to us the perfect righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, not merely the treating us as if we had never sinned, but the reckoning us clothed upon with perfect righteousness. By reason of Jesus Christ's atoning death there is an absolute interchange of position between Jesus Christ and His people. In His death upon the cross Jesus Christ took our place of condemnation before God, and the moment we accept Him we step into His place of perfect acceptance before God. As Paul puts it in 2 Cor. 5:21, "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Jesus Christ stepped into our place in the curse and rejection, and the moment we accept Him we step into His place of perfect acceptance, or as it has been expressed by another:
"Near, so very near to God,
Nearer I cannot be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as near as He.
Dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I cannot be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as dear as He."
5. Furthermore, because of the full atonement that Jesus Christ has made by the shedding of His blood, by His atoning death on the cross, every believer in Him can enter boldly into the holy