Calvin: Gift of Adoption by which God Admits Us into a Union with Christ...

"though we may be pressed down by adversity, yet we are not excluded from the number of God's children, since we see him going before us who was by nature his only Son; for that we are counted his children is owing only to the gift of adoption by which he admits us into a union with him, who alone lays claim to this honor in his own right." [emphasis added]

Calvin, John. Complete Commentaries, Hebrews 5:7

Justification: Sins of the Elect Imputed to Christ, Christ's Righteousness Imputed to the Elect - John MacPherson (4)

To finish up this series of posts (here, here, and here) on the imputation of the elect's sins to their Surety, Jesus Christ we have the words of Rev. John MacPherson who, in his commentary and notes on the Sum of Saving Knowledge (mid-17th century exposition on WCF doctrines), helpfully defines imputation and further explains what is meant by the imputation of sins to Christ and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the elect for
their justification received through faith...

The doctrine of Imputation set forth in the words on which we are commenting, involves the rejection of that theory of infusion of righteousness to which we have referred. The term imputation, as used in theology, does not mean simply a charge upon or against one, but rather the making of such a charge in terms of law and justice. We speak of the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, the imputation of man's sin to the second Adam, the imputation of Christ's righteousness to those who believe,—the imputation in each case being made in terms of the covenant of grace. Under the express conditions of that covenant, sin and righteousness respectively are regarded as of right belonging to the parties referred to therein. The ground of the sinner's justification is the work of Christ, the merit of which is attributed to us on condition of our believing in Him [see * Note below ]. The friend of another man's debtor says to his friend's creditor, put that debt to my account; when this proposal is accepted, the debt is imputed to me, who before this imputation was not chargeable with it, and he who was before a debtor is now in the state of one against whom the creditor can no longer advance a charge. Thus by the imputation of the sinner's guilt to Christ, the sinner who believes is justified.  

That which is imputed to the sinner for his justification is described as Christ's perfect obedience to the law and satisfaction on the cross unto justice. This embraces the whole work of Christ, His active and passive obedience, His doing and suffering, His life and death. Like the changes of state in the believer enumerated in this section, these distinctions in regard to the work of Christ are not to be viewed as successive and temporally separable parts of Christ's life, but as two aspects illustrated throughout its entire course. He suffered in doing and He did in suffering. In His passion, which began in the first stages of His humiliation and was only consummated on the cross. He was not passive in the sense of merely submitting to a superior power : no man took His life from Him, but He laid it down,—not merely suffered it to be taken, for He had power to lay it down (John x. 18). The ground of our justification lies not in the death of Christ upon the cross alone. Christ's whole life of obedience unto death is that upon which we must depend for our justification.

The Sum of Saving Knowledge - With Introduction and Notes, 1871 - by Rev. John MacPherson M.A., page 127 - 128. 

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* Note: MacPherson explains what is meant by 'on condition of our believing in Him' on page 66:

But under the covenant of grace, God was dealing with a corrupt nature where selfishness and pride were already present. When faith was introduced in place of works as the condition of the covenant on man's side, there would be a danger of man's regarding faith as a work of his own upon which he might pride himself. It was necessary, therefore, in order to exclude boasting, to show those who are children of God by faith, and to make them remember that their faith was no work of their own, but a gift of God. Now, this is just another way of stating the doctrine of election. Those on whom God bestows the gift of faith are the chosen. It is His sovereign good pleasure alone that determines who are to receive this gift. It is the divine election which is the condition of our receiving His gift of faith. At the same time, so far as we are concerned, God's choice of us in His electing love, can become known only through our possession of that grace of faith which is the gift from God by which all His chosen are distinguished. In bestowing this gift He showeth mercy unto whom He will have mercy (Ex. xxxiii. 19; Rom. ix. 15).

How is Christ our righteousness?

Dr. S.M. Baugh:

Christ, by being "born under the law" (Gal. 4:4), personally fulfilled all of the law's demands as our convenant Mediator or Surety. This is how Christ is "our righteousness": his righteous, perfect keeping of the law in every particular is imputed to me as a fee gift (Rom. 5:17). Paul does not develop this point in our Galatians 5:1-6 passage, but he does express it when he says: "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness" (Gal. 5:5). I believe this principle of substitutionary mediation is expressed even more strongly--if succinctly--when Paul shows our complete identity with Christ in his death and in his life earlier in Galatians:

• For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life 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 nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Gal. 2:19-21)

Paul makes absolutely clear in the Galatians 5 passage that the two ways of righteousness are mutually exclusive: one either appropriates the gift of our Mediator's righteousness for which we hope and eagerly await through the Holy Spirit by faith (v.5; cf. Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 5:21) or one attempts to acquire that standing derived from the "works done by us in righteousness" (Titus 3:5).  The latter is what the law of Moses commands: perfect performance by the individual, and there can be no admixture of circumcision and Christ (Gal. 3:3).  Ironically, Paul says in Romans 7:6 that we in Christ have been severed from the law, but he says in Galatians 5:4 that those who come under the law have been "severed from Christ".

