As the Reality of the Sin Offering, Christ was Made Sin on our Behalf on the Cross

The matter of the sin offering is very important to our Christian life and experience, for as the reality of the sin offering, Christ was made sin on our behalf.

In carrying out His purpose, God gives us only one person and only one way. The unique person in God’s purpose is Christ, for Christ and His body can fulfill God’s purpose to have a corporate expression and representation on earth. The unique way God takes to solve all problems is the cross.

Christ as the reality of the sin offering deals with four great problems – sin, the serpentine nature or the fallen human beings, the works of the devil, and the devil himself. The devil is the first and unique sinner, and he who practices sin by habitually living in sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning.

From the time when an archangel rebelled against God and attempted to overthrow His time and authority, Satan is the source of sin. The nature of the devil is sin, his life is a life of sin, and this is what he is and does all the time.

Even more, all those born of Adam, all human beings, are born as sons of the devil because of the fall of man; Satan is an evil father be getting children who are the same in life and nature as their father (John 8:44; 1 John 3:10). The devilish children or the devil want to do the desires of their father.

Satan was a murderer from the beginning, with him there is no truth, and when he speaks a lie he speaks out of his own possession. He is a liar and a father of lies, and everything he says is a lie. We as sons of the devil by human birth are serpentine in nature, and through such beings the devil can do many of is works.

But praise the Lord, Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh. Christ as the reality of the sin offering is a decisive, complete, and once for all solution to all these problems.

Hallelujah, Christ is the reality of the sin offering, and on the cross He was made sin on our behalf so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!

May the Lord open our eyes to see Him as such a One, and may any veils of past knowledge, religion, and worldliness be removed from us that we may see, enjoy, and experience Christ as the reality of the sin offering in our Christian life and church life.

As the Reality of the Sin Offering, Christ was Made Sin on our Behalf on the Cross

The reality of the sin offering ordained by God for His people in Lev. 4:3 is Christ; He was made sin on our behalf, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

First of all, to set things straight, Christ never sinned, neither was He sinful; the Bible tells us that He came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He did not have sin in the flesh. We don’t understand how can this be, but what we know is that God became a man, and the essence of Christ as the first God-man is God Himself.

Christ is the God-man who never knew sin nor did ever commit a sin, and He didn’t sin by contact or personal experience (see John 8:46; 1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15; 7:26).

Sin came from Satan – the one who rebelled against God (see Isa. 14:12-14); this sin entered into man and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment (Rom. 5:12).

Now man is sin itself, and man is to be judged by God. Yet the most wonderful thing happened: Christ became a man in the flesh (John 1:14), and He was made sin (not sinful but sin itself) on our behalf on the cross to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him! Wow!

When Christ was on the cross, He never had committed any sin, not was He worthy of this kind of death; yet because He had the flesh (without the sin in the flesh), God considered Him as sin and judged sin in the flesh.

Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and He went to the cross in the flesh; when His flesh was crucified, sin was condemned because sin is related to the flesh. God judged Jesus on the cross because He was a man in the flesh (without any sin in the flesh but still having the likeness of the flesh of sin), and so He judged sin.

When God judged Jesus, He judged the flesh and sin.

The Lord Himself spoke of His crucifixion and its result in John 3:14 when He said that just as Moses raised the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so He will be raised up, and He will draw all men to Himself.

The bronze serpent was raised on a pole in the wilderness; this serpent had the likeness of the snakes that were biting the Israelites, but it didn’t have its poison.

Christ was raised on the cross to be the bronze serpent; He didn’t have the poison of sin, but He had the likeness of the flesh of sin, so God judged sin in the flesh. He was not only a sinful person in likeness, even as the bronze serpent was a serpent in form, but He was also made sin by God.

This is both mysterious and wonderful, for if Jesus had not been made sin, sin could not have been judged when He was crucified. Hallelujah, Christ as the reality of the sin offering was made sin for us on the cross, and God judged sin in the flesh!

