"Being Thankful for II Cor. 5:21"

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now let's get to the word of God. Now I don't know about you, but I would suspect that you, like I, gave thanks to God for some things this weekend. Maybe some of us thank God for our jobs or for our families or for our homes or for our health. Or maybe we thank God for our children and our grandchildren or for our friends or for our parents. Maybe many of us thank God for America for the men and women in uniform that are out there right now defending our nation.

You know, I thank God for all those things. But I thank God for something else this week, too. It was a verse from the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. And the reason I thanked God for this verse is because if it weren't for the truth of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, none of us would have our sins forgiven today. If it weren't for the truth of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, none of us would have eternal life today. If it weren't for the truth of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, none of us would be on our way to heaven when we left this earth. And so I want to talk to us today about 2 Corinthians 5, 21, because I believe it is one of the greatest verses in all the Word of God. As a matter of fact, I believe it's so great that it ought to be hung in every NFL end zone at the stadium right next to John 3, 16. You say, wow, must be a great verse.

It is. And here's what it says. Let me read the whole verse to you.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become righteous in God's sight through him. Now this verse is made up of four separate phrases. And what I want us to do is look at each one of these phrases individually and squeeze out of them all of the spiritual truth God put in them. And then we'll put the verse back together. And I'm telling you, it's going to rejoice our hearts when we see what this is really saying.

So are you ready? All right, here we go. Phrase number one, God made him who knew no sin. Now the him here is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible tells us that he knew no sin, that the Lord Jesus was a sinless being who lived a sinless life. And this truth is of monumental importance theologically because to be John 1, 29, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he, the Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be, Exodus 12, 5 tells us, blemishless, perfect, without defect or fault or sin in any way.

But there's a problem. And the problem is that the Bible also tells us that every human being born from the union of sperm and egg has a sin nature. Listen, 1 John 1, verse 8 says, if we have no sin nature, if we say we have no sin nature, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. And David was referring to this very thing when he said in Psalm 51, verse 5, in sin did my mother conceive me. Now what David is talking about here is not that his mother conceived him as the result of some kind of sexual sin.

That's not what he's talking about. He is referring to the fact that when he was conceived in his mother's womb, righteously and beautifully by his father and his mother, he inherited this sin nature that Adam and Eve's disobedience to God brought on the entire human race. This is what the Apostle Paul is talking about, Romans 5, 19, when he says through the disobedience of one man, Adam, all of us were made sinners. And this is a problem because if the Lord Jesus Christ had possessed a sin nature, then he wouldn't have been a sinless being and he wouldn't have lived a sinless life, which means he couldn't have been the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And my friends, as many of you know, this is what the virgin birth is all about. It made sure that the body of Jesus was not the result of human sperm and human egg meeting, which means that Jesus' body did not have a sin nature, which means, Hebrews 4.15, that Jesus was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin, which means that Jesus was able to meet the criteria and meet the conditions that the Passover lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world had to meet. Jesus knew no sin. Phrase 2, God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf.

And where did this happen? Well friends, it happened on the cross. In a divine transaction that you and I will never understand, the Bible says that as the Lord Jesus Christ hung on that cross, that God laid upon him all the sins of the world. Listen, Isaiah 53 verse 6, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sins of us all. The apostle Paul reverberates the same truth in the New Testament. He said, Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us on the cross.

You say, Law, wait a minute. How did God do this? I mean, what was the precise mechanism that God did to transfer all the sin of the world onto Jesus as he hung on the cross? Well friend, how in the world do I know? I don't know, but I'll tell you what I do know. Let me tell you what I do know.

What I do know is that the Bible says that this transfer did take place. And what I do know is that the Bible says that we don't need to understand it and we don't need to explain it and we don't need to be able to decline it. All we need to do, the Bible says, is to believe it and to embrace it and to appropriate it for our own lives and take advantage of it.

That's what I know. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us on the cross. Phrase number three, that we might become righteous in God's sight. Folks, this is the great news of the Bible, that because of what Jesus did for you and me on the cross, shedding his blood to pay for our sin, you and I, as unholy as we are, can become righteous in God's sight. There it is. There it is. That's what the whole Bible is about. And listen, Romans 10 verse 4, Jesus Christ is the end of the law for what? For righteousness to everyone who believes.

