Let’s take our Bibles and turn to the passage that was just read. We’re in Proverbs. We are “Fearing Deity & Defying Stupidity.” And the message today is entitled “Averting Disaster.” 

This is a “cautionary tale text” of Scripture. This is a “don’t be foolish passage” in the Bible. The writer of Proverbs wants to help “his son” to avert disaster. And the Holy Spirit wants to help us avert disaster. And we’re going to do that through vigilance and the appropriation of wisdom.

Several years ago, when we were living in Illinois, Sanja and I got home from a short trip. And there was a trail of blood on my back porch leading up to the door to my house. It was very disconcerting. I thought to myself, “My cat is gone. She’s dead. Some opossum or dog in the area has gotten her.” And at that time, we had this outdoor cat named Matsa who we would feed and take care of, and we thought for sure she was dead. 

But I was wrong. My innocent, sheepish, annoying little cat had stalked a large dove on our back porch. I don’t know how she made the kill. All I know is that the bird was dead and when my cat came to say “hi” to me later she had bird feathers tangled up in her whiskers. Later I found the bird carcass and my innocent little cat feasting on bird flesh. My immediate thought was, “Don’t we feed you enough?” “Are you tired of the manna that we give you? Is that why your rebellious stomach craves meat?” 

Now just so you know this cat was one of the most unimpressive animals you’ll ever meet. She didn’t even have front claws. She was a sad and pathetic creature. But it was all a façade. Because in reality, she was a killer. She killed bunnies. She killed bats. She killed doves. And you would never know that from a chance encounter with her. She was a harmless little cat… Or so you’d think.

Something like that is being described in this passage of Scripture. And just to be clear, we aren’t the cat in my analogy. We are the dove. How many of us as Christians just sort of naively walk around thinking we are in no danger, unaware of the hazards that lurk in the shadows? Let me tell you something: Naiveté or simplemindedness will get you killed. That’s the message for today. 

Today’s message is entitled, “Averting Disaster.” And the goal for today’s message is not to make you paranoid as a Christian. It’s to make you wise. So let’s get wise.

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Go ahead and take your notes and write these down as we go. I’ll give you this morning… 

Five ways to avert disaster in your life:

Here’s the first way to do that… 

1. Get wisdom (1:1-6) 

Someone might ask, “What’s the purpose of the book of Proverbs? Why has it been written?” Well the purpose is very clearly stated in the first six verses. 

1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,

 3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; 4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— 5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, 6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. 

Now just a bit of Hebrew grammar for you here. There are four infinitives in these verses that control the message: 1) “to know” (1:2), 2) “to understand” (1:2), 3) “to receive” (1:3), and 4) “to give” (1:4). That’s the purpose of this book: 1) To know wisdom and instruction, 2) To understand words of insight, 3) To receive instruction and to 4) to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and instruction to the wise. Anybody need an upgrade in these areas? And what’s interesting is that these terms convey a wide spectrum of skills ranging from the practical to the intellectual, to the moral (e.g. “righteousness, justice, and equity”).

Let me just explain three terms in these verses. I think the terms used here are mostly self-explanatory. They will come up throughout the book of Proverbs. Many of these terms are synonyms: “knowledge,” “guidance,” “insight,” “instruction,” etc. But the controlling term here for everything is the Hebrew word חָכְמָה (“wisdom”). This is the concept from which all the other terms flow. Proverbs is part of what’s called “wisdom literature” in the OT.

 But just so you know “wisdom” is not unintelligible babble uttered by some guru sitting in a lotus position. Neither is wisdom just theoretical abstractions that confound the listener. Hear me on this: wisdom in Hebrew culture is practical. It’s experiential. It’s applicational. It’s not simplistic or pedantic. But it’s helpful. 

A second term here that we need to explain is the word “prudence.” The Hebrew for this word is עָרְמָה. For whatever reason “prudence” has gotten a bad rap lately. People think of it as a soft, feminine characteristic. I think that it’s partially John Bunyan’s fault. One of the female characters in Pilgrim’s Progress is named Prudence. I think that it’s partially John Lennon’s fault. You might remember that song by the Beatles, “Dear Prudence.”

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day

The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful and so are you 

But the Hebrew word for “prudence” (עָרְמָה) has the idea of shrewdness. It’s related to the word “cunning” used for Satan in Genesis 3. Shrewdness can be sinful (i.e. cunning), and shrewdness can be sanctified (i.e. prudence). And Proverbs here is describing a sanctified shrewdness. God wants to give shrewdness to the simple. He wants to eradicate gullibility.