Thank You Lord for dying for us on the cross. You who knew no sin were made sin on our behalf so that God may judge sin in the flesh. Lord, we take You as the reality of the sin offering. We deserve to die, for we not only sin but also are sin, but You came and You who knew no sin were made sin on our behalf so that we may become the righteousness of God in You. Thank You Lord. Thank You for going through this process so that sin might be judged and condemned. We believe into You, Jesus Christ!

Christ Died for us as our Substitute: He was made Sin for us, and He was Judged by God once for all

When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t die as a martyr nor was He merely murdered (Acts 7:52); rather, in the eyes of God He was the unique sinner at that moment (Matt. 27:45-46), and God judged Him once and for all.

Because we were not only sinful but also sin itself – we were the constitution of sin, the embodiment of sin (see Rom. 5:12, 19; 6:6; 7:7, 11, 17, 23) – Christ came to die for us. After God laid our sins upon the crucified Christ, God considered Him as the unique sinner (Isa. 53:6b, 11c, 12d; 1 Pet. 2:24).

It is a great light and a great release to see this; this will break our self-confidence and terminate our efforts for self-improvement, for we know that our flesh is sin itself.

When Christ died on the cross as our Substitute, God considered Him not only as the One who bears all our sins, but as sin itself; therefore, God judged sin in the flesh by judging Christ on the cross.

Now in His resurrection Christ comes into us as life, and this life lives within us to constitute us into the righteousness of God. Christ died as our Substitute on the cross – He is the reality of the sin offering – and now in resurrection He constitutes us to be the righteousness of God in Him.

On the cross Christ was the Lamb of God, and on Him God put all the sins of all men (see 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:28). Furthermore, God didn’t just put all our sins on Christ, but He considered this One – the One who knew no sin – to be the unique sinner, even sin itself, so God judged Christ on our behalf on the cross. This is truly amazing.

This displays God’s wisdom and mercy. God allowed Satan to rebel, and He allows Satan to corrupt mankind, but He also provided a way to be saved – He came as a Man, lived a perfect human life, and He died as our Substitute on the cross to be the reality of the sin offering.

Now by believing into the Lord, our sin is terminated and condemned, and our sins are cleansed and forgiven. By faith in Christ and by living one spirit with Him, sin in our flesh is judged, and we can live in the mingled spirit to fulfill God’s purpose spontaneously.

We can do this because Christ as our Substitute was judged by God once for all, so now we don’t need to be judged – we simply have to believe into Him!

During the last three hours on the cross, Christ was made sin in the sight of God, and God condemned sin in the flesh; Christ as our Substitute was judged by God once and for all.

He became the unique sin-man, so that God may judge sin in His flesh. Now by believing into Him, we are saved, our sin is condemned, and our sins are forgiven. Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we thank You for dying on the cross as our Substitute. You took our place on the cross to die for us, and You were judged on our behalf once for all. Thank You Lord for taking all our sins upon You and even becoming sin in the sight of God. Oh Lord, thank You for Your vicarious death on the cross. We believe into You, and we accept Your unique sacrifice by faith. You terminated sin, You condemned sin in the flesh, and You took away all our sins. Thank You Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 71 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 7, The Reality of the Sin Offering, the Bronze Serpent, and the Destruction of the Devil.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The Righteous on behalf / Of all unrighteous men, / Was judged upon the cross / To save us from our sins; / Removed the barrier and redeemed / To bring us back to God, / All praise to Jesus, Lamb of God! (Song on, Our Trespass Offering)
  # God has not overlooked our sin, / But judged it once for all; / His righteous fury, not on us, / But on His Lamb did fall. / A new and living way is made— / We stand on legal ground; / Our Surety and our Substitute / Has pardon for us found. (Hymns #1126)
  # Praise Him! praise Him! Christ is Victor! / He has won the victory! / Sin is judged, old Adam finished, / Full redemption now we see! / Vanquished all the evil powers / Thru the Cross triumphantly! (Hymns #124)