Jesus. In. My. Place.

Have you ever worked for a temp agency? You know where you go in and do the job of someone that is “missing”, even if only for a short time. I did and it resulted in the only (knock on something) migraine that I have ever had. I got to thinking about taking the place of another and then I began to think about who I would be willing to “fill in” for. Which led to me thinking about what other “requirements” I would have before I agreed to “take his/her place”. And then it hit me, if I have that many requirements for filling in for someone, then do others? Did Jesus?

During Old Testament times, the high priest would offer a yearly sacrifice on
Yom Kippur. They would enter the Holy of Holies(the place in the Jewish temple where God's presence would be, behind the veil) and sprinkle the blood of a clean animal sacrifice upon the ark of the covenant in order to propitiate or satisfy (literally...absorb the wrath) the anger of God against the sins of the people. But in order to enter into God's presence the high priest had an intense process to complete so that he would not be struck down(it involved some seclusion, a bunch of showers, and frequent clothing changes). The high priest would be the fill in for all the people so that they could be forgiven of their sins. Let's look at

“Now Joshua, the high priest, was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” Zechariah 3: 3-4

In Scripture, a person's garments often speak of a person's character or condition. Soiled and filthy garments speak of sin, white garments speak of being cleansed and made sinless. Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, but these were removed and replaced with festal robes. Festal robes were the priests' equivalent of their "Sunday best.” Notice that God had done the work of cleansing, not Joshua. Before God, he was filthy in sin. It was the Lord who removed his iniquity and made him clean. Jesus does that for us. Jesus. In. My. Place.

What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. This is a common saying among married couples – well at least in my marriage it is. When I said “I do”, I took all of Justin to be mine and he took all of me to be his. He worked at first and I was in school, but that did not mean that he kept all the money and I couldn't eat. And then we switched places, he was in school and I worked...either way it did not make a difference. When we accept Jesus, all that is ours becomes His and all that is His becomes ours...man I think He got the short end of that stick...but the best news is that He thinks the same thing! You see Jesus is all we need. He did not hesitate to take our place. He took it...no questions asked. He is our High Priest. He was the sacrifice laid before God to take care of our sin. We need nothing else. Jesus. In. My. Place. J.D Greear says:

“Jesus + Nothing = Assurance”

Romans 4:5 says this....“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

You see, it says that the person who realizes that there is nothing they could ever DO to earn eternal life and BELIEVES that God did the work necessary to save him/her, will be righteous. Jesus. In. YOUR. Place. Aren't you glad that Jesus did the work for you? I am!

~ Donna