I love spending time with our grandkids. Last night we took Sam, our eight-year-old grandson for his belated birthday dinner.
We had been in Greece on his actual birthday and had Face Timed with him before he went to school that morning, but this was our night out. We went to Wendy’s. His choice.
We were talking with him about the things he likes and what he’s doing in school. He’s in third grade now and he’s learning division. I was impressed. We talked about addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, when he said this, “Those are opposing functions”.
I don’t think I even knew what a function was when I was in 3rd grade but yes, you’re right. They are opposing functions.
That phrase stuck with me the rest of the evening. I knew the Lord was trying to get through to me so, I stayed up after Dave went to bed and listened.
I realized there are several opposing functions in Scripture. We’ve looked at one the last two days, patience and impatience. However, it goes deeper than that.
“Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could be right with God.” II Corinthians 5:21 ERV
Now, that’s a mammoth opposing function. Christ took our sin, although He had never done anything contrary to God’s will and gave us His right standing with God, although we had never done anything worthy of righteousness.
“ He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” Romans 4:21-24 NLT
For a long time, I couldn’t see myself as righteous. That’s a religious word meaning in right standing. Every time I looked at my past, I saw all the ways I didn’t measure up and looking to the future, I had no hope that would change.
It was all about me! And I wasn’t good enough.
I had known verse 8 of Romans 5 from the time I was a little girl, but I remember the first time in my adult life when it rang true in my heart. I was sitting at my kitchen table, in a little rented house in Glendale, AZ. Dave was at work, Kim was at all-day kindergarten and Koy was napping in his room.
I had my Bible open and was praying for God to give me something to live by.
“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” Romans 5:6-11 NLT
I cried then and I have tears in my eyes now.
Christ took my sin and made me a friend of God – now that’s an opposing function!