God made him to be sin for us.

A call to worship.

Themes

Incarnation • Sinful flesh • Human nature • The power of sin • Redemption • Scandal • Condemnation • Salvation

God’s condemnation was not a transaction on legal paper; it was in the very flesh of Jesus Christ. He became sin for us. And, so, He didn’t achieve our salvation; He became our salvation. By putting on our sinful flesh, He made it His own; by making it His own, He made it sinless.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, a young girl conceived a child. And in that moment, the line of descent from Adam was eternally interrupted. And across nine months of gestation, God’s Son became enfleshed. And so it was that God’s redemption of us began with a scandal.

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Scripture reading

Romans 8:3
2 Corinthians 5:21

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This call to worship¹ comes from the Apostle Paul, who has done more to help us understand the meaning of incarnation—of God born human—than any other person in the history of the Church. 

Paul writes the following to his friends in Rome and in Corinth:

God has done what the law, 
weakened by the flesh, 
could not do. 
By sending his own Son 
in the likeness of sinful flesh,
He condemned sin in the flesh.


God made Him 
who had no sin 
to be sin for us, 
so that in Him 
we might become 
the righteousness of God.

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Enjoy this call to worship devotionally;

change the plural pronouns (we, us)

to personal ones (I, me).

Be encouraged.

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Prayer

God and Father in Heaven, 
by the power of Your Holy Spirit, 
a young girl conceived a child. 
And in that moment, 
the line of descent from Adam 
was eternally interrupted.

And across nine months of gestation, 
Your Son became enfleshed — 
enfleshed with fallen organic matter and structure, 
assuming for Himself our cells, 
our neurons, 
our muscle fibers, 
our tissue, 
our bone marrow, 
our DNA. 
And so it was 
that You invaded the stream 
of human heredity. 

In this mystery called incarnation, 
Your beloved Son 
took the state we were in 
and made it His own: 
a state of condemnation, 
a state of corruption, 
disease, 
and alienation. 
He assumed the only kind 
of human nature that existed — 
the kind that needed redeeming. 
He took on sinful flesh. 

And so it was 
that Your redemption of us 
began with a scandal: 
God the Son, 
wrapped in swaddling clothes, 
invading and embracing 
fallen human nature — 
our nature. 

Why, God, did He go so far? 

Your longing for us to be with You, 
in all the ways You created us to be, 
required it. 
It required the depths 
of our fallen human existence 
to be thoroughly penetrated — 
a human existence 
that was reigned over by death, 
fallen and shattered into pieces, 
and estranged from God. 

It required an attack on sin —
sin that was so deep within us — 
an attack that would be capable 
of cleansing corruption 
at its very root. 

And so the power of sin, 
rooted deep within our fallen nature, 
did not remain untouched. 

This was incarnation. 

Your condemnation, God, 
was not a transaction 
on legal paper; 
it was in the very flesh of Jesus Christ. 
He became sin for us. 

And so He didn’t simply 
achieve our salvation; 
He became our salvation. 
He became our righteousness, 
our sanctification, 
our redemption. 
He penetrated the depth
of our darkness. 
He seized our ruined 
and wrecked humanity 
and He made it his own. 
And He re-created and reoriented it 
by taking it to Himself —
taking it into the very life of God.

Because of His incarnation, Father, 
we are no longer fallen pieces; 
we are reassembled and framed again. 
We are no longer shattered; 
we are set back up again. 
We who have been estranged 
are once more your very own. 

Father, we do not have 
an impersonal asset called salvation 
on our balance sheet.
Instead, You have given us — 
and we have received — 
the life-giving, 
life-transforming, 
fully-participatory 
Christ himself. 

By putting on our sinful flesh, 
He made it His own; 
by making it His own, 
He made it sinless.

Your beloved Son, Father… 
He was not an external influence, 
an instructive and inspiring model 
of suffering and love, 
or a motivational example. 
He was God incarnate. 
He assumed human nature — 
human nature 
in actual need of salvation.

Help us this morning
to grasp the implications
of Your incarnation. 
And enable that understanding 
to transform us.

In the name of the one 
who sinlessly assumed 
our sinful flesh
in the womb of Mary,
who started from where we start 
and then, 
subjected to all the same 
evil pressures we have,
and using the altogether unpromising
and unsuitable material 
of our corrupt nature,
worked out a sinlessly
perfect obedience
while bearing our sinful flesh
all the way to the cross.

In His name, 
the name of Jesus Christ, 
Amen

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Inspiring resources

A call to worship creates wonderment, amazement, curiosity, yearning, captivation, provocation, hopefulness, thankfulness, affection, rapture, delight. As these mix together, the response is worship.

If this call to worship leaves you wondering or curious or provoked or hopeful, consider diving into this awesome book that inspired me to write this call to worship.

1. This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, December 19, 2021.