It's been awhile since I last posted. We have been a little busy with the marriage of our daughter Elise to Austin Rampey. What a cool wedding! God answered Elise's constant prayer for a sunny 80 degree day. The whole thing was beautiful. And now my kid is married to a godly guy. Wow! God is faithful. Anyway, here we go...
2 Cor. 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."
This is wild stuff. First, this is confirmation. Confirmation that Jesus was perfect...He was sinless. This is confirmation that Jesus was not just a man, for if He were just a man He would sin. (Rom.3:23) All men and women sin, there are no exceptions, except one - Jesus. He was a man but He was perfect. How could this be: Because He was God as well. For anyone to say that Jesus was something less than God (which I have heard lately) is not logical. How do they get around the fact that He never sinned...never. The only way that this is posible is if He were God. God in the flesh.
So here we have God in a man's body who never sinned. He never experienced sin. What did He do? He became sin. He was made sin. Now this is hard to grasp. I mean there are sins: the things that we do or don't do that miss the mark, that violate God's character. Then there is sin: the state of being that we are all in. We are all sinners. This is what could be called an amazing exchange. Jesus, who was not a sinner ever, became a sinner in God's eyes. He took our state upon Himself. And along with taking our state and all of our collective sins on Himself, he also took the guilt, the punishment, the separation from God. (That is why Jesus cried out: "My God My God why have you forsaken Me?" Because God could not look on sin which Jesus became.) Jesus became dirt. He became garbage. He became scum when He did not deserve any of it. Why? This is what is really amazing. He did it so we who are imperfect could become perfect in God's eyes. He did it so we who are unrighteous could become righteous in God's eyes. He did it so we who are totally dirty could become clean and pure and holy in God's eyes. When God looks at me, He does not see my sin any longer. He sees His righteousness because of Jesus.
The question that I have to ask myself is this: Knowing this, realizing what Jesus did for me...knowing all that He gave up, how can I go on continuing to screw up? I mean, how can I take it upon myself to get bitter and jealous and say weird things and have stupid thoughts and whatever else we may "struggle" with. I mean this is dumb. We are totally clean in God's eyes. Live like it.