Furthermore, verse 4 unequivocally shows that there is no "gracious" fulfillment of the law which God accepts as a substitute for perfect and entire performance of its commands by the obligated person (v. 3). Paul says that all who would attempt to be justified by law have necessarily fallen from grace, since "grace" in this use is tied to the appropriation of the benefits of Christ's substitutionary mediation through faith and received as a gift (e.g., Eph. 2:8). The law here is tied to personal obligation without mediation; hence it is not "gracious" in this sense.  This is what Paul had already communicated in brief in Galatians 2:21 where he links divine grace only to Christ's substitutionary death whereas justification through personal law-keeping is antithetical to and a vitiation of grace. [The Law Is Not Of Faith: Galatians 5:1-6 and Personal Obligation, pp. 276-277]

Covenant of Works or of Grace: a matter of mediation

In his essay Galatians 5:1-6 and Personal Obligation, Dr. S.M. Baugh explains a key difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.  As emphasized in the last post, perfect law keeping is the only basis for someone to be declared "justified" before the law of God.  The covenant of grace doesn't abrogate the requirement for perfect works.  Rather, it is in the covenant of grace that a mediator (the substitute law-keeper Jesus) is uniquely provided by God as the sole basis for the ungodly to receive justification by grace through faith, not as a result of their personal works but Christ's.  Dr. Baugh makes this point in this comment on Galatians 5:3: "My analysis, then has shown that Paul says that the law imposes an exacting obligation to fulfill all of its commandments and statutes personally.  One must finish off performance of the whole law as the only alternative to Christ's mediation and divine grace" (p. 275).  Earlier in the essay he explains the key difference between the two covenants:

The issue of the opposition between the covenants of works and of grace and the resolution of the common confusion surrounding these terms is that "grace" in the term "covenant of grace" and "works" in the "covenant of works" point to something very specific, namely, to whether there is substitutionary mediation in the covenant arrangement or not.  The antithesis of these covenantal commitments does not revolve around issues of God's beneficence, whether there are conditions in the covenant or not, or even the benefits of covenant relationship, but rather their difference focuses on the very narrow issue of who comes under obligation in the covenant to fulfill its stipulations: the human covenant partner himself (covenant of works) or a mediator on his behalf (covenant of grace).  This idea is expressed admirably by the seventeenth-century Dutch theologian Herman Witsius (1636-1708), who says:

• "In the covenant of works there was no mediator: in that of grace, there is the mediator Jesus Christ... In the covenant of works, the condition of perfect obedience was required, to be performed by man himself, who had consented to it.  In that of grace, the same condition is proposed, as to be, or as already performed, by a mediator.  And in this substitution of the person, consists the principal and essential difference of the covenants."

When the Mosaic law was enacted with the blood of the covenant in Exodus 24 (cf. Heb. 9:18-21), the covenant people twice recognized that they must personally fulfill the obligation imposed in this covenant: "All the terms that the Lord has spoken we will do" (Ex. 24:3) and "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient" (Ex. 24:7).  In consequence, the term "covenant of works" should be thought of as a covenant of personal obligation whereas the "covenant of grace" is best seen as a covenant of mediation or even a covenant of substitutionary performance.  This is what we see in our target passage, Galatians 5:1-6.

[The Law Is Not Of Faith: Galatians 5:1-6 and Personal Obligation, pp. 262-263]

Westminster Larger Catechism:
 Question 31: With whom was the covenant of grace made?
Answer:  The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.

Question 32: How is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant?
Answer: The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that he freely provideth and offereth to sinners a mediator, and life and salvation by him; and requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him, promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable them unto all holy obedience, as the evidence of the truth of their faith and thankfulness to God, and as the way which he hath appointed them to salvation.

Question 70: What is justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.

Question 71: How is justification an act of God's free grace?
Answer: Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet inasmuch as God accepts the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.

Question 72: What is justifying faith?
Answer: Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.

Question 73: How does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?
Answer: Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it, nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for his justification; but only as it is an instrument by which he receives and applies Christ and his righteousness.

Justification requires perfect law-keeping...

