Footsteps #170

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” NLT (2Cor.5:21)

2Cor.5:21 is one of the most significant verses in the Bible. It was one of the first verses I committed to memory. It talks about the exchange made at the cross. Our sin becomes His and His perfection becomes ours, our death becomes His and His life becomes ours. One of my favourite authors put it like this “He was treated as we deserve so that we could be treated as He deserves, He suffered the death that was our so that we could receive the life that was His. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share so that we could be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share.” 

Before considering this verse, we need to put it into its context. Vs1-8 we have already noted, where Paul talks about our mortal “tent” dwelling and our sure hope in the world to come. V1 had said “we know!” v5 tells us that we are given “The Spirit as a guarantee.” When the trials are hard on earth it isn’t always easy to take comfort in our heavenly destiny. God knew this, so he gave us this guarantee. He backs up the promise with a down payment right now – the Holy Spirit. Guarantee is the Greek word arrhabon, which described a pledge or a partial payment that required future payments but gave the one receiving the guarantee a legal claim to the goods in question. In modern Greek, arrhabona means “engagement ring.” We experience great blessings from the Holy Spirit right now. When we consider how glorious the down payment is, we should consider how great the whole gift will be. The work of the Holy Spirit in the soul is the bud of heaven, this gift of grace will blossom into glory. The presence of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s life gave him confidence (v6 & 8 NLT). It assured him that God was at work in him and would continue His work. If you cannot say of yourself that you “are always confident,” then ask God for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life.