2 Corinthians 5:.21
“He hath made Him to be sin for us . . . That we might be made the righteousness of God. . .”
What of Today’s Verse…
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy. The New Testament view is that He bore our sin not by sympathy, but by identification. He was made to be sin. Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the explanation of His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy with us. We are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, or, because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and in no other way. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, the loving kindness of God; the New Testament says He came to bear away the sin of the world. The revelation of His Father is to those to whom He has been introduced as Saviour. Jesus Christ never spoke of Himself to the world as one Who revealed the Father, but as an obstacle (see John 15:22- 24). John 14:9 was spoken to His disciples.
That Christ died for me, therefore I go scot-free is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (not – He died my death), and that by identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have imparted to me His very righteousness. The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold: “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me.
Words of Wisdom
Let Thy Words Be Few
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and you on earth: therefore let thy words be few.
When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: For they think that, they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father know what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
They . . . Called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.
Two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with him, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. . . . And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
Lord, teach us to pray.
