"He became like us in every way except that He did not sin. He took our place and delivered us from the bondage of sin. His sinless life was not only lived as His own but also for us and as us.
"When Jesus overcame Satan's temptation in the wilderness, He did so as you and me. His victory was placed on our account!
"On the cross at Calvary, Jesus took sin and grief from us and bore them as us....He bore all of our griefs and sorrows. In His death He willingly accepted our punishment for sin...
"His death represented our dying to self - the area of our being that wanted independence from God, thinking that we could find the meaning of life within ourselves...
"When He was buried, we were buried with Him. As a result, our lives of selfishness and sin are over.
"Jesus rose from the dead to be the beginning of a new human race..
"After Jesus was resurrected from the dead and sat down at the right hand of God, He enabled us to also step into God's presence. Through the blood of Jesus, we can now fellowship with God...we are..able to stand in the presence of God, accepted by His love."
Malcolm Smith
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. Rom. 6:6-10 (MSG)
Everything He did He did for us. And everything He did, He did as us. He is our representative man. So that means when He died, we died. When He rose, we rose. I am so happy the old me was left behind in the tomb, and the new me came up from the grave alive!
He took on my sin and guilt and condemnation and sorrow and shame - and all that was killed off at the cross in His body, never to come back! He took those things into the grave and left them there! He conquered sin, Satan, and death for me, as me. All His victory is now mine. His standing before the Father is now mine. His goodness is now mine. His fellowship with God is now mine. His acceptance before God is now mine. His very life is mine!
I don't fully grasp all that Jesus did as and for me. I want to understand it better. But I do know that in Him, my old self with all its problems died, and in Him, a new self was raised to walk in new life, in His life forever! Thank You, Lord, for being our representative man, and that everything You did now comes to us. We reap all the benefits as a free gift of Your grace. For as You are, so are we in this world! Amen.
With love to all,
