When in Jerusalem, do as the Romans do? Mt, 27:54

We want to ask the question here this morning that relates to one that you've heard before, or a statement you've heard before. We want to ask, when in Jerusalem do you do as the Romans do? We come to that this way. We've heard, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Interestingly enough, as I was looking that up, it's only been in the last few centuries that that's been the way people have said it. But the principle has been around for at least a couple thousand years. And the proverb, of course, has changed over time.

But the idea behind it is to adapt to the culture where you're at, obviously, in a biblical context, within limits of morality and spiritual truth and principle, of course. But it's interesting. Ambrose wrote to Augustine, contemporaries, of course, and the idea, when you are in Rome, live in the Roman style. When you are elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. So the idea has been around a while.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul stated the principle some other ways, but one of the things we'll see as we look at this verse that he drew upon when he was writing, he says, live as whoever it is I'm talking to so that the gospel won't be hindered. I don't want how I'm living to be the issue. I don't want what I am doing, what I am not doing, because of culture to be the issue. He wrote to the church at Corinth, and he basically spells out four different groups. And the last one is the one, of course, that he summarizes with there.

He says, slaves, I become a slave to all. And in some of the cities of the Roman Empire, there were as many as half the people slaves. He says, I'll become as a slave if that's what it takes for them to get the gospel, no problem. I become as a Jew. Of course, he had no problem with that. As those without the law, the non-Jews. He says, I'll even become weak if that's what it takes. Whatever it takes to convey the gospel, I become all things to all men.

The principle, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. But we come back to the question here, When in Jerusalem, should I live like the Romans do? One of the things that I think has to come into our mind, if you were a Roman soldier or a Roman governor, here's Jerusalem way off on the east end of the Roman Empire.

And here is Rome many, many miles away. in any ordinary circumstance, it's going to take you months to get between the two cities, unless you're in some kind of a galloping hurry, as some of the Roman messengers were. Now, just to get a perspective in a modern sense, here's the picture from space. If you were up on a satellite, this is a huge chunk of the globe. And so, for the Romans who are stationed, in and around Jerusalem and in Israel, this was a very far off place to be.

It was a place that was essential for holding together the empire, but a real pain if you were a Roman. It would be the sort of place that you wouldn't choose duty if you had first choice. Now, we want to look at some questions here. These Romans, See, the Jews would have just said, they're all just filthy pig eaters. But were they all? But one asks that.

Did some of them come to actually see something that many of the Jews did not? That even Israel's best did not? Did they come to realize some things that the top echelon of the Jews didn't even realize? Would some of them see this truth with intensity, brightly, in the midst of a dark time?

When in Jerusalem, should we do as the Romans do? As we look at this question here this morning, let's start off with Pontius Pilate. Now there's a Roman for you. Pontius Pilate Roman governor Judea from 26 to 36 AD. He issued some coins that carry his name, the Pontius Pilate coin. As the excavators go through New Testament era ruins, they find the coins often. Here is this Pontius Pilate, the governor.

He ruled from a place called Antonia Fortress. We'll see a picture shortly which will give us a little orientation, it was right next to and built into the wall of the Jewish Temple. And it looks like this. Here's the Antonia Fortress. It was Pilate who made the decision to move the Roman soldiers and kind of the Roman headquarters in this fortress immediately overlooking the Jewish Temple. The Jews, of course, were delighted with the situation, right? Not exactly. Here they were, carrying on the most precious of things to them, and the Romans were overlooking it all. Not a situation they liked.

That was what Pilate set up. Here was the inner temple that you see. Here was the court of the Gentiles, where Jesus had cleared the temple, because that was where they did the money changing. Now, On a dark night before a dark day, and I have to qualify that with a little qualification, that is time of the Passover was coming up and that's full moon, okay? So here on that dark night before a dark day, the Jewish leaders had spent the night capturing, big military job, capturing and condemning Jesus, holding him on trial.

But, when it came to the handling of things, they really preferred the Romans to carry out the dirty work. They would strongly prefer to have the Romans be the ones that would pull it off. They could get the blood on their hands. And anybody who favored Jesus, then, would point to the Romans, so they thought. Pilate.

