The Three Most Important Questions of your life

Now, 50 years ago this very day, a man was executed in a Nazi concentration camp. He was hanged, and that man was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a man who had a secure teaching post in the United States of America in the mid-1930s, but he knew that God was calling him to go back to Germany and the Nazi regime there, which he knew he would have to oppose, well, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is what he did.

And for his pains, he was arrested, he was put into Flossenburg concentration camp, and shortly before the end of the war, as they say, he was hanged. On the night before he was hanged, an SS doctor saw him through a half-open cell door, and although he didn't realize at the time who he was, he came to understand this was Bonhoeffer later on, and as he saw that man praying, he said, I was deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain God heard his prayer, and the last recorded words of Bonhoeffer were these, this is the end for me, the beginning of life. And he wrote a number of things in prison.

He also wrote a book, The Cost of Discipleship, and Phil Coleman is now going to come and read an excerpt from this book, which also ties in with our theme this evening. To endure the cross is not a tragedy. It is a suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.

When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It's not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se, but suffering and rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ.

If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands, and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary, everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame, as well as suffering. The psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of man, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross.

But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross.

The cross is there, right from the beginning. He's only got to pick it up. There is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself, no need for him deliberately to run after suffering.

Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his or lost his share of suffering and rejection, but each has a different share. Some, God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above that they are able to bear.

But it is the one and the same cross in every case. The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.

It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death. We give over our lives to death.

Thus it begins. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

Luke 9 verse 18, once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, Who do the crowds say I am? They replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. But what about you, he asked, who do you say I am? Peter answered, The Christ of God. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone, and he said, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.

Then he said to them all, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory, and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God. Some questions were asked, seemed very important at the time, don't they? On one of those holiday programs, back in I think January it was now, they have one of these questions, you know, the prize is an all expenses trip to Florida. You have a cruise and a luxury hotel and first class air travel.

And you know the sort of questions they have on these holiday programs, don't you? Well, the question was, who was the first man to land on the moon? Well, you might think that's not too difficult, you might think it is difficult, but just in case you thought it was a bit tricky, they gave you a choice. Was it Neil Armstrong on the one hand or Neil Kinnock on the other? This is quite serious. Now, that's quite an important question for somebody to get right, isn't it? There may not be much chance of them getting it wrong, but it is quite important.

The holiday of a lifetime hangs on it. But this evening we're considering three questions which are the ultimate questions. They're questions which will decide your destiny, not just here on this earth, but the life beyond.

The most important who question you can ever be asked, the most important what question you can ever be asked, and the most important why question you can ever be asked. Perhaps we could have the overhead sheet up, could we? And could you sort of just have the first question, who is Jesus, and shade off the others? You've already got that, wonderful. So Jesus is praying in private, but his disciples are not so far away.

And he's praying. Something significant is about to happen. And if you know of the career of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will know that there came a turning point when he asked his disciples a question about who he was.

I don't know if this has ever struck you before, but for the first two and a half years of Jesus' ministry, when he got to the age of 30 after he was baptised and the Holy Spirit of God came upon him, he wouldn't let anybody tell him or anybody else who he was. Actually, only the devils knew to start with, but he was always telling them to shut up. They said, we know who you are, you're the son of – shut up, don't say anything.

But even when people were healed by the Lord Jesus, he would say, no, you're not to tell anybody about this. Don't say a word. He was waiting for the most important secret to be discovered, the secret of his own identity.

And now it's time, he knows as he's been praying, to put this question to this band of men who have been following him for two and a half years now. But before he asks them a direct question, he asks an indirect question, a rather non-threatening question. And so he says, well, people are talking about me.

Who are people saying that I am? Now, if you were to go to, say, the Lido and ask people, who is Jesus? You'd probably get thrown out. But if you didn't, I guess that you probably wouldn't get the same kind of answers that Jesus got from the disciples. Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah.

Well, I don't think many people in Worthing would say, well, I think Jesus is John the Baptist. I don't think that's very likely, do you? Or Elijah, come to that. But having said that, there are people who would place Jesus in the same category as Elijah or John the Baptist.

I was talking a couple of weeks ago to a lady, and she thought that I would be fairly sympathetic, I think. It was something that she found perhaps a little bit embarrassing to admit to other people. But she said to me, my sons are Muslim.

And she said, it was a bit of a shock at first, but I wouldn't want to say they were wrong. And so I said, well, there are some lovely Muslim people. They're not all mad mullahs by any means.

There are some beautiful Islamic people. But I would want to say they're wrong. You see, I believe that Jesus is the son of God.