The final term that I want to explain is the word “simple.” This is the Hebrew פֶּתִי. This word could be translated naïve or innocent. Not innocent in the sense of guiltlessness, but innocent in terms of vulnerability and gullibility. Like I said last week, the book of Proverbs is written from the perspective of a father giving wisdom to his impressionable son. That son is not stupid.. not yet anyway. He’s just young and impressionable. He’s naïve and moldable. He’s simple. Like a bird in a backyard that’s about to get pounced on by a stupid cat. 

And so Solomon wants to give shrewdness and wisdom to naïve, impressionable young men. But not just young men. Look at verse 5.

5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance 

In other words, “the simple get wise and the wise get wiser.” Everybody’s a winner. Everyone who boards the wisdom train will get to a better destination.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that people, even wise people, who stop growing and increasing in wisdom start to move backwards. There are people I know who espoused great wisdom to me at a certain point in their life. But for whatever reason, they got off the wisdom train. Their appetite for wisdom diminished. And just so you know they didn’t hold fast with the wisdom they had. They regressed. And that’s because there’s no pause button on the Christian life. You’re either growing or you’re sinking. There’s either progress or regress. There’s no stasis.   

So if you’re here this morning and you’re thinking to yourself, “I know this stuff already.” “I’ve got this.” Watch yourself. Wake up. Wake up and avert disaster. 

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Here’s the second point from our text today. Here’s the second way to avert disaster. 

2. Fear the Lord (1:7)

Look at verse seven with me.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That, my friends, is an example of antithetical parallelism. There is something positive in the first cola, and then something contrastively and antithetically not positive in the second cola. And here’s our first reference to the “fool.” There’ll be plenty more of that in this book. Stay tuned. 

And if verses 1-6 are the purpose of the book, then this is the mission statement. This is the main motto of the entire book. 

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Notice the capital L-O-R-D here. That’s a reference to Yahweh, the covenant God of the Israelites. Yahweh shows up 87 times in the book of Proverbs. Yahweh is the God who appeared to Moses in the wilderness as the Great “I AM” (Exod 3:14ff). Yahweh is derived from the Hebrew verb for “to be.” His name means something like “HE IS.” When your kids ask you “Where did God come from?” you can say, “He always was; He’s the Great ‘I AM’ in the Bible.” Solomon knew this Great “I AM.” He writes about him here. And he says that the fear of him is the beginning of knowledge. And fools despise [his] wisdom and instruction. 

And here’s an interesting correlation in the Bible that’s different from the rest of the world. Knowledge, wisdom, discernment, etc.… these things aren’t derived from intelligence. I know a handful of people that are incredibly intelligent, off the charts in terms of their intellect. But wisdom eludes them. Why is that? One reason is because “real knowledge” is not attained by greatness of mind or by educational accolades. I know incredibly well-educated people who are absolutely brilliant, who wouldn’t know wisdom if it stood up and punched them in the face. I know other people who are less educated, who scored low on their SATs, who had a GPA of 2.0 or lower, who manifest an uncanny amount of wisdom, wisdom that other “smarter” people drool over. 

Why is that? It’s because of Proverbs 1:7. It’s because wisdom’s threshold is “the fear of the Lord.” If wisdom was a treasure trove of gold and riches and precious stones than the gateway that leads to that treasure trove is “the fear of the Lord.” It’s not education. It’s not intelligence. Those things are helpful. Those things can be used by Christians for God and for his glory. They can be used in combination with wisdom, but they are not the gateway to wisdom. The gateway to wisdom is God-fearing! Wisdom’s path is paved with an awareness of God’s awesomeness and his ineffable glory. 

Listen up for a second, parents. One of your duties with your children is to teach them how to fear God. [And grandparents, you can help with this]. You need to teach them why they should fear God. 

Now don’t get me wrong, you also should teach them to love God. And you should teach them that God is love. But you should also teach them how powerful and how awesome and how wrathful God is. Because I know that there will be a time in their lives when stupidity becomes attractive to them. I know there will be enticement to sin in their hearts. I know, because I’ve been there. And sometimes when our “love for God” doesn’t quite get us to a place of obedience, our “fear of God” will. 

I remember talking to a friend once about this. And he was commenting on how prevalent infidelity is within some churches. People seem to just sin and sin boldly, thinking that they’ll smooth things over with the Lord later. And I remember saying to him, “Don’t people fear God.” When did we get so brazen about defying his ways?

