Ver. 21.-<Jhrist made sin. "For he h&th made him to be sin for us, who knew no ein; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." " Him who knew n'd sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God iii him " (Revised Version). From this passage we gather three wonderfut truths. L That Christ w.as .A.BSOLUTELY sn.'LESS. "Who knew no sin." Intellectually, of courae, he knew a.II the sin in the world; but he never experienced it, he was absolutely free from it. 1. He was "with.out sin," although he lived in a sinfuZ. world. Of all the millions who have been here he alone moved amongst the world and received no taint of moral contamination. 2. He was " without sin," although he was powerfully tempted. Had he been untempte.ble there would have been no virtue• in his freedom from sin, e.nd had there been no tempter there would have been nothing praiseworthy in his sinlessness. "He wast.empted like as we a.re, yet without sin!' 1 :
IL That, though sinless, Christ was in some sense MADE SIN BY GoD, " He hatb. ma.de him to be sin for us." What mee.neth this? 1. It cannot mean that God made the sinless One a sinner. This would be impossible. No one can create a moral character for another. 2. It cannot mean that God imputed to him the sin of the world, and punished him for the world's ·sin. The idea of literal substitution ie repugnant to reason anu:unsustained by any honest interpretation of God's ,Holy Word. '.l'he atonement of Christ consists, not ii:. what he said, did, or suffered, but in what he was. He himself is the .Atonement, the R«nr1,cil,er. What, then, does it mean? 'l'wo facts may throw some light. (1) '!'hat God sent Christ into a world of sinners to become closely identified with them. He wu related to llj,l:mers, mingled with them, ate and drank with them, IIDd was in theoommUDity, counted as one of them.· "He was numbered with the transgressors." (2) That God permitt.ed this world of sinners .to treat 01,ritJt as a Binner. He was calnmniated, persecuted, ineulted1 murdered •. God permitted all this, and what he p,nnits is, in Scripture language, often ascribed to him.' Ill. That the sinless One was thus made sin in order. that men HIGHT PARTICIPATE IN, Goo's lllGHTEOUSNESS. "That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.'' Never did Divine moral excellence or the righteousness of God shine out with such glory to man as in the sufferings which Christ endured in consequence of this connection with sinnem. As the 1tar11 can only ahow the!Il8elvea at. night, and as e.romatic plants ea, v. 1-21.J TUE SECOND EPIS'fLE TO TUE CORINTHIANS. 127 ----------------- ----------- can only emit their preclot1s odour by pressure, so the highest moral virtues crm only cotne out by suffering and battling with the wrong. What self-sacrificing love, what unconquerable attachment to truth, what loyalty to the infinite Father, what sublime heroism of love, was here exhibited in the incarnation, the beneficent deeds, and over- wholming sufl'orings of Jesus I