Transcript

The Great Exchange

2 Corinthians 5:21
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Pastor Randy Smith

Sri Lanka - A pastor was beaten to the point of being unconsciousness and his family was attacked in their home by a village mob. The mob told those gathered for prayer, "This is our village - you don't belong here!" They also strictly warned the Christians never to come back to the village for prayer meetings, and told them if they did, they'd be assaulted. [i]

Sudan - Meriam Ibrahim, the 27-year-old Christian woman who was sentenced to be whipped for marrying a Christian and then given a death sentence for being a Christian, was finally but now has been rearrested. [ii]

Nigeria - On June 1 and 3, Islamic radicals from the group Boko Haram shot over fifty people, killing 27 (mostly children). Those who tried to escape were chased down by the fighters. [iii]In 2013 it is documented that nearly 300 churches were destroyed and 612 Nigerian Christians were killed. [iv]

Iraq - The violence in Iraq is hastening the end of nearly 2,000 years of Christianity there as the few remaining faithful flee the Islamic State militants who want to eliminate all Christians. About two out of three Christians have been forced from their homes [v] Locals estimate a Christian is killed every other day. [vi]

North Korea - The very lowest citizens in the eyes of the government are those who profess Christian faith. Known Christians are automatically categorized as disloyal, because "they do not genuinely worship the leaders [the Kim family], adhere to another ideology and therefore [are considered to] pose a threat to the stability of the society." According to Open Doors, there is approximately 50,000-70,000 Christians currently imprisoned in the country's notoriously brutal labor camps. In May 33 Christians were sentenced to death for establishing churches. [vii]

This is just the tip of the spear - a few select stories from a few select countries. So why am I sharing this?

One reason is because the mainstream media for the large part has totally ignored the unjustified loss of rights, torture and murder of thousands upon thousands of Christians overseas. We need to be aware. We need to pray for them and speak on their behalf. After the Gospel and adjacent to abortion, the reality of the persecuted church should move in us the greatest call to action.

Second, we need to ask ourselves how we might respond if found in a situation similar to theirs. Would you still profess Christ if you lost your ability to own property? Would you still profess Christ if you were being tortured? Would you still profess Christ if a sword were raised over your neck? Not pleasant thoughts, but indisputable consequences daily faced by countless brothers and sisters in Christ scattered all over the world living in a reality much different than the comfortable Christianity of America.

There is one thing that would end the persecution in all the cases I mentioned and arguably every other case of documented Christian persecution. Apart from God's miraculous intervention, what is it? It's very simple. Deny Christ! Those suffering under the communistic regimes would be set free if they simply renounced Christ and submitted to their dictator. Those suffering under the Muslim terrorists would be set free if they simply renounced Christ and submitted to the religion of Islam.

With their comfort, even their lives hanging in the balance, this wager is presented to Christians overseas and they refuse to accept the offer. They would prefer to suffer tremendous atrocities rather than deny their Savior. The implications I draw? Incredible love for Christ and tremendously strong faith believing that He is real and is the only viable means of salvation. They profess this with their lives, but is this what the Bible is teaching?

That takes us to our passage this morning in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Of this text John MacArthur commented, "With a conciseness and brevity reflective of the Holy Spirit, this one brief sentence, only fifteen words in the Greek text, resolves the dilemma of reconciliation. This sentence reveals the essence of the atonement, expresses the heart of the gospel message, and articulates the most glorious truth in Scripture - how fallen man's sin-sundered relationship to God can be restored. Second Corinthians 5:21 is like a cache of rare jewels, each deserving of a careful, reverential examination under the magnifying glass of Scripture" (2 Corinthians).

This morning I would like to do that, unfold the heart of the Christian message by a close examination of 2 Corinthians 5:21.

What makes Christianity unlike all the other religions in the world? When all the other religions spell out the steps that one must do to be made right with God, how can Christianity claim that God has already done all the work to make us right with Him? Why do they preach works and we preach grace? How can a holy God receive and forgive guilty sinners? How can God display both justice for sin and mercy for sinners at the same time? Where does Jesus Christ fit into this scenario? In the context (verses 17-20), how can God reconcile a world estranged from Him back to Himself in a harmonious relationship? How does God make us part of His new creation? What is the message we have been entrusted with as Christ's ambassadors? Why would anyone lay down their life for Christ?

Permit me to read verse 21 again - the one verse that answers all those questions. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Let's do our best with the Lord's help to break this verse down.

The first word in verse 21 is the pronoun, "He." Who is that referring to? Answer: God the Father, the antecedent from verse 20 where we see that it is "God…making an appeal through us" to be reconciled to Himself.

Last week we covered the well-known fact that the world is separated from God. He is holy. We are sinners. Pertaining to this relationship, the Bible uses words like "alienated (Col. 1:21), "enemies" (Rom. 5:10) and "children of wrath'' (Eph. 2:3). We are the ones that pulled away from God, but God is the only One that could mend the hostility and bring reconciliation. How did He do that? Remember verse 18, "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ." Verse 19, "Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them."

