Good morning,
I was reading the “Random Thought” for 9-19, and wanted to see if you would something clear for me. You wrote, “The kind of righteousness that Jesus brought to light and made available to those who trust in him was unknown to mankind before he paid the price for us not only to have it in us, but to become the righteousness of God in this world. One of the most astonishing verses in all the Bible has to be that which Paul wrote to the saints in ancient Corinth (2Cor. 5:21): “Him who knew no sin, God made sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
“Him who knew no sin [Jesus] God made sin for us…”
God made Jesus sin? What does that mean, and when did it happen? When He put him in a fleshly body? When He had Jesus hung on a tree to die as a sinner would? Or when God made sin?
“…so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Beth D
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Hi Beth.
In the Old Testament, sins were transferred to the sacrificial animal by the laying on of hands just before the animal was slain (e.g., Lev. 4:15). And since the Old Testament was the pattern that Jesus fulfilled, we may safely assume that God put the sins of the world upon Jesus when Jesus was about to die. It is in only that sense that Jesus “became sin for us”.
In the same way, we “become the righteousness of God” when the holy Ghost fills us, bringing into our hearts God’s righteousness, and peace, and joy (cf. Rom. 14:17).
Don’t let Paul’s language confuse you. He is just talking about Jesus taking on the sins of the world and about us taking on the righteousness of God. That’s all.
Thank you for the very good question.
Pastor John