What does that mean, He made him to be sin?
Its 3 PM on Good Friday where I sit in comfort with a nice cup of coffee and a computer filled with translations of scripture and commentaries galore.
And yet at 3 in the afternoon, the day before passover, about 1980 years ago, Jesus hung on the cross dying a horrible, excruciating death, in my place, for me, and I wasn't even born yet!
But rather than focusing on the physicality of Christ's death, which is certainly humbling, staggering and worthy of contemplation, I'm hung on this:
He - Jesus - the sinless lamb of God - became sin for us - ME - on the cross - in front of the face of His father - His Holy Father - and God His father - imbued and imputed on Him - my sin - your sin - Paul's sins, David's sins, and sins beyond your wildest imaginations.
But the word Sin is a bit tame isn't it? lets get specific.
Jesus became guilty of the Ten Commandments:
Deu 5:7 "'You shall have no other gods before me. -Jesus Was Guilty!
Deu 5:8 "'You shall not make for yourself a carved image, ... Guilty!
Deu 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; Guilty!
Deu 5:11 "'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, Guilty!
Deu 5:12 "'Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy... Guilty!
Deu 5:16 "'Honor your father and your mother as the LORD your God commanded you-Guilty!
Deu 5:17 "'You shall not murder. Guilty!
Deu 5:18 "'And you shall not commit adultery. Guilty!
Deu 5:19 "'And you shall not steal. Guilty!
Deu 5:20 "'And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Guilty!
Deu 5:21 "'And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.' Guilty!
But we can't stop there. I know my sins exceed these! Don't yours?
And God specifically listed some of the things that He would In fact poor His wrath upon. The Wrath of God. Who can stand it. Its the bitterest gaul, hot, stinging, cup anyone could ever drink. And yet, Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath.
Mar_10:38 Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
What is this cup of wrath poured down the throat of Christ for?
Rom 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Jesus is Guilty!
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Guilty!
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, Guilty!
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Guilty!
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, Guilty!
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Guilty!
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; Guilty!
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Guilty!
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Guilty!
Rom 1:32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Guilty!
Did you find your sins in there? Jesus did. He became your sin! He became the guilty one. He cast off His innocence for you and me and as many claim Christ as Lord and Savior! That when He became sin for us, we might become the righteousness of Christ before God the Father!
1Th 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
But we haven't done His Grace and Mercy Justice yet!
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident:
sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, Jesus is Guilty
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
Jesus is Guilty
fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
Jesus is Guilty
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
Jesus is Guilty
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Have we exhausted our sins yet? Is there no end? How can Jesus, the perfect, matchless, wonderful, beautiful Son of God be Guilty for me?
I know what I am capable of. I know to what depths of wickedness I have plunged, and HAPPILY so that I might satisfy the delight of my wicked pleasures!
And I have also cried out with David:
Psa 51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
But there was only one way for that to happen. Where there is Sin there must be death. The soul that sinneth it shall die!
But God knew something else. A perfect sacrifice could take the place of the sinner.
A sacrifice who had NO SINS of his own to pay for, could step up and take the place of the sinner; Dying in the sinner's place. Voluntarily. Perfectly.
And to think that this perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Righteous, looked up into the face of His loving father God and tasted the bitter wrath for every sin named here and thousands more. For every rebellion, for every stolen pleasure, every perversion, every child abused, every baby aborted, every innocent killed in the gas chambers of Germany, and the gulags, and the poppy fields, and the horrors of war and the horrors of false religion.
And for my pride.
And for my self-centeredness.
And for my mean black heart, Jesus drank the cup from the very hand of His holy Father.
Woe is me, for I am undone.
Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
I have been touched by coals from the altar where the blood of Jesus was shed. How can I not be greatful. How can I not say, Here am I. For whatever task, whatever trial, whatever humiliation, whatever persecution you have for me; Here am I send me!
Shall I receive good from His hand and not the bad?
2Co_5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
...14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
It is possible that I have offended some by labeling Jesus guilty of heinous perverse acts. But I know that He is perfectly sinless. That is the outrage, the Sacndal, the Horror of His BECOMING SIN FOR US!
But out of love He took your place.
If you have never seen yourself as particularly evil, then stop and considered what Christ became for you.
And weep at his feet.
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