They believe that he is the prophet. Therefore, one of us at least must be wrong, because these two just don't tie up. She said, well, we have very similar beliefs, don't we? And I said, no, not really at all.

There's all the difference in the world between the son of God and a mere man. That's true, isn't it? We can't both be right. Now, Jesus asks the disciples this question, who are the people saying that I am? And then he goes on with a follow-up question.

Now, when somebody in a class gets a question wrong, there are two ways that the teacher might tell him or her that they're wrong, aren't there? They might say, you're wrong, you dummy, don't you know a thing? Or, a little bit more kindly, they might say, has anybody else got an answer? You know if anybody says, has anybody else got an answer, that the first person is wrong, don't you? But the teacher or whoever is at the front is just too kind to say that outright. But Jesus says, well, what do you think? Now, he's saying that's not an adequate answer. It's got to be more than that.

What about you? Who do you say that I am? Now, we're into a different ballgame here, aren't we? Jesus is getting personal. Actually, Jesus does get very, very, very personal, doesn't he? He comes and he presses us, as it were, against the wall, and he puts us on the spot, and he says, who do you say that I am? What response are you going to make to me? Forget everybody else. What about you? I listened to a brilliant interview on the radio a couple of months ago now, I suppose.

It was between John Rawlings, the BBC boxing correspondent, and Riddick Bowe, just before his big fight with Herbie Hyde. And John Rawlings said, a lot of people think you're going to beat Herbie Hyde tomorrow. And Riddick Bowe turned on him and he said, I don't care what other people are thinking.

What do you think? What do you say? And John Rawlings, a bit taken aback, he said, well, I don't know. And Riddick Bowe said, well, if you don't know, you get in the ring with me, and then you'll know who's going to win the big fight tomorrow night. That was brilliant.

But it's a bit like that with Jesus, isn't it? If you don't know, you get in the ring with me, and you will find out. Who do you say? I don't care about other people. What about you? Who do you say I am? Who do you think Jesus is? Could go around the whole congregation one by one.

Who do you think Jesus is? Who do you think Jesus is? I won't because I haven't got the time or come to that in a bottle, but it's an important question. And Jesus asks you, because Jesus has got the metal to do it, who do you say that I am? Well, Peter, with a flash of inspiration, he pipes up, yes, I see it. You are the Messiah.

You are the Christ. Now, that might leave you a little bit cold, but don't forget the Jewish nation. The Jewish people have been waiting only a thousand years for their king, for their Messiah, for the one who would be born, sent by God, who would rule over them and all of the world.

And every time a baby boy was born in Israel, could this be the Messiah? Could he be the one? It's excitement so you can see you're the Messiah, Jesus. See, that reign of God's king is to be a reign characterized by justice and joy, what the world is crying out for. And 2,000 years on, that reign is in progress, and there are Christians all over the world for whom Jesus is king, God's chosen king.

An amazing revelation to Peter. Well, what do we do now, Lord? Should we have a national promotion campaign? We'll take the campaign trail up and down Galilee and then into Judea and south to Jerusalem? No, Peter, don't breathe a word to anyone. You're not to say anything because if you say something, we're going to have a revolution on our hands and there's going to be a lot of bloodshed.

And the kingdom of which I am the king is not a militaristic kingdom. It's not a nationalistic kingdom. It's not an economic kingdom.

It's a spiritual kingdom. Yes, it's universal. Yes, it's eternal.

But only one person is going to lose their life for the establishment of this kingdom, for the establishment of this kingdom, and that's me. We're not going to have a violent revolution. We're not going to have a lot of blood on our hands.

I am going to die. Now, you see that the way Jesus reacts to this answer from Peter, that Jesus is saying, yes, Peter, you've got it right. That is exactly who I am.

I am God's king who has been sent to rule into this world. Who is Jesus? Well, is that your answer? Is that your verdict? Very important because if he is God's king who God has sent into the world, then he must be king of your life, mustn't he? Let's look secondly at why did Jesus come. Immediately, Jesus deals with this issue just to correct any misunderstanding but also because now his disciples have grasped who he is.

He can tell them why he's here on earth. He says to them, I will suffer. No, he says more than that, doesn't he? He says, I must suffer.

I must suffer a great deal. You see, I'm not going to rule the world the way the Romans or the Greeks or the Persians before them ruled the world. I'm going to be a very different ruler.

I'm going to be rejected. That's a very poignant word. It means if you take it apart, to declare useless, to be told that you're no use, to be told that you're not wanted, to be told I can do without you, to be told we don't need you anymore here, that's a terrible thing to feel the pain of, isn't it? And yet Jesus was to be rejected, to be declared useless by the people to whom he came.

