Good morning again. I would ask your prayers this hour. I know I'm going to be preaching
things that we really cannot possibly comprehend, but we most
certainly must believe. I'd like us to turn to 2 Corinthians
5 verse 20. 2 Corinthians 5, I'd like to look
at the last part of verse 20. We pray you, in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. It's only through Christ that
we're reconciled to God. And the next verse tells us exactly
how we are reconciled. Verse 21, For he hath made him
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. I don't know of any other verse
that articulates with such clarity as to how God saves sinners. We're told that salvation is
of the Lord. I'm glad for that. God does all
the saving. It's not partly of God, partly
of man. We're told that Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners. He came into this world
to save sinners. And here's the chief. Here's
the chief of them. Jesus Himself said in John 10,
I laid down my life for the sheep. There's a sacrifice that had
to be made. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. And He made that sacrifice. But
in this verse, we're told exactly what happened on that cross. This is as much a mystery as
it is a revelation. Christ made sin. This is the
essence of substitution. Sin laid on Jesus. If you and
I are to be made what we by nature are not, righteous and holy,
He had to be made what He was by nature, not sin. Sin. This is the one truth from
which all other gospel truths follow. Nothing about the gospel
can be understood until Christ made sin for sinners is believed. You can't understand the gospel
until you believe it. This is something you really
don't try to understand. You just believe it and rejoice
in it. Now, if Christ was made sin,
it must be because it was God's eternal purpose. It was the purpose
of God. It was the purpose of the Father
in election. It was the willingness of the
Son to lay down His life for His people. And it was the life-giving
power of the Spirit that made such salvation that brought about such great
salvation. It was God's design from eternity
that Christ Jesus was to be the Lamb of God slain before the
foundation of the world. Peter said in Acts 2 that Christ
was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. This thing of God making Christ
sin for us was something he determined before there was an angel in
heaven, before even heaven itself was made. And I'm thankful that
my salvation has been purposed of God, wrought in Christ, and
that it's not of me. He was made sin for us. And I want you to notice this
in verse 21 here. You see those words, to be, they're
in italics. They're not really there and
they make it sound kind of as if Christ was made to be sinned,
but not really. I looked up this verse in a handful
of other Bible translations, and they usually make it sound
as if Christ's substitution was just a symbolic one. People always
want to put their caveats and qualify the Scriptures, and they
just can't believe what the Scripture says. But whatever the Scripture
says about Christ, I just believe it, whether I understand it or
not. We don't try so much to understand.
Just believe it, friend. Whatever the scripture says,
that's all the understanding that I need. That's all the understanding
I need right there. I was talking to a guy a little
while ago on Facebook. He writes religious articles,
and he's a Reformed guy, and a lot of his stuff that I've
read has been spot on, right on. And yet, he and I were at
odds over the very thing that my salvation hinges upon, Christ
made sin. And he eventually, essentially
accused me of making Christ out to be a sinner. You know, people
can have their doctrines just right. They can have everything
just so, and they can explain and expound all points of the
gospel. But if you're wrong on this one
point, you're wrong on everything. You've heard it said, if you're
wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. Well, here's another
point that if you're wrong on, you're wrong on it all. If this
is a sticking point for you, or if this just kind of rubs
you the wrong way, Christ made sin? Actually made sin? I just don't think I believe
that. Well then friend, I don't think
you believe the Gospel. That's just the truth. People are so
afraid of making Christ out to be a sinner that they just can't
believe what the Scripture says. But I tell you, though He was
not a sinner, when He was on that cross, He was made worse
than a sinner. He was made a mass of sin. That phrase, made sin, is actually,
it's a stronger emphasis than just made a sinner. Christ was
made a mass of sin. He was made sin itself. You show me a man who does not
believe that Christ was made sin. I'll show you a man who's
trusting in his own works for salvation. There's no other way
about it. You take away Christ made sin
for me and you take away my only hope of salvation. This is what
my entire soul's salvation hangs upon. If Christ was not made
sin for me, then I'm still dead in my own sins. Christ made sin
is my salvation, through and through. Now hear this, and I
promise you this isn't going too far. Christ was just as guilty. Christ was just as guilty of
the sins of His own people, as if He had committed the very
sins Himself. And I'm sure many a religious
person would keel over after hearing something like that.
No, He didn't commit sin. No, He did not have a sinful
nature. But He owned our sins as His
very own. When Jesus stood before Pontius
Pilate and the scriptures say all the chief priests accused
him of many things, do you know what he said in his own defense?
