Genesis1315
Ladies
Your stand-in
By John Fischer
“This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians 1:21-22 NLT)
True believers are constantly in a state of shock. How can this be? How can I stand before a holy God who sees everything and have him unable to find a single fault in me? Is he blind? I know myself. I know the attitudes in my heart. I know the baggage I carry around. I have been a Christian all my life; don’t you think I would have this down by now? Well I don’t, and that makes this blamelessness even harder to believe.
But believe it I do, and believe it I will. It’s my only chance. My only chance of survival before a holy God is that Paul (the writer of Colossians) is right about this, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in His physical body has shielded God from the whole truth about me. Christ is my advocate. He is continually recasting the scenes of my life in another light.
Christ is my shield. I know the Bible says this, and I’ve always thought that was talking about my protection from harm. But I think it also means he is my shield against a holy God who must deal justly with sin. (And if you think about it, you wouldn’t want it any other way. If God isn’t just, there’s no justice anywhere.) That’s why Jesus took it so badly on the cross. That’s what all the blood was about. So God would look at us, looking for sin, and crane his neck trying to look around Jesus, and be unable to see us outside of what Christ has done for us. And Jesus is saying, “Forget trying to find any blame with John. I’ve got him covered. Don’t worry; he’s mine. Remember, I took care of all this on the cross. Your holiness and justice are in good shape – by the way – and John, and all these people here who believe in me, are safe in my arms.”
Too much, huh? Now does that make you want to just go out there and see how much sin you can get away with? That’s the farthest thing from your mind. Once you get this, you know you don’t deserve it, so you want to do everything you can to live a life worthy of what Christ is doing for you right now. He’s your stand-in.
The above content is provided in its entirety from purposedrivenlife.com and used with the full permission of the website. Additional archives of the Purpose Driven Life devotionals can be found in their archive.
By John Fischer
“This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians 1:21-22 NLT)
True believers are constantly in a state of shock. How can this be? How can I stand before a holy God who sees everything and have him unable to find a single fault in me? Is he blind? I know myself. I know the attitudes in my heart. I know the baggage I carry around. I have been a Christian all my life; don’t you think I would have this down by now? Well I don’t, and that makes this blamelessness even harder to believe.
But believe it I do, and believe it I will. It’s my only chance. My only chance of survival before a holy God is that Paul (the writer of Colossians) is right about this, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in His physical body has shielded God from the whole truth about me. Christ is my advocate. He is continually recasting the scenes of my life in another light.
Christ is my shield. I know the Bible says this, and I’ve always thought that was talking about my protection from harm. But I think it also means he is my shield against a holy God who must deal justly with sin. (And if you think about it, you wouldn’t want it any other way. If God isn’t just, there’s no justice anywhere.) That’s why Jesus took it so badly on the cross. That’s what all the blood was about. So God would look at us, looking for sin, and crane his neck trying to look around Jesus, and be unable to see us outside of what Christ has done for us. And Jesus is saying, “Forget trying to find any blame with John. I’ve got him covered. Don’t worry; he’s mine. Remember, I took care of all this on the cross. Your holiness and justice are in good shape – by the way – and John, and all these people here who believe in me, are safe in my arms.”
Too much, huh? Now does that make you want to just go out there and see how much sin you can get away with? That’s the farthest thing from your mind. Once you get this, you know you don’t deserve it, so you want to do everything you can to live a life worthy of what Christ is doing for you right now. He’s your stand-in.
The above content is provided in its entirety from purposedrivenlife.com and used with the full permission of the website. Additional archives of the Purpose Driven Life devotionals can be found in their archive.