Prayer of Thankfulness for Christ, Truly God and Truly Man: 

(Quoted catechism taken from The New City Catechism, Questions 22 & 23. The quoted prayer by Ephraim the Syrian, “Mediator, We Give You Glory”  cited from Fount of Heaven: Prayers of the Early Church, Robert Elmer, ed.) 

Heavenly Father, 

We thank you that you have provided us with a Redeemer, truly man and truly God, to bring us back to you. We marvel that in our inability to desire true relationship with you, and in our moral bankruptcy—unable to begin to render to you the righteousness that you demand—you provided Christ. In his human nature he perfectly obeyed the whole law and suffered the punishment for our sin on our behalf, and in that humanity he sympathizes with our weaknesses. In his divine nature, his obedience and suffering were perfect and effective, bearing your righteous anger against sin and yet overcoming death (The New City Catechism, Questions 22 & 23).  

Lord, may our love and worship to you be now an acceptable offering in that Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and may the hymns and prayers of your people rise up to you who made your own offering on the cross. You stooped down from above to us below, so you could pass along your treasures of grace and eternal life to us. You became the treasurer of your riches, bringing your gifts from the storehouse and distributing them to the needy.  

We give you glory, our Mediator. For through you we receive life, just as we received death from the one who would slay us. (Ephraim the Syrian, “Mediator, We Give You Glory”) 

You have brought us here this morning from our many vocations and circumstances and walks of life to be confronted by this glorious, saving truth centered on Christ, truly man and truly God. In our thoughts, our hopes, our fellowship with each other, and our testimony before the world, may we be anchored in and directed by the one salvation that you have provided in Christ, and may we rejoice that you are receiving never-ending glory in us and through us because of your eternal, saving purpose in Christ.    

Amen