Many of us are happy to help those we love. We wipe counters, wash cars, cook meals. But how often do we consider throwing ourselves under the bus on behalf of somebody else?
Volunteering to take the heat for something I didn’t do isn’t exactly an appealing invitation. Why then did God’s only Son willingly do just that for depraved sinners?
As Romans 5:7-8 points out,
“One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
To do something for another is a gracious act. To do something in place of another is an act of grace.
“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.”
– Romans 3:22-25
Christ did nothing to deserve the wrath He endured. It was for my sins, and yours, that He suffered.
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:21
And so it was, as Isaiah prophesied:
“They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth … He poured out His soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
– 53:9, 12
Devastating, yet necessary, was His sacrifice for us.
“He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
– 5-6
He died for our sake, that we may live for His.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Ultimately, this life-altering, earth-shattering display of love is “for the praise of His glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6), which He receives unendingly for all eternity.
God’s Provision: Jesus, Anointed Christ and Messiah Savior! The only name under heaven among men by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).
Word of the Week: Substitution. The only way to placate God’s wrath and restore us to holiness. Christ in our place.
Abby
