The Great Exchange: Our Sin - 2 Corinthians 5:21 (Mar 29) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists.

Glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Father, we bow in your presence.

And Lord, truly it is praise that you deserve.

God, truly it is our joy to reflect on the reality of the historical event of the crucifixion of Christ.

Because Lord, it bears so much significance for us today.

God, it gives us so much reason for joy in a world that is lacking such joy.

It gives us so much reason for hope in a world where everywhere we look, we struggle to find hope, Lord.

Cross gives us so much reason for peace.

And Lord, so it's so practical for us this morning to meditate on it, to sit under its reality, to think about the implications it has on our life and on our eternity, God.

And Lord, as I do this, I trust as your spirit moves in us to truly consider the truth of what Christ accomplished on that day.

God, that you would move us to this place of joy, that you would move us to this place of affection for you.

God, do this work.

Speak to us, Lord.

Speak to us about the very thing that all history pointed to, the cross of Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

We pray that you would find us with hearts that are open to the work that you would do in us as you speak.

We speak, O Lord.

Your servants are listening.

Lord, we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take a seat.

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, you can open it up to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21.

2 Corinthians 5:21

And if you don't have a Bible, the ushers are going to be making their way to the front, and you can flag them down, and they would love to put a copy of God's word into your hands.

And if you don't own a copy of God's word, you can keep this.

This is our gift to you.

God has spoken to us, and we love to hear Him speak.

We love to hear His word at this church.

You know this about your problems.

We've all got problems, don't we?

Some of us probably more than others.

I can see many wives in that statement looking to their husbands, saying there are some people with a lot of problems in this room.

You never solve a problem, though, if you don't believe it exists.

You ever have that experience in life where it's just like out of the blue, like someone turned on the lights in a room, you all of a sudden are aware of this problem that you didn't previously know even existed.

But these problems, when we become aware of them, they have a way of propelling our lives forward for the better.

I'm sure that many of us have the experience of going to the doctor, maybe with something that you thought was small, and realizing that maybe that small thing was a bigger problem than you thought.

And yet there's this great joy when we are aware that this physical health problem can be addressed.

And had we not known its existence, it might have gotten worse, might have become a bigger issue, and yet that trip to the doctor in many ways was a saving trip.

Saving us much pain, maybe even our lives.

See, when we suddenly become aware of a real and threatening problem, as scary as that problem can be, as we look back on it, isn't it often the very thing that propels us to a better place?

That becomes a catalyst for a positive change.

I believe that it's for this very reason that Christianity has lost its relevance today in our culture, and maybe today you're here this morning and you feel that that statement very much is relevant for you, that Christianity is just no longer relevant for us.

And I feel that the reason for that is that because the cross of Christ and Christianity, it solves a problem that we just don't really feel the weight of anymore.

The cross of Christ answers a question that in many ways none of us are asking anymore.

And it provides a solution that we just don't feel we really need.

And so this morning, the very beginning of our Good Friday service, it becomes important to ask this question.

A question I hope that you'll truly reflect on in this moment.

And the question is this Are there any problems between you and God?

Do you and God have any problems?

Is there anything in that relationship that you could describe as a problem?

Throughout history, there's been multiple different answers to this question.

There are many who, as they've thought about their relationship with God, have kind of thought, well, well, I'm good because I've sort of lived a life of good works.

And on that day that I stand before the Lord, I think I can show that that there are many things that I have done that that would put me in God's favor.

Really, for the entire history of humanity, that's been the answer to our problem with God.

And yet today I think that likely many of us address this issue a different way.

Many of us probably don't even really think about God.

Isn't that true that we live in a day and age where God is just kind of an afterthought?

Something that maybe every once in a while pops in our mind, but we very quickly sort of distract ourselves thinking about something else.

And we kind of live with this general feeling that once I get to stand before the Lord, I think everything's gonna be okay.

