Today I want to share "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers again.
Substitution
He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God
in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern
view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us.
Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of
sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….”
Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation
for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are
acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to
give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We
say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of
God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the
world!” (John 1:29). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to
those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world,
Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He
spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John
14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to
His disciples.
That Christ
died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught
in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for
all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through
identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very
righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the
New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for
us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is
not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians
4:19).
This addresses the very heart of the Gospel! We are NOT just 'fogiven sinners'! We ARE new creation believers who have the Spirit of Almighty God living IN us! JESUS gave His life for US, to make us members of His Body and His BRIDE! HE, in the meantime, has gone back to prepair a place just for us! AND, soon and VERY SOON, our KING JESUS is going to be splitting the Easter sky and coming in the air to take all who know Him to be with Him FOREVER! That IS QUITE A LOT more important than simply knowinh ABOUT Him! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "Who You Say I AM": Shalom in Him!
