Beautiful God
Laying Your majesty aside
You reached out in love to show me life
Lifted from darkness into light
King for a slave
Trading Your righteousness for shame
These are the opening words of the song, Like An Avalanche by Hillsong United. I am especially touched by the last phrase: Trading Your righteousness for shame. I remember when God first began opening my understanding to the truths of His righteousness and I would weep at the mere thought of Jesus taking my shame.
I hated the feeling of my condemnation and wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy –much less my beloved Savior. YET… this is what He did.
He traded something of His for something of ours.
If you’ve read my book, Facing the Mirror, you know that I stood my son in front of his mirror when he was nine years old and asked him what he thought about that little boy looking back at him. Even at such a young age, shame had already begun to attack his sweet heart. He said, “I hate him. He’s ugly.” And just as God did with me, I shared truth with him in front of his mirror about the love God had for the boy looking back at him– and he has never forgotten it.
Years later when he was our youth pastor, he sat in his car one night with a young man who was struggling with self-hate. He told me he pulled down the visor and had the young man look into the mirror. And like passing a baton, he shared with him the same truths he had learned.
And then in an amazing chain of events, this same young man was with my son again at a church youth camp and the two of them got to stand with another youth in front of a restroom mirror and tell him all the truths about his righteousness in Christ.
One by one, over centuries and decades, God has been revealing to people everywhere what Jesus did for them. “Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
He traded His righteousness for shame.
And if we stopped there, we might forget one more truth:
We traded our shame for His righteousness.
“Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names” (Philippians 2:9).
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
However you learned it, don’t forget it. Jesus traded something valuable for you. He believes you were worth it. So I pray you will accept the truth of who you are in Him and live fully from that knowledge today and everyday!
