Alright, let's look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. The past few weeks we've been
studying through this chapter verse by verse and today I'm
going to conclude that study with verses 20 and 21. And the
title of the message is The Gospel Call. Now this whole chapter
has been describing what a true gospel ministry is. And we've
seen some really pointed things here that really separates a
true gospel ministry from just the general run of religion.
This is a message, this gospel ministry, and you know that word
ministry means service, that's why we're here to serve. And
we preach the gospel, the good news of salvation by the grace
of God in Christ. And it's a gospel that will stand
the test of judgment. And I love that. That's why he
put in there, by inspiration of the Spirit, that we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now that's all of
us. Nobody's going to escape that. But we're sinners. And
if God were to give us what we deserve, what we deserve and
what we've earned, it would be eternal damnation. It would be
the judgment of death, wouldn't it? So how can we as sinners
stand the test of judgment? How can we measure up? And of
course, the world has its way in various forms and degrees
of works, religion, but that will not do. By deeds of law
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. So what sets the
true gospel ministry apart from all of that? Well, it's salvation
by grace, but that means something. That's not just terminology.
You know, a lot of people say they believe grace, but they
don't. But here he speaks of it in terms of reconciliation. Look at verse 18 of 2 Corinthians
5. He said, all things are of God.
That's all things of the new creation. The new creation is
salvation. The new creation has to do with
the people of God in right standing with God through Jesus Christ
And the results of that right standing in Christ, that's what
it is, is that they are reconciled to God. God brings his people,
he reconciles his people unto himself. You know what reconciliation
means? It means peace. Peace is made. Two parties at war. And they
must be brought together on some common ground. And so God, it
says, all things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself
by Jesus Christ. Now, God didn't reconcile his
people unto himself by their works. He didn't reconcile his
people unto himself by their religious activities. He didn't
reconcile His people unto Himself by their joining the church or
believing. Now, will they join the church? Yes. Will they believe? Yes.
But that's not the ground of their reconciliation. You understand
what I'm saying? Should the people of God be obedient? Of course we should. But our
obedience does not reconcile us to God. What does? By Jesus
Christ. It is Jesus Christ who is our
reconciliation. Peace is made between God and
sinners on the ground of the glorious person and finished
work of Christ, alone, without anything added. And that's what
sets a gospel ministry apart. And he says he's given unto us
the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, that's the way
we minister. We serve in this capacity. We preach reconciliation. And he says in verse 19, he defines
it now. This is what he's done. To wit
means I'm going to tell you what it is, namely. And he says that
God was in Christ. God engaged himself in the person
of Christ. That's the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Christ is Emmanuel, God with
us. The Word made flesh, tabernacling
among us. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. All of that.
Unto us a child is born, a son is given. He is the God-man.
So, if you want to know anything about God in the way of reconciliation,
now you know some things about God by looking around at creation.
But if you want to know anything about God, the God of grace,
the God of salvation, the God who makes peace, you must come
through Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate. And so God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. That word
world there doesn't refer to every individual without exception.
He's talking about God's people all over the world who are reconciled
unto him. And here's the key, not imputing. You see that in verse 19? Look
at it, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now what does that
mean? Now don't get confused about this. A lot of people are. But it simply means that God
doesn't charge them with their sin. No charge. You don't owe a debt to God's
justice and God's law. Why? Because God is so kind? He's an old grandfather up there
and he just felt sorry for it? No. No. He doesn't charge you
with your sin because he charged them to somebody else. Who did
he charge them to? He charged them to Christ. And
we'll talk more about that in a minute. But Christ paid the
debt. Now, we sing it in our song. You know, it's amazing
to me sometimes, and we've all done this, we'll sing these things
in our songs and sing them as if we know what they mean, but
have no idea what they mean. Well, what does it say? I give
you a song, we sing, Jesus paid it all. Oh, the original author
said, all to him I owe. We sing it this way. Jesus paid
it all, all the debt I owe. And that's what this means. God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not charging
them with their sin, their trespasses, not imputing. That's what imputation
means. It's a charge. All right. You
run up a debt on a credit card that the bank imputes that debt
to you. until it's paid or somebody else
pays it for you, right? And so that's the issue. So he
says he doesn't charge them with their sins. Now, let me tell
you something. If God does not charge a person with their sins,
there's no way that that person could end up in hell. There's
no charge. Law has nothing against him.
