You gave them to the Apostle Paul to speak and to write. And now we ask that your Holy Spirit speak through these words to us, and that we would see something in them as it applies to us and draws closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. In His name we pray. Amen. Throughout the Bible, there are certain verses that seem to have been written in gold. Of all the doctrines in the Bible, of all the great truths, there seem to be certain ones at the very center, the holy of holies, as it were, ones that bear a special note, special importance. And in these verses that I read this evening, friends, there's one special verse It can be categorized as a Holy of Holies verse, a special verse. It's a verse that I can remember hearing preached on back in 1969, and a country preacher said there in the middle of the sermon that this verse, as it were, is the gospel summed up. And you can get to heaven on the basis of that verse, one of those special verses. And I want to center what I have to say this evening on that verse, And we're going to look through that verse to what God has to say to us. It's that last verse, the last verse of the chapter. Paul has been talking about various things about the ministry of reconciliation. In the midst of it, he says this, He, God, made Him, Christ, who knew no sin, to be sent on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Well, let's get the context here. Paul is writing to Christians. He is writing to people that he has witnessed to. They have become Christians. They have gone on. Some of them have had some problems about various things. And Paul is written a first letter, and he wrote a second letter. In the midst of this second letter, he is talking about various things. He talks about the earthly tent that will be taken down. Our bodies will one day die, and our inner soul will go before God. And then later on he talks about how the temple will be resurrected again. Then he goes on to say about how God prepared these things, and we walk by faith and not by sight. Something supernatural going on here. He says we are of good courage. And he says that we have our ambitions to please God, whether we are here on earth or in heaven. We long to be with him in heaven. He goes on to talk about our ministry of reconciliation, ambassadors for Christ, preaching to people. And it's in the context of that when he says, Reconciliation. As the Lord says, I want to take a couple of minutes here and tell you about God's means of reconciliation, how God made this possible, so that we can go out and preach and bring people to Christ. He says, All things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself, in verse 18, through Christ, and gave us this ministry of reconciliation. And there he brings us up to this gold verse, this choice verse, verse twenty-one. And I would like to center what I would say tonight, ladies and gentlemen, on three aspects of this verse, three things in this verse. The first thing is there where he says, He made him who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin. The Bible says that, unlike all other human beings, Jesus Christ was unique. You were with us last Sunday night and remembered how we looked at Romans chapter 3, how it said that all have sinned, there is none righteous, only Christ is the righteous one. He is called the righteous one of God. Now, all of us have something in common. We are sinners, hopeless in our sins. Our whole existence has been affected by sins. our emotions, and eventually our bodies will die because of our sins. But Christ knew no sin. We see this throughout the New Testament. Peter said in 1 Peter 2.22, he knew no sin. John amen to this and said in him is no sin. And throughout the book of Hebrews, talking about Christ, the great high priest, it says repeatedly, for instance, it says, he was tempted in all points such as we are, but without sin. Later on, he was holy, innocent, blameless, undefiled. Christ is unique in that. The Son of God, perfect man, without sin. Being without sin, Christ lived as no man ever lived. Occasionally, this would upset people, and they would try to stone him or accuse him. You remember one occasion, he said, which one of you convicts me of sin? Not just accuses me, but convicts me of sin, can present convicting evidence, can present eyewitnesses. Which one of you ever saw me come out of sin? I would be a bold person to stand in a pulpit in front of religious people as Christ did, And to say, which one of you here convicts me of sin? I'd be embarrassed that somebody might stand up and say, I remember you did something. Don't you remember you said something that time? I am a sinner. You are a sinner. But Christ could throw out that challenge because in him there is no sin. Paul says he knew no sin. Now what does that mean when he knew no sin? Paul chose his words properly there. He knew no sin. We have a memory, and our memory always reminds us of our sins. But Christ could never remember sinning. He never sinned. What's more, he never experienced sin. He never knew what it was like to commit sin. Now, he knew what sin was by observation, because he saw sin all around him, but he did not know what it was like by experience. You remember when Adam and Eve sinned? They then knew Good and evil. Before then, they only knew good, but