You know, I've heard that this God is gracious, I've heard that he's forgiving, and I'm sure on that day when I stand before him, I'm sure that he'll be gracious enough to forgive me if there is any sort of problem.

Well, a man named Paul lived in a day and age very similar to this, and in 2 Corinthians we read of his writings.

Paul was surrounded by people who found themselves in the greatest eternal problem they could possibly be in, but did not recognize it.

And in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, he actually tells us that he's made his life mission a mission to tell as many people about the problem that they're in and the solution that has been provided for them.

2 Corinthians 5:20

Look what he says in verse 20 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

He says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

God has a message for us this morning.

And it's a message that he delivered through his apostle Paul, and he delivers to us this morning through his word.

And the message is this be reconciled.

Now, no matter what your answer to that question, is there any problems with you and God is, the reality is that God speaks to that question, and he says this that the problem is that you are in need of reconciliation.

There is a problem between you and God.

God speaks to this.

And his message for all is that you are in conflict.

Is that not what reconciliation implies?

It's a word of war, isn't it?

In fact, ambassador is too, an ambassador is something, someone who is sent on behalf of a nation to speak on their behalf.

And here is Paul speaking to us this morning on God's behalf to say this: be reconciled.

You are in conflict.

There is something you need to do to make peace where there is enity.

This is a great problem we have.

And so before we go any further, let me stop us here and ask this question.

Do you believe what God says about you?

Do you believe that you are in conflict with God?

Already this morning, God has been speaking.

And his message to you this morning is this be reconciled.

And so here we stop for a moment and we consider this from the perspective of the creator.

I mean, it really does not matter what you think.

It really does not matter what I think about where our standing with the Lord, so long as God speaks about it.

When God speaks, I be quiet and I listen.

This is God, this is the one who created the universe, and this sovereign creator and ruler has spoken into our relationship and said this there is a problem here.

God created us, and we've sinned against him.

And even if our sin has been in the tiniest little way, our sin is this attack on God's sovereignty.

It is an attack on his rule.

And God looks at us this morning and he says, Because of your sin, because you have attacked my rule in your life, you are guilty of treason.

In fact, I love how one pastor describes sin.

Sin is cosmic treason.

It is this attack against God's kingdom.

And I want you to understand, this is not my opinion on sin.

This is not your opinion on sin.

This is God's opinion on sin.

He says this to you this morning: you are in conflict.

There is a need for reconciliation.

And this weekend is all about the solution that God has provided.

And in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, Paul gets to the solution, to the way that we can be reconciled.

2 Corinthians 5:21

And his solution is very much the cross.

I want you to see what Paul says about the cross and how it's our solution this morning.

And the first thing I want you to see here in 2 Corinthians 5 21 is that the cross was our prerequisite.

The cross was a necessity for us.

Look at how Paul begins his message of reconciliation.

This is the very message in this verse that he had become an ambassador for.

Paul loved this message.

I'm going to read it in full, and then I want to return to the first few words with you this morning.

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

Look at those first three words there.

Beautiful in their fullness.

It says this, for our sake.

For our sake.

Here we're asking this question: what made the cross necessary?

And the answer is this us.

We made the cross necessary.

It says one well-known hymn describes it was our sin that held him there until it was accomplished.

At the very heart of Good Friday is this reality that it was our salvation that moved Jesus to come to earth with a cross-driven mission.

Jesus said this himself.

He said he came to seek and save the lost.

And who are the lost but those who we just described who are in conflict with God, who are in enmity with him.

Paul doubles down on this again in verse 21, reminding us that it was for our sake, for in a few short words, he says this that Christ knew no sin.

Surely it couldn't have been for Christ's sake that he was crucified, for he never sinned.

Christ didn't die for his own sake, he had no penalty to pay.

The cross was for our sake because the sin was our sin.

The sin was your sin.

The sin was my sin.

This is the way the law works.

You commit a crime against a sovereign rule, and there is a penalty for that crime, and it must be paid.