sin is not imputed and look at look down at verse 19 he says
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation so the
gospel is a word of reconciliation let me give you two things here
first of all in verse 20 here's the call of reconciliation and
then in verse 21 here's the ground of reconciliation all right verse
20 the call of reconciliation this is what we're all about
And then verse 21 is the ground of reconciliation. You could
say verse 20 is the call to faith. It's the call to Christ. It's
the gospel preaching. We reach out to people in the
gospel call. All right? And then verse 21
is the subject. It's the message. What do we
tell them? You see? You know, the gospel call is
not just, hey, come on to church. Hey, join our church. It's not
that, hey, bring the kids. We got a lot of activities. That's
not the gospel call. That won't reconcile. The gospel
call is the call of substance. The substance is in verse 21.
There's the ground of reconciliation. So let's look at these. First
of all, the gospel call of reconciliation. Here's the call of reconciliation,
verse 20. Now then, now listen to it. He
says, we are ambassadors for Christ. All right? What does that mean? It means
what we're preaching in this word of reconciliation is not
our word, but the word of God. It's not by our authority, but
it's by the authority of Christ. We're not here on our own authority,
on our own fame, on our own name. We're here in the name of Christ.
He gets the glory. We're here for Him. It's not
our word. It's His. Paul wrote in Romans
chapter 1 verse 1, I preach unto you the gospel of God. It's not the gospel of Paul.
It's not the gospel of John. It's not the gospel of... It's
God's gospel. This is a message that originated
in the heart and mind of Almighty God from eternity past. It carries
the authority of the one, now let me tell you something, it
carries the authority of the one who gives you the next breath
you take. Now is that authority or not?
You took that next breath, didn't you? God could take it away just
like that, couldn't he? He could just stop your heart
right now. I've heard that happen, you know. People walking down
the street, boom, heart stops, you see. The next heartbeat is
a gift from God. He put you here. He put me here,
didn't he? Now that's authority. That's right. You say, well,
you know, uh, uh, you know, I've done a lot of work and I've,
I've made a lot of things and I've got a lot of accomplishment.
It's God that put you in a position where you could do those things,
gave you the brain to do those things, gave you the energy and
power to do those things. He could take it away just like
that. Yeah. Right. So this is authority. This is a gospel. It's not on
my word. It's His word. So we're ambassadors.
We represent a higher authority. Our authority is the authority
of Christ, not our own. We don't stand, listen, we do
not stand in our own righteousness. It's the righteousness of God
in Christ. We don't stand in our own power,
our sufficiency, Paul wrote. is of God. No man is sufficient
for these things. We're clay pots, he said. We
have a treasure. Oh, what a treasure it is. We
can't even begin to describe it, but we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. So now, if you're believing the
message, and here's what that means. If you're believing and
following the message that depends upon the qualifications of the
messenger, you're in trouble. Because I'll disappoint you.
And whoever it is you're looking to, they'll disappoint you. There's
only one whom we look to who will never disappoint us, and
that's Christ. I'm just pointing you to Him.
