Page 2 - Microsoft Word - New Believer Devotional (3)

Introduction

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God,
and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the
chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed…”

Isaiah 53:4-5

Through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, a divine exchange took place that unlocks all of God’s
provisions to us. All of the evil due by justice to come upon us…. came on Jesus instead through His
choice to stand in our place. The purpose for His choice to stand in our place was so that all the good due
to Jesus, earned by His Sinless obedience, might be made available to us through paying the debt that we
owed. Jesus is the God-man. He was, and is, fully God, fully man. No one has ever been like Him, and
no one ever will be.

First, know that Jesus was wounded that you might be healed. He was punished that you might be
forgiven. Jesus was made sin with your sinfulness, so that you might be made righteous with His
righteousness. Jesus was made a curse that you might receive His blessing. Jesus endured your poverty
that you might share His abundance. Jesus bore your shame that you might share His glory. Jesus
endured your rejection that you might enjoy His acceptance. Today, if you are in Christ as a believer and
have a relationship with Him, your old man died in Jesus. You’re a new creation, and now His life is in
you!

What an awesome God that would release such an expression of measureless love to us!

Redemption
We toss the word ‘redemption’ around in everyday life, usually in the context of receiving something
back for which we have credit, or gaining something back that we lost by error or circumstance. We say
the word without really thinking through what it means. It’s a word with a positive connotation and is
associated with receiving something we otherwise would lose.

Redemption is deliverance by payment of a price. To “redeem” means to ransom, to buy back or to be
released from prison. Ransom means the payment of a price for the release of a captive. The blood of
Jesus was the price paid to release us from sin and death. The precious blood of Jesus gave to us the
highest degree of dignity to cover the lowest depths of sin to which we have gone. But first to lay hold on
this incredible gift of redemption for us, He had to become like us.

The Bible says:
“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I
will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again,
I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Forasmuch
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that
through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”

Hebrews 2:10-14

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him.”