ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Thursday April 6, 2017

“Christ became what he was not (condemned) so that we might become what we are not (declared righteous)”

"For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - II Corinthians 5:21

Justification

How can God Justify? - continued

1)  Christ lived a life of total obedience to God.

2)  Christ, despite his personal innocence, was treated as a guilty man.

3)  The explanation of this mystery, that the sinless one suffered as the guilty one, is to be found in the bond which God has established between Christ and his people. Christ became our brother-man through his incarnation so that he might represent us and substitute for us throughout his obedient life and especially in his death on the cross. There he bore our sins and paid our debts. In several places in Scripture, the idea which is stressed is that an exchange took place.

Christ stood in my place and received the judgment which is really mine. Before God, I stand as though I were in Christ’s place so that I may receive Christ’s judgment and be justified before God. The reality of this exchange is highlighted by the fact that the two crimes of which Jesus was accused for the crimes of which mankind was guilty in the garden of Eden. By aspiring to be as God, and disobeying his royal law he committed blasphemy against the person of God and treason against his graciously constituted authority. That even the form of the charges brought against our Savior indicates that he did not stand before the judgment seat of Caiaphas and Pilate to be condemned for his own crimes. In reality, he stood before the judgment seat of God to receive the verdict of guilty as the representative and substitute the sinful men. So, in Christ a wonderful exchange took place. He became what he was not, it condemned criminal, in order that be my become what we are not, men declared righteous and justified in the sight of God. This was so, as Paul points out in some of the most dramatic language in the New Testament, because he was made sin for us (although not himself a sinner) in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He came voluntarily under the curse of God, in order to set us at liberty from it (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). This is what justification really means.

Challenge:

Oh, when and how will we be able to express our eternal gratitude for the greatest gift of all? That great and wonderful exchange…Christ took my place so that I may stand in His place and be accepted by God as forgiven!

Memory Verse:

"KO ia, tau tuku ke fakatonuhia‘i kitautolu ‘i he tui, ka tau ma‘u melino ai mo e ‘Otua ‘i hotau ‘Eiki ko Sīsū Kalaisi;" - Loma 5:1

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" - Romans 5:1

Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)

Week 14 – Judges 4-6; Luke 21