Religion & Spirituality
Have a question related to this sermon? You can "Ask the Pastor" at fbcrochester.com2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. “NO SIN TO BE SIN”Words cannot fully express the great worth of Christ’s work for us on the cross. To think that He endured separation from the Father because of our sins staggers our finite minds. Here is the heart of the gospel: the sinless Savior has taken our sins that we might have God’s righteousness. I. Our Sinless Substitute He willingly offered Himself to die in our place. Having been restored to God’s favor by the sacrifice of His son, we should lift our hearts in praise to our sinless Substitute. Christ became our sin offering. The Messiah’s death is declared to be an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). II. He Took My Place At the heart of Christian belief is this all-important fact: Christ died for us. When we trust Christ, we walk out of the prison house of death and step into the bright sunlight of forgiveness and freedom. What an amazing truth! Christ died for me. He took my place! Christ took our place that we might have His peace; He took our sin that we might have His salvation. In the gospel of the New testament, salvation comes to enemies of God because Christ Himself became the perfect and final substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of those who have saving faith in him. III. Here is the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice It was so that in Christ all who have saving faith might become the righteousness of God. It is in Christ that reconciliation takes place. The concept of in Christ formed one of Paul’s central teachings. To be in Christ was to be joined with Him in his death and resurrection and to receive the benefits of His salvation. The benefit received in Christ is that the believer becomes the righteousness of God. Believers become the righteousness from God when they first receive the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in justification, but they also receive the continuous blessing of the experience of Righteousness in their lives as they grow in their sanctification (Gal 3:1-5). When He made us righteous in Christ, He also “made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6). We were “made near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). The contexts of these passages make it abundantly clear that our being made righteous, accepted in Christ and near to God, is all of grace; we did nothing to merit such privileges. At the same moment, He also has “made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). That we in our poverty should be made joint heirs with Christ once again is only by his unmerited grace (Titus 3:7). Without Him we are nothing; but in Him we have all things. He is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Truly, in salvation as well as in creation, “it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). Everything we are that is truly worthy and eternal was made in us by God through Jesus Christ. Our text is clear on this. We have been made righteous in Christ, but this was only because God made Him to be sin for us.