Good morning everyone. Good to see you all this morning, a beautiful morning. We're gonna be continuing our study in the book of Acts. We're gonna be looking at chapter 18 that Pastor read this morning and I just wanted to point out a couple of things that are gonna kind of guide our message here. 

First, we see that the accusation that was brought against Paul was for teaching against the law. The Jews came and accused him of teaching against the law, and this was something that Paul ran into again and again as he preached grace, as he preached the salvation by grace, the Christian life by grace through faith in Jesus. And that's gonna be an important part of our message. 

And also this business down in verse 18 where it says he had his hair cut off in Sincrea for he'd taken a vow. So we're going to talk about why Paul did that and what was going on there. 

When we began our study of the book of Acts way back in October of last year, you remember that we made a point that this is an historical account of the beginning of the church and a description of what happened in the lives and ministries of the Apostles founding the church and not necessarily a prescription for us to follow. I've been so blessed by our verse-by-verse study through this book, and I've been a bit surprised at how practical and encouraging it has been through these messages. 

I remember when I started the book, a young man came up to me after church who was visiting and he said, "I've been in a couple of churches where they started the book of Acts but they never finished it." And I was kind of taken back by the comment because I guess I don't understand starting a book and not finishing it unless the rapture comes, but I understood what he meant. It's a different kind of book to preach through, but I found it to be a tremendous blessing and I look forward to studying and preaching every week.

Well, it's important that we keep in mind that this is an historical account of the beginning of the church and that this is a time of transition where everything's not completely worked out in the minds, especially of the Jewish believers, and in the fullness of the plan of God for the church. We saw this with Peter and Cornelius, where Peter was so reluctant to give up the Old Covenant dietary restrictions as well as the division between Jew and Gentile. He didn't understand because he lived his entire life under the Law Covenant. 

We will see an example of how things were in transition in our studies to come here when we see some of the followers of John the Baptist who had believed but had not received the Holy Spirit. You see my brothers and sisters, to form our theology, our doctrine from the book of Acts, can be a dangerous thing. Certainly there's much to learn here in studying and reading about how the believers in this time lived and how they evangelized is of tremendous importance and blessing for us, but this is not a doctrinal book per se. 

And we must be careful not to make what is a description into a prescription. I think it's important to remind ourselves of this as we come to the verses that are before us this morning. It is a most interesting text, an account in the life of Paul, and I think it's very instructive. So I just want you to keep these things in mind as we look at our text beginning in Acts 18 at verse 12. 

It says, "When Galio was president of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, 'This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.' And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, 'If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I should bear with you. But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves, for I do not want to be a judge of such matters.' And he drove them from the judgment seat. 

Then all the Greeks took Sothenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Galio took no notice of these things. So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Sincrea, for he had taken a vow. 

And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, but took leave of them, saying, 'I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you, God willing.' And he sailed from Ephesus. And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up and greeted the church, he went down to Antioch. After he had spent some time there, he departed and went over to the region of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples."

Well, I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First, from religion to relationship. Second, from Jew to Jesus. Third, from law to grace. And fourth, the glory of the New Covenant. Well, I've titled the message this morning, "The Difficulty of the New Covenant," and I trust that as we work through the message, it will become clear to you why. 

But I want to talk a little bit, before we dig into our text, about the difficulty of moving from religion to relationship, from trusting in ourselves, our own righteousness, our works, our religion, to a relationship with Jesus through faith, to trusting Him, to believing Him. I got up about six o'clock on Thursday morning this week, and I was making some coffee, and my phone dinged. I thought, well, it's early for a text. And it was a text from a friend of mine that I've been trying to witness to, a religious man. 

I have some cows over on his place that he has up on McDonald Dam Road, and he texts to ask how his cows were doing. He's down in Chicago this week for some business. So I texted him back and I told him the cows were doing fine and I asked him if he was sick of the city and ready to come back to the UP. Listen to what he said. He said, "I was sick of it years ago, but it is a good penance, Johnny, for the servant is not better than the master and faith without works is dead." 

