119. Good Friday Reminds Us We Cannot Earn Grace

Good Friday is not a vague spiritual metaphor, it’s a confrontation with the thing we keep trying to outrun: we cannot fix ourselves by willpower, self-talk, or perfectionism. I share why “give yourself grace” can feel strangely unsatisfying when you’re still carrying real guilt, and why grace from Jesus lands with a different kind of weight. When grace is a gift that cost something, it doesn’t feel like enabling. It feels like rescue. 

We walk through the crucifixion accounts with an eye for meaning and evidence, connecting the crown of thorns back to Genesis, the divided garments back to Psalm 22, and the piercing and unbroken bones back to Old Testament prophecy. I also touch on Christian apologetics, including how details in the Gospels align with historical context and why the Bible’s cross-references matter if you’ve ever doubted Scripture or come from New Age beliefs. 

Then we tackle a modern myth that spikes every Easter: claims that the Bible erases women or hides a “Mary Magdalene” storyline. The Gospels repeatedly name women as present at the cross and burial, which is exactly the kind of detail you wouldn’t invent to gain power in the first century. We also talk about later Gnostic texts and why they read more like fan fiction than firsthand testimony. If you’ve been curious about Jesus, skeptical about the Bible, or tired of trying to be your own savior, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs grace, and leave a review with the biggest question you’re still wrestling with.

