This month we are looking at God’s glory in light of the Cross. Today’s Bible Journaling verse comes from 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (CSB)
I don’t think any of us really understands just what that meant for Jesus. The closest that anyone has ever come to showing the reality that faced Jesus was shown in the movie, The Passion of the Christ. We read the account of the crucifixion, and for a lot of us, we’ve heard and read the story so much, that we kind of skim over it. We have no idea what was involved in Jesus’ sacrifice. We don’t know or understand the brutality Jesus suffered. The scourging alone was so vicious that it could have killed Jesus all by itself, let alone being hung on a cross.
Why did Jesus endure the agony He suffered? Because of His love for us. (John 3:16) The Bible says that the sins of the whole world had to be paid for with a penalty of death. (Romans 6:23) It also says that no one is without sin; everyone has sinned! (Romans 3:23) So, in our verse today, it tells us that God made Jesus “to be sin” for us. That means Jesus took on the sins of the whole world and paid the death penalty for each one of us WILLINGLY! Because of this, God looks upon us as being righteous before Him because He sees the blood of Jesus instead of our sin. Jesus’ blood covers our sins, and God doesn’t see them ever again.
The Bible says that God casts our sin as far as the east is from the west! (Psalm 103:12) He never remembers them again! We become justified through the blood of Jesus and we become a member of God’s family.
Jesus’ sacrifice brings glory to God because it shows His great love and mercy for us, and we can rejoice. Jesus’ death points the way to God and reconciles us to Him. We can give Him praise and thanks for His great plan to save us from such an awful destiny. We lift our voices in praise and adoration to God because we love Him and are so grateful to Him. John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (KJV) Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to die a cruel death on the Cross for us, to take our place so that we wouldn’t have to pay that penalty.
God wants to call each one of us His sons and daughters. When we accept the sacrifice Jesus made for us, when we believe that He died, was buried, and rose again, and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, turn away from our sins, and to come and live inside of us, He will do just that. Then, we become a child of God and we have the assurance that we will not only live in Heaven with Him for eternity, but we no longer need to face a death penalty for our sins. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for your wonderful plan of grace and praise You, Jesus, for being willing to take our place!
donnasmusings 