And there would be a coalition, the Jewish equivalent of government ministers and the archbishops of Canterbury and York and the leading law lords who wanted rid of Jesus. They wanted to disgrace him and discredit him. They could stone him for blasphemy, but there was a bit of a problem with that because, you see, they'd stoned all the prophets before Jesus and now everybody looked up to the prophets and they had martyr status.

So that wasn't really the answer. So somebody came up with a brainwave and they said, well, I know what we'll do to get him out of the way and to discredit him. We'll hand him over to the Romans.

People hate the Romans. They want them out and they think that Jesus maybe is the answer, but if the Romans kill him, then nobody will have any time for Jesus anymore. So the Romans strung Jesus up and the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, they thought there was no way back for Jesus.

Well, little did they know. Otherwise we wouldn't be here this evening, would we? It all went according to their plan, but it all went according to another plan as well. Well, it all went according to their plan until they killed him.

The Son of Man must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. The Son of Man must be killed. It's when you understand that must that you understand the Christian faith.

The Son of Man, I must die for the sins of the world, to carry the sins that others have committed. That is why I must die. That is the whole point of my coming.

Jesus says that to you too. I had to die for your sins. They're serious.

They will do something worse than kill you. They will drag you into hell. There is only one way of those sins being dealt with and that is that I must die.

Do you believe that? Do you believe it? See, some questions that you're asked, it doesn't really matter what you say, does it? I might say, what's your favourite colour? You say, I don't know, I don't care really. Say what? Neither do I, really. But if I were to say, this building's burning down.

It's not, by the way. But if I were to say it were, you would say, well, you wouldn't say anything. You'd either be out if you believe me or you'd stay sitting here if you didn't.

And if you said, well, I don't know whether I believe that or not, I don't really care, actually. To say I don't care then is to say, no, I don't believe you, isn't it? Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sin and to rescue you from hell. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Yes or no? Thirdly, what does Jesus require of me? Even more personal here, verses 23 to 27.

Now, it's very acceptable to call yourself a Christian today, isn't it? I met a lady yesterday. She said, I'm a follower of Jesus. I don't believe that he rose again, but I like to follow his teaching.

When I asked her, it proved that she only liked to follow certain of his teaching, which she had decided she wanted to follow. But she was quite happy to call herself a Christian even though she was completely deciding what she wanted to believe. But what is Jesus' idea of a Christian? It's very important we're not confused here, isn't it? Jesus gives it to us quite straight.

He lays down three conditions here in verse 23. He says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, number one, and take up his cross daily, number two, and follow me, number three. First of all, he or she must surrender control.

He or she must deny himself, deny herself. Now, when we think of self-denial, we usually think of something like giving up magnums for Lent or something like that, don't we? And we say, well, I've exercised self-denial this Lent. You haven't done anything of the sort.

Self-denial is not saying no to ice creams. Self-denial is saying no to self. It's to give up self-rule.

We have a terrible problem with self, don't we? We learn manners later on. I mean, when we're asked out to tea, if there are two pieces of cake, a big piece or a small piece, we learn to offer the big piece, don't we? But when we're at home, just to show nothing's really changed since we were kids, we don't ask. We just take the big piece.

Well, at least a lot of us do. We have a terrible problem... That's a bit of an admission, isn't it? It may not be true with you, but... You have your own equivalents, I'm sure, in your home. We have a terrible problem with self, don't we? And what Jesus is calling us to do is to deny ourselves.

You see, if you think that Jesus is God, you must treat him like God, mustn't you? He must be God. And you must not be God. It really is a question of where you want to be ruled from.

That's a question facing the country, isn't it? Or at least the Conservative Party at the moment. Where do we want to be ruled from? Brussels or London? But there's a more important question than that. Where do you want to be ruled from? Do you want self-government? Or do you want to be ruled by God, by Jesus Christ, to deny yourself? This works out in all kinds of practical ways, doesn't it? It means that Jesus Christ must be the number one goal in the whole of your life, and everything you do and every decision you take must be at his behest.

You see, we can live for other things, can't we? Even as Christians, we can say we live for Jesus, but actually we do live for something else. Supposing you let career dictate your life decisions, what's going to happen to you? I tell you, either you will achieve your goals, in which case you'll have a midnight life crisis because when you achieve them you've got nothing else to go for, or you won't achieve your goals, in which case you'll still have a midlife crisis because you're feeling out of failure. That is what will happen, isn't it? And let me say, I mean, no firm you work for is going to care a fig about you, are they? You might think your present employers don't, but nobody else will either because only Jesus cares about you, and only Jesus has died for you.