Now, you and I, we want to live in a world with justice, don't we?

Isn't that true?

Like a human need is really, or human desire, really, is this this desire to live in a world that is filled with justice.

Don't you want evildoers to pay for their wrong?

We want that, and it saddens our heart that in many ways in this world we live in, there's not justice for the evildoers.

That saddens our heart.

When people who do truly despicable acts get away with it, we long that justice would be satisfied.

Now here's the problem with that longing that is in each one of our hearts.

The problem is that if we long for a world that is filled with justice, we also need to recognize when we find ourselves on the wrong side of that justice.

You see, in God we find justice.

God is just.

Well, what does that mean?

It means this that God at every single moment of all eternity has been committed to doing what is right.

He's just.

In fact, we sort of feel that, don't we?

As we read stories of Genesis 1 and 2 and 3, we have this feeling that when Adam and Eve sinned, it was pretty plain and simple, wasn't it?

They were told if you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die.

And having eaten of that tree, you expect them to do just that, to die.

But that was not the case because God had another plan.

And here we're reading of the primary mover in the cross.

Who was the one who was responsible for the cross?

And here Paul says it was God.

He made him to be sin.

God was the one who offered up Jesus as an answer to our greatest problem.

This is why when Jesus came, they said this in John 1.21 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He came as a sacrificial lamb.

He came with one mission, with one purpose.

The day that he was born, he was born in the shadow of a cross.

Every step he took as a child was a step towards the cross.

He was marching to Jerusalem his whole entire life with this plan to die on the cross for the salvation of God's people.

And so we ask ourselves this question: who really crucified Christ?

Who's to blame?

The answer has multiple sides.

There were many secondary actors as we consider the story of the crucifixion.

The one hand it was the religious leaders, wasn't it?

Matthew 26, verse 3 to 4 says, Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

Matthew 26:3–4

And yet, on the other hand, wasn't it Pontius Pilate, who just did he didn't have the guts to do what is right, so he handed them, handed Jesus over to the crowds.

But in that light, we could also say that it was kind of Israel's fault, wasn't it?

Like they were the one in the crowds who were yelling, crucify him, crucify him.

It was their choice to crucify Jesus.

And on the other hand, it was also Satan's.

If Satan wasn't involved, Judas wouldn't have betrayed Jesus.

And on that note, we could also say that it's kind of Judas' fault, isn't it?

All sorts of secondary actors, and we need to ask this question: who was responsible?

And yet Scripture tells us this that there was one primary mover, and it was God.

In fact, Peter says in Acts chapter 2, verse 23, he says, This Jesus, listen to this, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Acts 2:23

You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

The cross was God's definite plan.

The cross was always the direction that God was moving the history of humanity.

Everything pointed to a cross.

And for all of eternity, everything will point back to that very same cross.

This was God's idea.

Jesus knew this.

That's why we read in the Garden of Ghessene, he's praying to the Father, asking the Father to take this cup from him, knowing that it was the Father.

It was the Father whose cup of wrath was to be poured out on him on the cross.

That's why Isaiah 53 prophesies it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

This was God's plan.

And in this moment, we can just take a moment to pause and consider here the love of God and the indefinite plan of the cross of Christ.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

I can't imagine it as I consider it.

What kind of love could drive a father to give his son like this?

I can't imagine the feeling of God watching his son be crushed for our iniquities.

I know a microcosm of it as a parent.

I know what it's like to watch your child suffer.

And I know how even the deepest suffering that I've been able to experience, in a moment I would trade spots with my child to take that suffering from them.

And yet here is God who this morning wants you to know this, that he loves you with such a great degree that he was willing for your iniquities to crush his son so that you might be reconciled to him.

God loves you.

And the cross is evidence in that at any point during those excruciating days of pain, God could have stopped it, but he did not.

He crushed Jesus for you.

And that is indeed what happened.

