I told you that this blog would go all over the place.....!
My fellow evangelical Christians love to emphasize the importance of the Cross. The death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior is what pays for all our sins against God. It is His payment of our debt which paves the way for us to be welcomed into Heaven. Every year, Christians celebrate Easter as the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead, and rejoice in His death on our behalf.
This is an incredibly important doctrine, and essential to our faith. I love Easter, when I come together with my brothers and sisters in Christ, because it truly is a fantastic and gracious thing that God has done for us. Imagine! He knew we had a debt to Him we could not pay, and He chose to come down to us and take our sins away.
But what a lot of my family seems to forget - or not address - is that Christ not only pays for our sins, He also gives us His righteousness. He gives us His perfect and infinite "merit."
Jesus lived for 30-odd years on this earth in His human body. Each and every year, month, week, day, hour, minute, and second was lived in perfect obedience to His Father. Even when He was a newborn of 10 seconds old, He did what His Father told Him to do. Even when He was still in His mother's womb, He was doing what His Father had called Him to do!
Do you understand what this means?
Jesus was the only person - ever - who lived His life in absolute comformity to God's laws for His whole life. His life was exactly, fully perfect in all ways, at all times.
Annnnnd your point is.....?
Well, consider. The infinite God of all Creation, holy in every way, chose to live a life in our form and be obedient to all the rules He, Himself, had ordained. He left an existance of such exaltation and honor that, even if He had been born heir to all the riches of this world, He would still have been born into the most abject poverty, comparatively speaking. He humbled Himself and lived a righteous life in every way.
When He died on the Cross, He paid for our sins. But, when we confess Him as our Lord and rightful Sovreign, He gives us His perfect life. He puts His perfect obedience into our bank account, as it were. Therefore, although we have a bank account which is infinitely overdrawn, He pays our debt. But not only does He pay our debt, He deposits His infinite balance into our account! We now, through Him, have unlimited resources.
We are not, as God's called children, on a neutral balance: we stand before Him with all the worthiness of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord! I - we - are clothed in Him, and God the Father sees us through His Son's perfection. We are hidden in Christ's perfect obedience. He lived the perfect life which we couldn't, and now gives it to us, freely.
So, while God is still angry with sin in our life, He has already taken care of the eternal consequences. We can always turn to Him in repentance and receive His forgiveness. I John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
I cannot say how much this astounds me every day! Even though I sin every day, I can have confidence that I can always rely on Him to forgive me, love me, and carry me though. I am "confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in [me] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6.
Thank You, Lord. You are so good to me, even though I could never deserve it! Please help me live Your life in me with Your kindness, love, and forgiveness to everyone You send my way.
