“For by grace you are saved,” Ephesians 2:8, “through faith.”
How? Just trust Christ. Just put your faith, just affirm you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who lived and died for you and rose again. Do you believe that? And acknowledge Christ as your Lord and Savior.” That’s it. And receive the forgiveness He offers.
But one final question remains, “How in the world can God do it and still be just?" One way, reconciliation by the will of God, by the act of justification which involves forgiveness, by the obedience of faith. We just call sinners to believe. How can He do it? How can He punish the sin in our lives at one time and make us His own children at the other? How can He punish us without destroying us?
2 Corinthians 5:21 is the answer, and it stands as the greatest verse in the Bible. Fifteen Greek words. If you understand this verse, you understand the Gospel. Fifteen Greek words that define the meaning of the reconciliation message.
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
That’s how He did it. That’s how God did it. There is the plan. This is the secret of redemption right here.
Here comes the key, the Greek says, “He made Him who knew no sin, sin.” His sinless son in whom He said, “I am well pleased.” His sinless son who Peter calls “the just for the unjust” was made sin. On the cross Jesus was NOT a sinner. He never was a sinner before. He wasn’t a sinner then. And He never will be. He was as pure and holy and harmless and undefiled hanging on the cross as ever before or since. He is not a sinner, never a sinner. He never broke a law of God and he never failed to fulfill PERFECTLY everything God ever required or desired. And God did not make him a sinner on the cross.
Taken from "How to Escape the Fires of Hell" by Discover the Book Ministries (used by permission).