For He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
I’ll never
forget the time the lights came on for a lady I knew. I had been reading from
John’s gospel account of the arrest, torture, and crucifixion of Christ. No sermon or emotional appeal, only the word of God. All of
a sudden, her head snapped up and she said, “Wait a minute; He was innocent.
You mean they killed a man who was totally innocent? He didn’t deserve that.
He’d done nothing wrong! Why did they do that?” Flesh and blood had not
revealed that to her. It was the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ
allowed it to be so, offering the righteous in place of the unrighteous, to complete God’s
plan of redeeming the human race back into complete relationship with Him. We
were in a state of wretchedness that once we believed He changed into
righteousness.
It was
nothing we deserved. It was His gift to us when we believed, in spite of anything
we had ever done. That’s a difficult thing for the majority of us to comprehend
let alone accept. I recall when my neighbor bought me a gift I said to his mom,
“But I didn’t get him anything.” I never
forgot her reply. She said, “It’s a gift. You can’t repay a gift.” When we
believed on Christ, His clean robe of righteousness was gifted to us. He draped
it over our dirty lives, not only covering our guilt but forgiving all our sins
(1st John 1:9). Whatever shame you may be holding in your experience account, if you have put your faith and trust in Christ that account now reads 0.00.
Scripture
says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame,” (Romans 10:11). We
can have a wakeup call that says, “But He was innocent and I’m so dirty. How
could he put such a beautiful robe around my shoulders? I don’t deserve it.”
None of us do, but anyone who asks of Him receives one, for this is why that
innocent one willingly died in our place. The love of God covers the earth
(John 3:16).
God was not
willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance (2nd
Peter 3:9). Amazing Grace. A robe for rags. It’s a gift, not a debt.
You can’t repay a gift. All you need do is accept it.
Ken
