Have you ever given up your place in a long line to someone else?  I have had some people do that for me.  Occasionally, I’ve done it for others.

When I am in line, I’ve gone through several stages in terms of my attitude toward my fellow-waiters.  My first stage was, “Hey!  We’re all in a hurry, and none of us likes waiting in this line!  You can wait your turn like the rest of us!”

Stage 2:  “Here, you can get behind me!”

Stage 3:  “Here, you can get in front of me!”

Finally, I realized the obvious truth that you, dear reader, probably have seen already—namely, that unless I was letting a person who was right behind me go in front of me, I was being courteous to one person, while being discourteous to all the others who were originally in front of that particular person.

So, I moved to stage 4:  “Here, you can take my place, and I’ll go back to your place in line.

Jon Steingard, lead singer of the group Hawk Nelson, said (concerning their song “Live Like You’re Loved”), “When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he didn’t just take our place.  He gave us his place.”  I’ve often realized that Jesus died in our place.  It was a totally new thought to me that Jesus also gave us his place.

Well, perhaps it was not totally new.  I had encountered it before.  Perhaps the thought just sunk in more deeply than it had before.

Actually, this is precisely the thought Paul expresses in Ephesians 2:4-6.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)  For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

If Jesus gave me—and potentially, the whole world—his place, this would include some things I most definitely do not want: denying self for the sake of others, suffering, the cross.  The cross cannot be edited out of the Jesus story.  It can’t be edited out of the lives of Jesus-followers either.

Of course, suffering is inevitable in this world, whether we are Christ-followers or not.  However, those of us who are followers of the Crucified One believe that suffering can be redemptive.  Certainly, we believe that about Christ.  But we also believe that even our own suffering can be redemptive.

But there is another truth, beyond the suffering.  Christ died for us so that we might have his place.  And what is Christ’s place?  It is the place of the Son, beloved of his heavenly Father.  Hebrews 2:11 says that Christ is not ashamed to call his brothers and sisters.  Often, I am ashamed to call Christ my brother, but brotherhood goes both ways.  If he can and does call me his brother, then I can do the same with him.

So, we were in this long line.  It was not at the check-out counter.  It was the check-in counter.  We were in a long line stretching through time and space.  It included everyone in the world.  We were waiting to check into hell.

And then, Jesus comes along and says, “Here, I’ll take your place.”

So, Jesus took our sins (which may well be another name for “hell,” in my opinion), and gave us his own place in the Father’s loving heart.

I can indeed “live like I’m loved,” because I am loved.  And you can live that way too.