Identity Exchange

Jesus identified completely with man, taking our nature, going through the natural steps of living as a human on earth, and then, in loving surrender and amazement taking on all our sin and its deadly consequence.  The awesome Good News is that because of His identifying with fallen man, we can now by faith identify completely with His nature, being born-again into children of God, seated at the right hand of God with Him, and ruling as kings forever!

Hallelujah!  He is risen!  Jesus not only became man but identified with all the sin, impending judgment, and consequential eternal death that our rebellion justly deserved.  Through His suffering and death all men's sins have been completely paid for and then the powerful resurrection demonstrates that all the consequences are overcome.  

Because He lives, we can now share His resurrected life today and forever.  In chapel this week our message was that He forgave our sins (past), gave us a purpose for living (present), and promised divine life forever with Him in Heaven (future).  What Jesus accomplished is more than we could ever think, ask, or imagine.  

In addition, He invites us to identify with the eternal rewards that He earned by humbly submitting Himself to the Father's will.  By faith we identify with His death as we acknowledge He died for us.  By baptism, we, our old sinful nature, are buried with Him, and in receiving His Spirit, we now are filled with power and love to be His light in the world.  We know God as our "Abba Father," our purpose and His provision through His Word, and the Holy Spirit within bears witness to His life in us while on earth and in the ages to come.  Praise God Forever! 

By Faith We Understand

 Very few verses sum up the awesome work of Jesus like Isaiah 53:4-6.  Today I just want to reflect on these verses with you.  "Surely He has borne our griefs (sickness, weakness) and carried our sorrows (pains)."  The emphasis is on "He", inviting us to get our eyes off ourselves and focus on Him and what He has done.  The only way to effectively deal with problems is to look to Jesus, in His light we become light, or beholding Him we are changed from glory to glory.  

"Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted."  Someone said they could never believe that Jesus was the Messiah, because surely God would not allow Him to go through such torture, it must be a judgment for something terribly evil.  In the natural it does look like a cruel and unusual punishment.  However, we do not look through our puny, finite minds, but by faith we understand (Hebrews 11:3).  Notice that this chapter in Isaiah starts out with "Who has believed our report?" 

"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities."  In other parts of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for iniquity is rebellion or guilt.  A good summary of the human condition after the fall is rebellion, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one to his own way."  God laid our rebellion and the punishment it deserves on Jesus - It pleased the Father to crush Him, so that He could "justify many."  I always like the simple play on words, justified- "just as if I'd" been perfect and never sinned. 

All of these verses declare the great exchange, His life for our life.  "The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes (or wounds) we are healed."  Our peace, or shalom, is defined to be much more than the English word for peace meaning absence of war or harmony.  Shalom is total peace, a wholeness of spirit, soul and body, completeness, even perfection.  He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Or consider Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Jesus gave Himself for me so I could live in Him.

Our limited human minds may never grasp completely everything Jesus did for us, but we can receive by faith what He declares is ours.  In Hebrews 2:14 it reveals that Jesus shared the same flesh and blood as the children of men and again in chapter 4:15, He could sympathize with us because He was in all points tempted as we are.  The point is that He became exactly like us, like our nature, so He could bring us to the Father exactly like Him, partaking of divine nature.   By faith we understand, that only an infinitely loving God would willingly lay His life down so we could live with HIm forever.  Glory to God in the Highest!

Hope you also are freshly enjoying the benefits of His death and resurrection, washed in the blood from all guilt, and walking in abundant life by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.  Feel free to share your thoughts and any prayer requests on which you wish for us to agree.  My prayer is that His transforming work in us would allow us to be good witnesses of Him to those around us.  In the name and glory of Jesus, Gene