I'll read verse 21 to you in
2 Corinthians 5. 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. Now the Bible itself tells us that no scripture is of any private
interpretation. No verse in this Bible stands
alone. I'm growing more and more to
hate what men call proof texts. It's not a proof text if it's
out of context. And that is the context of all
the scripture. Somebody said we should take
a verse of scripture and throw every other verse at it. See
if it still stands. And it's interpreted in the light
of all the scriptures, what the theologians call the preponderance
of scripture. And all that means is the quality
or fact of being greater in number, quantity, and importance. What does this Bible say as a
whole? It doesn't contradict itself
in one place and say something else in another place. So we never come to a verse like
2 Corinthians 5.21 in which it says something about Christ being
made sin and find it to be contradictory
to everything else we see in this book. Does that suggest to us that
Christ was ever in any way actually a sinner? or that he somehow became sinful. Not if we consider the preponderance
of Scripture. Not if we look at all the Scripture
says about the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does it say actually
in this verse? I believe it says basically three
things. And there are three things that
according to this book, according to this verse, it says that God
did them. We didn't have anything to do
with it. And we don't have anything to say what it is. He must say
what it is. But it says that God did something
in him. It's always all about him. And that him is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the first thing that it says
about him In regard to what is done here, it says, Him who knew
no sin. He knew no sin. Regardless of what else it says
in this verse. It says that He knew no sin. And so if you'll turn back in
the Bible all the way over to the book of Exodus, over in Exodus,
we'll begin looking at what the Bible says about Christ in type
and picture. In Exodus chapter 12, And before this time, even back
as far as Noah's day, it says that when God brought the animals
in the ark, He designated two by two except. Except the ones
that would be offered as a sacrifice. And they were designated by God
clean beasts. And he said, bring them in seven
by seven. So that when Noah came off the
ark, the first thing he did was build an altar. As a matter of
fact, that's the first time we hear of an altar. And it says
that he sacrificed of these clean animals, sacrifices unto the
Lord, and the Lord smelled that sweet savor. It was a sweet savor
unto God. But over here in Exodus chapter
12 and verse 5, when he's talking about the Passover Lamb, the
key, maybe the key type of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old
Testament. The Lamb of God, the Passover
Lamb. Look at what it says in verse
5. He says, your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the
first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the
goats. The very first thing that it
says about this lamb, this Passover lamb, that Paul said, Christ,
our Passover is sacrificed for us. But the first thing that
he says is this, your lamb shall be without blemish. Look over in the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus chapter one, this
is just one of many instances. It says in chapter 1 in verse
8, and the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the head
and the fat, Tim was talking about that, in order upon the
wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar, but his inwards
and his legs shall he wash with water. And you can go all the way through
all these Old Testament sacrifices, and I was just astounded this
afternoon looking again at how many times the word clean is
used in comparison to unclean. How many times the word washed
is used? How many times it speaks of sacrifices
which were without blemish? Look over in the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus chapter 22. In Leviticus chapter 22, it says
in Leviticus chapter 22 and verse 4, for what
man so ever of the seed of Aaron is talking about a priest here? is a leper, or hath a running
issue, he shall not eat of the holy things until he be clean,
and whoso toucheth anything that is unclean by the dead, or a
man whose seed goeth for him, whosoever toucheth all these
things, cleaping things, whereby he may be made unclean of a man
of whom he may take uncleanness whatsoever his uncleanness had."
In other words, everything had to be cleansed. Priest, sacrifice,
offering, doesn't matter what. And then absolutely in chapter
22 also, in verse 21, look at what it says here. and whosoever
offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish
his vow, or freewill offering in beef or sheep, it shall be
perfect to be accepted, there shall be no blemish therein. And he said, if you think to
bring anything less than perfect, anything blind, or broken, or
maimed, or having a wind, whatever that is, or scurvy, or scab,
you shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering
by fire of them upon the altar of the Lord. Everything that
is offered up in the Old Testament economy, regardless of what animal
it is, everything, every priest that is offering it up, everything
has to be clean and perfect. And no priest could ever be a
priest if he had an imperfection. It says also, no man that hath
a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to
offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He hath a blemish,
he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. Priest,
sacrifice, doesn't matter. Look over in Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53 and verse 9. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. All the Old Testament sacrifices,
which were in some way types, although imperfect types of our
Lord Jesus Christ, whether they were lambs or bulls or goats
or birds, they all had one thing and had to have one thing in
common. They were to be without blemish. And if you want to look sometime
in your concordance or run it on your computer software program,
just look at how many times it says, without blemish, in those
sacrifices. Without blemish. But really, not only the types,
but when we come to the New Testament, We come to what the New Testament
says about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The man Christ Jesus. Listen to what it says in Luke
chapter 1. And the angel answered and said
unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the high shall overshadow thee. Therefore, that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That holy thing. And not only that, not only the
angels, but his very enemies, such as Pilate. They made their
evaluation. God required it of them that
they call him exactly what he was. Then said Pilate to the chief
priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. If anybody would have wanted
to find fault, if anybody would have grasped at a straw in order
to justify what he was about to do, it would have been Pilate. But he says, I find no fault
in this man. And then he says, and he said
unto them the third time, what evil hath he done? I have found
no cause of death in him. I will chastise him and let him
go. Because there's no fault in it. There was a thief that was crucified
next to Christ. And he rebuked the other thief
when the Lord opened his eyes to who Christ was. He says that
we are here because we deserve to be here. We indeed justly,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath
done nothing amiss. There was a centurion at his
crucifixion. It says that, now when the centurion
saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was
a righteous man. Christ himself. And he that sent me is with me,
the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things
that please Him." When Peter stood to preach on
the day of Pentecost, One of the things that he reminds them
of and one of the things that he shows makes their crime so
great, he says, but you denied the Holy One and the just and
desired a murderer to be granted unto you. In Acts 4 it says, for of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together to do what? To crucify that holy
child. But when we come to the book
of Hebrews, The book of Hebrews, which is... I always say it's the commentary
on the Old Testament. But the book of Hebrews, where
He is showing us how much superior that Christ is to the Old Testament
priests and the Old Testament sacrifices and all these things,
but yet there is something that's still maintained. Look over in
Hebrews 4 and verse 15. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet. without sin. Look over in chapter 7. In chapter 7 and verse 26, he's described
as the perfect and necessary intercessory priest. Verse 26,
he says, for such a high priest became us. What does that mean? Such a high priest fitted our
need, was suitable to God on our behalf, was suitable to us
because of what we are. For such a high priest became
us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. Look over in Hebrews 9. This is a verse that really,
really just says it all to me. Verse 14 of Hebrews 9, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God. And then when you come over to
Peter's epistle, you find in 1 Peter In 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, I'm
going to go backwards a little bit on this, but in 1 Peter 3
and verse 18, look at what it says. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." The just for the unjust. And then look over in 1 Peter
chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 and what he
says in verse 22. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who when he was rebelled, rebelled not. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed." That's what Tim read. Who did no sin, who knew no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. And then in 1 Peter chapter
1, look at what Peter says. He says that God's people know
some things. They know them because, as he
says, they were taught of God. They have learned some things.