now they knew evil, because they had committed it. But Christ knew no sin. That means that he always kept his Father's law. One hundred percent. All the time, everywhere, he never sinned. You see, he was born without sin. He was born of a virgin. He never received any sin from Adam and his grandparents and his parents. He was born without sin. He lived without sin. And he always kept the Ten Commandments. He always respected his Father. He had no other gods before him. He never took God's name in vain. Now, that upset the Jews, because Jesus claimed to be God, and they wanted to crucify Him for claiming to be God, remember? They said, because you, being a man, make yourself God, make yourself equal with God. They were saying, you're taking God's name in vain. You're claiming to be God. Jesus took God's name perfectly. Not in vain, because he was God in the flesh, as the scriptures say. He never stole. He never bore false witness. He never committed adultery. All the Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ kept perfectly, 100%. What's more, Jesus himself admitted that the Ten Commandments can be summed up in two great commandments. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy strength, and all thy mind. Jesus always loved his father. Never once did he hold something against God or hold something from God. He always gave God his due. He gave his father his love. What's more, Jesus was a man of love. Everywhere he went, people knew he was a man of love. He loved his neighbor as himself. He gave of himself. He put other people first. He healed people. He taught. He was a man of compassion. Jesus Christ was the man of perfect love, perfect holiness, because he knew no sin. He was a good man, but more than a good man. He was a perfect man. I've never met a perfect man. I've met some good men. I've met men that I respect, and I wanted to grow up and be like that. And now that I'm a man, I still know that there are great men, good men I'd like to be like. And when I'm around them, I don't feel as good as I think I am. But I have never in my life met a perfect man. Jesus Christ was a perfect man. A perfectly good man. The most wonderful man of all. The most compassionate. The kindest man. Most beautiful. We sang a little while ago, he's the lily of the valley. Read through the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, a romantic hymn there where it talks about Christ's love for the church and the church's love for Christ. He is altogether lovely, altogether beautiful, no spot in him. Beautiful, precious, good. No sin in him. Not even one. That is the Christ. that Paul talks about. He knew no sin. Secondly, Paul says that this was the one that God made to be sin. He made him, who? Christ, to be made sin. The same one that was perfectly holy was made to be sin for us. Well, who made him? God. But why does that bother? Why didn't Paul just simply say, he was made sin? He says, he made him to be sin. Why? Every word is important here. It was God's plan all along. It wasn't just the people that nailed Christ to the cross, that was partaking of the crucifixion. It was something long before that. It was mapped out by God from all eternity. You remember Isaiah 53 sense. It says, he hath laid on him. the iniquity of us all. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a great martyr. As some people would say, you know, the liberals come along and say, it was a pity that Christ had to die. He was such a good man, but he was a martyr. He was not a martyr. It was no accident. It was no coincidence. God planned it just like that. He, God, made Christ to be sin. He knew no sin. It was all planned out in advance. Now that's an interesting phrase when it says, he made him to be sent for us. Now, what does it mean? He made him to be sent. It does not mean that he made him a sinner. Christ never sent and the father never made him sin or made him commit an act of sin. He did not make him a sinner. He made him sin. What does that mean? He made him sin or made him to be sin. Well, Here's what we're talking about when we talk about Christ being made sin. Something was going on there in the divine transactions of God. God was looking down and seeing sinful human beings and seeing the sinless Christ. And part of the eternal plan was this. There's going to be a transference, a divine transaction here, a divine exchange. Our sins were laid on Christ. By transference, he wasn't made a sinner. Our sins were laid on him. Are you familiar with this term, imputation? Let me see if I can borrow that down a little bit. That means that God imputed certain things to Christ. He accounted certain things to Christ. He reckoned, as he says in Romans, certain things to Christ. Christ was not a sinner, but he was treated as if he were a sinner. As if, very important words here, he was not a sinner, but certain things were done as if he were a sinner. He was viewed as if he were a sinner. When our sins were put on Christ, it was as if God saw no longer the pure Christ, but Christ who has made sin. 450 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther came across a great truth here. It spurred on the Reformation about Christ was made sin for us, and we can be made righteous in Him. He came out with this truth that some people couldn't understand, and he had to state