Bookends of the Christian Life...Continued from page 2

One of the most powerful indications of the sinlessness of Jesus came from his own mouth. To a group of hostile Jews to whom he’d just said, “You are of your father the devil,” Jesus dared to ask the question, “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:44–46). He could ask this question because he knew the answer?he was sinless. Jesus could confidently say of the Father, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29). Every moment of his life, from birth to death, Jesus perfectly obeyed the law of God, the same law that is applicable to all of us.

Christ’s obedience was tested by temptation (Matthew 4:1–11; Hebrews 4:15), and the intensity of his temptation was greater than any we’ll ever experience or even imagine. When we succumb to temptation, the pressure is relieved for awhile; but unlike us, Jesus never gave in.

As astounding as that is, it wasn’t the epitome of Christ’s obedience. The pinnacle of his obedience came when “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The obedient death of Christ is the very apex of the righteousness of Christ.

Let’s not miss the implications of this. At the cross, Jesus paid the penalty we should have paid, by enduring the wrath of God we should have endured. And this required him to do something unprecedented. It required him to provide the ultimate level of obedience?one that we’ll never be asked to emulate. It required him to give up his relationship with the Father so that we could have one instead. The very thought of being torn away from the Father caused him to sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). And at the crescendo of his obedience, he screamed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). The physical pain he endured was nothing compared to the agony of being separated from the Father. In all of history, Jesus is the only human being who was truly righteous in every way; and he was righteous in ways that are truly beyond our comprehension.

Our Sin Transferred to Christ

The second truth to note in 2 Corinthians 5:21 is that “for our sake he made him to be sin.” This is Paul’s way of saying God caused Jesus to bear our sin. Peter wrote something similar: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). So did the prophet Isaiah: “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). Paul is telling us that God the Father took our sin and charged it to God the Son in such a way that Christ was made to be sin for our sake.