Man, do I love that. To everyone. Friends, you don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to dress yourself up. You don't have to wash yourself up.

You don't have to fix yourself up. All you got to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to everyone, doesn't matter what you've done, where you've been, what you've said, none of that matters. To everyone, they become righteous in God's sight. Chapter five of Romans, verse one. Therefore, Paul writes, having been declared what? Righteous in God's sight by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God buries the hatchet with us because of our Lord Jesus Christ. And finally, Romans 5 19. For just as through the disobedience of one man, Adam, many were made sinners. So through the obedience of one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, many will be made what?

What? Righteous. Yes. Say, but Lon, we're not really righteous. I mean, even after we trust Christ as our Savior, we're still sinners through and through. Isn't that correct?

Totally correct. You say, well, then I don't get it. How in the world, I don't see, how can God see me as righteous when I'm not righteous? My friends, that is a profound theological question. Profound.

And we're going to answer it. Except we're not going to answer it with a profound answer because I'm not a profound person. Actually, I don't claim to be a profound person. I hate profundity because I can't even understand what people are talking about. I'm not an intellectual.

I'm not a pseudo intellectual. I'm a simple guy. And I like things simple. How about you? You like things simple? Yeah.

So let me answer your question with a simple but correct answer. How can God see us as righteous when we're really not? Well, friends, it's a lot like Superman, to be honest with you. You remember Superman had all these great powers, you remember? And one of these great powers that he had was what?

X-ray vision. Remember that? Yeah?

Yeah? Okay. But there was one thing Superman could not see through.

What was it? Lead. Kryptonite? No. Kryptonite's what killed him. No, no, no. Go read Superman.

No. It was lead. Lead he couldn't see through.

Right? So if you were hiding behind a lead screen, even with all of his powers, Superman could not see you, could he? All he could see was that lead screen. Now, friends, this is exactly the way the blood of Jesus Christ works. God is Superman.

His judgment is his X-ray vision. And the blood of Jesus Christ is that lead screen. And when you and I are behind it, God doesn't see us.

He sees the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ and that's where it stops. When we hide behind the blood of Christ as our one and only payment for sin, that blood is that lead screen that hides our sin from God's judgment. And you know, this is exactly the way the Passover lamb worked. If you remember, 3500 years ago in Egypt, God said to the Israelites, I want you to take the blood of the Passover lamb, put it on the doorpost of your house, then get inside of your house and hide behind that blood, Exodus 12, 12, for I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn and I will execute judgment for I am the Lord and the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are for when I see the blood.

I will pass over you. No plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. Now folks, remember, any Israelite out in the streets that night and not behind a blood-stained door lost his firstborn son. And any Egyptian, we don't know that there were any, but any Egyptian who might have been behind a blood-stained Israelite door had his firstborn spared.

Why? Because the issue that night was not nationality. It was not religion.

It was not fame or fortune or power. It was the blood. And who was hiding behind the blood?

Now friends, this is still the issue today. When we hide behind the blood of Jesus Christ, the way these Israelites hid behind the blood of the Passover lamb, God agrees to pass over us in judgment just like he passed over them 3500 years ago. And why does God do this? Ah, because God no longer sees us and our unrighteousness.

He only sees the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood as our Passover lamb shielding our sins from view behind His perfect righteousness. Now, do you understand that? Do you get that? Superman is God. X-ray vision is God's judgment. The blood of Christ is the lead screen and people behind it are saved. Do you get that?

Do you see that? All right. Well, we need to say praise the Lord or thank God or something for that.

Huh? Amen. And let me just say, I've just shared with you the greatest theological truth in the history of all mankind. And it deserves more than, can we give it an appropriate round of applause? Amen.

Now you're cooking with gas. Now we're good. Now, but there's a fourth phrase. We can't leave it out.

Here we go. God made him who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus, to become sin on our behalf on the cross, that we might become righteous in God's sight because of His blood. Here comes phrase number four, that we might become righteous in God's sight through Him. This is the grandest transaction in the history of the human race. But friends, this transaction only takes place at one location in the universe, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross, which is why Jesus declared John 14 six, I am the way, the truth and the life. Here comes the operative word.

You ready? Nobody. That's your operative word. Nobody gets into heaven unless they get there by way of me. Don't you let anybody tell you that all roads lead to God and it doesn't matter which road you take.