He was crushed, which leads to our next point.

The cross was Jesus' pain.

The cross was Christ's pain.

This is what Paul says.

That is, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin.

He made him to be sin who knew no sin.

On the cross, Christ was made sin.

Do you see those words there?

He was made into the very face of sin itself.

Remember our definition of sin, that sin is cosmic treason.

Sin is an assault against God's kingdom.

And here on the cross, Christ becomes a cosmic criminal.

He takes on a new identity.

Christ was the Son of God.

Christ was the Messiah, but in these moments, he was made sin.

In these moments, he identified as this a cosmic criminal.

In this moment, the sin of all those who Would believe in Jesus was placed on his shoulders so that he himself became a lawbreaker.

He himself became a curse.

He himself became the penalty.

Being made sin, he suffered for sin.

Surely, as we consider his suffering, a great part of it was the physical pain that he endured.

It was a physical pain that we expected all sinners to experience.

We expected Adam and Eve to experience this physical pain and for judgment to come immediately, but it was mercy for God to withhold this physical punishment, withhold it to a day that He would lay it on the shoulders of His own Son.

Crucifixion was an excruciating physical pain.

As the New Testament writers speak of it, they don't go into much detail because they didn't need to.

Most of those who would read the gospel had a mental picture as they read those words, they crucified Christ.

They had a mental picture of the many crucifixions that they had witnessed in their life, of the many criminals they had seen bearing the physical agony of crucifixion.

A physician writing in the journal of American Medical Association wrote these words about the crucifixion.

Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up the feet and flexing the elbows.

However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain.

Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves.

Muscle cramps of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort.

As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and would lead eventually to aphyxia.

Yet, as bad as this physical pain was for Christ, it points us to a greater pain.

It points us to the greater pain of bearing sin.

If you're a Christian, you know this pain to some degree.

You know the pain of having let down God.

You know the spiritual agony of being in sin and knowing how much God has done for you and having enjoyed that fellowship with God and yet doing something to rupture that fellowship and cause separation between you and God.

Maybe you're not a Christian, maybe you don't know that, but surely you know that in a human relationship, you know what it's like to let down someone that you love and for there to be this maybe temporary but surely painful separation caused between you and that person.

And here on the cross, Christ took on that pain, and it was greater than we could ever know because we're told here that Christ knew no sin.

For all of eternity, Christ had never experienced a degree of separation from his father, but in this moment, there is this heavy weight of guilt and shame poured on his shoulders because he was made to be sin.

The perfect Son of God, having never experienced a degree of separation, just the slightest amount of sin would have caused him the greatest agony you could ever imagine, greater agony than you could ever know in your own life.

And yet it wasn't a slight amount of sin.

On Christ's shoulders, the sins of many were placed, of all who would believe in him.

Imagine the weight not only of all your sin, but of all my sin and of all the sin of everyone who would ever believe in Jesus Christ, every single sin causing more and more separation from his Father, experiencing more than you could ever feel, with this an intensity of emotions you can never possibly imagine, experiencing every degree of separation, for there is nothing that he loved more than to be nearer to God the Father, and yet on the cross he would cry out these words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In that moment, the Father's gaze, whom he'd had grown for all of eternity to love so much, would turn away from him as Christ was made despised, despicable because of our sin.

Christ was made to be sin, and on that cross, he needed to face the weight of eternal punishment for all those who would believe.

Why?

The fourth thing I want you to see here is that the cross was sin's payment.

The cross was sin's payment.

Friends, look at these words.

For our sake, he made him to be sin.

He made him to be sin.

Consider what God has done.

He has taken the sins that could not be removed from your shoulders, even with an eternal punishment.

You could never pay the debt.

That's why the consequences of our sin is eternal separation.

Because you could spend all of eternity trying to pay your debt in torment, and you would never begin to scratch the surface of the eternal debt that you owe to Jesus Christ.

