“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
In Philippians chapter three, the Apostle Paul spoke of all the things of the flesh that he had given up and counted them as rubbish, and finalized his statement with, “that I may gain Christ”. This casting out of all that the world holds dear is followed by what he really values.
“…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…” Philippians 3:9.
Everyone starts out with the belief that they are going to work their way to God somehow. This is impossible. I wish there were words to express just how impossible it is.
Men have failed miserably in their relationship with God, beginning with Adam, who was created to serve God and have a relationship with Him. By this I mean not a master/servant thing, or boss/employee, but parent and child or husband and wife.
The problem is that men’s perspective of God has over the centuries been corrupted until God has been twisted into an evil Santa Claus who wants his toys back. This is not God; this is the Devil.
You can see how this erroneous thinking would quench any notion of a close bond with Him, even though this is what God desires, a relationship with us.
However, a relationship demands many things to work, trust, love, and loyalty, to name three.
These come automatically in a good marriage or family, but somehow become too much for God to ask. The tragedy here is that we expect this from God without our having to fulfill our part by much, or at all.
To sum this all up, Adam failed miserably and put God to shame before Satan and his band of fallen angels. Enter Jesus the Savior.
Scripture tells us the following about Adam and Jesus.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…” Romans 5:12.
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19.
When God gave the Law He gave us a glimpse of what He is like. If you look at the Law in an unbiased manner and really see what it says, you find that it has a moral perfection that cannot be found in any man-made philosophy or law.
Some things come close in places, because we were made in the image of God and have His moral code imprinted in our hearts, but through corruption we fall far short of God’s perfection. As a result, we come short of the mark set up for us by God, which simply means that:
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23.
This can only lead us to one conclusion.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20.
As noted earlier, when you examine the Law, or personality of God, you can only be convicted of your own extreme guilt before Him. This creates the unbridgeable gap that God foreknew before time began.
Try to imagine yourself weightless in space; you really have no way of going where you want. If you kick your feet nothing happens, the same with flailing your arms about, you may spin slowly or drift, but you will not go where you wish.
It is the same with our sin nature, we may make a lot of effort to please God, but the results are the same, weightless drifting, and in the end, there is only frustration and weariness.
God did not create us with this intention; His desire is for us to be happy. That sounds odd coming from a Christian does it not? You think to yourself, “How hard this must be trying to maintain an impossible relationship with a perfectionist God. To expect happiness or joy is too much!”
This may be said without arrogance, Christians are perfect in Christ. Even though they may often fall far short in the eyes of man!
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
This is how God views those who are in Christ Jesus. Since we become the righteousness of God in Jesus, it is no longer impossible to maintain a relationship with a perfectionist God. This leaves us free to build a relationship with the Father without the constant cloud of sin suffocating us.
This building of a relationship is where many Christians fail, having been saved once and for all they make the mistake of thinking that they can just go on with their life and joy will bubble over in them.
While this is true from the standpoint that the burden of sin has been removed and life has a purpose because Christ gives it purpose.
Nevertheless, this is only a fraction of what God has in store for those that love Him. This, like any relationship requires active participation, you seek the company of one another, you share your troubles, you converse and tell one another about your hopes, and dreams, above all you seek God’s leading in your life.
As you learn, you trust, and trust brings more trust, until you find you can roll all your troubles onto the Lord’s shoulders and life is lived in continually greater peace.
“He who heeds the word wisely [through Bible study and prayer] will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.” Proverbs 16:20.
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Let us examine the unbridgeable gap that God foreknew before time began. I resist the use of human logic because it comes out of a fallen nature and often leads to grave error.
Nevertheless, it is possible to come to some conclusions on the subject that can be backed by Scripture or are strongly implied. God is infinitely holy; we can start with this. It is said of God in the book of Job that:
“…the heavens are not pure in His sight…” Job 15:15b.
“…the stars are not pure in His sight…” Job 25:5b.
The dialogue in Job twenty-five also has this:
“How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” Job 25:4.
“How much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man, who is a worm?” Job 25:6.
A maggot; a worm! Is this not just a little bit of verbal overkill? These men had a pretty good grasp of our condition, Isaiah 64 says this.
“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6.
Just think the good deeds that men are so proud of are nothing but filthy rags in the sight of God, it is impossible to please Him on our own.
In the beginning, man was created pure and sinless, innocent, but when he fell, it was a complete and catastrophic one.
We delude ourselves by thinking that because we have never murdered anyone, we are keeping the Ten Commandments, and then Jesus revealed that if we even hate our brother, we have committed murder.
How utterly impossible, hatred and anger are such a part of our daily lives, how can we possibly measure up to God’s standard? The answer to that question is that we cannot.
“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” James 2:10-11.
God knew that we would each be born wallowing in our own filth and sin, and He could do nothing about that short of not creating us at all.
Do you see now, there are only two choices, that is if you want to maintain free-will, a third choice would be to create robots programmed to do His will. This did not appeal to God nor does it appeal to us.
Returning to two choices, He could not create us at all and have no one to lavish His love on. Or He could create man with a free-will to choose or reject Him, knowing full well that men would rebel against Him, as it is today.
Having created us with this knowledge in mind, He had to have a plan. Even the dullest human tries to have a plan before acting out in some endeavor or other.
God’s plan, which is called the gospel, or the good news of Jesus Christ, was the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sins. This, as shown earlier, was the complete payment for our sin.
Two things must be kept in mind. First the one sinned against is the one to decide what the payment should be to bring about forgiveness. Secondly, God is infinite in knowledge, and if there were, a better way to accomplish this He would have figured it out.
What this does is take us completely out of the loop as to how to please God, i.e. follow directions and do not try to improvise. If you try to get to heaven in your own way, it means that you are rebelling against God’s way. This is simply more sin!
In conclusion, let us just examine the Savior for a moment.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8.
Just think, “Let this mind be in you” do not let the weightiness of that statement slip past you. Look at Christ’s mind and attitudes, no reputation, no entourage of angels to clear the way and herald His comings and goings, though He is the living God incarnate.
See how He takes the form of a servant, even to the point of washing His own disciple’s feet. Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient.
Jesus, the infinitely wise and intelligent God was not a know it all, He did not seek His own glory, and was obedient not only to God the Father, but to His parents and the government, He was a perfect Man.
Yet God wants this mind to be in you, God wants you to demonstrate the same Christ-like righteousness in your life. You can see here how helpless we are without the imputed righteousness of Christ.
This righteousness is irrevocable, and not only do we stand completely righteous before a holy God but by God’s Holy Spirit, we are continually enabled to live a godly life in Christ here on earth.
It is true even the greatest of Christians have had real difficulties maintaining these principles, and yet not one of them would tell you it was not worth it.
God is gracious and He gives us His Spirit to empower us to do His good will. One of the ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us to grow in Christ is by reminding us to confess our sins.
In this manner we are cleansed of our habitual sins such as jealousy, gossip, deceitfulness and many worse things as listed in Galatians 5:13-21.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
The world needs to see the righteousness of Christ acted out in the lives of Christians. How awe inspiring such a thing would be in this dark place.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16.
Christ our Righteousness taken from godisrevealed.com 12-21-18, updated on 2-28-24 ck.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.