We were made righteous when Jesus was made sin.
On that memorable day, while our Saviour hung on the cross in agony, His body wracked with pain and weakened by the terrible torture and blood loss, the skies darkened as fallen angels filled the air. Every demonic force in the universe congregated above Golgotha and the surrounding areas. Each one of them was excited, eager and willing to bombard the holy, sinless body of Jesus with their filth of sin. They knew that He was exhausted and in acute pain, thirsty and sapped of physical strength. They had waited to destroy the seed of the woman for four thousand years. They had killed all the prophets in an effort to get rid of the Chosen One. Now was their time, they reasoned among themselves. Surely with such a brutal attack they would cause Him to sin. Surely He would curse GOD and die. After all, how could one man stand against the entire kingdom of Hell, especially in such a weakened state?
For three hours they bombard Jesus. Sin, condemnation, selfishness, covetousness, idol worship, foul language, lies, deceit, adultery, theft, murder, hatred, confusion, gossip, backbiting, pride, death,………The attack went on for what must have seemed like an eternity to Jesus, until He cried out in despair, “My GOD, My GOD, why have You forsaken me?” For the first time in His life, He couldn’t address GOD as Father. He had taken our place, taken all of our sin upon Him. He could no longer feel the presence of GOD, because the thick, evil darkness covered Him. He was experiencing separation from GOD. This was something Jesus had never before experienced. He and His Father had always lived in complete unity. Jesus had never sinned. Hell was incapable manipulating Him to sin, but the punishment for our sin was upon Him. After the demons had poured out every conceivable sin within them upon Jesus, the demons left, and the skies cleared.
Jesus then shouted with a loud voice, “It is finished! He was proclaiming that the debt had been paid in full. Immediately after, Jesus bowed His head and said, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” and died. Jesus couldn’t die by human hands, as He had never sinned and the punishment for sin is death. He had to choose to lay down His life.
We cannot become more righteous than we are by works. We cannot add to the finished work of the cross. We are already made the righteousness of GOD and that not of our own effort. The closer we draw to Jesus, the more our righteousness becomes visible, as it begins to shine more brightly through the veil of our flesh. We will continuously go from brighter to brighter, from strength to strength and from glory to glory as we keep our eyes and hearts on the precious, unadulterated Word of GOD until His perfect image is fully revealed in us. All glory, honour and strength be to our GOD forever and ever. Amen.