In my previous blog I referenced a late 2nd Century writing called The Epistle to Diognetus. I was struck as I read through chapter 9 again and again, the beautiful understanding of Jesus Christ as a substitution for me. Often times I struggle to understand why God would send his Son to die in my place. Suffice it to say I may never grasp the depths of love that God has shown to me. An anonymous author who refers to himself only as ”disciple” writes with such brilliance about this act of God which coninuously baffles me:

     “When our iniquity had been fully accomplished, and it had been made perfectly manifest that punishment and death were expected as its recompense, and the season came which God had ordained, when henceforth He should manifest His
goodness and power (O the exceeding great kindness and love of God), He hated us not, neither rejected us, nor bore us malice, but was long-suffering and patient, and in pity for us took upon Himself our sins, and Himself parted with His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy for the lawless, the guileless for the evil, _the just for the unjust,_ the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else but His righteousness would have covered our sins?
     In whom was it possible for us lawless and ungodly men to have been justified, save only in the Son of God?
     O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits; that the iniquity of many should be concealed in One Righteous Man, and the righteousness of One should justify many that are iniquitous!
     Having then in the former time demonstrated the inability of our nature to obtain life, and having now revealed a Saviour able to save even creatures which
have no ability, He willed that for both reasons we should believe in His goodness and should regard Him as nurse, father, teacher, counsellor, physician,
mind, light, honour, glory, strength and life.”