The eternal weight of your sin was placed on the shoulders of Jesus Christ.

There was a transaction out of your spiritual bank account came your eternal debt.

And into spirit into Christ's spiritual bank account went your eternal debt.

Transaction.

God took your sin.

You know, it means something for us this morning.

It means that that God needs something from us.

You know that?

God needs something from you.

I don't know if you ever heard those those words maybe from a boss or from your spouse or something.

They're pretty terrifying words, aren't they?

Feeling the weight of someone else needing something from you.

And if salvation would be possible, I want you to understand God needs something from you.

You know what it is?

It's our sin.

It's the one absolutely necessary thing that Jesus needs to take from you if he will make salvation possible for you.

He needs your sin.

I love what Jonathan Edwards says.

He says, You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.

So the question remains for us this morning: have you given Jesus what he needs to make your reconciliation possible?

Have you given Jesus your sin?

You know, it's quite amazing, isn't it?

Because as we consider what we need to give Jesus, don't each of us kind of go to this like this like warrior mentality, well, I better give him my righteousness, I better give him the best life I could possibly live for him, I better give him all my righteous works and more.

I better devote my entire life, every waking moment to him.

That's what I need to give him if he's gonna save me.

I just gotta try harder, I just gotta do more.

And Christ looks at us and he says, I don't need any of that.

I have all the righteousness I need for all of eternity.

The only thing I need is your sin.

And we look to God and we say, Well, then if you're gonna take my sin, then I'm gonna live my life for you with the most strength that I can muster.

I'm gonna with as much power as I can.

I'm gonna give my life to you, I'm gonna do everything for you, God.

And God says, I don't need any of your power.

I have all the power I need, I don't have any of weakness.

Only thing that God needs from us is our sin and our weakness.

And the amazing thing is that it's something that each of us has.

And the question for us this morning is have you given that to Jesus?

Have you given that to Jesus?

He was made sin, but he had none of his own.

He needs your sin.

Your salvation is possible, so that he can take it on his shoulders and pay the call the cost.

Why is this Friday good?

Why do we call this Good Friday?

Because the one thing God needs for our reconciliation we have.

We all have it.

God takes our sin, He imputes it to Christ, He places it on Christ's shoulders, and Christ joyfully takes it to the cross to make payment.

What does that mean for our problem with God?

What does it mean for the reality of our cosmic treason?

It means that if you understand that the solution, that is the cross, you have a great reason to call this day good.

Because on this day, you were given your only hope.

You were given your only solution to your greatest eternal problem.

And you can call this day good so long as you have come to love the cross, this despicable and gory instrument of brutal death.

Can you call it a joy?

Do you love the cross?

Worship team's gonna come up and lead us in a song, and shortly we're gonna turn to the communion.

To communion.

As we take communion, we recognize this that this is only for those who have given their sin to Jesus.

There is an exchange here, and you should have received a cup when you came in.

If you didn't, the ushers are gonna come to the front right now, and you can flag them down and they'll get you the juice and the cracker.

And as you hold these, the the worship team's gonna sing a song over you, and I just encourage you, maybe you can stay seated and close your eyes and bow your head, or read the words and reflect on the words of this song.

I want you, though, to reflect on this reality that the juice in the cracker, which symbolize the blood in the flesh of Jesus, the blood that was spilled, the flesh that was pierced.

The reason why this is Good Friday is because it's not your blood.

It's not your flesh.

Should be, will be if you don't place your faith in Jesus Christ.

It'll be your eternal torment.

But through faith, it doesn't have to be.

Through faith, it was Christ's blood that was spilled.

Through faith, it was Christ's flesh that was pierced.

And as we take the cup and the bread, we're reminded that it was pierced for our sake.

That it was for our sake that He made Him to be sin who knew no sin.

And so the worship team is going to sing this song over us, and in a few moments I'll come back up and lead us in the taking of communion.

But let's set our hearts in time of reflection on what Christ has done.