Jesus was made Sin with our Sinfulness that We might be made Righteous with His Righteousness

Let’s go on. I think we’ve got time to do the next one. Going back to Isaiah 53 and verse 10. Now, the last three verses of Isaiah 53 give the spiritual significance of what’s happened, the purpose of God which was accomplished.

“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him [to crush him]; he has put him to grief . . .”

And it’s the same word for sickness. Let’s not go into that but it’s the same word.

“. . . when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

It’s also possible to translate it “when his soul shall make an offering for sin.” It doesn’t make any difference to the bottom line which is Jesus’ soul was made an offering for sin. Jesus’ body bore our pains and sicknesses, but his soul was made the sin offering.

Now in order to understand the implication of that you have to be just aware of the procedure for the sin offering in the Old Covenant under the Levitical law. When a man sinned he had to bring the appropriate offering. It might be a sheep or a goat or a bullock. Incidentally, the more important the man, the bigger the offering. This always amuses me because if the high priest sinned he had to bring a bullock. And you know they didn’t keep the cattle next door to the tabernacle. So if the high priest sinned he had to go all the way out to where the cattle were kept and lead his bullock all the way up to the altar. And everybody must have thought, “Well, I wonder what Aaron did!”

Anyhow, when he arrived the priest laid his hands on the head of the offering and the man confessed his sin over the offering. And symbolically the sin of the man was transferred to the goat or the bullock or whatever. Then the goat or the bullock paid the penalty for the man’s sin. Instead of killing the man they killed the goat. So the sin offering was something to which the sin of the person was transferred so that the offering paid the penalty for the man’s sin. See the picture?

Jesus’ soul was made the sin offering. This is a staggering thought. I don’t believe we can even begin to comprehend what it meant for the soul of Jesus to be identified with the sin of the whole human race. That utterly pure and undefiled soul became identified with the sin of all humanity. He became the sin offering. Our sin was transferred to him and then he paid the penalty in our place. So his soul was made the sin offering. He was identified with our sins.

Now because of the fact that the word offering is used, a lot of contemporary Christians don’t appreciate what Isaiah is saying. The soul of Jesus became identified with our sins. But, if you keep your finger in Isaiah 53 and turn to 2 Corinthians 5 and the last verse of the chapter which is verse 21, this is Paul’s rendering of Isaiah 53:10. If you don’t understand the terminology of the sin offering, you don’t recognize it. Paul is saying the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that Isaiah had said in Isaiah 53:10. Now I’ll read it the way it is, then put in the nouns in place of the pronouns.

"For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

Let’s put in the pronouns. "God the Father made him, Jesus the Son, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

That is staggering! If you think it’s staggering that he took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses, this is infinitely more staggering. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might become righteousness with his righteousness. What’s the exchange? Not a problem. You don’t have to be a theologian. In fact if you were a theologian you’d probably have problems. Now forgive me, Lord. I just get so impatient with people who make the Bible complicated. My whole aim in life is to make it simple. I may not succeed but at least that’s what I’m trying to do.

Now you theologians, come on and let’s see if we can do it without prior rehearsal, the left hand and the right. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. That was good to start with, now let’s do it again. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. If you’re not excited about that there’s something missing. Praise the Lord, I got one excited student here!

But now let’s do it individually. Not us but my. He was made sin with my sinfulness that I might be made righteous with his righteousness. Isn’t that wonderful!

Now let me just give you one very beautiful picture of this exchange which makes me excited. Isaiah 61:10. You’ll notice how many times we go to Isaiah. He is the prophet of salvation. Not that the other prophets don’t have the message of salvation but it’s his theme, especially these last 27 chapters. I read these words and I’m smiling, you wonder why I’m smiling. Because my mind goes back to my boyhood. I read here:

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God . . ."

I always picture myself walking out of a typical English church which is at least 200 years old, it’s new. It’s rather cold and I’ve been in this Anglican service where we have been saying the most glorious things about God. I mean, the Anglican liturgy is just glorious. And then the people walk out of church and there isn’t any evidence whatever that they’re excited about anything. I always used to think to myself, “Now, if that lady in front of me dropped her lace handkerchief and I ran after her and gave her her handkerchief back she’d get much more excited about her handkerchief than about all the things she’d been saying in church.” Why? Because they’ve never been real to her. That’s not a criticism of the Anglican Church, it’s true of multitudes of churches. People have never grasped this glorious reality.

Now, if you grasp it you’re going to have to be happy—even if you don’t want to be happy you’re going to have to be happy. And let me point out to all of you dear Christians, it is no sin for a Christian to be happy.

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God . . ."

The Hebrew says "sos asis bah adoni". I just say that because there’s a beautiful new Hebrew song just been written by a Jewish believer in the last year that’s based on these words.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation [you’re saved, wonderful, but don’t stop there], he has covered me with the robe of righteousness . . .”

Bear in mind that when you get the garment of salvation that’s an undergarment. But there’s a top garment that goes over it. What is that? The robe of righteousness. One other translation, I think it’s the NIV, says, “he has wrapped around with the robe of righteousness.” Whose righteousness? His righteousness. You see, you can never feel guilty after that. If you once realize that the devil has got nothing to say against you because no matter from what point he attacks you and criticizes you you say, “It’s all right. I’ve got the robe of Christ’s righteousness wrapped all around me, I’m covered on every side. There’s nothing you can say against me.” In fact, when the devil accuses you of all the silly things you’ve done and the wicked things, the Bible says agree with thy adversary. Tell him it’s quite true. Perfectly right. I can tell you a lot more things as a matter of fact! But it’s all in the past because he’s given me a garment of salvation and he’s wrapped me around with the robe of his spotless, divine, eternal righteousness.

You see, the righteousness of God has no past to be ashamed of. It’s incapable of guilt. It’s totally perfect and pure. And that’s what we’re offered through this exchange. I hope you begin to see that this exchange opens up to every area of your life, everything you really need. Everything you really long for. And more than you can imagine. It’s all contained in this divine exchange.

Let’s go very quickly to the three aspects that we’ve done. You may have to help me because I sometimes get confused when I’m on the platform. The first one is punished.  The secondounded. The third is sin. We’ll do we, our and us and so on to start with. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Jesus was wounded that we might be healed. Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with his righteousness. Now what can you do after that? You have to say thank you, Lord. What else is there to say? Amen, thank you, Lord. Praise your name Lord Jesus.

We’ll continue with the various aspects of the exchange in our next session, God helping us.