it very boldly so somebody could understand it. It was greatly misunderstood. He said this. He says, when our sins were laid on Christ, it was as if, seeing Christ, you were seeing The greatest murderer, the greatest sinner, the greatest liar, the greatest thief, because our sins were put on him. He wasn't the greatest sinner, but he was viewed as if he were, because our sins were put on him. He made him to be sin for us. Can you capture the meaning of this? The most beautiful one, the one that is altogether lovely, The very epitome and essence of beauty was made the ugliest, most horrendous thing that had ever lived. That's why it says in the book of Isaiah that we turned our faces from Him. We saw no beauty that we should desire Him. Not just that people were rejecting Him for what He is, but to see Him as He was treated by God, as He was viewed by God, the ugliest, because He took upon Himself. the sins of the world. As it says in verse 19, God was reconciling the world to himself. He was made sin for us. There's a verse over in Galatians 3.13 that extends this just a little bit more. It says this, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." How do we relate these things, being made sin, being made a curse? The great Puritan preacher, Thomas Goodwin, in the city of London back in the 17th century, saw what this was about, and he wrote a book on this, and he talked about how Christ was first made sin. And because God could look down and view him as sin, God then treated him as if he were a sinner. And that's what it meant he was made a curse, because when God sees sin, God curses him. What does that mean, God curses him? What is this curse? Look in the book of Deuteronomy, where God promises blessings to the Israelites if they follow him and believe him, but he threatens curses on them. if they turn from him. And repeatedly in the book of Deuteronomy, it says, blessed are you if you do this, blessed, blessed, blessed, but cursed are you if you do this and if you do that. And at the end of that chapter, he says, cursed is every man that obeys not every word of this law. If you've broken one point of the law, you're guilty of them all. Cursed are you. And Paul quotes that in Galatians 3, and he says, Curse it also, according to the book of Deuteronomy, as everyone that hangs on a tree. Cursed by God, cursed by man. The very opposite of blessing. What is God's curse? God's curse is this. God's wrath for sin. The Bible says, Our God is a consuming fire. God hates sin. Not just displeased with it, He hates sin. Also, he's disgusted with it, it makes him sick. And when God sees sin, something wells up in God's holy heart. He hates sin with a holy hatred. And when our sins were placed on Christ, and Christ was viewed as the sin-bearer, he was made sin, and he was viewed by God with a curse. Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree. Cursed is especially the greatest one, the one made sin, and God looked upon him like that. The one that was once the apple of his eye, the one that was always with him, the pure and holy one, had volunteered to come down from heaven for this very purpose. Now can you see why in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ was in agony and sweating drops of blood? How would you like to be the sin-bearer of all the sins that have ever been committed? Think of all the sins of all the billions and billions and billions of people, all together in one mass, laid upon Christ. He was made to be sin, not just sin, but sin itself. The sin that started with Satan, the sin that started and came into the human race through Adam, been transferred down, and sins have been committed a billion and a billion times. All these laid upon. The back of the pure one, who became and was made sin, and being made sin, was made a curse by God. And this is how God viewed Christ. It's as if the pure one was baptized in our sin, and then was baptized in the wrath of God for us. This is what the cross is all about. It's not just some great martyrdom. It's not just a great story years ago. This is the crossroads of all eternity. At the cross. We sang a little while ago, at the cross, at the cross. Why don't we hear more about the cross in some of our churches? Why? Because it is an offense to people. They don't want to think about this. The devil does not want to hear about this. The cross is our only hope of salvation. What happened then. Let's go deeper. Let's go deeper. A great Welsh preacher wrote a hymn a couple of hundred years ago. William Williams. He says that the pangs of his body were deep, but the pangs of his soul were deeper. It wasn't just his body that was made an atonement for sin. Yes, it was his blood. Yes, it was his body that was broken for us. But deeper than that, Isaiah could by faith and by prophecy foresee it and said he made his soul and atonement for sin. Because our sin affects our whole being, our bodies. Yes, Christ's body had to be broken. It affects our blood. His blood had to be shed. But our souls have been thoroughly inundated by sin. And that was infused, that was imputed into Christ. He made His soul an atonement for sin. I mentioned blood a minute ago. The Bible talks a lot about blood. That offends some people. The Bible talks a lot about it because it says that I have given you the blood to be an