Christ Was Made Sin for Us

by Thomas Goodwin 

It is proved in the general, that Christ was made sin and a curse for us, because he, redeeming us who were under the law, must become that which we were in the account and judgment of the law.-That how Christ was made sin for us demonstrated and explained in what respect he was so.- Uses drawn from the doctrines. 

It is said, Gal. iv. 4, 5, that 'God sent his Son, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law.' Now, whatever Christ redeemed us from, he was himself made for us; redeeming us from it by being made it. He that made the law, was made under it for us. Both he and we were under the law; but with this difference, we were born under it, but he was made under it, by a voluntary covenant freely undergoing it. To be 'under the law' is to be subject to all that the law is able to say or do. So we use to express the condition of a subject, saying he lives under the laws. And so the apostle expresseth it, Rom. iii. 19, 'What the law says, it says unto them that are under the law.' So that whosoever is under the law, whatever the law is able to say and exact, to him it says and of him it requires it. And if Christ will be made under the law for sinners, the law will have full as much to say to him as unto sinners themselves; that is, as he is their undertaker. 

And the law hath more to say to sinners than to any other creatures. 

1. It can accuse them, and call them sinners to their faces. It can arraign them, and lay all their sins to their charge, and will not leave out one tittle in that indictment. It can say, Thou art a blasphemer, thou an adulterer, thou a drunkard, &c. It does not, it will not, spare at any time to speak this.

2. It can call them cursed for all these sins: Gal. iii, 10. 'Cursed is every one,' &c. 

There is the accusing power of the law, and there is the condemning power, as appears by the law in our own consciences: Rom. ii. 15, 'it accuseth,' and, ver. 1, 'it condemneth.' And so you have both a witness to accuse and a judge to condemn in your own breasts, which (as the apostle saith) shews but the effect of the law, which in itself it will do, much more to them that know it in the rigour of it. If therefore he who is our Redeemer will come under the law for sinners, the law will say as much to him as it had to say to us, give him as ill language, exact as hard measure from him as from us The law is backed with God's justice, and so will not respect or spare the greatness of Christ's person, if he once come under it. As we are creatures, and he our surety, it will as boldly command him to keep the commandments on our behalf, as it would us. Look what it would have said to us as we were sinners, it will as boldly and as freely speak, and speak out against him, only with this differing respect of reverence to him, as by himself voluntarily made under it, whereas we were born slaves under it. 

That therefore this clamour of the law might be fully stopped, and we redeemed and freed from whatever the law had to say against us, Christ was made all that we had made ourselves. 

As, 1. were we sinners Christ, that was made under the law, was made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21, that sin might 'not be imputed to us,' ver. 19. Again, were we accursed? Christ is made a curse for us, to redeem us from the curse of the law, Gal iii. 13, that so, by his being made sin, we may say, 'Who shall lay anything to our charge' Rom. viii. 33; and by his being made a curse, we may as triumphantly say, 'Who shall condemn? Christ hath died,' Rom viii. 34. So as, though but the one is here mentioned, yet we will handle both. We will both shew how he was made sin for us, and how he was made a curse for us. Indeed, neither of these places do mention both distinctly, but yet either place includes and supposeth both. He had not been made a curse, if he had not first been made sin. He could not be made sin, but he must likewise be made a curse, the consequent of sin. They are two strange words to be spoken of God's Son, and such as it had been blasphemy for us to speak, if God himself had not spake them first. And now that he hath spoken them, we had need take them in a right sense, or else they will be blasphemy in our thoughts still. 

1. Christ was made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21. By sin some have understood only an offering for sin, and then to be made sin there, and a curse here, comes all to one. I confess it is sometimes so taken, as the offerings in the Levitical law are called sin, but it is not so here, but truly and more plainly for the guilt of sin. And the reasons why it must be so meant here are, first, because that which sin is here opposed unto is righteousness 'He was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' Now, by the righteousness of his made ours, is here meant, not only the benefits which his righteousness deserved and purchased, but his very fulfilling the law, so Rom viii. 4, 'That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' Therefore (as the law of opposition carries it) his being made sin is not only his being made the punishment, the curse that sin had deserved, but even the very guilt and breach of the law itself was made his, even as his righteousness was made ours. And how this came about, we shall shew presently. 

