Hi friend, this is Carl Miller and you've tuned to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. For more than five decades, John was the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. And he was Grace to U's one and only Bible teacher for that entire time. Grace to U continues to be the media ministry of John MacArthur. During John's decades of studying, preaching and teaching the Word of God, some consistent themes in his pulpit ministry have been clearly seen.
Call them distinctives of John's ministry, an outworking of his commitment to clear, authoritative, God breathed Scripture. John MacArthur recently went to heaven, and the leadership of Grace to You thought it would only be the right thing to bring you a number of messages that highlight some of John's ministry distinctives. It would be impossible in such a short time to cover all the key themes, but we wanted to hit some of the most significant ones. Today's message is a good example.
So follow along now on Grace to You. Here's John MacArthur to give you profound encouragement from 15 Words of Hope. The verse that we're going to look at is 2 Corinthians 5, 21. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. It says this.
He made him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf. that we might become the righteousness of God. In him. 15 Greek words. And these 15 Greek words translated into English carefully define and perfectly balance.
The mystery of reconciliation. They show us the essence of the atonement. In fact, in the one verse that I read you is the heart of the good news. In that one verse is the most powerful truth in Scripture because it embraces and explains how sinners can be reconciled to God. Here is where the paradox Of redemption is resolved.
Here is where the mystery is solved. Here is where the riddle is answered. Here is where we find how holy justice and perfect love can both be satisfied. How righteousness and mercy can embrace each other. And the truth of this one brief sentence solves the most profound dilemma.
Of how God can reconcile with sinners.
Now as we look at this verse together, I want to point your attention to four elements, four features of the text that unfold its significance, the benefactor, the substitute, the beneficiaries, and the benefits. That really sums up How God can reconcile sinners. Let's start at the beginning, the benefactor. The verse begins. He made.
Stop there.
Now, if you're a Bible student, the first question you're going to ask is... To whom does he refer? The answer comes quickly. Look one word back at the end of verse 20. God.
God is the antecedent. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. The point is, it's God's plan. He's the benefactor. God is behind the whole reconciliation.
Plan. God loves sinners. That's why in Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says, Thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Only God knew what the qualifications were. Only God could qualify us.
He was the only one who could know the standard. And thanks to him, for he delivered us from the domain of darkness. He transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That is exactly why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. It was the Father who chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
It was the Father who predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Everything is through the praise of His glory. It is He who freely bestowed on us salvation in the Beloved, who gave us redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, etc., etc. It was the Father who designed to lavish on us all wisdom and insight and all riches of grace. Yeah.
This is very different than the religions of the world. The religions of the world basically operate on a premise of fear. That God is an angry, hateful Or indifferent God who could really care less about the prosperity of. beings Who grovel around underneath him in this world. And so the goal of most all religions is to somehow appease an otherwise hostile and angry God.
On the other hand, Christianity proclaims a God who loves. Who loves so much He is a Savior, God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We have a God who doesn't hate, but a God who loves sinners and has Himself designed a way for them to have fellowship with Him forever and ever. We don't have to appease God. God loves the sinner, and God in His love provides the sacrifice and wonderfully and graciously and freely and magnanimously and eagerly offers the gift of forgiveness.
Second thing you see in this text First, the benefactor who is God. Second, the substitute. And the substitute is identified. He made Him who knew no sin. That's the identification of the substitute.
Who is it? Him who knew no sin? Let me tell you something, folks. That narrows the field. to one.
Paul says to the Galatians, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son. born of a woman. Wow. Why? In order that he might redeem those who were under the law.
Galatians 4, 4, and 5. Jesus Christ, then, is the one who knew no sin. Him who knew no sin is Christ. And the testimony of Everyone historically affirms that. Jesus says in John 8, 46, which of you convicts me of sin?
Silence. And there's still silence. Hear Pilate in Luke 23. Pilate, cynical, vicious, cruel, ungodly, pagan, idolatrous. Pilate said in verse 4 of Luke 23 to the chief priests and the multitudes: I find no guilt in this man.
Verse 14. Again and again he said it. I have found no guilt in this man. Verse 22, and again the third time he said to them, Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in him no guilt.
