He Gave

September 13

Receiving Christ is rather like a barter agreement. You give Him everything you are and He gives you everything He is. You give Him all your sin and He gives you all His righteousness. You give Him your proclivity to death and He gives you His promise of life—for time and eternity.

It’s hardly a ‘fair trade,’ but He set it up to give you everything, and that’s what you get when you give Him your meager self. A man, who can’t even take his next breath if the Lord doesn’t enable him to do so, becomes a joint heir with Christ of all the treasure of eternity. And the deal includes the advantage of living this life with your hand in His.

In II Corinthians 8:9, Paul tells us, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich.” Jesus, “…thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a man…and humbled Himself to the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:5-8.

And why did He do such an astounding thing? Why did He make such an amazing sacrifice? There is no explanation to account for such an action on the part of the One who made all things (John 1:3) except that given in John 3:16, “God so loved the world He gave…”