Well, I thought that was a peculiar response. So I responded and said, "So in this earning your righteousness journey, how are you measuring up to the scale of perfection?" And I quoted Matthew 5:48 and Romans 3:19 to 21. Now listen to what he said. He wrote, "Well, Johnny, if I had to measure it, it wouldn't take a yardstick, I'll tell you that." He knew he didn't measure up. 

And I took the opportunity to preach the gospel to him and encourage him to believe, but he just started quoting verses about running a race and winning the prize and fighting as one who does not beat the air and buffeting his body and so forth. Here's a guy who was raised in the Roman Catholic Church all his life, is an intellectual, a convinced believer in a religious system, yet he knows in his heart that he fails, he falls woefully short of meeting the standard of God, and he is tormented, concerned continually with this conundrum. 

I just want to ask you to explain something to me this morning. Why won't he receive the free gift of God in Jesus Christ by faith? Why won't he give up the futility of religion and self-righteousness when he is fully aware of his impotence to save himself? Why won't he come to faith in Jesus? It's difficult to move from religion to relationship. It's difficult to recognize your insufficiency and total inability and to lay aside your pride and self-righteousness, but this is precisely what a man must do. 

He must realize his need in order to cast himself at the foot of the cross to turn to faith in Jesus. It is hard, it is difficult. Jesus even said that it's impossible for man, but with God all things are possible. It is hard because we have this tremendous desire and passion to earn our own way, to stand on our own two feet, to accomplish our own salvation, and that is a force, a bondage that I sometimes think we underestimate. 

Because I see it in men like my friend who are tormented, who know in their hearts that they don't measure up, but they cannot let go of the system. There are too many implications, too many costs to count, too much pride to overcome. It is difficult, my friends, to move from religion to relationship. It is, as Jesus described, agonizing to come into the kingdom of heaven. 

But there's also another reality for the man who does abandon his pride and works and comes clean with the reality of who he is and how far short he falls. The man who turns to Jesus from religion to be saved. It's sometimes difficult for this man to forsake all that he has known, all that he's lived through and thought about and practiced all of his life, to a life of just abiding in Christ and trusting Him. 

And for Paul in our text, as we saw with Peter and others, it's a difficulty of moving from being Jewish to Jesus alone. Look at verse 18 with me. So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Sincrea, for he had taken a vow. 

This is a simple, straightforward account of where Paul went when he left Corinth, but it brings to our minds some pretty important questions and not a little confusion. What is this business about cutting his hair? What's going on with this vow? What is this vow? Is this something that I need to do as a believer in Jesus Christ, make a vow to God? Where does it come from? How do I do it? Should I do it? 

You remember from our text last week that Paul had come to Corinth after a long period of being on the run, experiencing persecution, having been vexed in his soul by the environment that he found himself in Athens. He was struggling, doubting. He wrote later that he came to them in fear and much trembling, to this great city filled with sin and debauchery of all kinds. This is a state in which Paul found himself alone in Corinth. 

But God knew the need of his faithful servant, and he encouraged him with Aquila and Priscilla, and then he brought Timothy and Silas with a good report from Thessalonica, and they even brought a financial gift to help Paul. And we read that God allowed Paul to win many to Christ, it says, daily in Corinth, and to establish a church there and live in peace, teaching the Word of God for a year and six months. 

It was an amazing blessing for Paul and a great time in his life and ministry, and he was so thankful. Now we know that persecution would eventually come, and we see the attempt in verse 12 where the Jews came to the Roman procouncil accusing Paul, attempting to have him arrested or even killed for teaching against the law. But again, we see God intervene in this case. Paul didn't even open his mouth to defend himself, and Galileo ran off the Jews and chastened them, and God worked through this pagan to bless Paul again, and really to set a precedent in that place. 

And Paul was so thankful, he was so appreciative, and all that God was doing through him and for him in Corinth, he needed this time. He needed this success for the gospel, and this encouragement from the brethren, and this respite from persecution. And this all really sets the stage for what we see in verse 18. He had his hair cut off at Sincrea, for he had taken a vow. 

