Week 6—Saturday 2 Corinthians 5:20-21
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
“HE BECAME SIN FOR US”
We meditated yesterday on the fact that Jesus said he was hungry in everyone’s hunger, bound in everyone’s imprisonment. There was one thing he left out—he could say he was hungry in our hunger, thirsty in our thirst, sick in our sickness, lonely in our being a stranger, bound in our imprisonment, but he could not say he was sinful in our sin. That would be misunderstood. He couldn’t say that, but he could do that. He went to the cross and made the identification with us complete—there he was identified with us at our lowest place—the place of our sin. “He became sin for us.” He was crucified between two sinners as one of them. So identified with us in our sin that he cried the cry of dereliction we have to cry when we sin: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). The identification and, hence, the incarnation were almost complete. He was identified with our sins.
But the identification was not quite complete—sin and death are always connected. So having tasted our sins, he would have to taste our death too. The Author of Life became subject to death. There the incarnation was really complete. But having hit bottom, he went up—up to the very Throne.
And we, being identified with him by surrender and faith, can and do go up with him. He was identified with us that we might be identified with him—might partake of his glory. He came down that we might go up.
So the end of the Incarnation is not that Jesus should be identified with us, but that we should be identified with him—that we should be incarnated in him, become one with his victory and his glory. He stooped to share. And what a stooping and what a sharing! He held nothing back. And there is only one thing left for us to do—hold nothing, absolutely nothing, back. I do just that.
O Savior and Lord, your becoming flesh astounds me. You went further than I dreamed. And now I’m going further in you than I’ve ever dreamed. I feel your destiny within my bones. I love its tingle and its beckoning touch. I follow with all my heart. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “A Christian is one who cares,” so I’m a Christian to the degree that I care.