“Guilty!”
The gavel bangs and shock waves ripple through the courtroom. “You are sentenced to death by hanging,” says the judge. The verdict is just; you were caught red-handed. The worst decisions of your life were paraded across the big screen and there was no doubt you deserved death.
But the judge is rising. Slipping out of his robe, he comes to stand beside you. “I’ll pay it,” he murmurs and holds out his hands for the cuffs. “The laws I uphold, you violated,” he says. “But I’ll die in your place.”
The Judge of all the earth has done that for us. Those are His laws we violated. We were caught red-handed and the just verdict is eternal damnation. But that same Judge slipped out of His royal robes and came to stand beside us. “I’ll pay it,” He said and held out his hands for the nails. The price for our sin was paid by the One we’ve offended.
When we bow at the cross, His suffering is credited to our account, His righteousness considered our own. His resurrection will also be ours one day and heaven is a gift paid for in blood. God doesn’t force anyone to accept His offer, but only a fool would turn it down.
Final Thought: We accept God’s offer by surrendering our own agendas and receiving what Jesus has done for us.
"He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Romans 4:25
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