Secondly, He was made sin, which he ' knew not,' that is, not experimentally, he was not conscious and guilty of it in his own person: 'he was made sin, who knew no sin.' Now, if only punishment for sin were here meant, this were not true, for he experimentally knew what punishment for sin was as fully as we do: Heb. iv. 15, ' We have an high priest that was touched with the feeling of our infirmities,' and touched to the quick too. His soul knew full well what it was to suffer for sin; but he knew not what sin, the breach of the law, was. He knew not what it was to act sin ; and yet this which he knew not he was some way or other made, even made the guilt of sin. 

It is time to explain how, lest any of your thoughts run too far. The text helps us in it. As we are made his righteousness, so he was made our sin. Now, we are made his righteousness merely by imputation, that is, all his obedience to the law is accounted ours, is reckoned ours, even as if we had fulfilled it, though we knew none of it. It was fulfilled, not by us, but in us, Rom. viii. 4. He fulfilled it, not we; so that there was an exchange made, and all our breaches of the law were made his; our debts put over to him, that is, reckoned to him, put upon his score. That is all; let your thoughts therefore go no further. It was ' we that like sheep went astray,' and not he, and yet 'the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all,' Isa. liii. 6. And to be made sin in this sense is but to be charged and accused as a sinner, and not made really so by committing it. As we use to say, when we would accuse and prove one to be a thief, we say, I will make a thief of you; that is, not make you steal, but prove you to be such. So this making here is but God's reckoning him as a transgressor. That phrase is used ver. 12 of Isaiah liii.: 'He was numbered amongst the transgressors,' reckoned such by God and men. By imputation then he was counted as one that hath broken the law. And yet (to free your thoughts from the least mistake) though by imputation, yet not such as whereby we were made sinners in Adam, which was by imputation, but originally. Now, Christ was not so made our sin. That which is imputed may be said to be imputed either by derivation, or else by voluntary assumption, or willing taking it upon one. Now, Adam's sin, though it was but imputed to us, yet it was by derivation, and by a natural and necessary covenant. But our sin, though to Christ it was imputed, yet not by derivation, but by a willing, free undertaking or taking them off from us, and by a voluntary covenant. So that, although he was made sin, yet in that he was freely made so, therefore that imputation stained not him, nor his nature ; but he remained holy, undefined, and separate from sinners; whereas the imputation of Adam's sin stained and depraved us his posterity. For though that sin of his was but imputedly made ours, yet so as we, being one in him, are truly said to have sinned in him; and therefore his sin is ours, because we committed it, and sinned in him, Rom. v. 12. But of Christ we must abhor to think so. Nay, in this doth the imputation of his righteousness to us differ from the imputation of our sins to him, that his righteousness is so imputed to us as we, by reason of that covenant between God and him, may be said to have fulfilled the law in him, and the law is said to be fulfilled in us, because we were in him; but not so are our sins imputed to him. It cannot be said in any sense, he was made sin in us, but for us only, or the sin which was committed first in us, and by us, considered in ourselves, was made his; for though we were in him, yet not he in us: for the root bears the branches, and not the branches the root. Having thus shewn how it was, and in what sense, we will now shew, 

