Jesus Our Righteousness (3)

 

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” John 14:30.

 

There is yet another element in why John 14:30 is critical to the son and the daughter of the Living God, it is that what is true of Jesus is true of us, the ruler of this world has nothing in us because of Jesus Christ, always because of Jesus Christ.

 

When Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” he means exactly what he says.

 

Perhaps there is no more emphatic and conclusive statement in the entire Bible than 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (I also can’t help but think of Jesus declaring, “It is finished.”)

 

Do we get the picture? The sinless One became sin, so that the sinful ones might become sinless. Jesus took us upon Himself, He took us into Himself, He became as we were on the Cross; so that we might take Him upon ourselves, into ourselves, that we might become in Him as He is.

 

Jesus became sin. May we ponder this for a moment. I wrote in a previous post about mystery, that the word mystery in the New Testament usually means something hidden that is now revealed, however, I also pointed out that we can still use mystery in its classic sense, meaning something that remains hidden.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 is a mystery in both senses. The Gospel mystery hidden for ages is revealed on the Cross, a Perfect Sacrifice has been made for the sins of the world, but the Cross has many facets to it, another one is that we were crucified, buried, and raised with Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1 – 11; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:14). This is also a critical element of the Gospel, and if we are not preaching it then we are not preaching and teaching the Gospel, at best we are teaching half a Gospel, if we can call it that.

 

But there are more facets to the Cross and Resurrection, one of which is that the Father made Jesus Christ “who knew no sin…to be sin.” Can we see that this is about more than Jesus taking our sins upon Himself? In the depths of the mystery of God Jesus took not just our sins upon Himself, He became sin. As a result, when we believe in Jesus Christ we become new creatures, new beings, in Him (2 Cor. 5:17) and we “become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

 

This is a mystery in both senses of the word; we see more than we once saw, yet more remains a mystery, for God is God and we are not God. Frankly, to attempt to explain this verse is foolish, yet, not to accept God’s Word is also foolish – we cannot explain and comprehend the fulness of 2 Cor. 5:21, but we can certainly experience it every day of our lives in Jesus Christ. We cannot explain this verse, but we can speak of how it can manifest itself in our lives.

 

I realize there are folks who have heartburn over my insistence that the Bible teaches us that, in Christ, we are saints. This is the primary designation of Christians in the Bible – whether that fits our experience and theology or not, if we have a high view of Scripture then what is the problem of using Scriptural language in speaking of one another?

 

But you see, at the heart of my insistence that we stop believing the accusations of the enemy (for that is what we are doing) is the glory of the Gospel and the Atonement, it is the perfect and complete work of Jesus Christ, it is the glory of 2 Corinthians 5:21. This is not about us, it is all about Jesus Christ.

 

When the ruler of this world comes to us, he can find nothing in us, nothing to accuse us of before the Father, for we are in Jesus. However, this does not stop the devil from accusing us directly, it does not stop him lying to us – the question is, “Will we believe what the ruler of this world says about us, or will we believe what God says about us in Jesus Christ?” Another question is, “Will we believe what we think, including what we think about ourselves, or will be believe what God thinks about us?”

 

Let’s consider Revelation 12:10 – 11:

 

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.”

 

How might Revelation 12:10 -11 relate to John 14:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21?

 

We’ll explore this question, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.