The Creator, Sacrificed
Nov 14, 2015 1276
God offered Jesus as a sacrifice to show that he was both “just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).
On what basis could God offer Jesus as the justifier of those who had faith in his Son? Why didn’t he, instead, offer a sacrificed lamb as the justifier of those who had faith in that innocent animal? What did Jesus have that a sacrificed lamb didn’t have?
A lamb is just a creature, while Jesus is the Creator. And as the Creator is greater than the whole of his creation, so is Jesus’ sacrifice sufficient to justify every fallen human being.
If there were a totally perfect human being, that man could possibly die for another human being, but that would be the limit, one for one. Only God, however, could die for everyone, and only by dying for everyone would God be just in making everyone right with God.
God made Jesus “who had no sin, to us to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Through his death on the cross Jesus took our sin from us.
Now, if we are sinless, we are no better or worse than a stone or a cabbage. Jesus, however, didn’t just wash away our sins with the blood he shed on the cross; in that one act of self-sacrifice he also gave us his righteousness.
As the cleansing of our sin and the bestowal of his righteousness is forever and not just for a short time, so there is now nothing to stop us entering into the eternal presence of God to remain there forever.
You may accept this righteousness now by faith in Jesus.
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