Listen to the thief on the cross. We indeed suffer justly, he says. To the other thief, we're receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. Listen to the testimony of the centurion who watched it all. In verse 47, certainly this man was innocent.
And it wasn't just unbelieving people who saw his perfection. How about the apostles? John, who was with him day and night for three Years. John, who followed his every footstep and heard his every word, and saw his every act, and maybe felt his every breath as he leaned on his breast as often as he could. It was John who said in his epistle, 1 John 3, verse 5: In him there is no sin.
Okay. And John said, we were eyewitnesses of it. And then there was the writer of Hebrews who affirms the very same reality when he says in chapter 4, verse 15: We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are tempted, yet without sin. And in chapter 7, the writer of Hebrews says. He was wholly innocent.
undefiled and separate from sinners. And then there was Peter who preached in Acts 3. And he says of Christ. You have killed the prince of life, and he calls him a holy and just one. And then you remember it was Peter.
Especially Peter. who said of Christ, That he was a lamb, 1 Peter 1:19, unblemished and spotless. Who said of him in chapter 2 of that same epistle and verse 24, he bore our sins in his own body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. But he, verse 22, committed no sin. And then in chapter 3, And verse 18 of that same epistle.
Christ died for sins, the just. for the unjust.
Now the testimony of unbelieving men Was of his sinlessness. The testimony of those who knew him best was of his sinlessness. But there's another who gave testimony. And that testimony is indeed powerful. It was none other than God the Father Himself.
At his baptism, recorded in Matthew 3:17, the Father said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am completely pleased. And at his transfiguration in Matthew 17, verse 5, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am completely pleased. You see, the father was totally Satisfied. with the sun. There was nothing.
in the Son that dissatisfied the Father. He was perfect, sinless. And maybe the greatest testimony of his sinlessness was the unbroken fellowship he had with God. I and the Father are one. I and the Father are one.
He said that many times. He says that in John 10, verse 30. He says it in John 14, verses 30 and 31. He says it repeatedly in John 17. He says it in verse 11.
He says it in verse 21, 22, 23. We're one, we're one, we're one, we're one, we're united, we're united. That was the greatest testimony of his sinlessness: that he had absolutely unbroken communion with God.
Now had he not been man, he couldn't be the substitute. Had he not been sinless, He couldn't be the substitute.
So he had to be man and he had to be God. Notice our text again. God made him who knew no sin. Here is the remarkable statement. to be sin.
You see He had to punish sin. But if he punished the sinner, the sinner would be destroyed in hell eternally.
So we had to take the substitute. and put him in the place of the sinner. and punish the substitute instead. He had to be sin then. That phrase is very important and I want you to grasp it.
What does it mean? That he was made sin. That's an astounding statement. What does it mean? Well, first of all, let me tell you what it doesn't mean.
And you need to understand this clearly. It does not mean that Christ became a sinner. It does not mean that he committed a sin. It does not mean that he broke God's law. He did not do that.
The scriptures I've just read to you indicate. That he had no capacity to sin. That's what theologians call the impeccability of Christ. He had no possibility to sin. He could not sin.
He was sinless God while fully man. And certainly, it is unthinkable that God would turn him into a sinner. The idea of God making anybody a sinner. Is unthinkable to say nothing of making his holy son into a sinner. You say, well, what does it mean then that he was made sin?
Isaiah 53 Introduces it to us. Surely our griefs he himself bore. Our sorrows he carried. Verse five. He was pierced through for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities, and the chastening. that fell on him was because of us Verse 6, all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He didn't die for his own sins. He died for what? For our sins.
What it means is the Lord took all of the iniquity of all of us. And it fell on Christ. What do you mean? It wasn't his sin, no. It was our say.
What is it saying? Simply this. God treated Christ. Christ. as if he were a sinner.
How? By making him pay The penalty for sin. Though he was innocent. He paid the penalty. God treated him as if he was the sinner.
More than that, God treated him as if he sinned all the sins of all who would ever believe. Is that incredible? Sin, not his at all. was credited to him. As if he had committed it.
and paid the price. And he didn't. But it was credited to him as if he did. That, listen, is the only sense in which Christ was made sin. And the word is, he was made sin by imputation.
Sin was imputed to him. It wasn't his. He never sinned. But God put it to his account. Charged it to him.
