“Bible promises: He became sin”
II Corinthians 5:21
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
A little over a hundred and thirty years ago, back in July of 1890, author Oscar Wilde wrote a book called The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The story begins as an artist by the name of Basil Hallward paints a portrait of a kind and handsome young man named Dorian Gray. And just as soon as he finished that painting, Dorian said how nice it would be if his picture could grow old and wrinkled, while he himself remained young, strong, and good looking.
And strangely enough, that’s exactly what happened! Everything he did, no matter how bad, changed the picture and not himself.
One night, he cruelly broke up with his girlfriend, an actress by the name of Sibyl Vane. He said her only beauty was in her acting, and even that wasn’t very good. That’s when he noticed a sneer on the portrait that hadn’t been there before.
And from that moment on, things got only worse. For the next eighteen years, even though he locked it away in a vault, whatever crime he committed, the ugly consequences appeared in the portrait rather than in himself.
Finally, when his actions grew so grotesque as to even kill the artist, Basil Hallward himself, blood spattered across the picture. And while Dorian looked just as young and handsome and innocent as ever, his portrait became more ugly and hideous than ever before.
Until finally, the truth caught up to Dorian Gray. Knowing that only a full confession could free him and his conscience of any guilt or wrongdoing, he decided to destroy the evidence--the painting itself. So he took a knife, lunged at it, and stabbed his hideous-looking self.
Suddenly, there was a loud cry of pain and terror. His servants woke up and a man on the street called the police. And when they entered the room, they saw the portrait of a handsome young man hanging quietly on the wall and the body of an old, wrinkled man lying dead on the floor, with a knife plunged deep into his heart.
So it is in the words of II Corinthians chapter 5: “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).
So far in our time together, we’ve looked at quite a lot of Bible promises. David wrote in Psalm 23, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Isaiah wrote, “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). Paul wrote, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (I Corinthians 10:13). And Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). And He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Count them and you’ll find more than eight thousand, eight hundred promises in the Bible--twenty-two promises for every day of the year.
That’s a lot of promises!
And here in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we find one more.
As far as we know, Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians while he was on his third and final missionary journey, a little over twenty years after Jesus died and rose again. He had already visited other churches like Laodicea, Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum. Now he went on to visit churches he had already planted years before.
And while he was in the city of Philippi, he learned that the church in Corinth was still struggling, still having a difficult time. So he wrote this letter to encourage them to work together and to get along. He wrote, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (II Corinthians 4:7). And he wrote, “We are the aroma, the perfume, the sweet fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (II Corinthians 2:15).
Now here in chapter 5, Paul meant to remind them of the mission and ministry that God had given them. So he wrote, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (II Corinthians 5:20).
Then he said, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).
It’s an amazing verse, really, an amazing promise! As one commentator wrote, it’s “the whole truth of Scripture, in microcosm.” It’s the Bible in its shortest and simplest form.
To better understand it, let’s take it apart piece by piece. First this--”He made Him.”
Well, who’s “He” and who’s “Him”?
“He” is God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the One who once said “Let there be light,” and there was light, who formed the earth out of nothing, who brought order out of chaos and light into darkness.
So if God is “He,” what’s that mean?
It means that this whole plan of salvation is God’s plan. It’s His reconciliation plan. He designed it. He worked it out. He made it happen. And He did it because He was the only One who could possibly know what could reconcile His infinite holiness with His inflexible justice, what could satisfy His wrath without destroying us fallen, guilty, and depraved sinners in the process. Only God knew what it would take. Only God knew how to solve the dilemma. All of it was His plan.
And why did He do it? Because we couldn’t do it! In fact, there’s nothing we could ever do that could satisfy Him, that could “make us right” with God.
The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), it says, “All our righteousness is like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), and it says, “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20).
That’s why Paul wrote “He made Him…”
So if “He” is God the Father, who’s “Him”?
There’s only One it could be, and that’s Jesus Christ! Only the Father, the First Person of the Trinity could ask Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, to take on human flesh and humble Himself and become obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Why Him? Because, as Paul wrote, He knew no sin. “He made Him who knew no sin.”
No one else was perfect. No one else was good enough.
Sound familiar? It should, because that’s what the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate said in Luke chapter 23: “Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man” (Luke 23:4)...and “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining Him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against Him. Neither did Herod, for He sent Him back to us. He has done nothing to deserve death” (Luke 23:14). And when the crowds still shouted “Crucify!” he said a third time, “Why? What evil has He done? I have found in Him no guilt deserving death” (Luke 23:22).
Not once, not twice, but three times he said, “This Man has done nothing wrong!”
Think of Judas who betrayed Him for thirty silver coins. And as he threw those coins back into the temple, what did he say? He said, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4).
Think of the thief nailed to the cross beside Him. He said, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this Man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41).
And think of Peter who said, “You were bought, you were redeemed, you were ransomed, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb spotless and without blemish” (I Peter 1:18-19).
As Paul wrote, “He made Him who knew no sin.”
And what did He make Him who knew no sin? He made Him sin, in all its ugliness and goriness and darkness and evilness and hideousness and monstrousness. The worst thoughts you could ever think, the worst things you could ever do--that’s what He became.
As Paul wrote to the Romans, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), and he wrote, “Even when we were enemies with God, He reconciled us, He made peace with us, through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10).
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.”
Why? Paul wrote, “So that we might become the righteousness of God”--the goodness, the holiness, the blamelessness, the sinlessness, the perfection of God.
In the words of pastor and teacher John MacArthur, “Jesus went to the cross not because men turned on Him, though they did; Jesus went to the cross not because seducing spirits orchestrated the minds of the religious leaders of Judaism to plot His death, though they did; Jesus went to the cross not because an angry mob screamed for His blood, though they did. Jesus went to the cross because God planned it. God purposed it. And God designed it as the absolutely necessary means by which and by which alone reconciliation could take place.”
And Luther wrote, “This is the mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners; wherein by a wonderful exchange, our sins are no longer ours, but Christ’s, and the righteousness of Christ is not Christ’s, but ours. He has emptied Himself of His righteousness that He might clothe us with it, and fill us with it. And He has taken our evils upon Himself that He might deliver us from them. And in the same manner as He grieved and suffered in our sins, and was confounded, in the same manner we rejoice and glory in His righteousness.”
Let me close with a poem to help bring all this together. It goes like this: “When you get what you want in your struggle with life and the world makes you king for a day, then go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that guy has to say.
“For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife whose judgment upon you must pass; the fellow whose verdict counts most in your life is the man staring back from the glass.
“He’s the man to please, never mind all the rest; for he stays with you to the end; and you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test if the man in the glass is your friend.
“You may mimic Jack Horner and chisel a plum and think you’re a wonderful guy; but the man in the glass says you’re only a bum if you can’t look him straight in the eye.
“You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years and get pats on the back as you pass; but your final reward will be heartaches and tears if you’ve cheated the man in the glass.”
So here’s the deal--you can reject Christ and ignore all that He’s done for you, but at the end of your life, you’ll have nothing more than a picture of Dorian Gray--your old, hideous self, full of every sin and evil known to man.
But if you believe the gospel, if you acknowledge that Jesus has taken your every sin and guilt and shame, then you’ll know what the grace of God is all about.
As Paul wrote, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21).
And that’s a promise.
We thank You, Father, that You chose us, not because we are good, but because You are good. Help us to love as You love, that we may better know Your mercy and grace, for Jesus’ sake. Amen