Hanson: What more could He do?

Thursday, October 29, 2015
    Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885
Meditation:
    God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
    —2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It seems that Paul is here [2 Cor. 5:21] outlining the very ultimate degree of Christ’s self-identification with us, the very lowest point to which he condescended when he took the form of a slave. He allowed himself (God allowed him) to be accounted sin by the Law. He refused to do what orthodox Jews of his day thought God had commanded them to do, (i.e.) seek to gain credit with God by keeping the Law. He lived by faith, not Law, and therefore repudiated the Law and the path of self-justification... He stripped himself even of that claim to moral goodness which would have distinguished him from sinners. Short of becoming a sinner (and Paul shows that this idea is repudiated), how could God come closer to us sinners?
    ... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 57 (see the book)
    See also 2 Cor. 5:21; Acts 2:38; 1 Cor. 4:2; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 1:3-5; 1 John 2:1-2; 4:10; 5:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You given Yourself for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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