Now, you might give him the benefit of the doubt. Take this as a good question, maybe. What is truth, he would ask. Although when you read it in context, it looks more skeptical. Pontius Pilate, at four different instances that we have recorded, said of Jesus, I find no guilt in him. I can't find any reason to condemn him. He tried to free him. He made an effort to do so.

So here the Jewish leaders had brought Christ to this Roman governor to have him give the official sanction. No Pilate, we want this decision. No Pilate, we want this outcome. Well, Pilate succumbed to the pressure and in spite of multiple efforts on his part to free Jesus, he finally says, okay, I washed my hands of it, but go ahead and do it.

He gave the order. Now, he found that Jesus had done nothing wrong and tried to pass the sentence on to Herod first. Now, he gave it to Herod, but Herod didn't look upon it as an opportunity for a judicial decision. Herod says, hey, I've heard things about Jesus. I can see some magic tricks. And so he was looking forward to the opportunity to have Jesus do some tricks. Jesus wasn't there for tricks. And so Herod said, This isn't what I wanted," and sent him back.

This Herod family tree, by the way, you read Herod in the New Testament, boy, it can be confusing. I won't expect you to read this here, so we'll zero in with the binoculars and look at a portion of it that hopefully you can see a little better. Herod Antipas is the one we're talking about here. He is the son of Herod, the one who sent the soldiers to kill all the babies in Bethlehem, okay? And one of the sons of Herod. And so it is that one who wanted to see Jesus do a trick.

Do a trick. It would be very entertaining for me. He sent him back disappointed. Ah, this guy doesn't do any good tricks for me. So guess what? Pilate, the Roman, had him again. Pilate's wife comes in and says, look, I had a dream about this guy. I don't have anything to do with him. have anything to do with this righteous man." Against his wife's advice, he ordered Jesus flogged and crucified.

There he said, I want you to also put a sign. Now it was common to put the sign, this epigraphon, above the criminal to state the criminal charges. And so the criminal charges that he had put above Christ's head was actually in spite of the Jews. He claimed to be king of the Jews. In three languages, they made sure that all could see. He spelled it out. Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. In Hebrew, Latin, Greek.

And so we ask the question, should we do like these Romans? Once Pilate handed down the sentence, the Roman soldiers took over their routine duties. Think of it. Here's Pilate. He'd done what was supposed to be done. He succumbed to the pressure. Here's one Roman for you.

Now I've got some soldiers and they're doing what they had been trained to do. They are doing what they had been experienced at doing. Once someone was declare a criminal, of course, you could do whatever you want. They really didn't care what sorts of abuse you carried out upon them. As a matter of fact, it might even be looked at as better if you did that. So the Roman soldiers were carrying out what they had plenty of practice, plenty of training doing. For us, we would look at it and say, oh, how vile, how violent. but for them it was just a job, just routine, just what you do because somebody's got to do it.

They played cruel games, and one of the things we've shown this piece of the pavement, I'll point it out here, this is the pavement that Jesus stood upon. It's still there, you can see it, and what you can still see scratched in it is some games scratched in on the floor. They played games on the floor, and they played games with Christ. He was just a part of the game.

They put the thorns on his head, the crown of thorns, another part of the game, part of the routine. They always did this sort of thing. They flogged him severely, as usual, because that's the job, that's the routine, that's what you always do. There were at least lead balls, some evidence of more severe things, but the lead balls were enough. It would be somewhat comparable to a glancing blow with a shotgun. Because the lead balls were designed to come down hard, splattering flesh, ripping shreds. But it was just routine. It was just a job. Somebody's got to do it. So far, all was fairly normal.

Then, as usual, they had him carry his own cross piece. A lot of the pictures, this one included, will show a whole cross. The records we have indicate more likely just the cross piece. He was unable to do it because the beating itself was oftentimes something so severe that the person to be crucified wasn't conscious, in some cases even died of the beating.

Simon of Cyrene. father of Alexander and Rufus, it's recorded, was said, hey, you carry it. The Roman soldiers worked hard. I will give them that. They were allowed, however, to force someone to carry their belongings for one mile. So that's when Jesus said, carry it a second. They were allowed to force somebody who was standing by to carry the cross piece if the person who was to be crucified could not do so.