Sometimes I obey God because I love him, and I don’t want to disappoint him. And that’s good. I’m all for that. But there are other times that I obey him because I’m terrified of the consequences of my disobedience, because I’m terrified of a righteous God that will not hesitate to punish and chasten those whom he loves. Yes, I want our children to love God. Yes I want our children to worship God. That’s all bound up in this concept of “the fear of the Lord.” But I also want them to “fear” an almighty and most-holy God. 

Teach that to your children, parents. Don’t domesticate God in their eyes. Don’t teach your children that God is just some granddaddy in the sky who gives us everything we want and never gets angry with us. Don’t teach your children that God is some cosmic, jolly Santa Clause. That’s not helpful for their spiritual development. 

By the way, I’ve said this before. God is not a grandfather in the sky, and also God has no grandchildren. You’re either a child of God on your own or you’re an enemy of God. Nobody gets to heaven because of the faith of their earthly father or mother. And because God is our Father, he loves us and chastens us. And he’s not afraid to discipline us. 

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Speaking of a father and his son, write this down as #3. Here’s a third way to avert disaster.

3. Heed spiritual authority (1:8-9)

I was speaking to parents just a second ago. Now let’s talk about children. Solomon writes, 

8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. 

Now we addressed the purpose of the book of Proverbs. That was verses 1-6. And we addressed what I think should be considered the great theme verse for this book. That’s the statement in verse 7. 

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Now we have the first command in the body of the book, and interestingly it’s a command about children heeding the spiritual authority in their lives. I think that this is more far-reaching than just the parent/child relationship. I think it includes all spiritual authority in this world. But primarily, it deals here with the parent/child relationship.

Now before we discuss the implications of this verse, let me first address the objections that some people might have. I know some in this room will hear, “Listen to your father’s instruction” and say, “That’s easy for you to say, Solomon. You had David as your father. But you should have seen my dad. He was a piece of work.” Some will hear “Do not forsake your mother’s teaching” and will respond, “Why should I do that? You don’t understand just how messed up my mother is.” 

We may have some in this room who are children of alcoholics. We may have children of convicted felons in this room. We may have someone who says, “I don’t even know who my father is, so how and why should I heed his authority?” I know of one son who confessed to me that his father introduced him to pornography and that led him into a world of pain and addiction. Should that son heed the counsel of his father? Well let’s deal with that, before we seek to apply this text.

Look, this is where the interpretational rubber meets the road with the Proverbs. The truth is that Solomon is communicating an ideal. And part of the understanding of that ideal is that a father and mother have the best interests of their children in mind. And we know that that’s not always the case. Some parents are not worthy of being heeded. That’s the honest truth.

So does that mean that we dismiss or negate what Solomon is saying here? Absolutely not. More often than not, and all things being equal, your parents have wisdom to offer you. More often than not, if you are attentive to their counsel, if you heed the spiritual authority in your life, it will bless your life. And I think we should point out as well that when earthly fathers fail us, our heavenly father never does.

So in an idealized society, in ancient Israel, where fathers and mothers are being called to raise their children rightly in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4, KJV), Solomon says to children…

8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 

The word for “teaching” here in Hebrew is תּוֹרָה. Listen to mama’s torah!

9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. 

A garland was a type of wreath worn on the head that was a symbol of nobility and honor. Pendants were chains of precious metals that were worn around the neck. They were a sign of wealth and prestige. They symbolize blessing. 

The Bible tells us clearly that we should honor our fathers and mothers (Exod 20:12). And the Bible says clearly that children, who are still at home and under the authority of their parents, need to obey their parents (Eph 6:1-3). The only time when we disregard that command is when the command of parents defies the commands of God. In cases like that, we must obey God rather than men. And in a church like this, that should be a rarity bordering on impossibility. 

And this statement about parents in Proverbs 1 is radically countercultural in our day. In our day, parents are disregarded as outdated, dunderheaded morons… especially dads… as young people dismissively say, “Ok boomer,” and then they blaze their own trail. Every Disney movie that comes out seems to be about how the young, up-and-coming protagonist needs to free himself or herself from the shackles of an oppressive upbringing.  

And even in Christian homes, I see a lot of Christians make this mistake. They dismiss the counsel of their parents because they are not as “spiritual” as they think they should be. And kids can be wise in their own eyes. Or sometimes Christian kids can let resentment or the angst that they feel towards their parents cloud reality. Let me just say, young people, that is a colossal mistake. Yes, your parents aren’t perfect. But more often than not, they have wisdom for you if you are teachable. 