I. By Scripture. 

II. By Reason. 

I. By Scripture. And here take the instance of the scape-goat, over whose head the sins of the people were confessed (Lev. xvi 21) by Aaron's putting his hand upon it, therein acting the part of God the Father, 'laying the iniquities of us all upon Christ,' and translating them from the people. To which those phrases in Isaiah liii do refer. And this was in respect of leaving the guilt of their sins, not the punishment of them, upon him. For to express and hold forth Christ as made an offering for sin, that other goat was sacrificed; but the scape-goat was ordained to hold forth Christ's bearing the guilt of our sins, for that goat was carried away into a land of separation, or a place inaccessible. And so Christ, whom John saw as the 'Lamb of God, bearing the sins of the world,' carries away our sins, to an utter abolishing of them from before the face of God, so that, (as it is in Jer. 1. 20) 'they shall be sought for, but not found,' they being taken away, as the phrase of the New Testament is. Christ had them put upon him when he was baptized, aigwn, suscipiens, portans, auferens; and principally when he was upon the cross, as 1 Peter ii. 24, 'Who his own self bare our sins on his body' (that is his human nature) on the tree.' So Heb. ix. 28, 'Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,' and he shall appear the second time 'without sin,' Therefore, now this time he appeared (to John) carrying the sins of the world, but being risen, justified from all those sins, he shall appear without the guilt of them lying upon him. And accordingly, when he was in this life, he demeaned himself as one that had been a sinner, as in appearance such. The flesh he took had 'the likeness of sinful flesh,' Rom viii. 3. The foreskin of his flesh was circumcised, as if he had been born in sin. So his mother was purified, Luke ii. 23, 24, and offered an offering, as if she had conceived him in sin; and Lev. xii. 2, 6, this was a sin offering, namely, for that sin which their seed was brought forth in. And as in those rites at his birth, so in his whole life he submitted to the ceremonial law, the intent of which was to be publica confessio, and like to penance, whereby they were to profess themselves sinners, and to stand in need of a mediator, and so thrice a year he came unto the temple, &c All which, if he had not some way been made a sinner, he ought not to have done, for he should thereby have professed that which was not. Yea, in those confessions, those passionate psalms made for him, we find him acknowledging of sin as his own. This will appear by some passages in those psalms which are prophetically made of Christ, and utter the inward addresses of his soul unto his Father. And of all the psalms, or other prophecies of this nature, there is no one except the twenty second, which can challenge more passages in so small a space, applied expressly unto Christ in the New Testament, than the sixty-ninth psalm. In ver. 4 we have it, 'They hated me without a cause.' This we find applied by Christ himself, as prophesied of himself, John xv. 25. Again, we have it ver 9 of that psalm, 'The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.' This you have in like manner, John ii. 19, applied unto Christ. Moreover, the next words of that 9th verse, 'The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.' Lo, you have them applied by Paul as expressly unto Christ, Rom. xv. 8. Again, that passage, ver. 21, 'They gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink;' you know both the story and the application of it by the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and John. Then that other passage that follows, 'Let their table be made a snare,' you have it applied accordingly unto the Jews that crucified him, for their crucifying of him, Rom. xi. 9. 

Now then, so many of these being so applied, why should not those others also be so applied? as when it is said, ver. 4, 5, 'Then I restored that which I took not away; O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my guiltiness is not hid from thee.' How fitly do these words express the imputation of sin to him. It was a proverbial speech, when a man suffered innocently as to his own person, to say that 'He restored that which he took not,' and so Christ on the cross is brought in here speaking. For as Isaiah tells us, 'He bore our sins;' with Oh in the next verse of the psalm he confesseth as his own, having taken them upon him. 'O God, thou knowest my foolishness' (that is my sin, as foolishness it is usually taken), 'and my sins are not hidden from thee.' Which is plainly in other words that which the apostle says of him, 2 Cor. v., 'He that knew no sin was made sin.' The like you have in the fortieth psalm, 'Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldst not; Lo I come,' &c., ver. 6, 7, which how it is applied to Christ you may read in Heb. x, neither can it well be applied to any other. Yet, ver. 12, he says, 'My iniquities take hold of me.' He calls them his, not by perpetration, but by a voluntary assumption, and by imputation, reckoning them as his. So Isaiah liii. 6, 'He laid on him the iniquities of us all.' In the Hebrew it is, 'He caused to meet in him the iniquities of us all.' He was made the great ocean, into which the guilt of all our sins did run. 

II Now, second, for the reason of it. 