So this was just routine. They picked one just like they always did. It's a part of the job. They would go down Jerusalem's narrow streets. They would pick areas where people were gathered. It was not intended to be something private. It was not intended to be something secluded to happen at some obscure corner. It was to be a living placard that says, see this awful thing happening to this person? See that? You see the blood? Do you see the shredded flesh? Do you see the abuse that they've gotten? See the spit dripping off of his face?

You don't want to end up like that. That's what the Romans did. They did it deliberately. It was a living placard that said, you really don't want to end up like this. Purposely, they would drive them through crowded streets. Purposely, they would pick the places where people would be standing, maybe getting ready, buying things for a Passover celebration. This was, after all, in the middle of the Passover celebration, activities and lots of people would crowd the streets. The population of Jerusalem would swell. as they pushed along the pathways and the winding ways, it wasn't the shortest path to where the crucifixion was to take place. It was the most painful path. It was the most humiliating path. It was the path that would get the most exposure. This was, after all, Rome's marketing program.

It was a program that said, you all need to know that you don't want to end up like this. Be afraid. Be very afraid. don't do anything that will make this happen to you or somebody you love. And so they went through every place they could, they would get that message across, until they ended up at the place of the cross.

There, where the crucifixion was to take place, they would make sure that it was in a public area, an area where everybody would see it. We have a record from a Roman rhetorician, that just means a speech expert. He wrote, whenever we crucify the guilty, the most crowded roads are chosen, where the most people can see and be moved by this fear. We want maximum fear exposure. That's the idea.

Both Roman and Jewish law said that this crucifixion must take place outside of the city, which also meant that you're going to be traveling through the city streets. Maximum exposure. And now where the crucifixion is to take place, which will go on typically for days, it's got to be in a busy crossway, a place where everyone will see. not some quiet little valley, not some little covered vale, but out on a public roadway where all will see. Maximum exposure, and just so you get the point, Pilate had the charges against Jesus written in three of the most common languages likely to be spoken. So, outside the city gates, along the main pathway was where you had the crucifixion done.

Crucifixion, Starao, done on a cross, Staraos, was for the low life, the scum of Rome. You didn't do this to citizens who were well-off and well-known and prominent, even if they committed a crime. You didn't do this, even for those who would be considered reasonable, respectable folks. You did this for the low life. It was reserved for the scum.

And you made sure everybody saw them that way. About nine o'clock in the morning, they drove the nails into Jesus' wrists and into his feet. But it was routine. They'd done that before. They'd do it again. They were well-trained. Nothing abnormal at all. It's just a job. Somebody's got to do it. So far, there was a lot about what had taken place that everybody would have said, yeah, that's what the Roman soldiers do and that's the way they do it. And we would have considered it a fairly normal day. Just another day's work. Just a routine. As they always did, This is part of the perks.

They cast lots for Jesus' singular garment to see who would get the meager spoils. Scripture says there were four soldiers, one of those recorded being a centurion. Centurion, like we have our word century, meaning a hundred years, right? The one who is typically given responsibility over a hundred soldiers obviously doesn't take a hundred soldiers, so he picked a team of four, the centurion and some others of a lower level. And it says they cast lots. Here are some dice from the New Testament era found in Jerusalem. We don't know at all if this is the one, but it gives you an idea. They just say, hey, you know, whoever gets the highest roll on this one gets the clothing.

This is an artist's depiction of what it would have been like on that day. Here's a couple of the soldiers, and another, and the fourth. So far so good. A little correction to the artist's depiction. Sitting down like that probably would not have been allowed. Nonetheless, the soldiers were there that day.

They didn't just crucify Jesus and then walk off. No. They didn't have much to do, but they had to remain at the crucifixion site. Our theme passage in Matthew 2754 says they kept guard. They weren't there to keep Jesus safe. They kept guard because the people who were crucified oftentimes took days to die and the soldiers would take shifts once the crucifixion had been completed, just making sure nobody tried to rescue because a rescue was possible. People who crucified typically did not bleed to death, it was a suffocation. And so if someone were to rescue them prior to the suffocation being final, they could do so. So the soldiers were there to make sure, no, this thing's going to the end, and you're not going to rescue this person. So that's why the soldiers were there, keeping guard, not to keep Jesus safe, but to make sure he died all the way to the end. So should we do like these Romans? those four soldiers we just saw.

