Good Friday Sermon: 2 Corinthians 5:21: Christ made ‘to be sin’

Introduction:

Today for our Good Friday meditation we want to try and penetrate the mystery of what Luther calls the greatest words in the Bible from Matthew 27:45-46, ‘Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”’ What was happening that the sky was darkened by God; how could the eternal Son who had enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father cry out about the Father forsaking Him? Paul gives us some insight into what is happening here in 2 Corinthians 5:21, which is the verse we are wanting to exposit this morning, ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ Notice that there are three parties mentioned in this verse, there is us sinful believers, there is God the Father, and there is Jesus. We have an explanation here of Christ’s cry of dereliction and the darkened skies. Christ was being made ‘to be sin.’ When we seek an answer to the question, ‘Why?’ we see the words, ‘for our sake.’

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