For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23

‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;… 1 Pet 2:24

The guys living in the early days of Christianity would have understood the point that the wages of sin is death. Growing up under the old covenant they would have understood that that where there was sin, death had to follow. A sinner deserved death as punishment. Part of the miracle of the cross of Jesus Christ is that he was able to stand in the place of everyone who would ever walk the earth and take the punishment we deserve. This is what theologians call substitutionary atonement.

There are many things to be thankful for when you focus on the cross of Jesus and today, I want to encourage you to give thanks to God because Jesus took your place, realising that it should really have been you and me on that cross. We’ve all seen the movies where someone throws himself in the way of a bullet or an arrow that is meant for another. There aren’t many things more moving and powerful than that. Jesus placed it to his disciples in John 15:13 that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

To what extent do you realise the power of this today? Take time to thank God for the substitution of Jesus and to allow the gravity of this truth to settle deep in your heart. He took the bullet for you. He died in your place, so that you could live. Thank you Jesus.

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