I think we have to notice something started happening that got their attention in a big way. There were things that began happening that were anything but routine. Certainly they'd seen some difference in the way Jesus behaved. Many of the ones to be crucified, if they had any energy left at all, would fight and struggle. And yet we know Christ gave his life. us. He wasn't forced to have it taken from him, he gave his life for us. But there are still some things to happen which were far more irregular.

From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, that's about noon till three o'clock in the afternoon, a darkness fell on the land. Some have said, well I know what it was, it was a solar eclipse. Nope, no way. Solar eclipses don't happen around the full moon, which is the time of the Passover. Astronomically impossible. Also, the duration doesn't fit and, as you would expect because of the astronomical impossibility, modeling as shown can't be.

This was not some natural event. This was a supernatural event. The Roman soldiers had no way to explain it. They said, This got her attention. We've got no reason to expect this. There was also, at some time during that crucifixion day, an earthquake that shook Jerusalem as well. That, in the midst of the darkness, must have also gotten her attention. And then the way in which Jesus died, about three in the afternoon, also got their attention.

John 19.30 records, he said, it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. There's some things to make note of here. Most of those who died of crucifixion took days to die. At a later point here, where Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus, Pilate says, wait, I'm a little surprised that he's dead already.

Let me confirm with the centurion. So he called the centurion in. He says, is Jesus dead? Yes, he is. Okay, go ahead and have the body. Jesus did not die because of the usual means, but he died because he gave up his spirit. Just like he went to the cross voluntarily, he also gave up his spirit. voluntarily. Most would die at the crucifixion, not of bleeding to death, but of suffocation. As they would sit there on the cross, and I know those of you have been through a statics class in engineering, you have to put up with me here.

You know, if you go like this with the hands, each hand is going to get about half the weight. and the weight will be the weight of the body divided by two, one on each hand. The more you go out like this, the tension on the shoulders gets amplified so that the body that might this way get maybe 150 pounds split between two arms suddenly gets hundreds of pounds on each arm.

It tears the tendons and ligaments that are starting to connect they're getting pulled apart, things out of joint. The tension after hours and then days gets to be immense. But there's another problem and that is because of this tension, breathing becomes a difficulty. And so the only way to get a breath is to shove up on the nails in the feet. And so they would give this kind of a spasmodic shove up to get a breath and then as the immense force on the shoulders would pull. And that would go on for hours.

Conversation? Yeah, it took place. No big, long oratorios or orations. None of that. Instead, lots of, and then waiting, and then another breath. for hours. That's what you'd watch. That's what the soldiers thought of as, this is just routine. Jesus, rather than dying of that, gave up his spirit. When he did so, he said, it is finished. That's a few words in English, one word in the Greek as it's recorded. And what he yelled out was, and breathe this last.

What's amazing is, it's recorded here, it is finished, but it was also an accounting term in those days. It meant, the debt's paid! Perfect tense. It's completely paid with ongoing results in the future. The debt is paid. All done, folks. He called it out. His last words told you the good news. The things that burden us, we say, Lord, I did this. Lord, I failed to do that. He's calling out in His last words, the debt's paid. It's finished. All done. Perfect tense. Ongoing results into the future, including now. That's wonderful news.

1539 also records a related and maybe even the same statement. When the centurion, this is the same one obviously, who was standing right in front of him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the son of God. Criminals don't die like this. Which criminal dies and his last words are, the debt's paid, it's finished, I'm done. I'm completely done. This is the same centurion. He's making a recollection, a statement here of what's gone on throughout the day. He's coming to a recognition. Very interesting point comes out in Matthew 27, 54. Now, the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened.

Now, was it part of a typical Roman soldier's duty to become very frightened? No. Not at all. These were the soldiers who had the same kind of training and background that when Herod said, go kill the babies in Bethlehem, they said, sure. These were the soldiers when Pilate had told them just hours before, earlier in this day, death sentence for these guys. They said, sure, no problem, job done. Now they're very afraid, very frightened, but finally recognizing truly this was the Son of God. How about that Roman? How about these Romans? Some have suggested that This Roman was just making a sort of a pagan statement of this guy was sort of a son of the gods kind of thing.