And if I fail in so many ways, and I do, that's no matter. Now, I'm not relieving my responsibility
as a witness. Don't get me wrong. But what
I'm saying is I'm not your salvation. Christ is. We preach not to promote
ourselves or to gain a following for ourselves. We're ambassadors
of Christ. We preach to promote Him. And
hopefully, by God's grace, you'll follow Him. We preach not ourselves,
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians. We preach not for our glory,
but His glory. We point sinners to Him, not
to ourselves. John the Baptist, he said, I'm
not the Christ. I told you that. Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Behold Him. John the Baptist, he said, I'm
not even worthy to untie His shoes. We get upset if, you know,
somebody doesn't remember our name, you know. Well, I'm not
even worthy to untie His shoes. There's a name which is above
every name, Peter said. The name of Jesus Christ, a name
above every name. There's none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. John the Baptist said,
he must increase, I must decrease. That's the best thing any preacher
can do is point you to Christ and then get out of the way. But too many of us want to stand
in the way. We want you to follow us to him,
I guess. I don't know. But the thing about
it is, we're nothing. And we've got to realize that.
And we've got to say that, not just talk. Not just preacher
talk. Too much of that going on. But
you see, we point sinners to Christ. And that's what he means,
he said we're ambassadors of Christ, look at it, verse 20,
as though God did beseech you by us. Now notice the word you
is not in, is in italics. If you've got a regular authorized
version, King James version. And what that means, what that
indicates to you is that when the original documents of second
corinthians appeared in the original language of greek ancient greek
that word you was not in the original it was supplied by the
translator no most of the time the translators of the king james
version did did well their times i disagree with but read it like
this alright he says now then we are ambassadors for christ
as though god did beseech by us god did beseech now there's some
controversy over this you know what is he telling the corinthian
church uh... that god is beseeching them look
at look on uh... we pray there's that you in italics
we pray in christ's stead in christ's stead doesn't mean that
we're vicars of christ no man on earth is the vicar of christ
there's no substitute for christ that's what that means the word
vicarious there's no substitute for christ on earth There's no
preacher standing behind any pulpit who is a substitute for
Christ. There's no head of any religious
organization who is a substitute for Christ on earth. We're ambassadors. You know, when an ambassador
from the United States goes to another country, he's not considered
to be a substitute for the United States, but he represents the
authority. of the united states and that's
what what we did work for what we're we're ambassadors who represent
the authority of christ but he says in christ they're just simply
means that we're preaching his word as we are ambassadors and
he said be reconciled to god this is a call to reconciliation
now uh... as i said there's there's uh...
some minor controversy is he telling the corinthians to be
reconciled to god haven't they already been well yes they have
if they're believers you know every believer in the lord jesus
christ is reconciled to god by the power of the spirit what
happened if you believe in the lord jesus christ you've been
right well would god tell you to be reconciled again there
is a sense in which i i believe we could say that we we have
to be reconciled to god over and over again in the sense that
we have to be reminded Christ in a sense we know just like
in the Lord's Supper we remember him we we have to be reminded
we lose sight of things but I don't believe that's what he's saying
here what he's saying is this he's telling the Corinthian church
what this gospel ministry of reconciliation is all about here's
what we do we go out to the world and here's sinners unbelievers
and we tell them to be reconciled to God it's a call to reconciliation
That gives our word the force of a command. Be ye reconciled
to God. Now, here comes the matter at
hand. How are sinners reconciled unto
God? Well, the answer has been given
and it will be given in verse 21. Upon what ground are God
and sinners brought together and peace is made? Well, he'd
already told us, verse 18, all things are of God who hath reconciled
us unto himself by Jesus Christ. That's the way. To wit that God,
verse 19, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Now, let me ask you this question.
Is there any doubt in your mind as you read this that Paul the
apostle has in mind the doctrine of imputation? Substitution. Satisfaction. Not imputing. Not
charging. God doesn't charge me with my
sins. What did he do with them? He just throw them out there
in the air somewhere? Just say let's forget? No. What did he
do? He already said it. By Jesus Christ. He charged them
to Christ. What's Paul thinking here? Look
at the context. God was in Christ. Engaged himself
in Christ. What is this reconciliation thing?