1. He was not only an inter-nuncius (as Socinus would have him), or one that came as an extraordinary messenger between God and us, but he was sponsor, a surety. So Heb. vii. 22, such as Judah undertook to be for Benjamin, Gen. xliii. 9, 'I will be surety for him and bring him to thee, or let me bear the blame for ever.' Or such as Paul was to Onesimus, Phil, 18, 19, ' If he hath wronged thee, or owes aught,' says he, 'put it on my account; I will repay it.' Just so doth Christ engage himself unto his Father for us. If they have wronged thee in any thing, put it on my account, reckon it to me, and I will repay and satisfy for it. A surety, whose name is put into a bond, is not only bound to pay the debt, but he makes it his own debt also, even as well as it is the principal's, and he may be sued and charged for the debt as well as he. And so Christ, when he once made himself a surety, he thereby made himself under the law, and so put himself in the room of sinners, that what the law could lay to their charge, it might lay to his. 

2. And, secondly, there was a necessity, that if he would take our punishment upon him, and so satisfy justice, he should first take on him the guilt of our sins, 'for the judgment of God is according to truth.' The party whom God punisheth for sin, must be some way found guilty of that sin, or else judgment proceeds not according to right rules. Guilty, not by inherency, yet by imputation and account. For as we can have no interest in any benefit merited by Christ, but we must first be partakers of the righteousness that purchased it, that must first be made ours, and then his benefits; so if Christ will be made a curse for us (which is the demerit of sin), he must first be made sin. And therefore Isaiah, in the 53d chapter of his prophecy, when at the 4th and 5th verses, he had said that Christ our surety was not punished for himself, but 'bore our griefs,' &c., that is, those that we should have borne, and 'was wounded for our transgressions,' &c., he then goes on to clear it how it was done: 'we,' says he, 'as sheep had gone astray, but God laid upon him the iniquity of us all,' that is, he having first charged upon Christ our sins, which we in our persons committed, when once they were thus laid upon him, God's justice then wounded him for them. Unjust it is not, that a person righteous should suffer for an unrighteous man (Peter affirms it, 1 Peter iii. 18), but then the unrighteousness of that man must be laid upon him and made his. 

Thus in general. 

But when we say Christ was made sin, what sin was it that he is made, and that was thus imputed to him? Was it sin in the general only, and in the abstract evil of it? Surely more, for how that should be imputed in the universal notion of it, is hard to conceive, though it is true that he apprehended the evil thereof more fully than all mankind ever did, or shall do. The Scripture seems to speak more, and as if he bore particular sins; so all these fore mentioned places have it As 1 Peter ii. 24, 'He bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin,' &c , so over the scape goat were the particular sins of the congregation confessed. And so in those fore mentioned psalms he speaks as of multitudes of iniquities, and ' innumerable evils' that compassed him about and came over his head. And as Christ bare sins (in the plural), and innumerable sins, so he bare the sins of all, and every particular man he died for, so, Is liii. 6, 'God caused to meet in him the iniquities of us all,' he being made as the common drain and sink into which all the sins of every particular man do run, and the centre in whom they all meet, and that meeting implies an assembly of particular sins. 

Again, if he bare the particular sin of every man he died for, what were they? Gross sins only, and those which were more eminent for guilt? Why not all and every one, both small and great? For where shall we set the limits? Why may it not be thought, that as there was a bill of all the persons he died for given him (for Christ died not for propositions only, to make them true, but for persons, and therefore is said to ' know his sheep by name,' John x. 3), so also that he had a bill of their particular sins, so as not one sin was left out unreckoned to him. Adam had not a bill of our persons, for his sin is naturally derived to as many as shall come of him, but Christ died out of love to persons, and that out of a voluntary covenant; and so it was necessary that all their names should be enrolled and given him, as himself says, John xvii. 6, 'Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.' And as their persons, so all the sins of all those persons, they were all to meet in him, and to be laid to his charge. And there are these reasons for it

1. God was to deal in justice with him (as was said), and as a surety he was to satisfy to the uttermost farthing. And if so, it was meet he should have an account, and know the several items of what he paid for. 

2. Therein it was that he shewed more love in dying for one than for another, as for Mary more than another, because he bare much for her, and more than for another; which caused her to love him more. And how is it that a great sinner is more beholden to Christ for his dying for him than a small sinner is, but by his bearing more sins for the one than for the other, and so suffering more for him? Which if it had been carried in a confused and general manner, and as it were in a summa totalis, without the distinct reckoning of particulars, is hard to conceive how it should be. 

