THINK TOGETHER
Have you ever needed help doing something that you could not do for yourself? What was it?
READ TOGETHER
None of us could ever save ourselves could we? None of us could figure out how to be good on our own. None of us could ever pay for our own sins. None of us could ever be righteous like God.
Every single one of us needs Jesus. Because we can’t save ourselves we need a savior. Someone who takes our place. Or, as Paul puts it, someone who exchanges places with us. Listen to how he describes our salvation here in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
2 Corinthians 5:21. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Our “think together” question today probably wasn’t very hard to answer. We have all needed someone to do something for us that we could not do for ourselves. When you’re a baby there are many things you can’t do like feed yourself or change yourself. And even as we get older there are still many things we need someone to do for us – cook for us, drive us to school, buy our clothes.
As we grow into an adult we are doing almost everything for ourselves, and we can forget that we still need Jesus every day. Why? Because he never stops being our savior. He never stops doing for us what we could never do for ourselves – “becoming the righteousness of God.”
On the cross Jesus and you switched places. Not physically (you weren’t even born yet), but spiritually. You are the sinner who deserved to die on the cross. But Jesus switched places with you and died for you. And Jesus was the righteous one who deserved to be praised and honored by God. But when Jesus switched places with us, we became the righteous ones who are praised and honored by God.
Now when God looks at us he never sees our sin, he only sees Jesus’ righteousness. His perfection and goodness.
But what about Jesus? Was he left carrying our sin forever?
No!
When Jesus rose from the dead he defeated death and sin forever. Jesus never sinned and he isn’t our sin anymore. He’s not on the cross anymore. And neither are we. Jesus is alive and so are we. Jesus rose from the dead and so did we. Because we are connected to Jesus by the Holy Spirit his death to sin and his resurrection to eternal life are now ours to share with him. Sin is defeated and we are free to love God and others, and live like Jesus in the world each and every day. And that’s the best news ever.
Because of Jesus our sin is paid for and his righteousness is ours.
With Jesus we areable to be his righteousness in this world.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Here’s a very nice song about Jesus’ sacrifice for us to sing along with.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You took my sin and gave me your righteousness. Thank you for such a great exchange!
Amen.
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