And making him pay the penalty. Be like some, it would be like all the sinners in all the world charging all their sin to your credit card. And you having to pay the bill. Imputation. Listen, the guilt of of the sins of all who would ever believe God, all who would ever be saved.
was imputed to Jesus Christ. Credited to him as if he were guilty of all of it. And then just As soon as God had credited to him. God poured out the full fury of all his wrath against all that sin and all those sinners, and Jesus experienced all of that. Is it any wonder at that moment he was alienated from God and said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He was treated as a sinner. He was treated as a sinner deserves to be treated. With all the fury of just punishment. Let me go further. He was treated as every sinner cumulatively deserved to be treated.
And all the fury was poured on him. He was personally pure. He was officially guilty. He was personally holy. He was forensically guilty.
Let me say it another way. Christ dying on the cross. did not become evil. Like we are. Nor do we by virtue of the cross.
Become as holy as he is. You say, well, what happens? It's imputation. God puts sin to Christ's credit. Our sin.
and puts Christ's righteousness to our credit. It's not that we are so righteous God is satisfied. It's that because the penalty is paid and the guilt has been met. That God can credit to us the righteousness of Christ. That's the gospel.
The only sense in which you are made righteous Through justification is by imputation and that's the same sense in which christ was made sin. He is made sin because God credits our sin to him. We are made righteous because God credits His righteousness to us. Listen. I am not so righteous that as I am, I can stand before a holy God.
Are you? I got a lot of sin. In my life. And I would say, if I got anywhere near God, what Peter said, depart from me, O Lord, for I'm what? I'm still sinful.
But God looks at me. And does not consider me on the virtue of my human morality, he considers me on the virtue of the imputed righteousness of Christ, which covers me. This is the point.
Well, the benefactor is God, the substitute is Christ. And by imputation, receives our sins and dies for them, taking our place. Thirdly, the beneficiaries. And these last points are brief. Thirdly, the beneficiaries.
He made him who knew no sin to be sin. Here it is on our behalf. On our behalf. Who are you talking about, Paul? Who is our?
Well, it's the same as the we in verse 20. We are ambassadors. It's the same as the The us in verse 19. He committed to us the reconciliation ministry. It's the same as the us in verse 18, us who have been given this ministry.
Who is this? Our we us group.
Well, they're in verse 17 described. Any man who is what? in Christ, who is a new creation. Old things passed away and new things have come. There is a transformation.
There is a new creation at salvation. There is. We are transformed. We are changed. But even with that change, we wouldn't have sufficient righteousness to satisfy a holy God.
Yeah. And so he has to cover us in the righteousness of Christ to make us acceptable until he can get us to glory and we'll be made righteous. And it is for us, us who are in Christ then. us who have been reconciled. that he died.
He died in our place. The actual substitution in its efficacy was for believers, those who would believe. He died for our sins. He died for us. He died in our place.
The final point. The benefit. And what did he provide us? In order that, this is the purpose of it. We might become the righteousness of God in Him.
See, there's that imputation. What is the benefit we become righteous before God? This is what justification does. And the righteousness that we are given is the very righteousness of Christ. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians 3:9.
We are now found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own, he says. Not some righteousness derived from keeping the law, but a righteousness through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God. Wow. It's imputed to us. He's holy.
God imputed sin to him. We're sinful, God imputes holiness to us. The very righteousness which God requires to accept a sinner is the very righteousness which God provides. When God looks at you, He sees you covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's why All your sin is automatically forgiven.
in the eternal sense. Because Jesus already paid the penalty, right? God can't hold you responsible for your sin. Jesus paid the full penalty for it, took the full fury for it. You say, well, what about the sins I commit after I'm a Christian?
Well, he died for those too, because you weren't even born when he died. They were all future. In fact, he is the lamb slain from before what? The foundation of the world before even the creation, the plan was for him to die for all the sins of all who will ever believe. This is the righteousness that Romans 3 talks about.
Yeah. It's the righteousness of God, verse 21, apart from the law. Verse 22, it's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. And that's the key. How do you get in on this?
Believe. Believe what? Believe that you're a sinner. Believe you're in a desperate situation. You're desperately alienated from God.
