I sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. I was a prisoner of my sin, in affliction and in irons. I had rebelled against the holy Words of God, and I had spurned His counsel, the counsel of the Most High. My heart was bowed, heavy with the burden of sin. I fell with no one to help me; I could not rise. But before the foundation of the world, the King of Glory, the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, knew me and set me apart for His mercy. In His magnificent plan of redemption, He sent His only begotten Son to earth. He lived the perfect life I could not live, free from the bondage of sin. The people rejected this Christ and hung Him on a cross. But on that cross, God nailed my sin. He poured out the wrath that I deserved onto the spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ. This Lamb paid my debt that dreadful, yet glorious day, and rose again to life three days later—raised for my justification. And so, many years later as I was enslaved to sin, weighed down by the u