It's two coming together in peace upon some common ground. What
is the common ground upon which God and sinners are brought and
have peace? All whom God has reconciled to
himself by Jesus Christ are called to and will be reconciled to
him on the same ground. Now before I get to verse 21,
turn over to Colossians chapter 1. Let me show you this. Colossians
chapter 1. Because this in essence basically
says the same thing. He's talking about the preeminence
of Christ in Colossians chapter 1. Christ is preeminent in all
things. He's preeminent. He has the first
place, the highest place in creation. in providence and especially
in salvation christ is our all in all he's everything and he
says in verse nineteen look at verse nineteen of colossians
one he says for it pleased the father that in him in christ
should all fullness dwell now that's the same thing paul said
in second corinthians that god was in christ in christ in the
god man all the fullness of the godhead we have looked at look
across the page there colossus to inverse nine for in the end
well at all the fullness of the godhead it's amazing it christ
is the revelation of god to his people so colossus one nineteen
a look at we please the father that in him should all fullness
twelve verse twenty and having made peace that's reconciliation
through what the blood of his cross blood had to be shared
to make reconciliation by him to reconcile all things to himself
by him I say whether they be things in earth or in things
in heaven and you all right now there's there's the ground of
reconciliation it's the blood of his cross you see that and
then he says in verse 21 and you that were sometime alienated
separated and even enemies it wasn't just a separation from
God but it was being an enemy of God in your mind by wicked
works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh see
there that's that's talking about his crucifixion through death
somebody had to die you know why In order for God to reconcile
His people unto Himself, in order for peace to be made, somebody
had to die. Now why is that? Because the
wages, the debt of sin is what? Death. Doesn't the Bible say
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins? That's pardon, forgiveness. Justice has to be satisfied.
Law has to be satisfied. And that's what he says here.
In the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable on His side. Now go back to 2
Corinthians 5. So when we tell sinners, when
we command sinners, be you reconciled to God, there's got to be a proper
ground upon which a sinner can approach God and be accepted. Now, what is that ground? Now,
here's where you come to the differences in religion. What
is the ground upon which sinners are reconciled to God? What is
it? Is it works? Is it baptism? Is it church membership? Is it the Lord's Supper? What
is it? All right, well, we've seen Colossians
1. It's the blood of Christ. What is that blood? We'll go
back to verse 21. Now, here's the ground of reconciliation. And understand this, now verse
20, when sinners are reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ,
that's the product of the new birth. That's the work of the
Holy Spirit in us. What's it based on? Verse 21.
The work of Christ for us. And here's what he says. For
he hath made him to be sin for us. Notice the 2B is in italics
there. Read it this way. For he hath
made him sin for us. Who knew no sin? Now the for
us there is substitution. Whoever the him is there, he
substituted for us. And then the who knew no sin
refers back to him. It doesn't refer to us. You see,
we know sin, don't we? We know it all too well. You
say, well, why did they put it like that? It has to do with
the order of words in the Greek language. It's a little different
than, you know, when you're all learning grammar, you know, you're
in English class, you have subject, verb, nominative, or objective
pronoun, all of that. That's not the way the Greeks
did it. I don't know why. I'm not a Greek. And I wasn't
back there. So, I mean, they just did it
their way. They had a different word order. They call it syntax,
not meaning a tax on sin, but just the word order. But they
had a different way of doing it. And this is the way it appeared. It usually had to do with the
importance of an idea in a sentence. But look here, he says, who knew
no sin. That's Christ, isn't it? He's the only one who knew
no sin. And he did it that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Now, there's the ground
of reconciliation. Here's the subject of the word
of reconciliation. What's he talking about? He's
talking about substitution. Somebody took my place. That's
what the gospel is all about. I remember my father-in-law,
on every page of his Bible, he had the word substitution written
at the top. Substitution, substitution. That's what he's talking about.
