1/8/22 Electric Gospel

Electric Gospel

Electric Gospel

Calvin / General

Admit it: What Jesus did is Electric!

Electric Gospel

2 Corinthians 5:21

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When a negative and a positive wire are joined together, completing a circuit, something happens: a bell rings, a lamp lights, or we receive a shock!

The apostle Paul, although he lived before the days of electricity, seems here to see the gospel in terms of negative and positive and a completed circuit.

1. The Negative: “Who knew no sin.”

The New English Bible translates it: “Christ was innocent of sin.” There actually walked this earth, long ago, a man who had never sinned. That man never swore; never thought impure thoughts; was never greedy, jealous, or covetous. No resentment was ever harbored in His heart. Nobody ever suffered from His unjust or unkind criticism.

Paul does not say that our Lord was never tempted, only that He never sinned. He was, indeed, “tempted in all points like as we are.” The devil saw to that! The three temptations in the wilderness following His baptism were but a foretaste of more to follow. But temptation is not sin; succumbing to temptation is sin. So, “yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.”

Jesus was able to dine with tax collectors and sinners, that is, mix with the sort of people and go into the kind of places that were fraught with temptation, and yet never sin! The only explanation of such a life is His deity, His special, supernatural virgin birth by which He escaped the taint of Adam’s sin. He was the sinless, spotless, Lamb of God, the only One who could become the sinner’s substitute on the cross, God’s perfect sacrifice.

2. The Positive: “Made … to be sin.”

The New English Bible puts it: “God made him one with the sinfulness of men.”

Only the Holy Spirit could have urged the apostle to write such daring words. He who had never sinned suddenly experienced sin with all its loathsomeness and pollution. “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” All the world’s murders, adultery, blasphemy, and unbelief came upon Christ as He hung on Calvary. No wonder darkness came over the scene, blotting out the sight of Calvary. This is the only explanation of the cry from the cross: “Why hast Thou forsaken me?”

3. The result: “That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Since the two wires are joined together, negative (no sin) and positive (made sin), the result is “… that in him we might be made one with the goodness of God himself” (NEB).

We were never sinless, for we are sons of Adam. We have been born with original sin in us. We have continued to sin, habitually. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” “There is none righteous, no not one.” But if we come to Christ in repentance and faith then God no longer sees our sins, for we have “put on Christ” and we are clothed with His righteousness. God sees Bill Smith through His own Son.

When Thomas Edison was a telegraph operator he was required to tap out the word six every hour of the night to let his superintendent know that he was not asleep on duty. Edison soon invented a gadget that tapped our six automatically and allowed him to sleep undisturbed! How easy it is to close eyes, ears, and heart to this electric gospel. How much better to be like Michael Faraday, who, when asked by a fellow scientist on his deathbed, “What are your speculations now?” replied: “Speculations! I have none. I know whom I have believed. I am not thinking of speculations; I am resting my soul upon certainties.”

Paul knew nothing of electricity, but he did know something of a “lightning flash” on the road to Damascus that transformed his life. Yours can be changed in the same way. Take hold of the wires of faith with me and lets light this world up.