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Transcript

Self-Granted Grace Vs Jesus

Why Scripture Connects So Deeply

Crown Of Thorns And Judgment

John’s Crucifixion Account

What Crucifixion Really Does

“It Is Finished” Debt Paid

Prophecies Fulfilled In The Details

Burial Facts And Jewish Tradition

Darkness And The Torn Curtain

Earthquake Evidence And Apologetics

Women At The Cross Not Erased

Answering Isis Priestess Claims

Gnostic Texts And Fake Gospels

A Closing Prayer Of Gratitude

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Hello and welcome to Counterculture Mama. I am your host, Danielle Vedables, and I wanted to do a special episode today because today is a very special day. It is special for me personally and it is special for us collectively as human beings who fall short, who make mistakes, who mess up and turn our backs on God and are just all around imperfect because perfect is such an impossible standard. And if I've learned anything in my years as a mother, as an entrepreneur, as a wife, it's that no matter how hard we try to control outcomes, control ourselves, control our responses to our children, to our husbands, to other people, no matter how tight we grip, no matter how disciplined we are, no matter how hard we are on ourselves, which often ends up being the outcome of perfectionism, we simply cannot be perfect. And that is why we're here, and that is why today is such an important day to talk about and share about because honestly, we just need some grace, and it's one thing, you know, in the new age space and stuff, like we often are told, okay, give yourself some grace, give yourself some grace, and the funny thing about that grace is it's not gratifying, and it's it's not even like you know, you can say, Oh, I'm giving myself grace, but there's always gonna be a part of you that feels like I'm just making an excuse, or I'm just letting myself off the hook, and sometimes it is enabling us to let ourselves off the hook because when we look at ourselves as the center of our universe, when we look at ourselves as the ultimate authority over our lives, then anything that we grant to ourselves doesn't really hit the spot that it needs to hit in order to really land, in order to have meaning and value in our lives. And that's one of those things that coming back to Jesus has really shown me just plain as day the contrast between giving things to myself, such as grace, and receiving grace as a free gift that came at a price, by the way. Like knowing that Jesus had to sacrifice so greatly in order to give me the free gift of grace, and in order to give all of us the free gift of grace and the chance to come back into right relationship with God, and that's not something that that we take lightly, and so therefore, that grace that we're given, not by our own extension of grace to ourselves, but quite literally by a loving Lord and Savior, you know, the God of the universe created that pathway for us to come back to him, it just hits different. It does. And as soon as we can understand the ways that we turn our back on him, the ways that we do fall short, the ways that we dishonor him with our own desires and you know, our own truths and all of these things that we tell ourselves that we probably even think are good in the moment, but are deceived by. Um, because the way that everything connects, the amount, there's like something like 63,000 different places in the Bible that connect to one another. Foreshadowing to Jesus, fulfillments of prophecy, those kinds of things. Like 63,000 written by 40 different authors over the span of about 1500 years. Like, it would be incredible if one author could make that many connections between the different sections of the Bible, and across, I believe, three continents as well: Africa, um, Asia Minor, and um blanking on the other one. Sorry. But either way, it is just this incredible um work of literature, and as somebody who came from the new age, like I used to have so many doubts about the Bible. I used to think that you know the Bible was written by men and it was written and designed specifically to control us, to tell us how to live, um, to keep us easy to manage, to keep us from discovering the truth. Like, I held all of those beliefs. And when I started actually diving into scripture, as well as looking into other historical accounts from non-Christian sources, um, such as the Jewish historian Josephus, who actually did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but still confirmed a lot of the details of the Gospels and gave merit to the details of the Gospels, um, as well as other historians, like when you look at the historical facts and then you actually start to read the Bible and see all of the different places where it does connect, where everything points to the same truth, which is you know, the the coming of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus, and I'm gonna kind of point out some of these things to you today as I'm reading through this chapter. Um, so the first one being when it says they they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Um in Genesis 3.18. So Genesis is the first book of the Bible, it's in the Old Testament, so it's part of the Hebrew Bible, aka the Torah, um which the Jews used as their sacred text. It says, um, well, I'll read from 17 to 19 because this is part of the curse after the fall, eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden. And it says to Adam, he says, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. This is the important part. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So um the the key verse there is verse 18, Genesis 3, 18, because it's talking about thorns being a sign of judgment. And so, right away, like that is that is part of the curse, um, the first time that humanity faced judgment after ruining uh everything in the Garden of Eden, ironically, uh ruining everything in the Garden of Eden by seeking hidden knowledge. Um, so I just want to like plant that seed in there too, because I think that's important. Um but thorns were were part of that judgment, and so when it says they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, Jesus quite literally wore the judgment of humanity on his head at the time of his crucifixion. Um, they came up to him saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know I find no guilt in him. I am So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. When the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you know what I have the authority to release? Do you not do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the Stone of Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king. They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of