One of my favorite quotes on this topic is from Mark Twain. He wrote, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Let me say this as well, parents. Be someone who is worthy of your kids’ respect. Make sure that your advice to your children is a blessing in their life. Make sure that you are tapped into the fear of the Lord and the wisdom that comes from above. And don’t ever be someone who says one thing with their mouth and then runs off and does something else with your actions. Nothing is more destructive to the parent/child relationship than duplicity. There’s another word for it. It’s something that Jesus hated. It’s called “hypocrisy.” Don’t be guilty of that, parents.  

Now spiritual authority is vested in parents, but it’s also vested in churches. If you don’t have parents that can offer wisdom and spiritual authority in your life, than you better have a church family that can offer that. You better have people that you can trust, who love you, who are not afraid to tell you when you are in error. Hebrews 13:17 says “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” 

Let me summarize this third point with one very succinct statement for all of us: Be teachable. You know if I had to pick one passage for everyone in this church to memorize through our study of Proverbs, it would probably be Proverbs 1:7. But if I had another verse for you to memorize, it would be this one, Proverbs 3:7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.” Don’t rob yourself of the spiritual blessings (i.e. the garland for your head and the pendants for your neck), that are available to the teachable ones who heed spiritual authority.  

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Here’s the fourth point from our text today. Here’s a fourth way to avert disaster.

4. Ignore knuckleheads (1:10-16)

It took me a little while to find the perfect word for that fourth point. I was trying to find a word that combined youth, malicious intent, and stupidity. There may be a better word out there, but the best word that I could come up with is “knuckleheads.” 

10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 

Let me put verse 10 in my own words. “Son, when your idiot friends try to lure you into some half-baked scheme, or when they try to entice you to play around with sin like it’s some kind of sport, reject them. Shut the door in their face. Turn and run the opposite direction. Have nothing to do with them.”  

Some of you might say, “Why don’t you just tell him to get rid of his idiot friends?” “Why don’t you just move somewhere and isolate him from the knuckleheads in this world?” Well unless you want to go Amish, that’s not really an option. I hate to say this, but the world is populated everywhere with knuckleheads. I know because I used to be one of them. 

Plus consider this. Jesus said go into all the world and make disciples (Matt 28:18-20). Jesus hung out with knuckleheads, and he even turned some of them into disciples (Matt 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-22, Luke 5:29-39). If you are going to be obedient to Jesus’s commands, then I guarantee you and your children are going to come in contact with knuckleheads. We don’t just want our children to refuse the enticement of knuckleheads; we want to win them to Christ.    

Let’s keep reading. Look at verse 10.

10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 

Sinners love company, right? 

Now this is more than just some harmless mischief among kids. The Hebrew word for blood (דָּם) is used eight times in Proverbs; and three of those eight occurrences are in this passage. These are men, young men, who are out for blood. This is not just some kids out knocking over a few mailboxes, as stupid as that is. This is something more sinister. 

This is like a gangster lifestyle, which some people seem to glamorize. I’ve always wondered at that. Why do we romanticize mobsters and gangsters and gunfighters in America? Why do women chase bad boys in movies and in real life, and then wonder why their lives are such a wreck afterwards? I don’t get it.   

You know it’s amazing to me how many men have said this, “I was just a few bad decisions from going down a very dark path.” “I was just one wrong turn, just one ‘yes’ instead of ‘no’ away from total disaster.” I had a man tell me once that he has friends that are in jail right now for doing the very things that he did when he was younger. It was only God’s grace that kept him out of jail.

 One of the pictures that is painted here in these verses is that enticement leads to entanglement which eventually leads to enslavement. That first dabble in sin can be pretty sweet. It can be fun and exciting. It can be exhilarating. But before long that enticement becomes enslavement. It becomes an addiction. It becomes self-destruction. 

I remember that movie a while back called “Unbreakable” with Bruce Willis. It was an M. Night Shyamalan movie. And the main character could see evil in the people around him. That was his superpower. If only we had that superpower. If only we could see the pain we inflict on ourselves and others when we let sin and violence and evil get the best of us. Solomon is trying to give his son a picture of the end result of that enticement. He’s saying, “If you let yourself be persuaded by those idiot friends of yours, it will cost you everything.”

He says in verse 15,

15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

Just a nota bene here—the Hebrew for “way” in verse 15 is the word דֶּרֶךְ which means “road” or “path.” And this word is often used to describe not just a literal road, but a figurative way of life. And one of the things the author is doing here is giving young men two paths. There’s a crossroads in every person’s life. There are two דְּרָכִים (dereks). There’s the דֶּרֶךְ that leads to life and wisdom and the fear of the Lord and prudence and guidance and discretion, etc. And there’s this דֶּרֶךְ. And this דֶּרֶךְ leads to evil and bloodshed and Sheol and ill-gotten gain.

