“Unlike our halting attempts to make up for the wrongs we’ve done, the atonement Christ has made is total and final …
The grace of this atonement lies in its vicariousness—meaning, atonement has been made for you but not by you. This is why Christians talk fondly and frequently of substitution. In the final trial of life’s courtroom, Jesus takes our seat and accepts the verdict due us. He substitutes himself for you and me—not only absorbing our condemnation but also lending us his own righteousness. As a result, you and I are set free. When folk musicians sing about being washed in the blood of the lamb, this is what they are getting at: an inversion of judicial prudence so profound that when it’s grasped, its subjects are doused in astonishment and gratitude of the most generative kind.”
—David Zahl in “The Big Relief”
My prayer this week: What a thing you’ve done for me, Jesus — taking my place, my punishment, my shame upon yourself. May my heart daily be filled with thanks and wonder for this gift of freedom.
