Jesus — Lamb of God - Wednesday
TODAY’S VERSE
2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)
“Jesus is a good example.”
Maybe you or someone you know believes this statement. But is that all there is to it?
Sometimes, we’re tempted to leave it there, but the Bible clearly states He is so much more than that. If we focus solely on Jesus as a “good example,” we fail to recognize His sacrifice on the cross. As Christians, we don’t strive to live like Jesus simply because He was a moral teacher who lived a good life, but rather we strive to live like Jesus in direct response to His personhood, His death, burial, and resurrection. Scott put it this way on Sunday, “Walking in the way of Jesus is our Holy Spirit-empowered response to being washed in the blood of Jesus.”
We can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:5). That’s not an understatement. It might sting, but we don’t have the power to save ourselves. Jesus is the only one who can atone for our sins. Hear this: In Jesus, you are a blood-bought, forgiven, grace-covered, redeemed, adopted, restored, and reconciled child of God.
When we look to Jesus merely as a good example for how to live our lives, we skate around an incredibly important biblical reality: penal substitutionary atonement.
Honestly, that feels like a big, go-over-my-head phrase, but the concept is simple. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but Jesus paid the penalty of our sin in our place as a substitute, to make amends for the wrong we caused (sin), so that we might have a reconciled relationship with God and have eternal life.
When we don’t recognize, or even just get distracted from, the biblical reality that Jesus paid it all, we can start putting people into categories based on how we see their levels of goodness. But be careful! That idea isn’t from God. Not only does it create division in the Church, it also subtly denies Christ’s sacrifice and defeat of death.
Pay attention to 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus, the perfect and innocent lamb of God, became our sin, bore our shame, and paid the price for our sin so that we, the guilty sinner, would be clothed in the righteousness of God.
APPLICATION
Take a few minutes to read through and reflect on this quote from John Stott’s book, The Cross of Christ:
“The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.”
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for the reconciliation You offer through Christ Jesus. When my flesh is tempted to take control and degrade Christ’s sacrifice to anything less than it is, remind me of Your sovereignty and righteousness. Help me not to keep the good news to myself, but to share Your love with everyone around me. Amen.
