2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Father made Jesus sin for us. What an amazing thought!!
Not the verb sin, but the noun sin. Father made Jesus our sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
A lot of emphasis is placed on the last half of the verse by Grace preachers. We are the righteousness of God in Him(Christ Jesus)..wonderful! But equal in importance is the reality that Father made Jesus to be(come) our sin as well.
On the Cross Jesus was our sin so that we might become His righteousness when once we believe upon Him. But what does that mean that He became sin?
Sin is what we were before we were drawn by God to Jesus. Sin was our nature by birth in Adam’s line. We were by nature children of wrath.
Jesus on the other hand was not born of Joseph and thus did not inherit from him but from His Father in heaven. Jesus knew no sin. He was not born in Adam’s line…yet He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without falling into sin once. He could have fallen but He lived by the life of the Father in him and not by thinking he himself had any goodness of his own.
He came to give His life for us, to redeem us and to save us. To do this He had to become us.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus became so fully you and me that He was Sin on the Cross.
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
Isa 53:11 He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
This happened in Jesus long ago–yes….and we believe it.
But this is still happening in Jesus now!!
For you and I to become the righteousness of God in Him Jesus is still being made a sin offering for us. Jesus has completely become you, still, today, now! Jesus has taken all of you into HImself, receiving all of you, your weaknesses, failings, sins, rebellion, confusion, everything!! Jesus bears it all in Himself inside of your spirit where He dwells.
In exchange for becoming you -you become Him!! This is what Isaiah saw and also Paul.
Do we see it?
You can only be the Righteousness of God in Him if you allow Jesus to be all of you–now, and at your worst moments. He is still bearing our sin and carrying our iniquities, still making intercession for you and me- now and always.
This is not happening way up there in heaven far away as most imagine. This intercession of Jesus is happening inside of your heart where Jesus dwells in the Father. What!?
Yes. Jesus dwells in the Father and the Father dwells in Jesus…NOT up in a heaven somewhere beyond the stars…BUT IN YOUR HEART!!!
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Joh 14:18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Joh 14:19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
Joh 14:20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Joh 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?
Joh 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me,
Tradition NOT Scripture has taught us that Jesus is far away up in heaven. Jesus tells us clearly- SO CLEARLY- that he and the Father are in our heart and we are in Him.
This is the wonderful exchanged life that we are.
He became our sin-He is still made our sin – constantly bearing it, constantly carrying it away into the Grave- constantly taking away the sins of the world. On the other side, Jesus is constantly our Righteousness, constantly justifying all those who believe…so that we are constantly pleasing to the Father, constantly in His presence constantly sharing our heart with Him and His with us.
We are one heart with Him because Jesus IS made sin for us.
