Chapter 2 HE LIVED FOR ME

Jesus took the same flesh that I have. He met the same temptations that I meet. He voluntarily made Himself as I am, in resisting temptation. He demonstrated that it is possible for one as weak as I am, to be obedient to God’s holy will, through the grace provided.VICH 7.1

He was cruelly misunderstood, yet He refused to approve the least departure from a strictly upright course. Against the dark background of selfishness and sin, of hypocrisy and self-righteousness, which characterized His time, He set forth, in His personal conduct, the law of self-denial and of self-sacrificing love. He was what He taught.VICH 7.2

He lived a truly human life. He became weary, just as I do. He became thirsty when walking in the heat of the day, just as I do. He required sleep to refresh His physical frame after a day of toil, just as I do. He required food for His body, just as I do. He differed in no way from me in all these respects. He was my brother in the flesh.VICH 7.3

And yet He was the Son of God, one with the Father from eternity, through whom the worlds were created, and in whom all things cohere. Before He visited this world as the Son of man, cherubim and seraphim were His willing servants, and angels were the ministers of His will. He was with God, and He was God. He was at home in the majestic glory of heaven.VICH 7.4

What is the explanation of these apparent contradictions of His being? It is found in the simple fact that He lived for me. Only one who is more than a man could become the representative man, the epitome of the race, and could not only assume human nature, but could gather up into Himself every individual member of the human family, and could become my personal representative, and live a life which could be set down to my account as if I had lived it myself, if I accept my place in Him.VICH 8.1

This is the true meaning of justification by faith, or being accounted righteous by the acceptance of the life lived by another. It is not a mere theological doctrine, an article of the creed. It is an actual transaction, by virtue of which a life of righteousness is substituted for a life of sin in response to faith. “If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.”VICH 8.2

I shall not try to explain this wondrous provision, which furnishes such a ground of confidence for my personal salvation, further than to say that in it “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”VICH 8.3

I have accepted the life which Jesus lived for me. He satisfies my need. Have you accepted His life?VICH 9.1