3. It was needful, that so a sinner might say with boldness, as Rom. viii. 33, 'Who shall lay anything to my charge.' Ne aliquid, not the least, because that quicquid, whatever it was, it was laid to Christ's charge. 

And if it now be asked, how this could be, that so many millions of sins should be distinctly considered by him in his sufferings, I answer, 

1. He that is (as Daniel calls him, Dan. viii. 13). Is qui habet omnia in numerato, he who hath all things before him at his fingers' ends, and as it were in ready coin ready told over, could easily keep a distinct account of all our sins. 

2. He who now is in heaven, knows all that is done here below as a man, and hath all the businesses of the world in his head and guides them, and hath all the accounts of the world by heart, so as he is able (as at the latter day he will) as man exactly to give unto every man his accounts, both receipts and expenses, and that to the utmost farthing! For every work shall come into judgment before the man Christ Jesus, be it good or evil. And Peter tells us, he is 'ready to judge both quick and dead,' all that are alive, and all that are dead. He who can do all this, is able to keep a particular account of all the sins which he expiated; and if he did not as man know all things here below (which in themselves are but finite, though to us innumerable), how as man were he experimentally able to compassionate all his saints upon all occasions, and in all their sufferings (as he is said to do, Heb. ii. 18, and iv. 16)? If now in heaven his understanding as man be thus enlarged and vast, why, when he descended into hell (as when our sins were reckoned to him he did), should he not be able as well to take in all and every particular sin of his elect for whom he died? Yea, this stretching of his understanding then, thus to take in all men's sins, did prepare it for that vastness which it now hath in heaven, even as our humiliation makes way for comfort and consolation. Lastly, if Satan could shew him all the glory of the world in the twinkling of an eye, as it were, why might not God shew him all our sins in as full a manner, and set them in order before him? 

Use 1. See the immense love of Christ unto his elect, in that he would not only be made a curse, but sin too for them; which he being holiness itself, must needs be most abhorrent of such an imputation. That which we most hate, how do we abhor the imputation and name of! That excellency which we most affect, what an insufferable injury do we count it to be blemished in! For a chaste and undefiled maid to be counted a whore, how nearly would it touch her, how deeply affect her! But for holiness itself to be 'numbered among transgressors,' for God to be called devil, yea, prince of devils, how beyond all expression insupportable must it needs be! 

2. Learn we to confess and take upon us our sins in particular. Men's sorrow for sin is usually general and confused. They acknowledge they are sinners, &c., but Jesus Christ's soul could not escape with a general charge (as that he stood in the room of sinners); but the particulars are charged on him. As he says of our persons to his Father, 'Thine they are, and thou gavest them me;' so mayest thou say to him as concerning thy sins, Mine they are, and thou tookst them on thee. And if Christ took them on him to satisfy for them, thou must at least take them on thee to humble thee. 

3. If thou canst not confess all thou art guilty of (as thou canst not), yet comfort thyself with this, that Jesus Christ knew all particulars to satisfy for them, and so entreat the Lord to cleanse thee from thy secret sins, which were not hid from him. What the apostle speaks to terrify hypocrites, that 'God is greater than their hearts,' and knows more by them than they can do by themselves; that may we consider to our comfort, that Christ is greater than our hearts, and knows more of our sins by us than all we do, yea, and knew them to take them off from us. 

4. Make use of Christ's blood and satisfaction, not for thy sins in the lump, but for particular sins, because he satisfied for particulars. Not only spread the plaster over all, but lay particular plasters of his blood to particular sins. And as in crossing a writing which you would not have read, you not only draw lines but also rase and scratch out every word in particular, that it might not be read, so apply Christ's satisfaction, and his being made sin to every tittle and circumstance in sins more heinous, and go over them again and again with cross lines of Christ's blood, especially in two cases. 

