A friend of mine who is a makeup artist needed people willing to let her do makeup testing. I signed up immediately. She warned me it wasn’t going to be pretty—because she needed to practice what Jesus’ lacerations and wounds might have looked like. She painted, sprayed, glued, and rubbed to make it look gruesome. Throughout the morning, my arm was transformed from that of a Caucasian woman to that of a Jewish man.

I couldn’t help but think over and over: This should have been me. I’ve known that my whole life, but this was the first time I saw it. Because of my sin, I should have suffered, been whipped, beaten, crucified, forsaken. Then I should have died and descended into hell—and stayed there. 

But I didn’t. All because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

I became like Jesus for pretend for one day, but he became me—and you—for real, taking our real punishment for us. He had real nails in his hands, real gashes on his arms, real bruises, real dirt, real drops of blood. 

And then he really rose from the dead after three days, transforming us from enemies of God to children of God. To the righteousness of God.