Believe that you have no hope of reconciliation and you will in this life live godlessly, and in the next life, you will suffer eternal torment. And believe all of that. And then believe that God sent His Son into the world in the form of a man to die as your substitute and take your place, and that He took the full fury of the wrath of God upon him. And believe that the affirmation that God's justice was satisfied was the fact that God raised Jesus what? From the dead.
And when God raised him from the dead, he was saying, I am satisfied. And then God exalted Jesus to his right hand where he sits at the right hand of God on the throne. And God says, when that was done, when he offered himself and satisfied my justice, I gave him Philippians 2, a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee in the universe must bow. And every tongue must confess that Jesus is Lord. That's what you believe.
That's the gospel. And when you believe that by faith, simply believing that, God in His mercy takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ and imputes it to you. Because your sins were imputed to Christ when he died on the cross. The Father knew you were there when the Son died. Your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world, and the atonement that Christ made was for you.
And you come to believe. And you receive the imputed righteousness. And then you live in this life. With God in your life and in eternity in the presence of God in absolute perfection. That's the gospel.
That's Christianity. That's it. The benefactor is God. It's all his plan. It comes out of his love.
The substitute is Jesus Christ who took your place, the perfect God-man. The beneficiaries all of us for whom he died, those who will believe. And the benefit? You receive the righteousness of God imputed to you as if you were equal to Jesus Christ. In holiness.
And someday You will be made holy. But until then, you're covered. with the righteousness of God in Christ. And it becomes yours through faith. Belief.
Repent. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we come to you at this time and ask that Every one of us might look into our hearts and be sure that we have been reconciled to God. Thank you for giving all of us the Ministry of Reconciliation.
Thank you that you have not only reconciled us, but called us to cry to others: be reconciled to God. It is available, it is possible, God has made a way.
Okay. And we cry that to sinners here this morning who have not been reconciled. And we ask, oh God, that you would prompt their heart to believe and to repent, turning from their sin and saying, I want forgiveness for my sin. I want the hope of heaven. I want God in my life.
I want to be reconciled. Oh, Father, I just pray that your Holy Spirit will work that marvelous miracle of reconciliation in hearts today. We thank you for Bearing our sin. and for letting us bear your righteousness. This is all overwhelming, and we are unworthy.
but grateful. Speak, Father, to those hearts who do not know the Savior. who have not been reconciled. And draw them to yourself. And may they have confidence in the words of Jesus who said, Him that comes to me, I'll never turn aside.
And we ask that sinners might come today and, in faith, embrace the righteousness provided for them by the One. who bore their sin. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm Carl Miller. In today's special program we've showcased one of the distinctive themes from John's 56 years of Bible teaching ministry. The title of the lesson, 15 Words of Hope.
Well friend, as we remember the life and legacy of John MacArthur, we continue to find comfort and strength in the knowledge that John is now rejoicing in the presence of his Savior. And hopefully, you'll be encouraged to know that for however long God sustains grace to you, through the support of his people, we'll be here unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. And this ministry will always and only feature the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Speaking of being encouraged, we've been so encouraged by the notes that we've received from many friends like you. And if you have a story about how God has used grace to you in your life, we'd love to hear it.
It doesn't have to be anything long. If John's Bible teaching has made a difference in your life, let us know that when you contact us today. Reach us by email, letters at gty.org. Again, that address, letters at gty.org. Using the regular mail right to GraceTU, Post Office Box 4000.
Panorama City, California, nine one four one two. If you prefer, you can call our special remembrance phone line. It's 661-295-6288. You can record a message letting us know how John's teaching has strengthened your walk with Christ. You can also express your condolences to the MacArthur family.
Leave your message on the remembrance phone line at 661-1. 295-6288. And again, if you've benefited from John's verse-by-verse Bible teaching, let us know when you contact us. Thanks, too, for praying for John's family, for the congregation of the Grace Community Church, for the team at this radio station, and for the staff of Grace to You. Your prayers are crucial.
In fact, taking us before the throne of grace really is the most important way you can support us. Thanks for your prayers. And now, on behalf of the entire Grace to You staff, I'm your host, Carl Meller, inviting you to join us for another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on the next Grace to You.