Nothing. A guilty man does not have anything
to say in his own defense. Had he not been guilty, how then
could it have pleased the Father to bruise his own son? Had he
not been guilty, how could the judge of all the earth condemn
him instead of us? The Father would have been unjust
to condemn His own Son for that which He was not guilty of. So
I ask, what happened on that cross? What happened on that
cross is what I base my entire salvation on. What do the Scriptures
mean when they declare Christ and Him crucified? Turn with
me to Jeremiah 8. Jeremiah 8 verse 21. For the hurt of the daughter
of my people, am I hurt? Here's substitution. Christ had
to be hurt. He had to be hurt. We were a
hurting people, yea, we were a dead people. Ephesians 2 opens
with, and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. But again, those first three words that have he quickened
are italicized, they're not really there. It really reads, and you
were dead in sins. And you were dead in sins, that
is our state dead in sins. If we're to be made alive, he
had to die. If were to be healed, he had
to be hurt. Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. The
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Sin laid on Christ. I was talking to another guy
just a little while ago, also on Facebook, and he had said
that sin was nothing more than a legal issue. And yes, sin is
the breaking of God's holy law, no doubt. But it goes a lot further
than that. It goes a lot deeper than that.
Sin afflicts our very soul. When the Lord has sent those
fiery serpents, because the Israelites had grumbled against Moses and
against God really, When they were bitten, they became infected
with a deadly poison. And the only remedy was to look
to that serpent on the pole. And our only remedy is to look
to Christ on the cross. They needed healing. And we needed
healing. We need healing. And all throughout
the scripture, sin is represented by leprosy. Leprosy. You think about leprosy, it's
an inward disease like sin, and it only manifests itself in the
flesh. While I want to be justified
before God's holy law, I need to be healed. I want this sin
taken out of me. And like a disease, I need it
to be completely destroyed. If you and I are to be healed,
he must be hurt. His hurting is our healing. His
suffering is our saving. For the hurt of the daughter
of my people am I hurt. Look what it says next. I am
black. Black with sin, Christ was with
the sin of his people. In Song of Solomon 1, we see
the church saying, I am black but comely, black with sin but
made beautiful by the shedding and cleansing of the blood of
Christ. But do you know who also says
this? Christ says it. Whatever his church says about
himself, Christ has already said of himself. He became black from
head to toe with the sins of his people, the Lamb of God without
spot or blemish. became blemished to the depths
of his soul. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree, but it was his soul that was made an offering for
sin." And he was beautiful. I know this is a paradox. This
is a conundrum. Though he was black with sin,
and though the Father had forsaken him, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Though He appeared as sin to
His Father, there was never a time when Christ appeared more comely
than when He had perfectly obeyed and perfectly glorified His Father
as the Lamb of God, the sin offering, the sinner's substitute. He was
made sin for us. And here's the last thing that's
said in this verse. Astonishment hath taken hold
on me. No man's ever been astonished
like this man. You think of all the emotionally
and physically trying times and all the trials that one could
face. You lump them all together and
they don't compare to the trial that Christ faced on the cross. Nor do they produce in a man
near the astonishment that was produced in Christ when He was
made sin for us. and were made privy to the torment
and to the anguish of Christ's soul when he was in the Garden
of Gethsemane. Turn with me to Mark 14. Mark 14 verse 33, And he taketh
with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed
and to be very heavy. That word, amazed, is terrified. Christ knew what He had coming
to Him. He wasn't ignorant of what the
Father had in store for Him. Luke 12, He says, I have a baptism
to be baptized with and how I am straightened till it be accomplished. He was to be baptized with the
very wrath of God. Verse 34, He says, And saith
unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death." What he is saying here is, I
could die right now. He was literally scared to death. Luke's account says, And being
in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were
great drops of blood falling to the ground. I don't know how
the Son of God could pray more earnestly. But then again, we've
never been in an agony like He was in agony. And His sweat was
as drops of blood. This is actually a condition
that develops in extreme, trying times. And it's seen in death
row inmates who are about to be executed. Christ was about
to be executed. And it was enough to kill him
right there on the spot. But the Lord sent an angel to
strengthen him and preserve him from death and to prepare him
for the suffering that was about to take place. You know, left
up to man, salvation would be nothing more than whoever does
the best works and whoever does the most works wins. But you
know only God could design such a salvation as this that takes
place outside of you and me. Outside of anything that we could
do where Christ becomes the sin bearer and we just stand back
and watch as He goes to the cross and performs salvation for us
and He gets all the glory. Turn with me, if you will, to
John 17. John 17, verse 2. Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee." There was no other hour in which the
father was more glorified when the son became a sin offering.
