We love You because You first loved us with an everlasting love, and chose us in Christ before the founding of the world . . .

Because, for some 4,000 years—in type, shadow, and prophecy—You promised us Christ, gave hope to our OT brothers, and strengthened our faith through a written record of all You ordained, said, and did in their days . . .

Because, in the fullness of time, You sent forth your Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were in Adam, in sin, in the flesh, under the Law, under wrath, in danger of Gehenna, and in desperate need of salvation . . .

Because, through Your incarnate Son, You brought us Your definitive truth, to which You bore witness by unprecedented signs and wonders, so numerous that we suppose all the books in the world could not contain them . . .

Because, through His sinless being, righteous life, and perfect obedience to Your every command, He won for us the reward of eternal life, and for all who would repent and trust in Him . . .

Because, by His substitutionary death on the Cross, He satisfied Your justice, propitiated Your wrath, and secured forgiveness of sins for us, and for all who would repent and trust in Him . . .

Because, through His resurrection, You testified that He is all He said He was, and accomplished all You sent Him to do, thereby presenting to the world its sole and proper object of saving faith, hope, and love . . .

Because, by His ascension into heaven, You assured us that there really is such a place, that He is waiting for us there (should we die), and that He will return to us from there (should we not) . . .

Because, having returned to heaven in victory, You seated Him at Your own right hand as high Prophet, Priest, and King of heaven and earth, Who received from You the Holy Spirit, poured Him out on the nascent Church on the Day of Pentecost, and has been doing so ever since . . .

Because, at Your word, He sent His Church out into the world, there to proclaim the gospel, test our love of the truth, and call us and all men back to You through simple faith in Him, so that we might receive forgiveness, righteousness, and the gift of eternal life . . .

Because, by Your Spirit, You granted us the gifts of repentance from sin and faith towards Christ . . .

Because, through our faith in the perfectly Righteous One, You declared us to be perfectly righteous in Your sight . . .

Because, through being righteous in Your sight, You reconciled us to Yourself, so that we are no longer at enmity with one another, but in love with one another, though our poor love for You is but the palest reflection of Your intense and eternal love for us . . .

Because, having been reconciled, You adopted us as beloved sons and daughters, seeing that You transferred us from the domain of darkness into the eternal kingdom and fellowship of Your beloved Son . . .

Because, being adopted, we have received the Spirit of the Son, by whom we cry out “Abba, Father,” and in whom we now live and move and have a new and better being . . .

Because, through Christ and by the Spirit, You have given us spiritual gifts, work to do, a will and a power to do it, a spiritual family with whom to do it, sanctification, perseverance, assurance, faith, hope, and love, the greatest of which is love . . .

Because, through Your word, we now have eternal good hope, eagerly awaiting the return of Your exalted Son, the resurrection of our bodies, the judgment of the world in righteousness, and new heavens and a new earth, the eternal home of the saints, the angels, and the manifested glory of the triune God . . .

And because, in that place, we shall forever be to the praise of Your glory, and to the praise of the glory of Your grace.

Amen