Jesus Took Your Place So That You Can Take His

Matthew 27:46
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Do you know that it was at the cross that Jesus addressed His Father as “God” for the first time? He had always addressed His Father as “Father”. But at Calvary’s tree, He addressed His Father as “God”.

Jesus lost that Father-Son relationship when He was representing you and carrying your sins at the cross so that today, you can call God “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15) and have a loving father-son relationship with God forever. Jesus was forsaken by God and His world became very dark on that lonely hill so that in your darkest hour, God will always say to you, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5)

At the time when Jesus needed God most, God turned His back on Him. God had to turn His back on His Son because His eyes are too holy to behold all the sin that was in His Son’s body. And because God turned His back on Jesus, He will never turn His back on you. Instead, you will see God’s face of favor shining on you all the time!

Jesus also took your place of no protection at the cross. For the first time, He gave up divine protection so that you can have it every day of your life! And because He became sin, He took your curse at the cross so that today, as you take His gift of righteousness, you receive only blessings from God.

Jesus received the full brunt of God’s wrath in His body once and for all when He carried your sins. All of God’s anger and condemnation fell on Him, consuming all your sins until God’s wrath was exhausted.

Today, God is not angry with you. The body of Jesus absorbed everything — your sins, curses, and God’s anger and condemnation. So live life expecting to see not the judgment, but the goodness and blessings of God!

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Jesus Forgives And Restores

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7

Peter’s restoration by Jesus is one of the most touching scenes in the New Testament. The Lord not only forgave Peter, who had denied Him not once but three times to save his own skin, but also restored him and entrusted the care of the then-infant church to him.

When Jesus rose from the grave, He instructed the angel at the tomb to tell Mary to “go, tell His disciples—and Peter” (Mark 16:7). Peter was specially mentioned because Jesus knew that after such a heart-breaking mistake, the disciple was probably filled with guilt and sorrow.

Peter, on the other hand, thought that with his betrayal and Jesus’ death, everything was probably over for him. So he went back to his old job. And that’s where Jesus found him, fishing on the Lake of Galilee.
The Bible tells us that Jesus gave Peter and the fishermen with him an abundant catch, and also made them breakfast on a fire of coals (John 21:1–18). The scene of men sitting around a fire to keep warm in the early morning must have painfully reminded Peter of what he had done just a few days earlier (John 18:17–18, 25–26). What was the Lord doing?

He was showing Peter that He didn’t hold that sin against him, and that Peter didn’t have to be afraid of that memory anymore!

What a compassionate Savior we have! He knows all about your failures, but doesn’t hold them against you because He has completely and righteously forgiven you through His death on the cross. Like Peter, let the Lord’s forgiveness and love for you restore you to wholeness and propel you into your God-given destiny!

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