knowledge and we are tortured with many doubts, with unbelief and despair, and Satan's attacks, which causes God's people to deny God's grace whenever they lose the actual sense of God's nearness, all that God has wrought in their soul, and thus they grieve the Spirit and minimize God's love. With all seriousness I would call you back to the Word of God. Let us come down from our heights, people of God! The myrtle tree grows in low places. Tell me, who would ever have found the way of life without the Word of God? Shall one blind heathen ever come to Christ if the Gospel is not preached to him? Do not thousands upon thousands year after year go to eternity lost, because they remained strangers of the truth that alone can speak to them of the only Savior? Has the Lord then in vain revealed Himself in that Word? The upright always turn to the truth to try their soul's experience by it, and to refresh his afflicted, weary, and thirsty soul at this fountain of God's revelations. Only the Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, that He is the Mediator, the Fountain of salvation. It is that holy gospel "which God Himself first revealed in Paradise; and afterwards published by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and lastly, has fulfilled it by His only begotten Son." "I will put enmity between thee and the woman; and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel", thus was the gospel revealed in Paradise by God Himself, just when man had cast himself into the claws of Satan, who thought he had won the victory over God's creature. The glad tiding is from God and was brought by Himself to lost man. Also the patriarchs from Adam to Jacob, and the prophets, both major and minor from the days of Moses, spoke only through Him, moved by the Holy Ghost; while the sacrifices and other ceremonies represent the Gospel, only because God had given them; and much was contained therein. Every sacrifice was thus a presentation of Christ; all the ceremonies are a revelation of the blessings of the covenant, which was fulfilled in the Father's only begotten Son. For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believes. Oh, that dear Word of God; when I found it, I did eat it, and it was sweeter than honey and the honey comb. No, indeed, the church of old did not receive a half gospel, but the full revelation of Christ was given to them also, and was shown in many examples and in living types, as in Joseph, Joshua, Samson, David, and others. Indeed, Israel itself was a type of the promised Mediator. That entire nation and all that God had given it pointed to Him, the true seed of David, of Whom Paul could write, "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness." Come, let us sing of it, Psalter No. 333 st. 3, 4. Application Despisers of God's Word, you have reason to tremble. You scorn the revelation of God to your condemnation. Your likeness is found in Israel in the days of Zedekiah: They mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until (oh, hear this:) until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people till there was no remedy." Oh, that you might learn to bow to His truth before you reach that stage, before your breech is irreparable, and you will hear throughout all eternity--"no remedy". You are still living in the day of grace, in the possibility of being saved. Were life and death not presented to you? Dare you deny it? If not, my fellow-traveler to eternity, what is left for you but to reproach yourself, and say, "It is my own fault! I would not!" The Gospel also opens to God's people the way of life. May that opening become ever wider. May our souls obtain a true knowledge of Christ. Would He then not become most precious to you? Be hungry for the Word of God. There may come a time also for you that the Lord shall "send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." Appreciate then what the Lord still gives. Make much use of the Gospel. In your thinking and reading and hearing stay close to the mind of the Spirit. Do not spiritualize. God's Word is Spirit and life and needs not to be spiritualized. Try to understand the thoughts of God recorded in the Gospel, and the Lord bless your use of the Scriptures, that your soul may embrace the promises of God and that you may glory by faith, saying, "It is fulfilled, fulfilled in Christ", for in Him all the promises of God are yea, and Amen, unto the glory of God. May your soul live out of that fulfillment in Christ of which the Gospel gives us such a rich testimony. Those of you who are convinced of your sin and guilt, seek to know that only Mediator by faith. We cannot be saved without Jesus. May He manifest Himself unto you as He does not unto the world. Persevere with Him, seek Him in the streets and in the broad ways of Jerusalem, until you have found Him. Then your life will be so different! Then He will have the highest place in your life and His banner over you will be love. Then you shall feel more and more the necessity of being found in Him, for in Him is the rest that remains to the people of God. Exercise yourself much in the Word, in which He is revealed in all His mediatorial gravings. May those who are confirmed in their state receive ever more out of His fulness grace for grace, so that they may come up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant, glorious in stature through Him who of God is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Amen. (continued in part 8...) ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-02: krhc1-07.txt .