atonement, because the life of the flesh is in the blood. There's something special about that. Let me tell you about the relationship between the body and the soul. You can see that there's sort of an interchange there in the blood. The blood of Christ washes away our sins. And because we are sinners, as it were, there needs to be that blood transfer, transfusion. We need God's life, Christ's life in us. Remember that divine exchange I mentioned a minute ago? Picture this. Our unholy blood, sin-ridden blood, was transfused into Christ. And we don't have the same blood type. Any doctor can tell you that if you give a transfusion to somebody of a different blood type, what'll happen? It affects their body, their cells, something about it begins to reject it, they go through agony, and they'll die. Our sins were put on Christ. And that is what it meant by Him being made sin. And as a result of this, we can now receive his pure blood into us. I'm talking spiritually in this. I hope you don't misunderstand me on this, but see the spiritual meaning here. He was made sin for us. That's what happened at the cross. What happened at the cross? What could you have seen? You would have seen the Pharisees mocking at it, laughing at it. You would have seen the disciples weeping. You would have seen the angels gasping at such a thing. How can it be? You would have seen the devil mocking and laughing, saying, I finally got him. You would have also seen the father angry with his son. And because he was angry and punishing his son for us, as it is written, the just for the unjust, he was appeased and satisfied. That's the only hope of escaping hell. The only hope of us being delivered from our sins is the atonement, appeasement of God's rights, propitiation. Some people do not like it, but it's our only hope of salvation. Notice he also says, he made him to be sin for us, or as it says in some translations, on our behalf, because he was not the sinner. He was made sin for us. The Bible says he died in our place. He took our place for us. We should have died, we deserve to die. He didn't deserve to die, but he volunteered to become our substitute. This is what it means in verse 14 where he says, the love of Christ controls us, having concluded thus that one died for all, therefore all died. It's as if all people were on the cross when Christ died, but we could never atone for our sins. One hymn says, should our tears forever flow, thou could never atone, thou must save, and thou alone, only the blood of Jesus. But He died for us. Why? Well, this is the last point that he brings out here. Why? That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. There's no other way. It says in the book of Hebrews that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, no forgiveness of sins. God had ordained this. There's no possibility of salvation by good works, trying to do good things. You might say, I've been baptized. It's not a baptism of water that saves, friends. It's a baptism in the blood of Jesus Christ that saves. It's His atonement, His cross, not our good works. Because we are sinners, we must come to the one that is without sin, but was made sin for us. nor the way we could become right with God. Remember what I said about imputation, that transaction, that divine exchange. One great theologian said this, as there is no way in which Christ could have been made sin, but by imputation, so though there was no way in which we could be justified, but by imputation of his righteousness to us. This is the heart of the gospel. And if you've missed this, you've missed it all. If you've missed this, you've lost it all. There is no hope outside of this truth. Christ died for us, and we can go to heaven because of Him. No other way. But praise God, there is hope in that. That is the gospel. When I heard that Baptist preacher way out in the country say that, I didn't understand at that time. Three years later, it broke into my heart, and I said, it's true. It is true. For the first time in my life, I looked at the cross, and my eyes were opened up, and I saw it. It is true. This is the gospel. Oh, can't you see it? He was made sin that we could be made righteous. He died that we might live on the cross. He went to hell that we might go to heaven. That is the gospel. Christ saves. The divine exchange. Another theologian said, as our sins became his, his righteousness becomes ours. Another one says, as the sin imputed to Christ is inherent in us, our sin was taken out of us and put on him. So the righteousness by which we are justified is inherent in him. We are justified by his righteousness and his alone imputation. There's that little phrase again, as if. I said a minute ago that Christ was treated as if he was the greatest sinner, because our sins were placed on him, and God viewed him as sin. Look how it applies to us. Now, we are treated as if we are righteous. You've heard the definition of justification. as if we had never sinned. You see the relation there? Christ was treated as if he were sinned, and because of that, we can be treated by God, viewed by God righteously, as if we had never sinned. It's imputed to us. Now, this is a legal thing. This is all in the transactions of God. God imputes it to us, and he accounts us just. And in time, then he begins to infuse Christ's righteousness