25 magnificent words

"He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Without a doubt this verse is one of the most meaningful verses in the entire the Bible to me. It's not that it's the "best" verse (if there is such a thing) or the most theologically loaded, but in these 25 words we find the entirety of the beauty and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It all starts with God. He is the He in the He made. It was God's idea from the very beginning to rescue a broken and fallen world through the cross of Christ. God knew that we would fall short and sin against Him, effectively alienating ourselves from Him, the giver and sustainer and reason for life. Yet His plan all along was to reconcile us to Himself through Jesus.

The One who did not know sin. That sinless One is Jesus. The God man. Fully God, fully man, yet without any sin in Him. Not once did He lie, cheat, steal, speak unkindly, fantasize wickedly, or set out to make another person's life miserable. No, Jesus was and is sinless perfection. And that is so important for us to grasp because it would require someone absolutely perfect to do what came next.

To be sin for us. Do you fully grasp what this means? Jesus didn't just take the sin of the world and put them on His shoulders. No, Jesus became the sin of the world. In other words, every sin that has ever been committed - including all of the shame, hurt, and condemnation that they have caused - He took in Himself as if He was the One who actually committed them. Hear this - Jesus never sinned. Yet on the cross He became as a sinner so that He could fully bear the wrath that our sin deserves. Wow!

Couldn't there be another way for us to be reconciled to God? No, there couldn't. As the perfect Man, Jesus was the only One worthy to take our place on the cross and receive the punishment that we fully deserve. So why did He do it? So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We could never even hope to sniff the presence of God on our own because of our sin, yet Jesus exchanged His righteousness for our sin so that we might be justified in standing before God to receive His salvation.

As you reflect on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus this season, don't forget to meditate on just what was accomplished on the cross and through the empty tomb. When Jesus raised His voice to heaven and cried out with His final breath, "It is finished!", He was declaring to the Father that everything He had set out to do in order to rescue a fallen world had been done (John 19:30). There will never be another cross. The tomb will forever remain empty. Sin is permanently defeated and death has been forever vanquished. Life, real life, has been made available through the cross to all who would believe. What a glorious Savior!