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Grace and peace to you from God, our Father and from the Lord and

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Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen. You may be seated.

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In the end, it all comes down to Jesus.

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Those are true words, but very strange, when I once heard them spoken

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by a Jewish rabbi to me, and some others, in the end, it all comes

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down to Jesus.

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You may not know this about me, but in my undergrad, I was a criminal

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justice major pre-law. I was planning to go to law school before

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deciding to go to the Seminary, but I was in school in Southern

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California. Where there just lots and lots of General Ed requirements.

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And I filled up most of my general led by taking classes in the

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religious studies Department. That kind of just showed

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I just had a natural interest in religious studies. And I recall there

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were three Jesuit priests in that department. two

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Liberal Protestant pastors one was LCA, this is before the ELCA

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existed just to date myself. There was one Jewish rabbi and then as an

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adjunct, professor Professor one, Muslim scholar, who later, became

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the Iman of the mosque of the mosque in Garden Grove. And they got to

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know they liked me

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they were all proud when I went to the seminary though, angry that I

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came to this Seminary.

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When they found out that this was a seminary, I was going to attend.

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But I remember talking once with one of these professors and he

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complained about the religious Studies classes.

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He said you know we designed these courses for secular minded people

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to teach them about religion and why religion is important. And yet,

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all we get in these classes are a bunch of Christians, right?

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But California, just excelled with a lot of Evangelical Christians

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back in those days and everybody taking these courses, they said it's

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just 90% Evangelical Christians and he said, you just know the reason

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they're there, is they want to get some training so they could better

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witness Christ to Muslims, and Hindus and Jews.

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And that's they, the goal of

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this department was to get us all to respect every religion, equally.

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And then I, then they say, of course, why are you taking these

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courses?

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And it's kind of well, yeah, I guess I want to get some training and

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how to witness Jesus, responsibly to all these other people. But one

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of my favorite classes was the basic world religions, which was taught

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by the Jewish rabbi.

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This was the one guy who did not resent, the fact that they were all

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Christians in his class.

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In fact, he once said, I love the fact that I've got a bunch of

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Christians listening to me because he said, I just can't wait to argue

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with you.

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And every class would be this, like, friendly back and forth, why we

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believe this, why are you believe that.

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And eventually we found out this guy had a very interesting history.

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He was born and raised a Christian, he was Roman Catholic.

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He even went to the seminary to become a Roman Catholic priest.

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But while at the Seminary, he abandoned his Christian faith and

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converted to Judaism.

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This guy had studied, Greek even came in with his Nestle-Aland.

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Think it was addition 25 back in those days and he could, he would

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read passages from the Greek, whenever a Christian, would bring up

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some new testament passage.

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But what was strange was, though, he was a convert to Judaism from

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Christianity.

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His parents were converts to Christianity from Judaism and when Are

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your parents still Christian?

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He said sadly

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yes, they are like rocks immovable.

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And so again this is a class where most everybody is a Christian.

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And I remember all the hands went up when he told the story and then

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somebody asked, well, why did you leave Christianity and go back to

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Judaism? And his answer was you know, there's a lot of reasons, but in

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the end it all comes back to Jesus.

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It all comes down to Jesus.

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And well, what do you mean by that?

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And he said, well, All the be a Christian and then he said to be a

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Christ tian, you got to believe that Jesus is the Christ and I no

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longer believe that Jesus is the Christ.

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So I'm no longer a Christian and then the hands went up. And okay,

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well, doctor

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why do you not believe that

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Jesus is the Christ? And he said, it's really basic.

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All the Messianic prophecies that you guys

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say are Messianic prophecies are not Messianic

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prophecies. The Messianic prophecies that we say are Messianic

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prophecies are Messianic prophecies.

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And he cited actually our reading today, Jeremiah 33 and said, you

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know, when the Messiah is here, there's going to be a son of David

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sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, Levitical priests are going to be

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re-established and Jesus didn't do that.

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Therefore he's not the Messiah.

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And again bunch of hands went up and somebody said, you know, he's

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going to come back and he's going to do all those things then bring in

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the fulfillment.