Skull, which in Aramaic is called Gulgotha. There they crucified him, and with two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the King of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, I've what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven into one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfil the scripture that says They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. This is in reference to Psalm twenty-two, eighteen, by the way, which you can look up. So the soldiers did these things by standing but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Which, by the way, um, a common New Age argument against the gospel, against the credibility of the Bible as a whole, is that they um you know it's it's a patriarchal text, and it was designed to erase the feminine. And again, like I'm bringing light to this because I used to believe the same thing, and I used to, in a sense, worship Mary Magdalene. Um, and I just want to say, like, even having these lines in here about the Marys and the women being at the foot of the cross, being, you know, the first to witness the resurrection later on, hint hint, um, all of these things would have been culturally very countercultural. And so the fact that those details were preserved in the gospel actually shows a reverence for the feminine and a respect for the feminine that actually wasn't common in those times. So to say that it's an erasure of the feminine is actually um dead, dead wrong. Um and so we'll keep going with verse 26. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, that was John. John wrote this gospel and he called himself the disciple whom he loved, um, standing nearby. He said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. Um this is this is significant because if you think about just the amount of torture that um Jesus would have endured at that point, right? He um, you know, he was he was beaten, he was flogged. There are some accounts that say like his beard was like ripp ripped out, um, or like pieces of his beard were ripped out as like a form of torture, and then he was crucified, which when they crucify you, like so you have to carry the the cross beam. Sorry, he was flogged as well with like these short little whips that have like these little metal balls on them that tear through flesh. And I'm not saying all of this to be gory, but I'm saying it because it it matters, right? Like we really need to paint a picture of the amount of suffering and like how horrible of a death it is said by historians that like 60% of the people who were to be crucified ended up um just dying while they were being flogged from blood loss. It is estimated that Jesus lost about a third of his blood volume through flogging, and recent evidence from the Shroud of Turin actually shows that um he was flogged like 370 something times, I believe, um, front and back, and that's without any the shroud doesn't show anything on like the lateral sides. Um, so that's just the front and back of his body. Um, so you can imagine how cruel that was and how much agony he would have been in. Then they would have strapped the crossbeam of the cross onto his back and he would have had to carry it up the mountain. Um, that would have been rubbing against his cut open back from the lashings. And uh, you know, he he would have gotten up there and then they would have nailed him to it. And um, you know, they were big, like huge nails, obviously, and they put them in through the wrists and through the heel bones, is what historical evidence has found. Um, there's actually a recovered heel bone, not from Jesus, of course, but uh from someone else who had been crucified. I'm forgetting the name right now, and you can actually look it up, it is horrible to even think about um just the amount of of pain and agony that that would have caused. Um and then when you're actually on the cross, you know your upper body is hanging, unless you're actively pressing against your your heel bones, um, like you're you're hanging there. And so not only is breathing really difficult, because imagine like hanging off of your arms, but um also like the the dislocation of of shoulders and things like that, like I've seen estimates that his arms would have been at least six inches longer at that point when he's hanging from the cross because of his dislocated joints. Um and then because of how difficult it is to breathe when you're hanging on the cross, you're essentially dying from not being able to breathe, and so by not oxygenating your blood, you start to go into organ failure. Like it's it's a whole it's a whole thing, and I think sometimes we think about oh yeah, it would suck to be nailed to a cross, but there is so much more that went into that, and Jesus knew that that was his fate, he knew that that level of suffering was what he was gonna have to do to set things right between us and God. Um, and so it's just something that like, you know, you can think, oh, I I I'm a good person, I try to be a good person, you know, I I do the right thing, I I love others and I whatever. Um, but at the end of the day, we all fall short, we all have sinful thoughts, we all take sinful actions, we all go and rebel against God's design and God's laws and what is pleasing to him, and ultimately he's not going to bend his moral standard to fit our crookedness, right? Like God's law is the straight edge to show us how crooked we are. That's something that um my pastor last week said in his sermon, Pastor Mike Bro. Um, he said, like, God's law is the straight edge to show us how crooked we are, and that really is what it is. And so instead of us trying to find our way up to him, which is literally impossible for us, he came down to our level, he came down to earth, and he sacrificed himself in order for us to be able to restore relationship with him. Um so anyway, that was that was like a long a long side tangent, but um after this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, he said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. I can't remember offhand um if that one also points to Psalm 22 or if that's a different um prophecy, but that there is significance to that piece as well. Um when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Um It is finished also has huge significance, um in part because the Greek word to telesty means um, it means it is finished, but it means like the debt has been fully paid. Um in a criminal context, um, it's the sentence has been fully served, and in like a war context, it's like the battle has been fully won, like it is over. Um and then that also points to a prophecy. Um, anyway, I don't have all of those cross-references here, but all of these things, like there is actually a psalm where