15 my son, do not walk in the [דֶּרֶךְ] with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

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And you have to laugh a bit when you see what these knuckleheads say to each other. Look again at verse 14.

14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 

Yeah, right! You’re going to trust these guys? You rob an innocent man of his hard-earned wages, but then afterwards, these robbers are going to split the pot evenly? One of the principles that’s being conveyed here is that “You’ll get what’s coming to you.” Some other religions call this “karma.” It’s not so much karma, as it is justice poured out by a just God. 

Here’s the fifth point from our text today. 

5. Watch and learn (1:17-19)

The world says, “Live and learn,” but God says, “Learn and live.” God says, “Watch and learn.” God says, “Listen and learn,” because fools rush in. You know what really happens to gangsters and the mobsters of this world? They die gruesome deaths. The best movies on that subject showcase that reality. They function as cautionary tales. 

Look at verse 17.

17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 

In other words, people don’t put out a bird trap in plain sight. A fowler hides the net so that the bird feels safe and secure. That’s why my cats hide in the bushes and stalk their prey. 

But here’s the kicker. Those who go after unjust gain through murder and thievery think that they are safe. The trap is hidden from them. But soon enough, they will entrap themselves with their own devious scheming. They will be caught when they are not looking. That’s the irony of the whole situation. “They lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.” This is not karma; this is what I would call poetic justice.   

19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.

In other words, “They get what’s coming to them.” Will greedy people succeed in this world? Yes. Will sinful people achieve some measure of success in this world? Yes. Will injustice go unpunished? No. Retribution will come. If not in this world, then in the life to come!

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Some of you might object to this last statement by saying, “Yes but people do get away with murder in this world!” “Greed and unjust gain do sometimes go unpunished!” Or someone might say cynically, “Tony, sometimes, in certain professions, you’ve got to embrace a little bit of unethical conduct to get ahead.” 

I had this friend when I was in High School who was also in my youth group. And he was the smart aleck in our youth group. Every youth group has that guy who questions the youth pastor and irritates the youth pastor, and this kid was that guy. And I remember we were playing baseball one day and he was bending the rules a little bit to win at baseball, and we caught him cheating. And we said, “Cheaters never win!” That’s a great modern proverb, isn’t it? “Cheaters never win!” And he responded with this really obnoxious reply, “Nope, that’s not true. Sometimes cheaters do win!” How do you respond to that?

I know that the temptation with these last few verses is to say something like this, “That’s not always true. Sometimes people do get away with murder. Sometimes people aren’t punished for their crimes. Sometimes people are greedy for unjust gain, and they get off scot-free.”

Let me say three things about that and then I’m done. 1) First of all, keep in mind we are dealing with truisms not promises. God has established in our world ways to punish evildoers. God has even established governments and world leaders to punish evildoers and establish justice (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Pet 4:5-6). We have a justice system in our modern-day world, in America. Does it always work great? No. Is it better than nothing? Is it better than anarchy? Yes. 

2) Those who escape punishment in this present life will not escape it in the afterlife. No sin goes unpunished. It’s either paid for by the blood of Jesus or it’s paid for eternally in the pit of hell. Nobody gets off scot-free. Here’s a promise for you. Paul said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom 12:19).

3) And thirdly, you might say this. I’m so glad I’m not a knucklehead like these guys in Proverbs. I’m so glad I won’t be judged for my sins in the afterlife. Easy now! Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” Ray Ortlund said in his commentary on this passage that “Deep in every heart is a kind of blood-lust.”

There’s a danger here in reading this passage and the sum-total of Scripture as a Pharisee looking to justify yourself. Can any of us approach God according to our own righteousness? Can any of us say with a straight face, “I’m so glad I’m not a pathetic, sinful, knucklehead like these guys in Proverbs 1”? 

No, this passage is doing two things in our hearts. One thing it’s doing is pointing out how deceitful and wicked our world is and how we need to be wise in how we interact with it. The other thing it’s doing is pointing out how wicked our own hearts are. And how desperately we need the Lord’s help in this matter. Because if God truly is going to judge all of our sinfulness in this life, who can escape his judgment? Who of us can say that we don’t deserve punishment and God’s wrath as a result of sin?

The title of this message is “Averting Disaster.” How do we avert eternal disaster? How do we account for our own sin before a holy and righteous God? Well the Bible says this. Here’s some good news for sinners like you and me. 

Romans 5:8-10 says this, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”