The greatest exchange in all history took place on the cross of Calvary. Jesus became sin at the cross apart from any sinful actions, deeds or thoughts; and when we receive the free gift of His righteousness, we become righteous apart from anything good that we have done. He took our sin. We receive His righteousness. He never committed a single sin, and we never did anything that was worthy to qualify us to be righteous.
Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. (1 Peter 2:22)1
Jesus became a curse for us because He received our sin.2 Today we receive His righteousness, and God treats us as His very own children, completely forgiven and as perfectly holy as our elder Brother Jesus.
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 reminds me of a dream that a friend of mine had where she was standing before Jesus in a white shirt. She was very uncomfortable wearing white in His presence and knew that underneath she was dirty, so she removed the shirt only to find another white shirt underneath. Now she was even more uncomfortable, so she quickly took off that shirt as well, but once again there was another white shirt under that one. She kept trying to get rid of the white shirts, but there was no end to them! She was white to the core! She was clean and worthy to be in the presence of His holiness. It was His robe of righteousness she was wearing, and it wasn’t a robe that just covered sin. It was a robe that removed it!
(from pages 39-40 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1 All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2 Galatians 3:13