But it may be in different areas that we have our own convenience, things that we want to do, and as long as Jesus fits into everything we want to do, then that's all right. We're happy to follow him, but it's not like that, is it? It's not a question of Jesus fitting in with what we want to do, it's a question of we fitting in with what he wants to do. We must surrender control.

These are the terms, I'm only giving you the terms as Jesus gives them. Number two, to shoulder the cross. Again, this doesn't make too much impact on us, I think, because we've never witnessed a man going out to his crucifixion, staggering under the weight of his cross beam to an execution site.

But that would be quite a familiar sight to people in the Roman world. A man who's already finished with this life, he's already through with it. You see, if you're facing execution, that is right, isn't it? You're through with anything in this life.

What does that mean for us? Well, it means that we mustn't do something just because it'll make us popular. It means we mustn't do something just because there's money in it for us. It means, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it so memorably, I was very moved by that passage again when I read it this afternoon and heard it this evening.

And even if you don't get anything from me, at least I know you'll have had a good sermon this evening. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. And he spells out what that means.

You know, that niece of Bishop Huyck, at her uncle's funeral, his body just dumped in the forest near Tehran after he'd been shot through the head. And that beautiful girl saying, I am willing to give my life for the kingdom of Jesus. And it's a daily decision, says Jesus.

You see, being a Christian is not a one-off decision, it's a daily decision. To carry your cross daily. And it means that when we wake up, we have to say to the Lord, whatever the cost of serving you and following you faithfully today is, Lord, I'm willing to pay that cost.

That's what Jesus says, isn't it? To carry the cross, to shoulder the cross daily. And thirdly, to shadow Christ. To stay as tight to Jesus as you possibly can.

But that's what it's about, isn't it? Not just following a bit of teaching that you happen to like at the time, but everything, anything for him. Those are Jesus' terms and conditions for being a Christian. Nobody's going to have him up under the Trades Descriptions Act, are they? Nobody's going to say, well, Jesus, I thought it was going to be nice and easy when I became a Christian.

I thought it was going to be all peace and joy and lovely emotional highs, and it was going to be a great life. And now look what's happened. Nobody can accuse Jesus of that.

So why would anybody want to follow Jesus Christ? Why do many here follow him? Not perhaps as well as we would like to, but we want to follow him. Well, Jesus gives two reasons. He says, number one, for my sake, and number two, for your own sake.

You see, Jesus never asks you to do anything for him that he hasn't done for you. That's right, isn't it? Jesus is not some petty little dictator who likes to lay down his terms. But he's been so good to you.

He's given his life for you. You know, Nick went into one of the high schools near here, and he was asked to speak on Easter, and he showed the crucifixion scene from the Jesus film on a large screen video, where Jesus is there on Good Friday, exposed to the elements, exposed to public humiliation, exposed to physical agony, exposed to his father's rejection and repugnance of him because of the sin that he is carrying, exposed to the full force of human evil, and he's there. He's doing it for you.

It's all for you. And that's why it's not unreasonable for him to say, you do this for me. And Nick played the Bryan Adams song, Everything I Do, I Do It For You.

With the vision of the crucifixion there, that's only reasonable, isn't it? That's the only adequate response. Everything I do, I do it for you. But Jesus says, if you've got any sense, you do it for yourselves as well, because the stakes are very high, aren't they? As we were thinking this morning, you only get one life.

That's at stake, and your eternal future is at stake. Jesus says, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self? What would you trade your soul in for? What would it be? Getting drunk? Boyfriend? Lying on Sunday mornings? That decision, which will further you one level, but you know is going to lead you away from the Lord is another. Leon Tolstoy wrote War and Peace, which I read when I was in Africa.

I thoroughly recommend it. If you've got loads of time and need to get off to sleep, it's absolutely brilliant. But he also wrote a number of short stories as well.

He wrote one story about a man who was out to acquire land for his family in Russia, and the deal was that he would give up his life savings and he could have as much land as he could fully encircle within one day, between sunrise and sunset. And so he sets off from the top of the hill, the first ray of dawn, and he runs, and then he walks, and then he staggers, and then he walks a bit more, and then he staggers a bit more, and he's out to encircle as much land as he can within the day. But he's a little bit out on his calculation, and as he gets towards the hill from which he started, the sun is disappearing and it goes down, and he collapses, dejected, on the ground.

But the men at the top of the hill are waving at him and encouraging him and cheering him on. Well, you've got it, haven't you? You see, at the top of the hill, the sun hasn't gone down yet, so he's got a few more precious minutes. And so the man, with one last effort, staggers up that hill, and he reaches the top of the hill just as the sun goes down.