(1.) When a new sin is a-fresh committed. Christ is a fountain to wash us every day (Zech. xiii. 2) from those daily pollutions that befall us. This was typified out in the old law, when they brought sacrifices upon every particular occasion. Even so should we (not offer up as the papists in the masses) but put God in mind of Christ's sacrifice for particular sins committed. So 1 John ii. 1-3, 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,' and he was the propitiation for those sins. Or, 

(2.) When a sin stares a man in the face much, as David's murder did in his, when he said it was 'ever before him;' in this case have recourse to this, that Christ did bear it, and apply Christ's bearing of it unto the guilt still as it riseth. And as you lay aqua fortis upon letters of ink to eat them out, so still be a-dipping the hands of thy faith in Christ's blood, and through faith applying of that blood to the sin. This do in every prayer and in every sacrament, and thou shalt secretly find the horror of it diminish, and those letters of guilt wherewith it was written in thy conscience, grow paler and dimmer till they vanish.

5. It may serve to strengthen thy faith against particular sins by this, that Christ bore them. Say and plead to Christ when thou beggest pardon, Was not this sin in the number? And as we make it a great upholding to faith, to consider that God knew afore what we would be, and that we would sin, and yet chose us, and that therefore no sins will put him off, so we may as well make use of this like consideration, that Jesus Christ also, when he died for us, knew what we would be, and what our sins would be, and yet refused not our bill of sins, nor our names given in to him, but bare all those sins of ours in his body on the tree. And if he had meant to have refused thee for thy sins, he would have done it then. When a new sin is committed, we are apt to be amazed, and to call all in question. If indeed thou couldst commit a sin which God and Christ had not known; if any sin were or could be now new unto Christ, then it might trouble thee; but there is none that is so, but even this sin that troubles thy conscience so was amongst the rest. 

6. See the fulness and completeness of justification, together with the way of dispensing it. 

(1.) The way of dispensing it. We think with ourselves, How shall the righteousness of Christ come to be made mine? Shall I, a sinner, ever become righteous? O what a wonder were this! Yet behold, a greater wonder is here; Christ who is righteousness itself' was made sin, that so we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' 

(2.) See here the completeness of justification. All sins are laid to Christ, that we might say, Ne aliquid, not the least thing shall be exacted of us-Who shall lay any thing? &c., Rom. viii. 33-and that we might with boldness come to a particular reckoning with God, nothing fearing that any exception can be made, or that the least sin was left out of the catalogue which Christ had of them, that should yet remain unpaid for. We may see here the absoluteness of God's pardon, in that, to make sure work, Christ was made sin, and took upon him the guilt of all our transgressions to answer for them; so that God gave us an absolute discharge. Thus, ver. 21, 'Not imputing their trespasses to them;' but looking for payment at Christ's hands, who was made sin for them. In law both the principal and the surety use to stand bound; but God here did from everlasting secretly (as it were) cancel our bond, and keeps Christ's only, and therefore it stands Christ in hand to see our sins answered for. And in that he shall appear without sin, it should comfort us that we shall do so in like manner.

7. It may teach us how to mourn and be troubled; not for punishment only, but for sin as sin also. Christ in satisfying for them not only bare our punishment, but our sins also, which are things distinct from our sorrows. And therefore we in sorrowing for sin should as distinctly mourn for sin as for misery, the effect of it. 

8. Those that are the greatest sinners should mourn most for sin, and love Christ most; and this, because he hath borne their sins, and more of their sins than of others. They are to ' love much,' not simply because to them 'much is forgiven,' or that Christ pardons them much, and so passeth a greater act of grace in pardoning them than he does to others, but because Christ paid more for them, he underwent and suffered more that their sins might be forgiven, than for other men. Mary loved much, because much was forgiven her, Luke vii. 47. But Paul goes farther, thereby exalting the grace of Christ, that he came into the world to save sinners, 'whereof I am chief,' says he, 1 Tim. i. 15. As a natural son is more bound to a mother than an adopted son can be, because he, besides his education and inheritance, was moreover born in her womb, and she underwent many painful throes for him (and the harder her labour is with any, the more they should love her): so we are bound to love Christ, not simply for forgiveness, but also for that he bore us in his soul, and our sins, and had a harder labour of it with some of us, who were greater sinners, than he had with many others.