that word is used and it is finished. Um then it goes on in verse 31 since it was the day of preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified by him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. And at once there came out blood and water. Um, apparently, this is a separation that happens after death. So it's actually a way that um criminal investigators and stuff can identify what is pre-mortal and what is post-mortal death, um, blood, sorry. Um, and so there's like this watery type substance that separates after death. And so um pierced aside with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who sat saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe. For those things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. And again, another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced. Um these are uh not one of his bones have been or will be broken, is Exodus 12.46 as well as Numbers 9.12. Um, and then Zechariah 12.10 is the one that says uh they will look on him whom they have pierced. So again, this is not, you know, if you think about it from a perspective of like the Roman soldiers and the people who are executing Jesus, they're not trying to fulfill these prophecies. And these again, like you have to keep in mind that yes, it relates to the prophecies of the Old Testament, but it also um is verified, like these details are verified by other non-Christian sources of information, first century historians, etc. And so it's not made up just to oh, this fulfilled a prophecy, like this is this is a legitimate thing that genuinely happened, and it's verified by other sources. Um the next part goes on to say, after these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews, he was actually um a member of like a Jewish religious council, I believe, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission, which was like a pretty bold move, um, you know, to to approach an executioner and be like, Can I can I take this? Like, can can I have his body? Um So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of Jews. I saw something online today that was talking about how the women were the ones that did the burial stuff and that they were priestesses, and it was like Isis temple tradition, and honestly, that is quite frankly not true. Again, backed by non-Christian historians, but also written right here in the gospel that he was buried and his body was processed according to Jewish tradition, because you have to remember Jesus himself was Jewish and all of his followers. Um, you know, there was the odd Gentile follower, but the bulk of his followers and any of like the prominent followers, his immediate disciples, Mary Magdalene, his mother, etc., are all Jewish, and so they all would have dealt with his body in a way that aligns with the fact that he was Jewish and they were all Jewish. Um in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Um the following day was the Sabbath, and you're not allowed to do work on the Sabbath. So they came back. That was like sort of a quick burial, like you know, it said that he passed away in the afternoon, and um then that was like a quick burial to get things um done, and then they were gonna come back on the Sunday after the Sabbath on the Saturday and um and finish you know with the the spices and and whatever else they did to bodies at that time. Um there's a couple of really important pieces in the other um in the other accounts of the gospel. So I'm gonna read from Mark quickly. Um I'm gonna start in Mark 1533. It says, and when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Um this is said to have been an eclipse, and there have actually been um scientists and stuff who have traced an eclipse back to um when that was expected to have happened in 33 AD. Um and at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi Lemma Sabashtani, which means my God, my god, why have you forsaken me? This again is very important because it points back again to Psalm 22. Um, so my god, my god, why have you forsaken me? That is like the first line of Psalm 22, I believe. And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come and take him down. So Elijah was an old testament prophet, and um, so that again points points back to him. Um, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So this is the Jewish temple that was in Jerusalem, um, and it was torn. It's a big curtain in the middle of the temple, and it's about as thick as your hand of like a weave, and that was torn in two from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Saloon. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and they were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. So again, if the gospel was wanting to erase the feminine, why would those women specifically be called by name and why would it be shown over and over that Jesus had female followers as well? So that is yeah, most of that is the same other than that. Um and then I just want to flip to Matthew quickly because there is when it talks about uh this is Matthew twenty-seven verse. Where am I looking? Verse 51. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. This detail is really interesting and really important because historical evidence actually does show that there was an earthquake. So um I just looked it up. It says geological evidence suggests a significant earthquake occurred near Jerusalem between 26 and 36 AD, with a likely epicenter near the Dead Sea. So when it's estimated that Jesus died in 33 AD, that's a pretty like significant historical fact that or geological fact that once again points towards the validity of the Bible, right? And that's not something that they would have just like made up and been like, yeah, and there was an earthquake, like that makes no sense. Um so it is there's a lot of like different layers of proof when you really start to look into Christian apologetics and dive into what actually happened, both according to the Bible, but also from non-biblical sources and research. Um and so again, the earth shook and the rocks were split, the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, Truly, this was the Son of God. There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the other mother of the sons of Zebedee. And so I just want to go into the fourth gospel, the Gospel of Luke, to show in verse 55 the women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how the body was laid. Um that's during the burial, and then verse verse 49, backtracking a little bit, says, and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. So once again, there is no basis for the whole narrative that the Bible just seeks to erase women, especially when you consider that these gospels were written presumably by men