This is a guest post by my lovely sister in law, Autumn. I appreciate her heart and willingness to share some thoughts from her devotion today, and I know it will encourage you as we prepare for resurrection sunday at the end of this week.
Somewhere in the midst of all my years of celebrating Easter, I have missed a crucial element. I have neglected to study the Life of Christ. I KNOW the crucifixion. I KNOW the details of that event. Good Friday and Easter Sunday have always been shrouded in all the wonder and mystery that the gore of the Cross and the miracle of the resurrection can supply. It is truly a reason to mourn and celebrate.
But what about His life?
Knowing the details of a person’s life is always what allows us to feel the full weight of their death. Consequently, focusing on the life of Christ only helps to emphasize His sacrifice. It brings punctuation to the Crucifixion. By neglecting the manner in which Christ lived, I have naively attempted to honor His death without comprehending the FULL details of His suffering. The atonement for our sins did not begin at Calvary; it began in Christ’s cradle and it culminated in the Cross.
While NOTHING can take away from the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can, however, better appreciate such a sacrifice. Nobody reads just the ending of a book. For the ending to make sense and be appreciated, you have to read the preceding pages. You have to fall in love with the characters and understand their relationship to each other. So, here is an invitation to just that.
This is the challenge: add punctuation to the crucifixion by examining His life. Study 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” and share what you find. Feel free to use other verses as well. The basics of my thoughts are as follows. Note: I rearranged the verse a little based on how my mind parsed it.
1. “For he made him to be sin…”
God the Father signed His Son up for what most parents try to shield and protect them from. Jesus became sin. He became all the thoughts that we would never share with anyone. He became all the perverse and debauched dredgings of mankind. And why is this significant?
2. “who knew no sin;”
You could read it like this, For he made him to be sin, who knew no sin. Jesus becoming sin is significant for more than just the obvious horror of what sin is. It’s significant because He knew no sin…and then, He knew it all. He BECAME sin on the cross but He had to live in a world full of it and remain sinless for 33 years. He never caved. He had all the temptations that mankind will ever experience but He never caved. After successfully fighting sin for 33 YEARS… He willingly took all of mine on himself??? That is insane. Yet it is shockingly and beautifully TRUE! This adds punctuation to the crucifixion! This adds emphasis to Mark 15:25 “And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.” And why is this significant?
3. “for us…that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
It’s that simple. All of that…he did all of that for me. He did that for you. He WILLINGLY fought so hard and so long to remain pure just so that He could WILLINGLY become a spotless canvas for MY sin. May the light of His life and the weight of His FULL suffering bring emphasis to the celebration of His sacrifice.
bethany rebecca 