The question is from where does one acquire this perfect obedience?  From the conclusion of Dr. S.M. Baugh's essay, The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification:

Paul's forcefully clear focus on Christ's substitutionary mediation in Romans 5 relates to justification.  While there is room for a fuller presentation of Paul's doctrine of justification or a fuller discussion of Romans 5 (e.g., Paul's presentation of the law, imputation, transgression, Adam in 5:13-14), I concentrated here on clear and necessary conclusions from Romans 5: the righteousness resulting in divine approval at the last day comes to us as a free gift of the righteousness of Christ as the Second Adam and our mediator.  It is his obedience to the covenant stipulations of the law imputed to us that forms the only ground of our justification, an eschatological verdict rendered now in Christ.  The soteriology offered by Paul's opponents insofar as it is evidenced in Romans (and Galatians)--whether one sees it as Sander's "covenant nomism" or as any other kind of synthesis that somehow imports our works of obedience into our justification--is just what Paul's teaching in Romans 5 decisivwely undercuts.  Any synthesis makes Christ's substitutionary life and death gratuitous and undermines God's grace.

Justification is indeed based on a human obedience to the law of God, and that loving obedience was entire and perfect in every respect, but no human after Adam--being helpless, impious enemies of God (cf. Rom 39-20) who have defaced the divine image are therefor devoid of the glory of God (3:23)--did or even could ever fulfill God's holy law for righteousness, except one: the one man, Jesus Christ.  That is Paul's incontestable message in Romans 5 and has been a continuing hallmark of Reformed interpretation to this day.

[Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification, pp. 162-163]

Westminster Larger Catechism-Question 70: What is justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.

Heidelberg Catechism-Question 62: But why cannot our good works be the whole, or part of our righteousness before God?
Answer: Because, that the righteousness, which can be approved of before the tribunal of God, must be absolutely perfect, and in all respects conformable to the divine law; and also, that our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.

Heidelberg Catechism-Question 63:  What! do not our good works merit, which yet God will reward in this and in a future life?
Answer: This reward is not of merit, but of grace.

Since we have been justified by faith...

Dr. S.M. Baugh writes in his essay, The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification:

Covenant Mediation in Romans 

We open Romans 5 conscious of entering Paul's epistle in progress, with some key notions already carefully laid down by the apostle.  All the world, both Jew and Greek, is under indictment to God's law, condemnation, and wrath (3:9, 19-20), so that only through the one mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5) through whose propitiatory death (3:25) and fulfilling of the law's demands can God's forgiveness and justification extend as a free gift to the profane and ungodly who put their trust in the Savior (3:26; 4:5-12; cf. 2 Cor 5:21; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 2"14).

Having Been Justified  

Romans 5 then opens with the stunning words:  "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (5:1-2 ESV).  Paul says that we have now been justified and in consequence have peace, access, and standing in God's grace, which gives us sure hope for the future.  This means that God has already rendered his verdict of the last day in our favor through Jesus Christ.  Justification is accomplished.  To all appearances, this seems to be communicated rather neatly by the lead aorist adverbial (or circumstantial) participle in 5:1: δικαιωθέντες, rendered "since we have been justified."

[Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry, The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification, pp 148-149]

                                                                                                            

Miserable Offenders...

I remember the first time praying the General Confession of the 1928 BCP during an Anglican Communion service.  Needless to say, as everyone read together aloud, inwardly I recoiled at what struck my modern sensibilities as an archaic, over-wrought description of confessing sinners who “bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.”  “Wickedness?”  The confession went on to describe the weight of our sins in such a way that, “The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable.”  “Isn’t that simply over-done?”, I thought.  As a general rule “intolerable burden” wasn’t my choice of words when it came to describing sin in my life.  And the phrase, “Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us”, describing God’s position on the matter seemed, well, downright medieval, as if God were some mean exacting Potentate!  Within I objected... “Sure we’re sinners, but we’re not that awful.  And God isn’t really that upset at us because of our sin, is He?  After all, Christ has died for our sins!  He loves us!”

Well, over the past several years my thoughts have changed.  In fact I have become more and more comfortable with the term “miserable offender” (as found in the BCP Morning Prayer confession) as an apt description of who I am in and of myself.  And on the heels of my last post where I quote Paul writing to Timothy, “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief”, I want to suggest that not only are we sinners saved by grace but, now having believed, it is still as sinners we come to God and know him.  To state it more pointedly I could say that in a real way we only come to God through, and not apart from, our sinfulness.  Now, before I am accused of some new heresy let me unpack that assertion.  