Well, first of all, what he repeats, the phrase is the same phrase that you hear repeated from the Jews and in front of Pilate. The same words and not a son of the gods, but son of God. He repeats the same phrase, but beyond that we can find examples Roman soldiers in Israel who were not just pagan Romans and who did have a different perspective Luke 3 14 some of the soldiers came to John the Baptist and asked what should we do? Not because they were forced to but because they had a mind and heart to In Matthew 6 and Luke 7 it's recorded that a centurion here's another Roman centurion Asked Jesus to heal a servant Jesus noted the great faith of this person. In Acts 10, we find another centurion, Cornelius, was given a vision from the Lord, and Peter gave him the gospel. So it isn't a fair conclusion to just say this Roman was like all Romans, pagan to the core. No, it seems that this one was making a recognition Did he have to get very frightened to get there? Yeah, but he did. But he did.

These soldiers heard what it was said of Christ when Christ was sentenced before Pilate. They heard the Jews accusing him to be the Son of God. He claimed to be the Son of God, The Roman soldiers heard the Jews jeering at Him as Jesus was on the cross. You're the Son of God, get yourself down! They'd heard that. But now the centurion was saying, He really is. He really is. So the question, are we done with these Romans? Have we looked at enough Romans this morning? Not yet. Okay. The Jewish leaders expressed concern because, after all, numerous times Jesus said, hey, on the third day I'm going to raise, or three days and I'll be done. Or, in one instance in Matthew, 1240, like the prophet Jonah, I'll be up, I'll be raised.

So Pilate was requested, put a guard at these people for a few days, guard there in front of the tomb for a few days. We don't want any rumors getting around, nothing that looks like Jesus actually was raised. He said multiple times that he would be and we just don't want anything like that to happen. So set a guard at it. Pilate granted that the tomb would be sealed with a seal and guarded by Roman soldiers.

Now, some have said, well, I read that it looks like just temple guards. There's some reasons to believe that it's not. Let's take a look at them. Guarding the tomb probably would have been outside the temple guards' authority. That just wouldn't have been what they would do. It was over a Passover, a Sabbath. That wouldn't have been along their line of things to do.

Temple guards were also Levites. and getting around and touching, you know, dead bodies at this time and hanging around them for several days wouldn't have been their customary thing to do. Why should they come to Pilate if they had temple guard that could do it?

I might bring out another, I think, fairly strong point. This word guard is only used in this passage here at the end of Matthew 27 and the beginning of 28. The word is custodia, a special word of Latin origin, and it's a word that refers to a Roman guard with specific assignments. We have in our modern vernacular custody, having custody derived from this, but the original meaning was much stronger and more specific.

As a matter of fact, in Matthew 28 11, the soldiers are not concerned about the chief priests finding out about the fact that Jesus was raised anyway. They're concerned about pilot finding out, okay? If it was a temple guard, why would that bother them?

Well, the Roman guards would have done this. They would have set the seal of Rome, likely a seal on each side, on the stone and on the bedrock, and then a cord across. Likely that would have been the way of doing it. Breaking that seal would have brought the penalty, likely of death, of anyone who did so. And so the guards would then have the authority to kill anyone who was to try to take that seal out. That's the seal of Rome.

Now, we say a custodia, this guard that had the assignment, how many would that be? At least four. And then some instances record as many as 16 would be included in a custodia. If it was four, they would have one who would be on standing guard for four hours and then rotating shifts between them. If it was 16, there would be four standing guard rotating shifts with the other group, and each set of four then shifting.

So either way, you're talking substantial guard, penalty of death, you know, they're ready to fight. A failure of the guard at the tomb would result in a severe penalty. Looking at kind of historical records of the Roman Empire, something like a 40% death, 40% chance or risk of being killed for failure at such a guard. If you were not killed, the consequences would be severe if you were caught. But one instance where a fellow failed guard, all he did was fall asleep and they threw him off a cliff.

