Following on from yesterday’s post where God and Jesus are one, they are kenotic, self-emptying; Jesus never acts in a way that is ‘although’ he was God but because he was God, I am coming today with a quick look at the cross and one of the central passages that suggests that righteousness is ‘imputed’ to us (so central to Reformed theology).
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Lest one think I understand all this, let me return that I had feedback that the chapter on the cross in Humanising the Divine was the ‘most disappointing chapter’. Ah well!! So with that as background you now will have to take what I write seriously, pressing on…
- Two locations: Jesus at the Cross, and ‘we’ in Jesus.
- Two contrasts: ‘sin’ and ‘righteousness’.
I will try and hold those two in the forefront.
The wider passage is about the ministry of reconciliation given to Paul / the apostles / and I think by implication to the body of Christ. The message of reconciliation is based on God’s act in Christ – he was ‘in Christ’ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19). There is no sense that at the cross God turned away from Jesus, forsook him, could not look on ‘sin’. He was present there, the cross is not about the separation of the Trinity but about an incredible expression of the unity of the Trinity. (And to push it home Jesus was not reconciling God to the world!)
I think to gain some understanding of what takes place at the cross it is helpful to quote the same writer (Paul) in one of his other letters, Romans 8:3,
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
Sin is condemned, has its final judgement at the cross. It is not that Jesus became ‘a sinner’, or that something was imputed to him (Reformation theology) and then on the other side something is imputed to us. Jesus is not condemned, sin is condemned.
Sin (singular – as a power, a dominating ruling force) is condemned at the cross, it is dealt with. As a result we can be released from that power (release being the root of forgiveness, and I do not think we should project from us to God our understanding of forgiveness… that he holds something against us until… another discussion). It is for this reason I think the ‘made to be sin’ is using the word ‘sin’ in the (not uncommon way) to mean ‘sin-offering’, a way the word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. I appreciate there is a lot of discussion around this, so this is not convincing to all. However…
Add in the second part of the verse, the part where we have the result of the cross, the contrast of ‘righteousness’ and ‘sin’. It does not say that we will understand righteousness, we will receive righteousness or that we will be declared righteous, with it being imputed to us, or something of that order. It says so that we might become (in him) the righteousness of God.
- The location: ‘in him’.
- The people: ‘we’.
- The manifestation (not the status): righteousness.
The cross brought an end to the rule of sin, so that a new people could be formed. And here is the challenge. A new people where the righteousness of God could be made visible. God is righteous? How do we know that? Look here at these people! That is somewhat beyond imputation. And a most provocative challenge indeed. Talk of a high calling!
In contrast to this we declare that sin has been judged. How do we know? Look at the cross. The one who knew no sin, who was not ever under its power, became the location where it was judged.
- He became the place where it was judged / the sin-offering.
- So that there might be a place where righteousness is manifest.
What does that righteousness look like? Well at the heart of this passage is reconciliation, bringing together what has been divided. If righteousness is revealed then reconciliation will be there fruit. How can there be a people who carry out this work, that proclaim this message, that embody this message? There has to be a people who know that an old system (the domination of sin) has gone and that they know / see that there is a new creation, that something has appeared before their eyes that has totally changed the labels, indeed the labels have gone:
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
One of my recent ‘takes’ on the cross is that it didn’t so much save us from sin but from the knowledge of good and evil. On the cross Jesus identified and entered into what it was like to be in the Tree of knowledge, therefore he experienced what it felt like to be condemned, abandoned and forsaken by ‘God’ – because that is the experience of the human who is caught within the karma wheel of the knowledge of good and evil.
it is also useful to note that ‘sin’ is not only the ‘evil’ or ‘bad’ side (sex, drugs, drink, rock ‘n roll, whatever, – murder, occult etc.) – ‘sin’ is also the good side – self-righteous effort, zeal etc.
just some thoughts to throw into the mix of this very stimulating stuff.
Thanks Stephen. Grateful for what you have written. I have read it just after writing a fresh post on (amongst other things) the prodigal Father. Prodigal son, we think we identify with, because it is probably too painful to identify with the prodigal older brother… and then Jesus just has to push it one step further!