God the Father is the One that initiated and then implemented the plan that would bring reconciliation with humanity. Only God knows what it would take to remove His wrath without destroying the sinner. Only God is able to accomplish this divine work to achieve harmony. Only God has the deep love to go through with sacrificial measures that would be necessary to bring about this peace.

And that plan (according to verses 18 and 19 that I just read) would involve Jesus Christ. You ask specifically how? Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It's also spelled out precisely in our passage from this morning. "He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Let take a moment to break that down.

Jesus became sin. First of all, what is sin? Sin (hamartia in the Greek) literally conveys the sense of missing the mark as when hunting with a bow and arrow (Homer). Later hamartia came to mean missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose. Hamartia is a deviation from God's truth and His moral character. As someone has well said, ultimately sin is man's declaration of his independence from God - the "apostasy" of the creature from his Creator! (adapted from preceptaustin.org).

Jesus became sin, the verse says. In a divine agreement within the Trinity, the Son willingly submitted to the Father's plan (Jn. 10:18). He would lay His life down as a sin-offering to remove all the sins of the people the Father would call to Himself. You see, this example of a sin-bearer goes back to the beginning of time when God killed animals to clothe the nakedness of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God. It was fully refined during Israel's sacrificial system. Innocent animals without defect would be slain. Their blood would be sprinkled on the altar to atone for the sins of the people.

By the time Jesus Christ comes on the scene, this picture was clearly painted in the minds of the people, namely that they were guilty before God. The wages of sin is death. Innocent blood must be spilt to atone for sin. And by faith they would believe God accepted their sacrifice to achieve their forgiveness.

Yet we also know, Hebrews 10:4, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." God temporarily passed over sins during this time, but the sins of humans were never ultimately atoned for in animal sacrifices. Only another human could stand as a sin-bearer for humans. However, the requirement was perfection. Obviously no one qualifies. The only perfect one is God. So the only hope is that God would take on flesh, become man and shed His own blood on our behalf. Enter the work of Jesus Christ.

The verses in Hebrews continue: "Therefore, when He [Jesus Christ] comes into the world, He says, 'sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body you have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure, then I said, 'Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do your will, O God.''"

Verse 21 of 2 Corinthians affirms this for us. Jesus is the only human "who knew no sin." The Bible affirms this repeatedly (Jn. 7:18; 8:46; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 2:22; 3:18; 1 Jn. 3:5; Ac. 3:14; 4:27-30). Those around Him affirmed it (Mt. 27:4; Lk. 23:41, 47; Jn. 18:38)… Including God the Father (Mt. 3:17). Only Jesus was sinless because He was God in the flesh. Only Jesus could bear the full weight of God's wrath because He didn't need to bear it for His own sin. Only Jesus could stand in our place as the only qualified substitute. The sinless one for the sinner. The one "who knew no sin" for those who have never existed without sin. The verse says He did that on "our behalf."

On "our behalf" the verse says that "he [became] sin." Let's be very clear defining this and determining exactly what these words mean. "On our behalf" the verse says, "[the Father] made [the Son] who knew no sin to be sin."

Maybe we need to back up ask the question, how are we and all humans considered sinners? Two ways: First, we are born in sin and have a natural desire to sin. That makes us sinful. Second, we transgress God's moral law by our thoughts and actions. That makes us sinners. Jesus Christ was never guilty of either of these. He wasn't born with a sinful nature (the virgin birth) and what He did was always in accordance with God's law.

When the verse says Jesus became sin, we must be clear it was not the result of anything in disobedience to the Father that He did Himself. The fact that He became sin was directly the result of every single sin from all who would ever believe upon God placed upon Him, imputed to Him, accredited to His account. So Jesus Christ was never a sinner (His sinlessness was already clearly affirmed in this verse - "[He] knew no sin"), but the Father in an incredible act of love and mercy placed our sins upon the Son so that He would then face the judgment and the wrath that we deserved for those sins.

This comes out clearly when the Son cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me" (Mk. 15:34)? As the Son was bearing our sins and justice was being satisfied, the Father had to momentarily for the first time in all of eternity, forsake the Son. I believe this is what Jesus feared the most when He prayed in the Garden: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will" (Mt. 26:39).

Oh, hear that piercing cry! 
What can its meaning be?'My God!
my God! oh why hast
Thou In wrath forsaken Me?'

Oh 'twas because our sins
On Him by God were laid;
He who Himself had never sinned,
For sinners, sin was made.

What an incredible act of love! This is why we sing, "Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my Lord, shouldst die for me?" That Christ would take our sins upon Himself and be forsaken by the Father rather than allow us to pay the just penalty for our sins and be forsaken by the Father for all eternity. Amazing love indeed!

Galatians 3, "For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ' Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them'" (Gal. 3:10). That's us! Yet, "Christ 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).