We are created beings, owing all we are and have to God.  Not a breath we take nor a day we live is outside of our dependency upon his creative and sustaining power.  Now let that sink in.  Nothing begins with us.  And when it comes to changing anything as touches our essential nature we are the clay, not the potter.  But there is something else about us.  Not only are we created beings, we are fallen beings.  As Scripture teaches, nothing good dwells in our flesh... the thoughts of our hearts are continually wicked... our so-called righteous and good deeds are but filthy rags before our holy Creator. [Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Isa. 6:5, 59:12-15, 64:6; Rom. 3:10-18,7:18]  As Christians, we generally believe that, but only really believe that when thinking of everyone else.  When it comes to our own individual sinful natures we have a more generous take.  The bottom line for each of us is that we don’t think we are really that bad!  “Sure I sin every now and then (goes the modern thinking)... but I’m a fairly decent guy.”  Looking horizontally and compared with the vast sea of humanity, as Stuart Smalley of SNL says, “I’m good enough...”  Or as my brother sometimes says, I’m “not so bad.”  We don’t really see our sinfulness vertically, i.e. compared to God’s holiness. In fact we avoid doing so save for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. [John 16:8]

So it is not surprising that it is nearly impossible, when left to myself, to take sin as seriously as the Scripture does (unless of course someone has wronged me!).  Why is that?  I think it has to do with the fact that I am a sinner!  Sinners sin, and sinners hide from their sin.  Jesus taught in the gospels this very thing when he said,

And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved.
[John 3:19-20]  

That is us.  The fallen reality of our humanity doesn’t disappear having believed on Christ.  Upon repentance and trust in Christ our sins are indeed forgiven through his blood.  Justified on the basis of his merit, we are declared righteous by God as if we indeed had and are living holy lives.  Yet paradoxically we remain sinners though having been born anew of the Spirit - saints.  And this means that “in thought, word, and deed” we sin, while all too often minimizing the pervasive presence of the fount of those sins - our very sinful natures.  Why is that?  Because sinners not only sin, they also rationalize and self-justify themselves. We are invariably prone to put a better gloss on what we are by nature.  This is what the Morning Prayer in the BCP is referring to when the Minister exhorts concerning repentance, “that we should not dissemble nor cloak them [i.e. our sins] before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father .”  We are by nature “dissemblers”, i.e. we hide and cloak our sin from ourselves and God under the guise of false appearances.  “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved.”  This is the one for whom Christ came.  This is who we are.    

So back to my assertion that it is through our sin that we come to God and know him.  We are sinners.  Yet no one (saved or unsaved) having sin, can on his own come into God’s presence, let alone on his own be spared from God's “wrath and indignation.”  The children of Israel pleaded with Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” [Exodus 20:19].  The Old Testament Israelites were given the mediation of the Temple sacrificial system for sin in order that through the priest they could approach God.  Everything in that priestly sacrificial worship system existed in order to remind the Israelites of the severity of their sin and of God’s unapproachable holiness. Death was deserved and so approach could only be made through through an acceptable blood sacrifice.  And concerning that priesthood it is written, “who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” [Heb. 8:5]  They foreshadowed the true priestly mediation of the One, Jesus Christ, who as Priest offered Himself:

“But Christ having appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh:  how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance... For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.”
[Hebrews 9:12-16, 24]

The only man who can and has approached God in the holy place is the sinless man Jesus.  The only means of approach to God for sinful man is by the one Man Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of himself on our behalf.  The only place of meeting between sinful man and God is in the one Mediator Christ Jesus.  It is only there in Him where the painful dilemma of our fallen nature has been completely and forever resolved.  In this life we never graduate from coming to God through Christ as miserable sinners ("Oh wretched man that I am").  The spiritual blessings poured out on the forgiven are only known there, in and through him.   We are believers because we’ve trust Christ as the divine cure (his death and resurrection) for our infirmities.  And the Cure is efficacious only for those who are infirmed (Matt. 9:11-13).  Only sinners need apply.  Only sinners need come... daily.  This is the seeming paradox of our faith.  We’re not able in and of ourselves to escape or change “the body of this death” [Rom. 7:24] of which the Law disqualifies us.  Yet by owning the very disqualification of our present sinful nature are we qualified for cleansing of our sinful natures and full acceptance before God in Christ.  

“And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised.”  [Hebrews 10:17-23]

And this new and living way of coming to God, inaugurated for us by Christ, never changes nor ceases for the saint yet sinner.  And in fact it becomes our boast in the Lord.

For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:  but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are:  that no flesh should glory before God.  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:  that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. [1 Cor. 1:26-31]

General Confession - Holy Communion:
ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Declared by the Minister:
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him; Have mercy upon you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins; confirm and strengthen you in all goodness; and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A General Confession - Morning Prayer:
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

Declared by the Minister:
ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel.
Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.