What we see here is Paul wanting to express his thanks to God, his worship of God, for all that God had blessed him with in Corinth. You see, the vow that Paul took was a Nazarite vow, and this word means to set apart or to consecrate wholly. It's an old covenant practice for Jews who wanted to set themselves apart in a drastic way to express their service to and worship of God, many times to thank Him for some great blessing in their life. 

So Paul is so thankful, he's so blessed by all that's going on in Corinth, refreshed, he's full of zeal and passion to preach the gospel, and he just wants to show his thanks to God, and this is how he knows how to do that. 

You see, we often think of Peter as the Jewish Apostle, and he was the Apostle to the Jews, but there'd never been anyone more Jewish than Paul. And for his lifetime, his history, his education, his religion, the way to really express extreme gratitude to God for a Jew was to take a Nazarite vow. Turn back to Numbers chapter 6 with me, please. 

Numbers chapter 6 at verse 1. It says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when either a man or a woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazarite to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink, he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink, neither shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 

All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine from seed to skin. All the days of the vow of his separation, no razor shall come upon his head, until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body, he shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord." 

And the passage goes on to prescribe all kinds of offerings and sacrifices to make in the tabernacle at the end of the vow, including the cutting of his hair and the offering of that hair and the fire under the peace offering. And in verse 21, it says, "This is the law of the Nazarite who vows to the Lord the offering for his separation and besides that whatever else his hand is able to provide according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation." This is where it comes from. 

So this is a vow that was taken by a Jew who wanted to separate himself in a special way, for a special time, to the Lord, to worship Him, to thank Him, to show Him all that he was separating himself to the Lord, and he did this by not cutting his hair. By letting his hair grow long, it showed everyone around him that he'd taken the Nazarite vow. And this is interesting, too, because it shows us that the custom of the Jewish men was to cut their hair, and they only let it grow long for this purpose, for this vow afterward cutting it. 

So this is the vow that Paul took in Corinth, and he completed in Syncria. The extra-biblical writings of the Jewish religion prescribe that this vow could be 30, 60, or 100 days. There were only three men in the Bible who were lifetime Nazarites. Do you remember who those are? Samson, Samuel, and one more, John the Baptist, right? And all of these were set apart by God and their parents for this purpose before they were even born. 

So the custom was to take this vow for a period of time, 30 days, 60 days, 100 days, and to let the hair grow and show separation to the Lord in worship and thankfulness. And here's the point that I want for us to see. This is what Paul knew. This had been his entire life. Christianity was new to all of them. They'd been Jews for all their lives and lived in that system and under those customs, and moving from being a Jew to Jesus was a difficult transition. 

This reminded me of my mother. She's supposed to be here this morning. My sister traveled up from Louisiana last week to Indiana to pick my mom up to come for a visit this past Thursday, but unfortunately, my mom came down with pneumonia Wednesday evening and they couldn't make the trip. But I want to tell you a little bit about my mom. She's 84 now. She grew up in the Roman Catholic Church from the time she was born. 

She buried her parents in the Roman Catholic Church. She buried my dad's parents. She buried my dad in the church. She raised six kids in the church, sent them to the Catholic school. When I was young, we went to mass six days a week. When my dad was dying of cancer, he and my mom faithfully attended First Friday Masses in order to gain indulgences so he wouldn't have to spend so much time in purgatory. 

My point is that my mom, she is or was thoroughly Catholic in every way until she was 70 years old. I remember witnessing to her when she first came to visit us after we were saved. It was kind of interesting because my brother called me and he said, "You know, I'm a little worried about you. I think you drank the Kool-Aid." Then I got a call from my mother who was always so gentle and unassuming. She said, "What do you do in that church?" I said, "Well, mom, we wear long white gowns and we kill lambs." 

She said, "Oh, John, you know." I began preaching the gospel to my family, explaining, writing letters, taking every opportunity. My mom would come and visit me and I just witnessed to her endlessly. I can remember walking around in the house and she's throwing her arms in the air and she's saying, "I believe, I believe." But she didn't believe. She didn't understand for a time. 

