“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
Sometimes art is a little ugly to the naked eye. In verse 16, Paul reminds us that we once looked at Christ from a merely human point of view. To the world, Jesus seemed like a blasphemer, a false teacher, a man deserving of death. That’s why He was crucified. But when we see Him with eyes of faith, we recognize the pure and holy Son of God.
Even today, when we look at the cross through earthly eyes, we see only pain, shame, and suffering. It’s hard to look at. But with the eyes of faith, we see what Paul calls in verse 21 God’s masterpiece: Christ became sin for us so that we could be made right with God. What looks brutal becomes beautiful when seen as the divine exchange of our sin for His righteousness.
Paul also makes it clear that the cross calls us to a responsibility. Verse 18 says God gave us the task of reconciling people to Himself. Verse 20 says we are Christ’s ambassadors—those who gently plead with others to come back to God. And verse 11 reminds us that because of our holy awe of Him, we work hard to persuade others.
God desires relationship with every person. When we fix our eyes on Jesus and see the beauty of the cross instead of its pain, we can’t help but be stirred to share this wonderful message of reconciliation. The masterpiece of the cross may look ugly to the natural eye, but to the eyes of faith, it is the most beautiful picture ever painted.