Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
Note: Relying so heavily in the interpretations advocated in this chapter upon ancient and traditional opinion, the writer is aware of the sense of shock that will come to some who read this; but, as Gloag, writing in Pulpit Commentary (perhaps the best and most thorough to be published in this century), expressed it: