Go To Court!

God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom. 1 Corinthians 1:30

How does life transformation take place? Romans 3:24 says that we are “justified freely by his grace” (NIV).

Justification is a legal term. It is a picture of all our sins being logged into a portfolio or file. (And each of us has a thick file of imperfections, mistakes, and sins! Think of it as your permanent record or, as those in law enforcement call it, your jacket.) Then God sent his Son, Jesus down to earth to live a sinless life. He had a file folder full of perfect credits; he is righteous. Then on the cross, God took our sins from our file and switched them with Jesus’ righteousness. Jesus paid the penalty for our file folders, for our jackets of imperfection! God now looks down on us from heaven and sees Christ’s righteousness where our sins once were.

Justification is a onetime act that happens when we meet Christ. Having justified us, God begins a process of sanctification. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 tells us: “Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom. And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.”

Jesus is in the process of moving us from the weakness that characterized our lives before conversion toward a position of strength as seen from heaven.”^a It is like going to court to get the legal process moving. When you come to Christ and tell him you want his righteousness for your sin, he makes the trade for your “jacket.”

Have you made the trade?