March 21
“(God) 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.
We begin this devotion by directing our attention to the sinless Son of God and Son of Man. “(God) made Him who knew no sin . . . ” Jesus was announced as being the Son of God and the Holy One before He was conceived. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the promised Savior, he said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:35.
The angel Gabriel was announcing that the words of the prophet Isaiah would soon be fulfilled. About 750 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” Isaiah 7:14. The name Immanuel means “God with us” – that is, God and Man in one Person. You only need that one name, Immanuel, to teach that Jesus had a divine and a human nature. He was and is both God and Man.
He was both God and Man for a specific purpose. “(God) made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.” As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:6. Jesus was our Sin-bearer. He carried our sins in His own body to the cross at Calvary.
The apostle Peter wrote about Jesus’ sinlessness and that He bore our sins in His own body on the cross. “Christ . . . committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed,” 1 Peter 2:21-24.
Christ Jesus was our Substitute. He took our place, and gained for us forgiveness and righteousness. By faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, we can stand in the presence of God robed in the garments of Christ’s righteousness. We will be numbered with that great multitude, “Standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes . . . (who have) washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” Revelation 7:9, 14.
The Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us, and we will be numbered with those of whom the evangelist John writes, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away,” Revelation 21:4.
“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which at the mercy seat of God
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me – e’en for my soul was shed.
Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full atonement made.” Amen.