on the accounts of male disciples in a time where culturally women were not favored. Like if they were s trying to start a religion or a p political movement that suppressed the feminine, they would have completely denied the feminine. That's why Peter denies Jesus and and stuff. Um so if we really put on our critical thinking hats about this, why would they specifically mention the women in every single gospel if they were trying to erase the feminine? And also if they were trying to start a religion during a time where women were looked down upon. Like, what purpose would that serve to furthering their political or religious agenda if historically, culturally, women were beneath men in society, right? So I just really want to point that out because Jesus's whole ministry, he ministered to women, he showed mercy to women, he was soft with women, and uh it was important enough that the women were written into the story because that's what actually happened, and so they got their place, their role, being the first ones to witness the resurrection, which I'm not gonna talk about today because it's Good Friday. I'll make another episode about the resurrection. Um but I just want to like kind of put that common misconception to bed because there was a lot of reverence for these women, and obviously, like a lot of respect even amongst the disciples for the women who followed Jesus alongside them. The post that I saw today, and I see them every year, and I see them all over the place, so this isn't a unique thing, but the post that I saw today was specifically talking about how they were um, you know, Egyptian like ISIS priestess priestess, and how their story was suppressed, and you know, there's like just enough truth woven in that it sounds maybe believable, especially if you already see things through a lens or you already have that hesitation about the Bible like I did. Um and the most troubling part is that the caption of the the post in question was um, you know, how do you celebrate the feminine on Easter? You talk about the women, and all I'm gonna say to that is like if I were the devil and I wanted to distract from the fact that Jesus came and lived a perfect sinless life, and when Satan tried to destroy him, he went and he conquered death, beating Satan at his own game, so that we could have eternal life, and that the only way to have that eternal life and to spend an eternity with God and to get back into right relationship with God is through Jesus. And that is that is said in I believe it's John 14 6, where Jesus says, Nobody comes to the Father except through me. So if I were the devil, I would want to keep people distracted from that. I would want to keep them focused on Mary Magdalene, the feminine Christ, which is not true, by the way. Um, she's not the the feminine Christ, she's a devout follower of Jesus, and I love her for that. But if she were here and somebody called her that, she would say, No, no, follow him. Don't follow me, follow him. Um so that's important to remember. She was a devout follower of Christ. That's why she was at his feet. That's why she was there to witness the resurrection, is because she was devoted to him. That's why she didn't get crucified, he did. Because that was the fulfillment of the prophecy. That was what had to happen. That was the Son of God. So if I were the devil and I could have you looking at the women and believing that Mary Magdalene is the feminine Christ and worshiping her instead of worshiping the real Christ who died for our sins and rose again, defeating the grave, of course I would do that. If my goal was to keep you separated from God, out of right relationship with God, of course, if I was the devil, I would want you to focus on Mary, Magdalene, or any of the Marys for that matter, instead of the true king. So just think about that when you hear these Gnostic teachings that pull away from the true essence of the gospel, that don't line up with the rest of scripture, that don't line up with prophecy, that present themselves as fan fiction as best. I'm talking about the book of Enoch, I'm talking about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was not written by her or and could not be traced back to her. That manuscript is one, incomplete, and two, traced back to like the second or third century, not the first century, and not directly to her. I'm talking about the Gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip. All of these gospels, and I'm gonna put that in air quotes, um, didn't make it into the Bible not because they were trying to hide or suppress something, but because even early Christians knew that they didn't trace back to the apostles, that they didn't trace back directly to Jesus and his life and his ministry, and that they were largely made up. They were never accepted as part of the scripture that was coming out of that time, and even the tradition that was coming out of that time established by the disciples when they were establishing the early church. So it's really important to remember that because these guys did not have a political bone to pick, they went to their graves swearing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and they followed that to the end. If they had some sort of political agenda, they could have changed their tune, they could have lied and manipulated their way out of death, into power, you know, whatever it is, but they didn't. They made sure that God's will on earth, that Jesus' will for his kingdom on earth was carried out to the best of their ability, and they were all persecuted and all killed for it. So if that doesn't tell you something, I don't know what will. So all of that to say, thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. Thank you for the immense suffering that you went through so that we could be with you again, so that we could be in a relationship with you. Thank you for coming down to earth, living a perfect life, showing us the model of what it means to really uphold God's law, even though you know we'll always fall short, and that's why you had to come in the first place. Thank you for being fully God and fully human. Thank you for drinking the cup of suffering, even though you knew how brutal it would be, and you did it anyway. Thank you for your selflessness, thank you for your sacrifice, and thank you for defeating death, defeating sin, for redeeming us when we couldn't save ourselves. You are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. You are our savior, the only savior that can reconcile us to God. You are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And I am so grateful every day for your sacrifice, and I am humbled by the lengths you were willing to go to bring us all home. So, Jesus, I thank you.