I think it was about four years ago after I was saved, or four years after I was saved, when my mom was 70 years old, that she stood in a Baptist church next to a baptismal and gave her profession of faith, her testimony, and then she was baptized in that church. Not in some ceremonial sacrament of sprinkling water on her head like she did 70 years before that as a baby, but now a public profession of her faith in Jesus and an act of obedience to her Lord. 

It was a profound and amazing moment, my friends. She did the most difficult thing. She moved from religion to relationship with Jesus Christ by faith in him. But here's my point. It was a long transition still going on, I suppose. From all she knew all those years in the Roman Catholic Church to a full understanding of her new life in Christ. 

I'd talk to her on the phone and she'd say something and it'd just drive me nuts, and I'd say, "Mom, you can't say that. That's not right," you know? It's a difficult thing to move, to understand our freedom in Christ, the new covenant truth. 

It was a difficult thing, as was the case for Paul and the others, to go from being Jew to Jesus. And that really explains what we see here in this passage, I think. This description of the life and ministry of Paul is not necessarily a prescription for us. And we know that Paul got this all straightened out and he became very clear in doctrine and practice concerning the new covenant life in Christ because of what we read in the epistles outlining doctrine, forming our theology. 

Turn over to Philippians 3. Let's look at that passage, it's so instructive in this. Philippians 3, verse 1, he begins warning about the Jews and he says, "We are the circumcision," verse 3, "who worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." And then he talks about all the confidence that he might have in the flesh, being a zealous religious Jew. 

Now look at verse 7, "But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ. Yet, indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." 

Paul laid all of that religion aside. All of those old covenant Jewish practices were as dung compared to the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, a relationship with him and a life lived by faith. And Paul no longer needed to take a vow to separate himself, to worship God, he now worshiped in spirit and in truth. 

And listen to his words to the Corinthians later, in 2 Corinthians 6:16, he says, "You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you." 

Come out and be separate. In Romans 12:1 he wrote to the Romans, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." 

The author of Hebrews, some say Paul, also gives us a contrast between the old and the new. In Hebrews 9:11, he says, "But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." 

Listen to what he says, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" 

You see, the old covenant was an external, outward set of prescriptions, laws, vows, covenants. This was their means of worship. But in the new covenant, there has been an internal recreation, a new heart, a new spirit, the very Spirit of God indwelling us permanently. And we do not consecrate ourselves for 30 days to worship God, but we are permanently holy and completely separated, sanctified, set apart to live for Him. 

We see in our text that Paul took a vow when he left Corinth. Sometime later, he cut his hair in Sancria, ending the vow. And then he had to set course to Jerusalem to complete the vow in the temple, offering his hair, making the peace offerings, the sin offerings, the wave offering. He had to make his offerings and burn his hair to complete the vow, and this is why he didn't tarry in Ephesus, but left Aquila and Priscilla there to oversee things so he could get to Jerusalem to keep the feast. 

My brothers and sisters, it is difficult to move from religion to relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. It's difficult, as we see here with Paul early on in his faith, to move from being a Jew to Jesus only. And I want to end this morning with what I believe is a very important application for us in this text. 

It is difficult, even in our day, even for the theologians and Christian leaders, and for us, to move from law to grace, to the glory and the fullness of the new covenant. This, in my mind, is the single most important and lacking thing in the church today, a clear understanding of the distinction between the old and the new covenant. 

This is why the doctrines and theology of the Reformed and covenant churches are so dangerous because they see no distinction between the old and the new covenants. But this influence is not confined to these churches. Throughout evangelical Christianity, to varying degrees, there is confusion over this issue. 

And at the heart of this is the innate desire of man to do, to accomplish, to keep a record of and mark up his works, measure his righteousness. Even in the true church, so many teachers, popular, influential teachers, still want to bring over the ideas, the principles, the prescriptions, the ways of living from the old into the new. 

It takes a lot of sorting out, a diligent study of the Word, a commitment to believe and reckon what God says to be true, and a clear understanding of the grace of God and His life and power in us as a means of holy living, of the Christian life and fruit. We must continually renew our minds to these truths, be in the Word, knowing, reckoning, and abiding in order to overcome the desire for and confusion of a works-righteous relationship with God, or external ritual and religious custom as a means of worshiping God. 