They know some things, not by one verse, but by all of the
Scriptures, and by plain statements such as this in verse 18, where
he says in chapter 1, for as much as you know. that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. As of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. That means that when Paul says, we know
that Christ died, we preach what Christ died and how he died according
to the scriptures. That means that every sacrifice
Every lamb, but especially the Passover lamb, showed the absolute,
sinless perfection and glory of Christ as one who was all
about without sin. Now, I hear people say, I hear preachers
say, that in order to save me, Christ
had to become what I am. Now I just want you to think
about that a minute. They say it so sincerely. They
say it so emotionally. They say it almost weeping, in
order to save me, Christ had to become what I am. Think about that. If Christ had to become what
I am, then half of our race could have
saved the other half. That's right. If he had to become
a sinner in order to die to save men, then half of us who are
sinners could die for the other half and save us. But Christ came and was what I could never be. what I could never be, and that's
without sin. Because God, in His justice,
required that the sacrifice for sin be without sin. That's His plan. That's His up and down in the
scriptures. that is stated time and time,
Christ came to be what we are not. That's why He came. That's why He came. There were plenty of sinners
on the earth. That's all there was on earth. But He couldn't be sin in that
sense. He couldn't become a sinner and
save us by that. He had to be what we're not. He had to be what God requires. Think about this. Is He God in flesh? Is He God in flesh? But the scripture
says He is. The Word was made flesh, the
Word that was God, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory full of grace
and truth. Great is the mystery of Godliness
that God was manifest in the flesh. Is He God? Well, sure
He is. But I'll tell you one thing.
If He was ever in any time in any way to actually become sin,
He would cease to be God right then. And you can't redeem God. He would cease to be God right
then. And as a holy God, how can He
become unholy? But I'm going to tell you something
right now. What's at stake here is the very
deity of Christ. Now you can just say it any way
you want to, but what is at stake in this? He either knew no sin,
period, where He can't be our Savior. The very Godhood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the just is at stake here. The very impeccability
of the Son of God. He did not sin, He never became
a sinner in any way. He could not sin no matter how God treated him.
And He treated him like one. He dealt with him like we are. But He Himself, mark it down,
never changed in that He knew no sin. The sacrifice for sin was that
he come and die, and die the just for the unjust. That he offer himself up to God
as a sacrifice for sin without spot and without blemish. I've never seen anything like
it, like it's coming to in our day. When the most cardinal doctrines
concerning the person and work of Christ are under attack, the
very fundamentals of our faith, the very deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in so many subtle ways. Now when
a Jehovah Witness comes up to my door and they want to talk
with me, I've got one question I always ask. Do you believe
Jesus Christ is God? Well, I'm sorry, I don't have
any time to talk with you. But so subtle are men that they can come and speak
in such a way And before you know it, they made Jesus Christ
less than God. Because the Christ of God, the
Son of God, the Savior of God's elect, He knew no sin. And that's where it begins. And
if it's not right there, it's not right anywhere. That's who
God began with. That's who our surety is. That's
who our Savior is. That's who our Redeemer is. That's
who the sacrifice is. And if it's not right there,
it doesn't matter what He did. That's the first thing I know
about Christ. That's what it says here. in
2 Corinthians 5.21. That's what it says through all
the Bible. In Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, all through the book,
the types of Christ. And am I going to come and let
somebody take this verse apart and erase the whole Bible? Not going to happen. It's not
going to happen. Because my hope is on that Christ
is who God says He is. And the holy God said the price
for sin was a sinless sacrifice, which man could not provide,
man could not be, and that's why the Son of God had to come
to this earth and take on sinless human flesh. Harmless, holy,
undefiled, what's that word? Separate from sinners. This text begins with Him. God made Him who knew no sin. And before you get to saying
people or preachers are saying, well, you know, saying basically, everything is wrong if you start
wrong at square one. It's like a surveyor. If a surveyor starts at point
A and point A is not point A, then he's wrong all the way through. I know this about Christ because
this book says not one verse, multiple hundreds and hundreds
of verses and types and pictures. He knew no sin. God bless you.