April 28
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. - 2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV
In our increasingly secularized society, spiritual suffering is often ignored. It seems to get categorized under all sorts of psychosomatic labels. We may try to drug it, drown it, or lock it up, but it doesn’t go away because it is very real. The spiritual suffering Jesus endured on the cross is not as easily recognizable as His physical and emotional suffering, but it was by far the worst suffering of all. We first glimpse it when Jesus was stripped of His robe and left to hang virtually naked before the world. The emotional shame and humiliation would have been acute for any dignified Jewish rabbi. Yet it wouldn’t even have warranted an honorable mention alongside the spiritual humiliation He endured as He was spiritually stripped of His robe of righteousness in God’s eyes.
Christ didn’t just take our sins upon Himself, He became those sins for us. Imagine how dirty and vile and evil and guilty and ashamed Jesus must have felt as He hung there before a holy God with our sins exposed as though they were His! Would you thank Him for bearing your sin – so that you can wear His righteousness?
From Just Give Me Jesus
