2 Corinthians 5:21 is my favorite verse in Scripture. It has all the elements of greatness: God's Sovereignty, Christ's Death and Resurrection, the benefactors of His grace, Justification by faith alone in Christ alone, the Imputation of Christ's Atoning work. I am sure there are even more elements to this verse. I cannot conceive packing more punch with one verse. Meditating on this verse this morning, the morning of Crucifixion Friday, has brought me great joy.
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."The point I would like to begin with is: "...Him who knew no sin..." Christ knew no sin! He is not a sinner like we are. He is perfect, pure, whole, complete. He is sinless, unsoiled, unstained, spotless. He is holy! He was 100% human, but his human nature was not sinful. The only comparison we can make to this is Adam and Eve before the fall. Adam and Eve were 100% human without a sinful nature. Likewise Christ was completely human, but with a holy nature. In fact, there was no possibility of Him sinning, whatsoever! He could not sin because His nature was holy. A created human with a perfect nature may have the ability to sin. But God incarnated in human flesh has a holy nature and cannot sin. A holy nature cannot be tempted by evil. This is not to say He did not experience the heat of temptation. To paraphrase Phil Johnson, pure gold heated to a white hot flame does not change the gold. However, the purity of the gold does not diminish the heat of the flame. The gold still feels the white hot heat, but cannot be changed into anything else because it is pure. Christ felt the entire burden of sin's temptation, but never succumbed to it. He was truly tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin! What a great High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses!
Have you ever contemplated the extent of Christ's death? He died so that every person who believes in Him will not have to die a spiritual death! His death paid the price of sin, the price which God demands, for all believers. He did not pay the penalty for unbelievers. If Christ paid for the sin of unbelievers and then they paid for their own sin in hell, God would be requiring two payments for their sin. Christ's payment would not have been sufficient for their sin because they are still in hell paying for their sin. We know that no human can adequately pay the price for their sin. For this reason unbelievers must suffer in hell for all eternity. Why would Christ's death be sufficient for believers and not for unbelievers? The only reason is that His death was for believers alone, in order to purchase and obtain salvation for the elect! The temporal and finite cannot never satisfy the eternal and infinite. Only Christ can satisfy God's requirement for sin. In fact, He did for believers in a few hours what will take all the unbelievers in history all of eternity to do -- pay for their sins! Only God in human flesh could accomplish such great things!
I alluded to this in the previous paragraph: "...to be sin on our behalf..." God made Christ to be sin on our behalf. That is, God imputed or transferred our sin to Christ and transferred His righteousness to us! Christ did not become a sinner on the cross, but bore the penalty for all the sins of all who believe! He did this so that we might become "the righteousness of God in Him." To paraphrase John MacArthur, God treated Christ as if He had committed all of the sin of all who would ever believe, so that He might treat all believers as though they lived the righteous life of Christ. Justification by imputation is the heart of the gospel! It is the goal of the Atonement! The perfect Lamb of God is the Sufficient Satisfying Sacrifice for sins!
Perhaps an even more mind boggling phrase of 2 Corinthians 5:21 is the one at the beginning, "He made Him..." Paul is saying that God made Christ to be sin on our behalf. God was the one inflicting Christ, through the hands of sinful men. The Crucifixion did not catch God by surprise and it was not even plan B. Rather, as Acts 2:23 states, the Crucifixion was predetermined and planned by God! God had planned to subject His own Son to this painful death! Isaiah 53:10 states that "The Lord was pleased to crush Him..."(NASB) God ultimately found pleasure in the death of His Son. The Crucifixion was a means to bring more glory to God, showing off His endless love, grace, mercy...showing off His Holy Name! All of God is glorified in the cross of Christ!
So today we remember His death! I imagine tomorrow will be a thunderstorm of emotion. There will be much sorrow over Christ's Death, yet much joy looking forward to His Resurrection! In fact, the Resurrection takes the sting out of death, even to some extent the Death of Christ! Knowing that His Death was for God's glory and our good does provide some comfort to the gnawing emptiness in my stomach. Yet I cannot wait for the celebration of His Resurrection this Sunday. Sunday is the day we proclaim, "He is not here! He is risen!"
May the God of grace be glorified in the celebration of His Cross and His Resurrection! May the glory of God shame anyone who seeks to refocus or denounce this celebration, storing up wrath against them for the day of His judgment.
2 comments:
Thank you for the encouragement, Curtis! I'm amazed at the vastness of Christ's sacrifice - we could meditate on the cross and the glory of His sacrifice for all of eternity, not to mention all His other attributes and achievements.
Curtis, your meditations are a blessing to me, but the Jesus' death and resurrection are the ultimate (Jonathan Edwards style) and complete blessing. God is so infinitely amazing. We are so unworthy. Thank God that Jesus IS worthy.
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