The Heavenly Attachment Exchange
“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10)
For my spiritual blog this week, I want to share with you something the Lord showed me during my recent meditation time. I was meditating on Habakkuk 1:2, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? Even cry out to you “Violence!” and you will not save.” This verse is not one that people normally quote, but it is what I was reading this week, and it caught my eye.
The question reminded me of the time in my life when, as a child, I was being sexually abused by my father. I would often cry out to the Lord to ask Him how much longer I must suffer before He rescued me. I became focused on the anguish of my soul while asking that question.
As is often the case during these meditation sessions, my brain started making connections to other things…like the anguish of my Lord’s soul when He was separated for the first time in eternity from His Father.
Having severe attachment wounds myself, I know what it feels like to have significant attachments torn from me. I felt like I was momentarily sharing in the anguish of Christ’s soul. I meditated on this for quite a while until it became clear that the most painful part of the crucifixion for Christ was the broken fellowship with His Father, which He experienced when He took the sins of the world on Himself.
He sacrificed His perfect attachment with His Father so I could experience a true perfect attachment. I did not have a perfect attachment with my earthly father…not even close. The best I could do was “good enough,” but it was temporary. That attachment was destroyed when he violated my person.
I saw, for the first time, that I had to “put to death” my worldly, corrupted attachment to my earthly father so I could embrace the perfect, incorruptible attachment with my Heavenly Father. Christ did that for me!!! O Wonderful Exchange!
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where [is] your sting? O Hades, where [is] your victory?” The sting of death [is] sin, and the strength of sin [is] the law. 57 But thanks [be] to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Corinthians 15:53–57)
There is no longer a sting in the death of my flawed attachment to my father. Only the victorious attachment to my Heavenly Father remains.
Let me leave you with the words of a song that spoke directly to my heart today: His Robes For Mind (Chris Anderson / Greg David Habegger)
His robes for mine, O wonderful exchange
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified
In Christ I live, for in my place He died
I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God
Bought by such love, my life is not my own
My praise, my all (isn’t it true?) Shall be for Christ alone
His robes for mine, what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting law, Christ mastered in my stead
Faultless, I stand with righteous works not mine
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life
I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God
Bought by such love, my life is not my own
My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone
His robes for mine, God’s justice is appeased
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried, “‘Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid, propitiation won
I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God
Bought by such love, my life is not my own (no, it’s not)
My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone
His robes for mine, such anguish none can know
Christ, God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe
He, as though I, accursed and left alone
I, as though He, embraced and welcomed home
I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God
Bought by such love, my life is not my own
My praise, my all
My praise, my all
My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone
