My pastor was talking last night about Christ washing His disciples feet. I never really saw the symbol of Christ’s substitutionary atonement in it before. Usually when it’s preached, all I hear about is service, but God impressed the atonement on my heart yesterday. I mean, what did Christ mean when He told Peter “you don’t know what I’m doing now, but you will hereafter”? How do you preach that as simply service when it’s obvious that “later” refers to His sacrifice on the cross? Sure, Christ’s example here could be applied to every-day service, but only, in context, through the example of Christ taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and taking our place on the cross, becoming sin for man that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The foot-washing was not just gross. It was lowly. Just like His going to the cross for us. He took our lowly state upon Himself. If Christ does not wash our feet, we have no part in Him. In that sense, Christ tells Peter “if you don’t know what I’m doing here, then you don’t know me.” And Peter understood many more things after Christ ascended. Namely, that Christ took our shame upon Himself that He might nail it to the cross, and we bare it no more. One only needs his feet washed, that is, his shame. His filth. Christ took responsibility for our sin as our head; He took our responsibility as His own. We are no longer bound to the wages of our sin! Tullian Tchividjian said, “The Gospel frees you from the pressure of having to make something of yourself.” Truly, we are all we need to be in Christ. Our shame was already substituted. If you don’t believe this, you might as well believe in purgatory or some other means of after-the-fact purification. If you don’t believe in something like this, then why suffer guilt and shame? Even the law given to Levi to minister to the people of Israel was a law of peace. How much more then is the law of Christ a covenant of peace? Look to Jesus, not your shame or lowly estate! That which makes us lowly has been substituted with the righteousness of Christ! Take heart, buck up, and move on in your glorious estate.