We're all going to end up at the same place. That's not true. That's not true. That is a lie of the devil. And you follow that and you will end up in hell, my friends.

It's just that simple. That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said nobody gets in the heaven except through me. And don't you let anybody tell you that Jesus himself never claimed to be the only way to get into heaven and get to God, but that his followers made that up later.

That is not true. That is a lie of the devil, and that will land you in hell also. Jesus claimed that he was the only way to get into heaven over and over and over again. If you're going to reject Jesus, at least reject him for what he's really saying.

But I hope you won't. I hope you'll accept him for what he's really saying, that it's only through him. This is why Peter said, Acts chapter four, verse 12, he said, salvation can be found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Confucius, not Joseph Smith, not Mary Baker Eddy, not L. Ron Hubbard, not Rabbi anybody. There is no other name under heaven by whom we can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ.

There is only one location in the universe where God's judgment is blocked and doesn't see through to us, and that is in Jesus Christ, period, period, exclamation point. That's it. Amen?

That's it. So let's repeat our verse. God made him who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, to become sin on our behalf on the cross that we might become righteous in God's sight through him. And as followers of Christ, this is what we celebrate when we celebrate communion.

We celebrate the fact that we stand righteous in the sight of a holy God because of the blood covering that the sinless Messiah provided for us on the cross. Friends, one of the greatest verses in the Bible, it sums up the entire gospel in one verse. And it should hang not only in every end zone, in every stadium, in the NFL, but friends, this verse should hang in our hearts. You know, Thanksgiving weekend, my wife and I drove down to see my youngest son, John, who is working at Duke Hospital. And as you know, I went to Chapel Hill. And so I tried to talk him into working for UNC, but it didn't work.

So I walked in, we walked into his home to visit him and his family. And here on the floor is this Duke sweatshirt. And I was like, what? Are you serious?

You can't be serious. And he's like, well, Dad, I needed a sweatshirt. It gets cold down here. And I said, dude, drive to Chapel Hill. It's eight miles away. I'll pay you for the gas.

What are you doing? Well, anyway, it was painful. Really was. But on Thanksgiving Day, John said, hey, Dad, how would you like to drive over to Chapel Hill and just kind of show us a few of, you know, those special places you remember? And I said, I'd really like that, John. And so we drove over. I hadn't been to Chapel Hill in 25 years because, well, I don't know.

There's just a lot of painful memories there and there was no reason particularly to go there. So we drove over and one of the places I showed them was the very spot on Franklin Street, downtown Chapel Hill, where I first met Bob Eckhart, the man who shared Christ with me. I remember the exact square of concrete on the sidewalk where he was standing right near the post office. And then I showed him right where Bob Eckhart was standing when he gave me my very first Bible to read, which happened to be right on the very same square of concrete. And then I showed them where it was when I first told Bob Eckhart that I'd asked Jesus Christ into my life. Actually, it was the same square.

Bob always went to the same square of concrete. And as we stood there, well, actually, we didn't stand there as we rode by there. I, you know, I wasn't sure how I was going to react, but I got very emotional, which surprised me a little bit. But, you know, I just remembered myself as a 22-year-old college student, lost as a jaybird, having no idea where I was going, where I came from, what I was going to do with my life, with being so self-destructive, it was unlikely I'd even last out of my 30s. And meeting this man who's talked to me about the power of the cross. You know, folks, I've never recovered from the power of the cross. And I hope that you know the power of the cross in your life.

I really do. I hope you can remember a block of concrete or a piece of grass or a church pew or whatever, where the power of the cross suddenly became yours. Because if you can, you've never gotten over it either. That's what we celebrate here every week. Not religion, but the power of the cross. And thank God, the power of the cross. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for summing up in this one verse the entire message of the Bible. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that we would embrace this truth and make it ours. That we would avail ourselves of what Jesus did for us on the cross. And that it would hang in our hearts as a mighty banner, summarizing everything we believe, everything we are, and everything we stand for.

Summarizing our entire hope. So, Lord, speak to us deeply from this verse today. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

And God's people said, Amen. You've been listening to So What with Dr. Lon Solomon. So What is an outreach of Lon Solomon Ministries. To listen to today's message or for more information, visit our website, lonsolomonministries.org. Thank you for your support. If you would like to contact us, please visit our website or call us at 866-788-7770. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So What.