The Basis of Our Forgiveness

He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
—2 Corinthians 5:21

How can a holy God, who cannot allow sin to go unpunished, forgive sinners like you and me? Only God could have come up with the solution, and it is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Jesus Christ is the only person who doesn’t need a second act in life because He never slipped up, messed up, or screwed up. He lived an absolutely perfect life. Yet in spite of that, Jesus voluntarily chose to come to earth and to suffer on the cross not just physically but spiritually.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He experienced the full blast of God’s wrath for our sin. Jesus suffered not for His own sins but for our sins, and for that reason Jesus is able to forgive us of our sins.

God took the perfection of Jesus Christ and He credited it to our account. When we trust in Jesus as our Savior, God no longer sees our sin; He sees the perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Bible says we are all overdrawn in our spiritual-righteousness account. Every time we sin against God, it’s like a deduction from our account with God, and we are all overdrawn. The Bible says all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

We are all spiritually bankrupt. That’s the bad news. We have no righteousness left in our account.

The good news is that Jesus has plenty of righteousness in His account. And when you trust in Jesus as your Savior, God transfers the righteousness of His Son into your account so that when God looks at you, He no longer sees your sin—He sees the righteousness of His Son.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Our Second Act Depends on God” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2016.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.