Thursday, July 16, 2015
We all have favorite Bible passages. We cherish these passages because they are God's Word and also because these precious nuggets have served us well to comfort, encourage, and to teach. If we were sitting around a campfire talking about our favorites, this would be one of mine -- and maybe yours.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
"Hey ... No Fair!" Yes, from little on we fancy ourselves perfect judges of what is fair and unfair. Generally it goes like this: If it works out in my favor, it's fair. If it doesn't work out like I want it to, NO FAIR!
So how does our sense of fair play deal with this passage? How would we respond if we knew that someone was being held accountable and punished for someone else's misdeeds? Well, we'd like to think that we'd champion truth and justice, of course. How would we respond if we were the guilty and benefited from someone else being punished instead of us? Would we be so quick to cry out, "No Fair!"? Well, so much for our sense of fair play.
God made Christ, who was sinless, (accountable for) sin for us, in order that we might be declared righteous before God. Instead of imagining that we always stand on high moral ground, we ought to place ourselves in Barabbas' sandals. We are the guilty and Jesus is the innocent. But God in His mercy (cf. Acts 2:23) determined to hold Christ accountable for OUR SINS.
What did it accomplish? We are declared righteous in God's sight and benefit from this "great exchange" by faith in Christ's completed work.
We by grace through faith are declared righteous in God's sight. What a humbling thought! What an amazing God!
The same Jesus also sends us forth to make known this humbling and amazing truth. What a tremendous opportunity to serve our amazing Scapegoat.