Somebody took my place. Now, it can't be just anybody
to do it. Is that right? I mean, I can't
take your place. You know why? Because I'm a sinner. One sinner
cannot take the place of another sinner and satisfy the justice
of God. It's impossible. The Bible says
that whoever takes our place, there's a symbol used back in
the Old Testament, must be a lamb without what? without blemish,
without spot. It's got to be perfect. Somebody who doesn't know sin.
Somebody who's qualified. Somebody who God appoints. Somebody
who's willing. Am I right? Substitution. And what's he talking about here?
He's talking about imputation. How does that happen? How can
one who is sinless be a substitute for the sinful. Well, he already
said God doesn't charge them with their sins, didn't he? That's the idea he has here,
this is what he has in mind, that's the context. So what does
he do? He charges them to the sinless. Christ, that's what he's talking
about. Look at it again, verse 20, for
he, who's the he there? That's God the Father. We believe
in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the
Trinity. One God in three persons. We can't explain that. We don't
try. Most people deny it because they can't explain it. But if
that's the way you're going to approach the Bible, you're going
to tear about three-fourths of it out. So don't worry about
all that. But He, that's God the Father.
The Father The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all equal
in the nature of deity, co-equal in every attribute of deity,
but the Father represents the sovereignty of the Trinity. And then there's the Son and
the Holy Spirit. They're not lesser gods, now don't get me
wrong. But it says He, that's God the Father. And then it says,
hath made Him. Him there is God the Son incarnate. God the Father made Christ. sin
for us. Substitution. How did he make
him sin? Now there's where we come to
the problem. Here's where the controversy rages. And it shouldn't. For example, think about it.
Now he didn't charge his people. He doesn't charge his people
with their sins. Who does he charge them to? He charges them
to Christ. First question I want to settle
with you. What is sin? A lot of people
when they look at scriptures like this Christ was made sin
he was made sin all right and when they describe it they they
they describe something in sin like sin is a substance like
if I could like it like saying this glass of water here's a
glass of sin and then I drink it but this that's not what sin
is it's not a glass of anything it's not a liquid it's not a
solid it's not a gas It's not a mass. I heard somebody say
that Christ was made a mass of sin. Sin's not a mass. There's
no mass to it. What is sin? What does the Bible
say? Well, the word for sin here is the most common word used
in the New Testament for sin. And you know what it means? It
means missing the mark. It's the same word in Romans
3 and verse 23. For all have sinned and done
what? Come short of the glory of God.
Sin is to come short of the glory of God. Here's the glory of God,
you missed the mark, that's sin. What is sin? It's transgressing
the law, 1 John chapter 3. Transgression of the law, breaking
the law. You see, if you break the law, there's not something
that appears in the air and hits you on the head or something,
you know, that's not what happens. You just broke the law. And you
deserve the punishment. What is sin? It's transgression. It's trespassing. You know, he
said trespass up there, verse 19. Reconciling the world unto
himself, not imputing their trespass. You know what happens when you
trespass, don't you? Somebody's got some property and they draw
their property line and they'll put up a sign and they'll say,
no trespassing. And when you trespass, what do you do? You
cross the line. That's what trespassing is. You
see, sin is crossing the line. Who drew the line? God did. God
told Adam in the garden, in the day that you eat thereof you
shall surely die. What did Adam do? He crossed
the line. He ate. Sin is rebellion. Rebellion against
God. Missing the mark. Transgressing
the law. Breaking the law. Crossing the
line. What is sin? Running up a debt. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
2 with me. Let me show you something here. Look at verse 17 of Hebrews chapter
2. Talking about Christ who took
upon Himself the nature of the seed of Abraham. That's God's
elect people. Humanity. And it says in verse
17, now look at Hebrews 2, 17. It says, wherefore in all things
it behooved him. We don't use that word behooved
too much, do we? But sometimes we do. But you
know what the literal translation of that word would be? It's the
Greek word for debt. And what it's saying here is
wherefore in all things he was indebted. Christ took on a debt. Now, when we sin, we run up a
debt. That's right. We owe God a debt. It's just like if you break the
law. And they say, you committed a crime, now you owe a debt to
society. And that's a prison term or whatever.