These soldiers did not want that consequence. So the records that we have was impeccable attention to detail, more so in the earlier Roman Empire than later. So these fellows would not have been lacking or slack in their duty. The guards would have taken shifts watching through the night, through the day, through the night. Their routine, however, as intensely as they would carry it out, would be interrupted.

Early Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, arrive at the tomb. They find the tomb open and empty. The Roman soldiers were not gone. They were there, shaken to the point of being immobile. Completely shaken. overwhelmed by an angelic presence.

One of the things that we notice about the angels, as you read in the accounts in the Bible, one of the first things the angels would do is they would show up and they'd say, be not afraid. I don't think they said that this time. Okay. Be not afraid would be their words to try to calm people down. I think at this point in time, they probably said, be afraid. Okay.

And that's what the Roman soldiers did. That wasn't routine. That wasn't their training. That would be entirely contrary. What were these soldiers expecting? Some of the disciples might come and try to steal these people away. They weren't expecting somebody dressed in white looking like the sun. Not at all what they were anticipating might happen. They were shaken to the core.

These women go to tell the disciples and the soldiers just go. They take off. We have no more record of them here at the tomb. They're gone. What's interesting is while the centurion at the cross stood in front of the cross and said, this truly was the Son of God, these just say, I am truly scared out of my wits. And they're gone.

They don't have the same recognition. The soldiers don't appear to be like those who are in front of the cross. Should we do as these Romans have done? The only Romans who recognized Christ for who He was were the ones who crucified Him. How about that? Can you imagine? I put the nails. I stood the cross up. I watched Him die. This truly was the Son of God. Can you imagine what came through their minds and hearts? That's why they were very frightened when they saw what they saw in the course of that day. These were the ones who had forced Jesus to carry the cross. And now they were looking on the cross to see the Son of God. They were the ones who had driven the nails into Jesus' hands and feet. When all is said and done, they were the ones who recognized Christ for who He was.

If you are here this morning and you're not one who has come to recognize Christ as the Son of God, that He died and was buried and rose again, then let me tell you this morning, you have no more important question to consider. There isn't any question on this earth more important to consider than that. But if you are one who has come to recognize that Christ is indeed the Son of God, that He died and was buried and rose again for you, then that's a wonderful thing. That's a good thing.

As a matter of fact, as we studied Ephesians 2.7, we discovered that it's going to take eternity for us to realize how wonderful it is. A million years, a billion, will not be enough. A trillion, nowhere near enough time. Our need to recognize Christ as the Son of God isn't once and final.

Certainly, that was a recognition the soldiers came to who stood before them on the day of the crucifixion, the ones who drove the nails. What the soldiers didn't see is that there were a great many other people on that same cross that day. They had no idea. It's because they were crucifying one person. God was in the process of crucifying thousands at the same time, invisible to their eyes. Here they were at a scene that looked something probably about like this. What God was accomplishing there through the one, they said, truly this was the Son of God. It was something amazing. Paul spells it out as he writes to some other Romans.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, that is, placed into by immersion, into Christ Jesus, have been baptized, placed by immersion, into his death? Yeah. Thousands were crucified that day on one cross at the same time. Those who believed with him. And the impact that he intended to that have Look at verse 11. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

It has impact today. It wasn't just a matter of saying, boy, that truly was the Son of God, let's go and have lunch, and walking away. But recognizing, yes, that was the Son of God, and it impacts me then, it impacts me now, and for the rest of eternity.

That's the recognition that the Lord calls us to here. In Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, I'll focus on verse 2 here, and that's why we have it highlighted. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, just like the centurion did, he stood before him, remember? Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured, past tense, the cross, He didn't get to the cross and say, nah, I'm not doing this.

I'm out of here. No. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That's where we're seated, folks. Because he didn't stay on the cross, he didn't stay in the tomb. But he rose that day, and we with him. Some days later, he ascended and was seated, and we with him. And that's as it stands now.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this, certainly there were lots of Romans involved, even though it wasn't their country. But they had captured it. They had taken control. And yet, we look at the recognition that that centurion said, and it appears from the language of Matthew 27, 54, the others recognized too.

We have crucified the Son of God today. Lord, thank you for that recognition, and we recognize even more that we died with Him. We thank you for that. Thank you that we have been raised with Him as well, and are seated with Him today. In Jesus' name, amen.