John 1:14
The early apostles saw the Word that became flesh, but what exactly
did they see? Part of what they saw was grace that was full. The apostle
Paul, writing about this grace in 2 Corinthians 8:9 said, "For we know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,that though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."
It is interesting to see how the Lord Jesus Christ, who we are told
is full of grace (this grace described in part, by the apostle Paul to
mean that He was rich), exchanged His position of wealth for our place
of poverty, so that we can come into His position of wealth.
Another aspect of His grace that was seen by His apostles is His
perfect righteousness, yet He became sin for our sakes, that by Him
becoming sin, we can become His perfect righteousness. 2 Corinthians
5:21. The amazing, wonderful, and astonishing thing in all of these is
that in these divine exchanges, we are given the exact same perfect
righteousness and riches as Jesus Christ. For us to say that in Christ,
we are as righteous as Jesus Christ will not be sacrilegious, and to say
that in Christ, we are as wealthy as Him, will not also be taking too
much to ourselves.
These are true positional statements of our faith. It is now left to
us to walk by faith in the word of God and the Holy Spirit, to translate
into our daily experience what is entirely true of our position in
Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul, writing in 2 Timothy 3:16 said that by
the word of God, we can train ourselves in righteousness, not only in
righteousness, but also in everything that Christ made possible by His
death on the cross.
Toni
