“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
II Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
This doesn’t imply that our Lord, sinned in actuality.
Rather, here the apostle is describing the Great Exchange, in terms that are rather ontological; in that Christ took our burden of being, the burden of sin and thereby was made sin for us. And in that exchange, we are then made the righteousness of God.
That is what “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”
(Gal. 3:13 NKJV,) means. It doesn’t mean Jesus literally lied. It means that Jesus took on the very essence and burden of a liar so that Christ’s righteousness might be imputed to us.
This is exactly what Luther writes in his commentary on Galatians 3:13:
“And all the prophets saw this, that Christ was to become the greatest thief,
murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrator, blasphemer, etc., there has ever been
anywhere in the world. He is not acting in His own Person now. Now He is not the Son
of God, born of the Virgin. But He is a sinner, who has and bears the sin of Paul, the
former blasphemer, persecutor, and assaulter; of Peter, who denied Christ; of David,
who was an adulterer and a murderer, and who caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the
name of the Lord (Rom. 2:24). In short, He has and bears all the sins of all men in His
body—not in the sense that He has committed them but in the sense that He took these
sins,. committed by us, upon His own body, in order to make satisfaction for them with
His own blood. Therefore this general Law of Moses included Him, although He was
innocent so far as His own Person was concerned; for it found Him among sinners and
thieves. Thus a magistrate regards someone as a criminal and punishes him if he
catches him among thieves, even though the man has never committed anything evil or
worthy of death. Christ was not only found among sinners; but of His own free will and
by the will of the Father He wanted to be an associate of sinners, having assumed the
flesh and blood of those who were sinners and thieves and who were immersed in all
sorts of sin. Therefore when the Law found Him among thieves, it condemned and
executed Him as a thief.”
***************************************
A very happy and blessed New Year everyone!
#OneWayLove
OneWayLove Mission 