Humility Before the Cross

We have a sick tendency to assert our superiority before God, our power, our wisdom. We rebel against His power and His wisdom. And as a result, we warrant His wrath. Every single one of us in our sin stands under the curse of God, destined for eternal destruction. But God being rich in His mercy – That’s right.

… sent His Son to bear His wrath in our place, as our substitute on the cross. Jesus took all the wrath, due you and all the wrath due me, Christian, and He endured it. Christ became a curse for us. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. All we like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It was the Lord’s will to crush His Son instead of you. At the cross, Jesus was our substitute. He was standing where we deserve to stand.

Jesus Took Our Place

And in return, by faith in Him, what do we receive? Think about this exchange. At the cross, we give Him our wickedness. He gives us, verse 30, His righteousness. At the cross, we give Him our sin. He gives us His sanctification. At the cross, we give Him our rebellion, and at the cross, He gives us His redemption. This is the great exchange, made possible by the substitution of the Son of God in our place, which is incredibly hope-giving, life-giving, strength-giving when you think about it.

So when I was preparing to marry my wife, she’s a year older than me. So married, an older woman. So she’s a year older than me, and she finished college before I did. So we were going to wait until I graduated. And so that last year that we were engaged before we got married, I was still in college, which meant I was living on college budget, eating ramen noodles every night. No job, no cashflow, just trying to make it through, eating ramen noodles. She had graduated and had gotten a job. What that meant for her was cashflow income, no ramen noodles. That was the way things were working for her.

So that was the tracks we were on in that year while we were waiting to get married. Then it came to the day where we stood together in the front of the church, and we committed our lives to each other. And on that day, I received so many wonderful things, most importantly, being a beautiful, godly wife.

But do you know what else I received on that day? Cashflow. It was awesome. Like we stood, all I had to do was say, “I do.” That was it. And at that moment, everything that was hers became mine. Now she was a teacher teaching these little snotty-nosed kids. I didn’t have to go spend time in that classroom doing all this, working for this. Simply by the fact that my life was united with hers, everything in her bank account became everything in my bank account.

Humility Before the Cross

Oh, brother or sister, in a much, much greater way. When you unite your life with Jesus, the Christ, who died on the cross for your sins, at that moment, not based on anything you have done, can do, or will ever do, at that moment, everything that belongs to Him, becomes yours. Righteousness, holiness, and redemption, and sanctification.

Church, we are not weak in this world. We are not weak in this culture. We have the power and the authority of Jesus, the Christ Himself. So stand with that authority when you preach, pastor. Live with that confidence, Christian. It’s all brought at the cross. The cross demonstrates God’s past substitution for you that makes this great exchange possible.