The French writer, Henri Barbusse, tells of a conversation overheard in a dugout full of wounded men during World War 1. One of them, who knew he had little time left to live, said to another man: “Listen, Dominic. You’ve led a bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me; my name is clear. So, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, my good name, my life, and, quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.” And that’s what they did. Dominic took on that man’s identity, while he died and took Dominic’s guilt with him to the grave.
That’s the same offer that Jesus makes to us through his death on the Cross. The Bible says that Jesus, who knew no sin, was “made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” He became what we are that we might become what he is.”