Fear No Fear

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, MEV). Jesus humbled Himself. Jesus became exactly as we are and lived that way without ANY extra help or abilities for about three DECADES. Then He entered ministry with Holy Spirit living inside Him, started doing miracles, teaching, and preaching – and endured severe and pointed attacks by the very people who should have supported Him (the Judean religious leaders). Yes, people loved Him. Yes, some leaders in the nation approved of Him. But even in that love and acceptance there were negatives. They wanted a king and deliverer from Roman occupation, not a suffering servant to transform their inner lives. They wanted flash and food, not repentance and reliance. They wanted to regain their place in the world, not become servants. They supported what they believed was their idea of Him, not who He really was. That was lonely. It was all hard. The end of it, the ultimate sacrifice, was brutal and horrific – spiritually and physically. Yet Jesus endured it with JOY in His heart (Hebrews 12:2) – not for the experiences themselves (Matthew 26:38), but for what those experiences purchased for us. Jesus was willing to leave His rightful place and descend to ours so that after He overcame the world He would be able to open the Way for us to ascend from our current place into Him and His place. To change places. He IS the Way back to God. He IS the Way we get to sit in righteous places. Not from ANYTHING we do ourselves, but for what HE did for us. We rest in Him and we get treated like Him. That is an AMAZING gift. What a GOOD God we serve! We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to struggle for it. We get to receive it and then live it out by letting Jesus live through us – more and more every day (2 Corinthians 3:18). In Him we are protected. In Him we are provided for. In Him we have security. In Him we overcome. Not because of what WE do. Because we humble ourselves, retrain our minds to think from His point of view, retrain our minds to accept His moral character as our own, and choose to trust Him enough to listen and love Him enough to obey – letting HIM live life THROUGH us instead of for us (Galatians 2:20). Jesus loved us enough to give Himself for us. Jesus loves us enough to be the Way we need to become and remain right with God.