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And he said, he made us a promise.

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He said, you know, if Jesus does come back the way you say, I will

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believe that he is the Messiah.

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And then somebody rose their hand,

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I think was me, and said, you know, that may be a little too late. And

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he said and he said, you know what, that actually scares me right.

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There was a pause and then suddenly, the different line of questions,

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begin.

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Well, okay, we know why you left Judaism, but why did your parents

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you

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left

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Christianity.

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But why did your parents leave Judaism to become Christians and he

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knew his parents very well.

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And so he said, well in the end, it all comes down to Jesus.

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You see, they think he is the Messiah and that's why they're Christ

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tians.

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They confessed Jesus to be the Christ.

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And then we asked okay, why?

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And he said, we argue about this every time we get together but

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they're convinced that that servant in Isaiah especially Isaiah 52

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53, that that could be no one

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but Jesus. They're convinced that this servant of Yahweh and whom the

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Nations

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will put their hope well dah that has to be Jesus.

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I mean they would say historically

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who is the man?

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The one Israelite above all others, in which the Gentiles have placed

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their hope?

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And they would say, historically, it's obvious, it's Jesus.

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They would say, who is the guy in Psalm 22, that Jesus actually

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quotes, who has the holes in his hands and feet, its Jesus.

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And then finally he said there was that one thing he can never argue

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back the fact that they said their salvation had come to them through

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Jesus.

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They experience salvation, they experience justification by trusting in

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Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

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And they knew that their God, the God of Israel had accepted them back

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as his people that he had restored them.

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In a sense

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they could say that Judah is now at rest, at least for us because we

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are Jews who now rest securely in the grace of God, that we have

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received through faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

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And he said he there is no academic answer, he would give back to

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that.

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And they would say, yeah

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Jesus was the righteous branch of David.

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And therefore we could say of Jesus

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the Lord is our righteousness.

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I got to know this man

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a little better one-on-one and he really was conflicted about leaving

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Christianity and he really said, I wish Jesus was the Messiah. But it

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just for him, he came back to the fact that he was not sitting on a

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throne in Jerusalem right now that what that for him was the reason he

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rejected Christianity. Yet his parents trusted the same Jesus for

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their salvation, as do each of you.

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When we hear this lesson read in its entirety, we all know the first

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paragraph, that God does promise that even as his Covenant with day and

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night will not be violated.

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He is going to ensure that there will be a day when the sons of David

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sit upon the throne and when there is no lack of Levitical, priests to

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serve him before his Altar. And in response to that, I was thinking

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hard maybe one of our Old Testament, professors can come up and give

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an explanation but I end up going back to what Paul says in First

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Corinthians

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 one verse 20.

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No matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.

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So through him, the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. And so

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I proclaim to you what I believe and what I know and what you know

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that there was a righteous branch that sprung up for David and that

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righteous Branch was our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Who did come to Israel, his people. Who did come to save his people

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from their sins and who accomplished that in his ministry.

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And so in Jesus, all the people of Israel who believe in Jesus can

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say, the Lord is our righteousness.

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Kind of a nice play on words there.

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Zedekiah the last son of David to sit upon the throne.

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His name means the Lord is my

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righteousness. But Jesus gives us one better.

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The Lord is our righteousness.

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And if that were not enough this gospel that Jesus brought to His

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people, Israel has gone forth from them, through his Apostles, and has

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come to all of us Gentiles so that we could look at that same Jesus,

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Israel's Savior and say there is my savior there is a righteous Branch

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for David

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that is also a righteous Branch for us.

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For in him, you too have experienced justification, God has declared

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you righteous from your sins, and rebellions. God has reconciled you to

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himself and you are now his people in Jesus Christ.

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And so we could say, of Jesus.

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The Lord is our righteousness. Even us Gentiles

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the Lord has brought his righteousness to us through his son, Jesus

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Christ.

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And so in the end, yes it always does come down to Jesus the author

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and Perfecter of our faith.

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The Lord is our righteousness, so God declares it to you today in

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Christ

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Jesus our Lord.

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Amen.

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And May the peace

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that passes all understanding

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keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.