God gave Jesus to die for our sins,
and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God (Romans
4:25 CEV).
" It is Christ's
goodness in you that makes you acceptable. You're not perfect, but he is. "
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Jesus' death and resurrection make us acceptable to God.
Would you be surprised to know that most people do not accept themselves?
I've been a pastor now for over 30 years and I've talked to tens of thousands
of people, and I've found that most people really don't like themselves
inside. They wish they were different. They wish they looked different. They
wish they acted different.
We don't accept ourselves and so we spend our lives trying to find
acceptance among other people; but even more important than being accepted by
other people is being accepted by God. That's a problem. Why? Because God is
perfect and you're not. And neither am I.
God lives in a perfect place called heaven, so God has a problem. How
does he get imperfect people into a perfect place where he is perfect? (Because, obviously, if he allowed imperfect people in a perfect place it
wouldn't be perfect anymore.) God has to come up with a plan for
imperfect people to be able to live in a perfect place.
God's plan is what I call "The Great Exchange."
The Bible says, "God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our
sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!" (2
Corinthians 5:21 LB).
I don't know how to make it any clearer than to say it like this: You're
never going to be good enough to get into heaven because it's perfect and you
stopped being perfect a long time ago. It is Christ's goodness in you that
makes you acceptable. You're not perfect, but he is. So God says, "We'll
do an exchange here. Jesus will take your sins and you get my goodness in
your life." That's quite a deal!
A lot of people feel trapped by their past. They say, "If you knew
what I've done, you'd know I'd never be acceptable to God." I don't know
what you've done, but God does and he still accepts you: "God says he
will accept us and acquit us—declare us 'not guilty'—if we trust Jesus Christ
to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to
Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like" (Romans 3:22
LB).
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