The verses set for Reading and Meditation are worth thinking about, especially the main verse: ‘God made him, who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’
It’s important to be aware that our good deeds do not ‘balance out’ our sins - our good deeds can’t bridge the gulf between God and us – because of the alienation that occurred because of our rebellion.
As Selwyn says: “Sin is alienation from God by choice; hell is the utter realisation of that choice. … Whose sin is it that He was made, and for which He was forsaken by God? My sin. He was made my sin. If, when He endured the ultimate consequence of my sin, and bore its penalty, He created a benefit that He did not need for Himself, who did benefit? You and I!”
Earlier Selwyn writes: “No other being apart from Jesus has been completely forsaken by God in this life. By its own act humanity alienated itself from God, but God never left it.” That’s why John 3:16 is quoted so often: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
Have you any comments on today’s study?
The divine exchange
The verses set for Reading and Meditation are worth thinking about, especially the main verse: ‘God made him, who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’
It’s important to be aware that our good deeds do not ‘balance out’ our sins - our good deeds can’t bridge the gulf between God and us – because of the alienation that occurred because of our rebellion.
As Selwyn says: “Sin is alienation from God by choice; hell is the utter realisation of that choice. … Whose sin is it that He was made, and for which He was forsaken by God? My sin. He was made my sin. If, when He endured the ultimate consequence of my sin, and bore its penalty, He created a benefit that He did not need for Himself, who did benefit? You and I!”
Earlier Selwyn writes: “No other being apart from Jesus has been completely forsaken by God in this life. By its own act humanity alienated itself from God, but God never left it.” That’s why John 3:16 is quoted so often: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
Have you any comments on today’s study?