There is much talk in the sports world right now about “trades.”
With the deadline for Major League Baseball trades, and also the talk that
Kyrie Erving wants traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers, it is dominating the
news… Bottom line is that every article is gauging the value of trades / which
team got the better deal / are the pieces on each side of the trade worth it;
case in point: the top headline when I just pulled up ESPN.com is “Trade
deadline winners and losers…”
And when it comes to the trade demand from Kyrie the news
is not just about finding a good swap on value but also why he wants to be
traded from a team that has gone to 3 straight NBA Finals…
All of it brings me to a very basic weekly devotion to
just remind us of the greatest, yet worst value, trade in history…
2 Corinthians 5:21 says “For He (God the Father) made Him (Christ)
knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him.”
How awesome!!! We receive the righteousness of Christ to
our account, allowing us eternal life with a place on God’s team… He gets our
sin and its death penalty… The Great Trade!!!
Yet when we look at it from a value standpoint The
Greatest Of All Time took the fall for the worst of all time, as He died for
the sin of the world… The Worst Trade (but thank God, full of mercy and grace!)
Simply put, from a value standpoint it was not a fair
trade; yet that is how much God wanted us on the team… how much He loves each
of us… and “demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.” We were not worth the trade… “But God…” (READ
Ephesians 2:4-9)
This is time to celebrate our trade that we accepted by
faith! And if you have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, can I
give you an honest appraisal?
Basically, the word is that Kyrie wants traded from
Cleveland because he doesn’t like being second-fiddle to LeBron James; he
believes it would be better to play somewhere that he is the centerpiece of the
team. One article (TheUndefeated.com; Stephen A. Smith) even says “Kyrie got
tired of being ‘son’ to LeBron.” This sounds a lot like a player’s pride taking
priority over being on a championship team…
According to God’s Playbook there is only one
championship team in the end, and it is Team Jesus. None of us are good enough
to be on the team, but that “trade” was made that allows us to be. A person
that rejects the trade typically does so because he has a false sense that he
doesn’t need a Substitute/Savior, and will make it on his own laurels… this is choosing
religion (man’s attempt to earn God’s favor…) this is a false pride that ends
in “falling short.” (See Romans 3:23) And of course some will simply try to
convince themselves there is no God, therefore no need for the “trade,” and
thus no true meaning to life as we all simply live and die; again, just pride
as we believe we are the apex of it all…
Please consider the incredible, loving, sacrificial “trade”
the Father made… for you! He loves you and wants you on the Team… for eternity!
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