Isaiah 53, "He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering… As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities" (Isa. 53:9-11).

Mark 10, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45).

So this is what we call the doctrine of imputation. Adam's sin was transferred to us (original sin). Our sin is transferred to Christ (atonement). And now the final part that many omit, Christ's righteousness is transferred to us (justification). Look at the remainder of verse 21. "So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" That's why I entitled this sermon "The Great Exchange." At Calvary all our sin went to Christ (if we are a Christian), and all of His righteousness came to us.

Ponder what this is saying. That if you are in Christ, in the eyes of the living God you have been declared not guilty of every sin you have and ever will commit. Moreover, God now sees you not only as innocent, but in the courtroom of heaven you have been declared righteous, as perfectly righteous as Christ.

That's why the Bible frequently refers to Christians as "saints" or literally translated, "holy ones." Sure we are growing practically to be more like Jesus. That is evidence of our new creation that we discussed last week, but positionally we are fully accepted, forever accepted, in the eyes of the Father as being as righteous as Christ. Not because of what we have done, but solely because of what He has done on our behalf through Christ. That's the main point as to why Paul can now argue in this section that through Christ we are fully reconciled to God.

Matthew Poole, the English theologian from the 1600's said, "As Christ was not made sin by any sin inherent in Him, so neither are we made righteous by any righteousness inherent in us, but by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us."

James Smith in his work, The Marvelous Exchange said, "What a mystery of mercy is this! We have no righteousness of our own - our best is but as filthy rags. God requires righteousness, and one that will meet all the demands of His law, and satisfy His impartial justice, in order to our justification. Jesus, therefore, came to do, and to suffer, all that was necessary to make us righteous, divinely righteous… He took our place - that we might take his. He came to toil for us - that we may rest with him. He sorrowed for us - that we may rejoice with him. He died for us - that we may live with him. Blessed Redeemer, how wondrous your love! How perfect your work!"

According to J.C. Philpot, "It was absolutely necessary either that the sinner should suffer in his own person, or in that of a substitute. Jesus became this substitute; he stood virtually in the sinner's place, and endured in his holy body and soul the punishment due to him; for he "was numbered with the transgressors." He thus, by the shedding of his most precious blood, opened in his sacred body a fountain for all sin and all uncleanness."

C.D. Martin commented, "God sees my Savior, and then He sees me, 'In the Beloved,' accepted and free!"

Dr. Harry A. Ironside used to tell of an experience he had while he was the guest of a western sheep herder. One morning he saw an old ewe move across the field followed by the strangest looking lamb he had ever seen. It apparently had six legs! The last two seemed to be torn from the body and were just dangling there. The shepherd caught the odd lambkin and brought it to Dr. Ironside for examination. Closer inspection showed that the skin from another lamb had been stretched over its body. The shepherd explained that this little one had been orphaned, and none of the ewes would adopt it. However, a day or two later a rattlesnake killed another young lamb. Its bereaved mother could not be consoled. She also stoutly rejected this orphaned animal when it was offered to her as a substitute. However, when they skinned her own dead lambkin and draped its wooly coat over the orphaned one, she immediately accepted it, because it smelled right to her. Dr. Ironside was much impressed, and said: "What a beautiful picture of substitutionary atonement. We too were once orphans - spiritual outcasts - without hope of Heaven. We were not acceptable to God because of our sin. However, the lovely Lamb of God took the sting of the `old serpent' and died upon the cross for a lost world. Now by receiving Him through faith we are redeemed and made ready for Heaven because His righteousness has been applied to our account."

The Jews never could fully understand this concept of being made right with God not on the basis of works but rather on the basis of faith in the Messiah. Yet when God saved Abraham, the Bible says all the way back in Genesis 15, "Then [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). The Lord said through the prophet Habakkuk, "But the righteous will live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4).

We can't follow God's law to be made righteous in His sight. It is impossible. Besides that was never the intention of the law. To attempt righteousness on the basis of works is not only the epitome of pride, but it also rejects the fully sufficient work of Christ. Paul said of the Jews in Romans 10, "For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:3-4). The same could be said of every world religion and even those who wrongly call themselves Christians.

The standing to be made right with God has never been through our works. It is all of grace. It is through Christ's work on our behalf. It's a gift that we receive on the basis of faith in Him. And the very second we place our faith in Christ is the very second we receive it all, the very second we enter into this perfectly reconciled relationship with the Father. It's the only available means of salvation. It's a faith worth living for, and it's a faith worth dying for as well.

[i] http://www.persecution.com
[ii] ibid
[iii] ibid
[iv] http://www.worldwatchlist.us/world-watch-list-countries/nigeria
[v] http://www.newsweek.com/christians-flee-iraq-safety-258024
[vi] http://www.worldwatchlist.us/world-watch-list-countries/iraq/
[vii] http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2014/03/13/kim-jongun-calls-for-execution-of-33-christians-n1807918