Feb 21

Written by: Mike Smith
2/21/2008 10:22 AM

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). There are several verses that I quote to myself frequently. These are two of those verses! These verses convey the truth that the union of the individual believe to Jesus Christ (or in Jesus Christ) is the key to understanding the believer’s relationship to God the Father. God is holy and I am not. How does God condemn the innocent (Jesus) and pardon the guilty (us)? Jesus took our sins, our guilt, and our shame upon himself at the cross. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That verse alone is the gospel in a sentence. There are several of those sentences in the Scriptures. Jesus identifies with the sin of the world (John 3:16) and took the wrath of God for sin so that Peter could say, “by his wounds you have been healed” (2 Peter 2:24). I deserve condemnation and death, and I have died in Jesus Christ. God is holy. I need a righteousness to have a relationship with God. In Jesus I am righteous! Paul says it well in these verses, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

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