That we might know no sin

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin. That is a mind-blowing concept. Both sides of that equation are almost unbelievable. How could Jesus know no sin? He was born into a sinful, broken world. He grew up surrounded by sin. He knew what sin was. He observed it every day, yet he knew no sin. Biblically, to know something is not just to know about it, but to know it experientially. Jesus lived surrounded by sin, but Jesus never sinned.

Jesus was born sinless, lived sinless, and died sinful. That is the Good Friday message. The one who knew no sin was made sin for us. Why would he do that? Why would a sinless individual willingly submit himself to the indignity and shame of being made sin? The answer is, love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one-and-only son” (Jn 3:16). Love motivated Jesus, the sinless one, to become sin on our behalf.

To what end? “So that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). This is not just a judicial switching of records whereby Jesus record is placed under my name and my record placed under his. It is that, but it is much more. It is not just that we are declared righteous; we are righteous.

The passage doesn’t say “because of him” we might become righteous. It says “in him.” When one puts their faith in God because of Jesus there is a transformation that occurs. It is not just a switching of records. It is a transformation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). We have a new identity. We are freed not only from the penalty of sin but from the power of sin. When the one who knew no sin became sin, he did that so that we who know sin intimately might become no sin.  That is the unbelievable miracle of salvation.