May 18

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For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us… 2 Corinthians 5:21

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🔊 Christ met humanity in all levels of our need during his years of ministry.  He ministered to sick, demon-possessed, sinful, and ultimately to dead people.  However, on the cross Christ did not merely meet us in our need; He met with the cosmic force of sin in all its horror.  In our need, we are conscious of the effects of sin in our lives.  In our prayers we focus on our immediate problem: “Forgive me, wash me, deliver me.”  On the cross Christ encountered a force of evil which has touched us all but of which we know almost nothing.  We know that this is the evil that lies behind the holocaust, and other unspeakably inhuman acts of cruelty.  On the cross Christ encountered sin on a level that not only neutralised it, but also destroyed it and made it possible for human beings to be delivered from its awful power and bondage.  Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  When He had done this, He obtained the power to put us back into right relationship with God and with Himself.  Christ is the centre of the universe, both as Lord and Creator, but most importantly as Redeemer.  He has penetrated the centre of our fallen world.  Christ has entered into the power of sin and broken it.  Wonder, worship, believe and enter in also.  It is the place where endless night is turned to everlasting day.  It is the dawn of the New Creation.  It is the place where we go over the crest of a hill, and all our past falls from view, and before us is the vista of a new life and a new future.  It is yours to receive by faith.