And one of the great examples of that, I think, is the binding of the believer with the old covenant law, or prescribing the moral law as a rule of life. The common teaching is that the Ten Commandments, the moral law of Moses, is still binding on or as a rule of life for the believer. They separate the law of Moses into civil, ceremonial, and moral and say that the first two have been done away with, but that the moral law is still binding. 

I'd like for you to turn over to Hebrews 8 with me, please. Hebrews 8, speaking of Jesus in verse 6, it says, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also a mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. Because finding fault with them, He says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'" 

Now look at verse 13. "In that He says, a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." It's an important chapter because it applies the new covenant blessings to the church. Jesus instituted the new covenant in His blood in Luke 22. 

We see here that the covenant, as quoted from Jeremiah 31, was made with the house of Israel and Judah. But we in the church are blessed out of that covenant and are experiencing the promises of the new covenant, as mentioned in Ezekiel 36, of a new heart, a new spirit, a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit now in the church age. 

But what law is it that the author of Hebrews says is passing away? What law is it that we have died to, that we are no longer under? Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:5. He says, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 

But if the ministry of death, listen, was written and engraved on stones... was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 

Paul says the Law of Covenant, that which was engraved on stones, is a ministry of death, is a ministry of condemnation, that it's passing away to give way to the glorious ministry of the Spirit in the new covenant. We see Paul make clear statements about this in Romans 7 as well. In 5, he talks about how when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were aroused by the law, and then in verse 6 he says, "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." 

What law is Paul talking about? The next verse he says, "You shall not covet," the moral law of God. The law is not bad, it's holy and righteous and good, but it has no power to produce holiness in us. It is not that we should continue in sin that grace may abound, right? That's what they accused Paul of. It's a misunderstanding of grace. It's a misunderstanding of the new creation, of Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

The issue here is the point of the battle, my friends. Where is the point of the battle? Are we to live by some external law, striving with sin, seeking to keep the law? Are we to fight sin here in our members? Because James says once it's conceived here, it's coming out. The battle is in the mind. We are to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, reckoning ourselves dead to sin, dead to the law, as we abide in Christ and look to Him. Holy living is our desire and our goal, but the question is, how can we be sanctified? How can we bear fruit to God? 

I wish we had more time. So many passages. But it's important to understand that we don't take vows. We don't put the Ten Commandments on our refrigerator. We don't look to the law. We don't fight the battle in our members. Our battle is not primarily with sin. Our battle is to believe God, to trust Him. The command of the New Covenant is to believe Jesus and love one another. The battle's in the mind. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, taking every thought, right? And the captivity to the obedience of Christ. 

Well, I just want to close with Galatians 2 and 3 because Paul has some pretty forceful words here. We think it's strange that Paul would take this vow to go back to Numbers 6 and travel all the way to Jerusalem to burn his hair. But I want you to listen to Paul's words for those in the church today who would bind the believer with the law of Moses as a rule of life. 

Galatians 2:19, listen, "For I through the law died to the law in order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

Paul's talking about the Christian life here. He's talking about sanctification. Listen to 3:1, "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Now listen to what Paul says, 'Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?'" 

Aren't you so thankful to live in the new covenant, to experience the amazing blessing and power and provision of being in Christ? Remember the words of John, the commands of the new covenant, to believe Jesus and love one another. My friends, the just shall live by faith. Ours is a life of faith and dependence on Jesus Christ one day at a time. 

And in this way, and in only this way, can we bear fruit for the glory of God and live a life of holiness as a witness to the power of the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for Paul's life and example to us, and we thank you for the fact that these were men who lived in a real time and had real backgrounds, real lives and misunderstandings, and they were growing and they wanted to worship you, Lord. And we want to worship you. We want to live for you. Please teach us how you would have us to do that, as you've made so clear in your word as we looked at this morning, just to trust you, believe you, to abide in you, to know that without you we can do nothing, but you've given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 

You've made us new creations. Now help us to live out who we are in light of these truths, by your grace and power, for your glory in Jesus' name.