And so when a prisoner gets out and he's served his time, he
says, I've paid my debt to society. Well, we owe a debt we can't
pay. Ain't that right? Nothing we do can pay it. Let
me tell you something. An eternity in hell will not
pay this debt. So what's our only hope? Somebody
who's able and qualified and willing to take my debt for me
and pay it. Wherefore, it behooved him. He
was indebted. God was in Christ, not charging
our debt to us, our sins, our trespasses, our missing the mark
to us. He charged them to Christ. Christ
was made sin. And it says, to be made like
unto brethren. Who's his brethren? That's his
people, all who come to faith in Christ. That he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in all things to God or pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
the fact that we owe the debt, we missed the mark. He did it
for the sins. He took our debt. Go back to
2 Corinthians 5.20. He was made sin. That's what it means. How was he made sin? God charged
him with our debt. That's what it was. He wasn't
made a sinner. He wasn't made sinful. Read the
Bible. Isaiah 53. Read all the Old Testament. The Old Testament tells you how
He was made sin. Look over there. Let's look at it. Isaiah 53.
Tells us exactly how He was made sin. I know people speculate
on this and go off on a tangent. But you don't have to. You say,
well, I still can't explain it all. You don't even have to do
that. He took my debt. He took my sins. Look at verse
4 of Isaiah 53. This is a classic definition
of what we're talking about. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Now, your sorrow, you can't put
them in a knapsack, can you, or in a bag or in a box. No. You see, it's not a substance.
Christ was made sorrowful. He sweated great drops of blood. in the garden of Gethsemane he
agonized in his humanity and on that cross he felt our pain
you see he says yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and
afflicted verse 5 look at it but he was wounded for our transgressions
our transgressions did not contaminate him no sir didn't contaminate
his mind didn't contaminate his heart or his thoughts his motives
Our transgressions did not corrupt him. He knew no sin. But he was
wounded for them. What does that wounded mean?
It's literally bruised. And it means to death. He says
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace. Now that peace is reconciliation.
Chastisement is punishment. It says the chastisement of our
peace was upon him. In other words, the punishment
unto death that results in peace was upon Christ, not upon me,
not upon his people. It was upon Christ. And with
his stripes we're healed. And it says in verse 6, all we
like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Now what is iniquity? There's another word for sin.
It means imbalance, inequity, doesn't balance out. Here's the
righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God on one side.
Can you do anything, say anything, try anything, work anything that
will balance out to righteousness? The answer is no. then it's iniquity
so our iniquity our imbalance was laid upon him now how do
you do that there's only one way by imputation by charging
it's a legal act of God and that doesn't make it any less real
and no salvation is not not just a legal act it's much more than
a legal act but I'm going to tell you something don't ever
belittle that legal act That's what Christ experienced on the
cross. If you belittle the legal aspect of salvation, you might
as well deny the cross. I'm telling you the truth. Everything
Christ went through on that cross was real based upon the sins
of his sheep charged to him. He was paying a debt that we
owe. So how was he made to be sin? He was made sin. because our sins were imputed,
charged to Him. And then He says, look back at
2 Corinthians 5.20, He did it for us. He didn't do it for Himself. It wasn't His own sins that He
died for. They became His by imputation. They were charged to Him. He
became legally accountable for them. He even says that in Psalm
22 and Psalm 69, Psalm 40 and other places, they're my sins.
How did they become his? They were charged to him. Listen, if I owe money, and you
go into the bank and say, put it on my account, whose debt
is it now? It's yours. If you do that, you
say, well, I'm not going to do that, preach. Well, I know you
won't. But if you do, it's yours, isn't
it? Legally, it's yours. You didn't run up, you didn't
spend a dime to run up that debt, but if you tell the banker, put
it on my account, whose is it? It's yours. And he can't touch
me, because it's yours now. And that's the way it is with
Christ made sin. You see, the law of God cannot
touch me, because my record in heaven is clear, and it even
goes farther than that. Now look at it, verse 21. Christ
who knew no sin, he knew no sin, He didn't know sin by experience
or by corruption. He knew no sin by commission.