into us, and we grow and we become holy. And praise God in heaven, there'll be no sin anymore in us. It's been taken off of us now, and that gives us a guarantee of making heaven. And Christ has not given up there. He is gradually reforming us into his image. We become more and more righteous as he is righteous. Notice the last two words of this verse. In Him. Repeatedly throughout this chapter, Paul says, In Him. In Christ. In Him. Why? A minute ago I said that Christ was made sin for us. And now, we are made the righteousness of God in Him. In Him alone. Only in Him. Through Christ alone, we can be presented before God spotless and unblameable, the Bible says. In Him, only in Him. How? By union with Him. The Bible says if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. Verse 17. How do we get in Christ? How do we get united to Christ? One way. By faith. By faith. Faith alone. That's again what Martin Luther discovered. It's faith alone without works of the law. Faith alone. What do I mean by this? Now, I'm not just talking about this idea of coming to the edge of a cliff and jumping into the dark. That concept is far into the scriptures. Faith is spiritual sight. You say, well, didn't it say earlier we walk by faith and not by sight? That's correct. We walk by faith, not by physical sight. Only by spiritual sight. You know what I mean by this? Seeing that it's really true. The Bible says to look and you will live. Look at what? What do we look at to live? What do we look at to be united to Christ? Look at the cross. Look at the cross. I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm not asking you to come forward, go back, think about anything. I'm not asking you to do anything. Stay right where you are and look at the cross. If you've never looked at it before, look now, and you will live. See what was going on there, not just in the body, but in his soul. See the spiritual transaction at the cross. Look and you will live. Prophetically, Zechariah saw this, and he said, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn. When you see Christ crucified, being made sin for your sins, That'll break your heart. It'll make you mourn, and it'll do something in you. It'll give you the new heart. You'll become a new creature. You'll be united to Christ, and you'll gladly turn from your sins then. But you must first look at the cross. Now, you that are believers here, there's an application specifically for you in this. You see, you're not perfect yet. Legally, you're justified, but you're still growing in Christ. You still occasionally will slip into sin somehow. What do you do with that? Do you get saved all over again? No, you don't. You don't have to go and become born again, and again, and again. You're saved once. You're justified once. However, how do these sins get taken care of? You say, well, I'll make it up to God. I'll make a New Year's resolution. I'll make it up to you, God. It won't work. God won't accept that. You say, well, what in the world does he want then? He wants you to look back at the cross. Never stray from the cross, brothers and sisters. Continually look at the cross. Chain yourself to the cross. And whenever you sin, look back at the cross and say, my sins were nailed to the cross and the devil cannot accuse me. Again with Luther, the devil used to come to him with a list of his sins and say, Luther, look what you did. He says, you see that, Mr. Devil? It's nailed to the cross of Christ, and God says, justified. Get out of here, I'm on my way to glory. Look at the cross whenever you sin, because God not only justifies, but he sanctifies and forgives. And for you here this evening that have never looked, have never been to Christ, never been to the cross, you may have heard about some of these things that maybe have never dawned on you. God's Word for you tonight through the Ministry of Reconciliation. Just as Paul says, we plead with you, we beg you, be reconciled to God. How? Look to Christ and be saved. Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, how we praise you and worship you. Years ago you died an ignominious death upon a rugged cross, spat upon, mocked at. But Lord, we know that the greatest humility of all was when you not only yield yourself up to death, but spiritual death, to be made sin, to be made a curse for us. Lord, even now that does something to us that are believers. To think that the one that we have loved for these years, the one that has been so precious to our souls, the sweet Jesus, fairest Lord Jesus, none like you. You were the one that were rejected by men, and you were made sin by your Father and cursed with the drag for us. Lord, such love we cannot conceive of. God demonstrates His love for us, and while we were sinners, Christ died for us. We can never plumb the magnitude of the depth of that love. But Lord, we throw ourselves into Your arms. We thank You. We praise You. We look at that cross boldly. We praise God for the old rugged cross. Our Lord, we also commit into your hands any that may be here tonight that have never looked, that are still bound in their sins. Holy Spirit, go to them now and open their eyes to look upon the one that they have pierced. And may they mourn and turn from their sins and look at the crucified one. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.