Our Sin, His Righteousness (Pt. 3)

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

We all think like sinners
and will think like sinners
until we are in glory.

God gave up His Son for
wayward, wretched,
and wanton children like us.
He rescued,
redeemed,
reconciled,
and pardoned
our unworthy souls.

And yet we find ourselves
still trying to live on our own
and in our own strength,
going our own ways, and
according to our own will.

Our sin infested flesh
resists the truth and pulls us
to think and live in a way
that seems right to us.
We are inclined to live
by sight or circumstance,
by reason or logic,
by effort or achievement.

Given this bent,
how thankful we can be
that we have been given
Christ’s righteousness!

How needful this is!

We have been saved
from the wrath of God!
He is for us not against us.
We are now in Christ Jesus.
Our identity is in Him.
Even though we still
think like sinners
and will always have to fight
our “bent” towards sin
in thought, word, and deed,
we have the knowledge
that He died for us
and has given us Himself
and His righteousness
to overcome.

IN CHRIST
is our strength.

If we keep this picture
in the forefront of our minds
by God’s grace we can
catch ourselves
and confess our sin
and look to Christ.
We can live like Christ.

It will be a
F I E R C E  F I G H T
but,
understanding our propensity
to think like “a human”
to see things like “a sinner”
is HUGE.
If we keep the truth of the gospel
in front of our eyes
we won’t be so inclined to
go with our flesh.
Knowing the truth
and taking it to heart
we can go forward in the
SPIRIT
and not with our
our unreliable feelings,
our limited perspective,
or our ineffectual efforts.

We can observe our thoughts
and actions to see if they line up
with the truth of the gospel.

Do they
“SAY”
that we believe
and
PUT OUR TRUST
in the reality that
Christ became sin for us?

We will still fail,
yet we have the deep
and abiding
comfort of knowing
that Christ died for our failings.
We can hold on to the truth
that although
He knew our frame,
He still took our sin.

He knows we are weak.
He knows we forget.
He alone is strong.
He alone is the only
One who overcame sin!

For  while we were still weak,
at the right time
Christ died for the ungodly.
For 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.
Since, therefore,
we have now been justified
by his blood,
much more shall we be saved
by him from the wrath of God.
Romans 5:6-9