2 Corinthians 5:21 For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I. CHRIST WAS ABSOLUTELY SINLESS. Not that He was unacquainted with sin, for no man knew it so well as He did. He knew its origin, growth, ramifications, and all the hells it ever had created or ever would create. It was His knowledge of sin that caused Him to fall prostrate in Gethsemane. What then does it mean? That personally He was free from sin. It never stained His heart. 1. He was without sin though He lived in a sinful world. Everywhere sin surrounded Him as a dense, pestiferous atmosphere. But it did not taint Him. His generation failed to corrupt Him. 2. He was without sin, though He was powerfully tempted. II. THAT THOUGH SINLESS, HE WAS, IN SOME SENSE, MADE SIN BY GOD. 1. This cannot mean that God made the Sinless One a sinner. This would be impossible. 2. Two facts may throw light upon the expression. (1) That God sent Christ into a world of sinners to become closely identified with them. "He was numbered with transgressors."(2) That He permitted this world of sinners to treat and punish Him as if He were the greatest of all. III. THAT THE SINLESS ONE WAS THUS MADE SIN IN ORDER THAT MEN MIGHT PARTICIPATE IN GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. The grand end was the moral restoration of man to the rectitude of God. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. |
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