Isaiah 53 10 says, thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. This was Christ's crowning achievement
when He atoned for all His people. And this is what Moses, this
is exactly what Moses and Elijah were meant when they were speaking
of Christ, of His death, which He should accomplish. John 12,
27, he says, Now my soul is troubled, And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour."
For this hour, this brief moment in history is the reason Christ
came into this world. This was a very special hour
in the history of this world. He waited an eternity for this
hour, and then He came into this world and waited another 33 years
And all this he did for the glory of God and the good of his people. Back to 2 Corinthians 5. For he hath made him sin for
us." He did this for us. This was a voluntary, selfless
act. When he was under arrest by the
chief priest and Peter took out a sword and swiped off the ear
of the high priest. Jesus said, don't you know that
I can pray to my Father and He would give me more than twelve
legions of angels? He's saying, I could defend myself
if I wanted to. But he said, how then could the
Scriptures be fulfilled? He who wrote the Scriptures willingly
subjected himself to the Scriptures so that we could be saved. For
He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin." Christ knew no
sin. And the only thing He really
knew about it was that it was evil and that it killed Him.
It was our sin that nailed Him to the cross. Even when Christ
was in the wilderness and He was tempted of Satan, He wasn't
tempted as we're tempted. When we're tempted, there's a
desire to want to sin. But when Christ was tempted,
there was not so much as a fleeting thought that entered into His
mind. He was confronted with sin, and
sin was before Him, but He didn't even have any desire, not in
the least, to sin. You and I are intimately familiar
with sin. Every experience we have, sin
is right there. Sin is right there. And Christ
knew no sin, yet He was infinitely He had an infinitely more acute
sense of disgust of sin than we do. He knew no sin, yet He
became sin. He knew no sin, and yet He experienced
within His soul all the sins of His elect. Thou shalt make
His soul a sin offering. He hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. I said earlier that he was made
something he was not, sin, that we might be made something we're
not, which is righteous, righteous. I love this word made. We've
got to be made something we're not. I know religious people,
I often like to say, I'm okay, you're okay, God loves you just
the way you are. But no, you're not okay. God has to do something for you.
God has to make you righteousness. He's got to put a new heart in
you. He's got to make you a new creature.
He's got to make you righteous. And I love that he makes us what
we're not. Romans 8.29 says, for whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. We're just the clay and he's
the potter. And he has the power over one lump of clay to make
it a vessel of honor and another a vessel of dishonor. One a vessel
of mercy and the other a vessel fitted to destruction. But I'm
glad He made me a vessel of honor. We've got to be made righteous
because we are devoid of any righteousness in ourselves. He's
got to strip us of our filthy rags and give us that white robe
of the righteousness of Christ. And look at these last two words.
In him. In him. What do we have that
is not in Christ? What spiritual blessing do we
possess that's not in Christ? We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And I can't think
of a better definition of salvation than in Him. If we're going to
be made the righteousness of God, you can be sure it's going
to be in Him. Now, I want to ask you this question. Why was it fair or why was it
right of God to do this to Christ? Well, I give you four reasons
first God did it, so it's right. Whatever God does is right, and
I'm glad He did it. I'm glad He sent His Son to the
cross to become sin for me. Second, this is the only way
for sinners to be saved. If Christ took upon Himself the
sins of the elect, then God's justice demands that Christ must
be punished in our stead, God's justice and wrath had to be satisfied,
and his justice and wrath was meted out on Christ. Third, this
was Christ paying for the debt of His bride. Sinners have nothing
to offer to God to atone for their sins, and the only thing
you and I have ever contributed in regards to our salvation is
the sin that made it necessary. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe, sin hath left a crimson stain, and He washed it white
as snow. And lastly, what other Savior
could there be? God says in Isaiah 42, Behold
my servant whom I uphold, my elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He is God's
elect, chosen, and fit. to be a qualified Savior, the
Lamb of God in whom is neither spot nor blemish. Now, we can't
begin to imagine that terrible transformation that took place
in Christ on that cross. There hangs Christ on the tree,
full of the wrath of God and the guilt of His people, filled
to the brim with their sins, There he hangs, condemned and
forsaken of God, smitten and afflicted. There he hangs all
alone, his apostles scattered all by himself. There he hangs,
bleeding and dying for sinners. There hangs my salvation. My
salvation hung on a tree. Jesus Christ was made sin for
me. As wrath fell upon him and he
had not one plea, God said, Sinner, you're free.