He knew no sin by infusion or impartation or contamination.
He even knew no sin by temptation. Now, he was tempted, like as
we are, Hebrews 4, yet without sin. He knew something of sin. He
knew the opposition of sin. Because he was opposed. He knew
the hostility of sin against himself. Herod sought to kill
him in his birth. The Pharisees sought to destroy
him. Everybody who was anybody turned thumbs down on him. He
knew that, didn't he? He knew sin and that he himself
associated with sinners. The Pharisees said, why does
your master eat with publicans and sinners? He knew sin and
that he bore the weight of our sins, the wrath of God. He cried
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He knew the
consequences of sin, the weight of sin, the pain of sin, the
agony of sin and suffering. The captain of our salvation
was made perfect through sufferings. He knew the indignation of our
sin. I'm going to talk a little bit
about this tonight. He said, but I am a worm and no man. He
knew the guilt and condemnation of sin. Did God punish an innocent
man on the cross? He was innocent in himself, but
he was guilty under the law for our sins imputed to him. He knew
the accountability of our sins. All of the account of the demerit
of all the sins of all his people were made to be his. Put it on
his account. He knew the punishment of our
sins. And that's something we'll never know. You know that? We who are in Christ. But He
knew no sin. And He did it that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Now what is righteousness?
Righteousness is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. What
is the righteousness of God? We read it last week. You can
read it again on your own. Romans chapter 3. The righteousness
of God is the perfection of satisfaction to the law and justice of God
that was made and worked out and finished and completed by
Jesus Christ in His obedience unto death. You didn't have anything
to do with it. I didn't have anything to do
with it. It was Christ alone. And we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. Not in ourselves. No sir. But in Him. Now a lot has been
made recently over these two words, made. Notice it again,
verse 21. He hath made him sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. They're two different Greek words.
The first word, look at it. For he hath made him sin. That
word is mostly translated to make or to do. To do, to do something. And it refers to a creative act. The act of somebody who's able
to create. You know, we get our word poetry,
poem, from this Greek word here. What is he saying? He's simply
saying that this, this is an act of God. This is not an act
of you or me. For God made him sin. God the Father charged him with
our sins. It's an act of God. Now that
second word, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Now you know what we get in our English language from
that word? Generation. That's talking about
something that is generated from something else. What it's talking
about. In fact, in, I think it's, what
is it, 2 Peter? I may have the 1 Peter, I can't
remember. But he talks about you are a
chosen generation. That's the same root word of
made here, generation. What's he talking about? Here's
what he's saying. He's saying from that creative act of God
in charging Christ with our sin, out of that act is generated
His people. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him. We're righteous before God. His righteousness
is imputed to us. And we stand before God cleared
of all charges, whole, and with a righteousness that answers
all the demands of God's law and justice. That's what come
out of that creative act that God did when He made Him to be
sent. We're His generation. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. You know who
that is? That's his church. We're made righteous in him.
We have his righteousness. And I'll tell you what, that's
what will stand the test of judgment right there. We're made the righteousness
of God in him. Now, that legal act does not
exclude or deny or diminish the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
What does he say? Be ye reconciled to God. Come to Christ. My friend, the reason that any
sinner comes to Christ and believes in Christ is because he was made
sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. If you've been made
the righteousness of God in him, if your sins were imputed to
him and his righteousness imputed to you, you know what's going
to happen to you one day if it hadn't happened already? You're
going to be reconciled to God. You're going to come to God through
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit who comes out from Him
and gives life. You see, this body is dead because
of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Whose?
His. That's why Christ is our life.
All right, let's sing as our closing hymn.