He's made it, but the effort has been too big for him, and he has a massive heart attack and collapses and dies at the top of that hill. And Tolstoy ends with the question, he says, how much land does a man need? And he gives the answer, six foot by two. What will a man give in exchange for his eternal future and soul? You may have seen that scratch card ad, which really made me wince.

It had discover the meaning of life in the big letters, and that was all crossed through in blue. And then underneath, forget it all for an instant, 50,000 pounds. Would you give 50,000 pounds? Well, I mean, you haven't even got it, have you? For your soul.

Actually, there's a way to get you onto the path of life which will take you less than three seconds. Do you know that? Quicker than scratching off a scratch card. You could stop being on the road to death and start being on the road to life by committing yourself unreservedly to Jesus Christ.

Now. It'll only take you an instant, and you'll be on the way to life. You only get one life, and you have an eternal future ahead of you.

Is Jesus telling the truth at this point? If he's not, and he's asking us to follow him unreservedly with everything we have, he must be the biggest liar and con man out, mustn't he? That is the only conclusion you could possibly come to. I can't really see how you could come to that conclusion. He is telling you honestly, this is what I require.

You must surrender control and give it to me. You must shoulder the cross, and you must shadow me to stay as tight as you possibly can. And Jesus says, I'll tell you the reason why more people miss out on this than any other.

It's embarrassment. It's embarrassment that causes them not to follow me very often. Verse 26, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

You see, you might be saying now, well, I'd like to become a Christian, I really do believe it's true, but what will my mates think of me? What will my family say? How will my partner react? But what will Jesus say on that day when he comes in his glory? Certainly the person to be seen with then. What will Jesus say? Come on, you've got to follow him, haven't you? And conquer that embarrassment and give your life over to him. This was a big moment for Jesus, it was a big moment for Peter, it was a big moment for the disciples, it could be a big moment for you.

A moment of truth. When you decide to get on that road after Jesus and become one of his disciples, by trusting him for what he did for you when he died on the cross, and saying, Lord, because of this, I'll do anything for you. Perhaps we just ought to have a moment's reflection and each one of us answer that question, what does Jesus require of me? What is it that Jesus, my Lord, requires of me now? So I'd just like to spend a moment or two reflecting on that before we sing.

We're going to sing, O Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end, 501. And maybe this is the response to what Jesus has been saying to you, not just this evening, but for actually quite a long time now. If it is, sing it and mean these words.

Remember, you are saying something very serious to the Lord here and he always hears what you say. But if that's you this evening, making this vow to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, this promise to him, then please do tell somebody else as well. I'd love to know, I'd love to be able to pray for you, perhaps put you in touch with some people who might be able to help you, lead you a little bit further on in the Christian life.

But please do come and tell somebody anyway, a Christian who knows you and who cares for you. 501. Let's sing verse two unaccompanied, shall we? I hear My foes are ever near me Around me and within But Jesus pulled the mirror And shielded my soul from sin Oh, let me hear His speaking In accents clear and still Above the stones of passion The lovers all shall thrill Oh, speak to me and show me To hasten or control Oh, speak and make me listen Thou God, dear Lord, my soul Jesus, Thou hast Christ And all will follow Thee That well Thou art ignoring There shall my servant be And Jesus, I have promised To stand lead to the end Oh, give me grace to follow And all shall have Thy grace See, my foe is in Thy strength alone Oh, guide me, glory, glory Of glory to the end And then in them receive me My Saviour, my God Thank you, Lord, for that prospect of eternal life with you in heaven.

Lord, it's going to be fantastic. Thank you that actually along the road it's not so bad either, even when that road is really hard. Please give us the perseverance and the commitment this week that we need to follow you, Lord Jesus, and not just this week, but every week of the rest of our lives here.

In your name, Amen. Jesus, Lord of our iniquities And to bring us peace He was punished And by His floods we are healed He was led like a lamb to the slaughter O Lord, He was innocent of crime And cut off from the land of the living He paid for the guilt that was mine We like sheep have done a spade To His womb, to His own grave And the Lord has laid on Him The iniquity of us all We like sheep have done a spade To His womb, to His own grave And the Lord has laid on Him The iniquity of us all Come and see, come and see Come and see the King of love See the purple robe and crown of thorns He wears Soldiers march ruelessly As He lifts the cruel cross Lone and friendless now He climbs towards the hills We worship at Your feet Where wrath and mercy meet And a guilty world is washed by love's pure stream For us He was made sin O help me take it in Deep wounds of love cry out The love of God