Derek Prince - Jesus Was Made Sin, That We Might Be Made Righteous
Now if you go down to verse 10 in Isaiah 53, you’ll find a further unfolding of what was accomplished. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise or crush Him, Jesus. He has put Him to grief; when you make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Notice that middle phrase: when you shall make His soul an offering for sin. Alternatively it could be translated, and it makes no difference to the sense: When His soul shall make a sin offering. Whatever way you translate it, the fact is that Jesus’ soul was made the sin offering for the whole of humanity.
Now, the same word that’s translated sin offering, or guilt, or guilt offering is also translated guilt in the Old Testament. The reason is that according to the law of the sin offering in the Levitical priesthood, when a person sinned he had to bring his sacrificial offering. It might be a sheep, it might be a goat it might be a ram, it might be a bullock. He brought it to the priest, confessed his sins to the priest. The priest laid his hands on the head of the animal that was the offering and symbolically transferred the sin from the man to the offering, to the animal. And then the priest killed the animal and not the man. In other words, the animal paid the penalty for the man’s sin, because the animal had become identified with the sin of the man.
Now, the New Testament makes it clear that in the last resort bullocks and sheep and goats cannot atone for man’s sin. They were just preliminary prophetic pictures of Jesus. But Jesus’ soul really became the sin offering. And in becoming the sin offering He became sin. If you keep your finger in Isaiah 53 and turn to 2 Corinthians 5:21, you’ll find Paul’s rendering of this fact. 2 Corinthians 5:21: And I’m going to put the nouns in place of the pronouns, just to make it more clear. For God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Unless you understand the ordinances of the Old Testament sacrifices, you wouldn’t fully appreciate that in 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul is quoting Isaiah 53:10: When you make His soul an offering for sin. Because when His soul became the offering for sin, His soul became sin with the sinfulness of humanity.
You don’t have to be a theologian to discern the exchange. I’ll say it once and I expect you to get it right the first time when I say it with you. Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. Let’s look at that 2 Corinthians 5:21 again so you’ll be sure you’ve got it. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Notice again the exchange: Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, that we might be made righteous with whose righteousness? His righteousness. Not ours, His. I’ll say it once and I expect you to follow me.
Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. You’ve got that? All right. Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. Can you heave a sigh of relief? You don’t have to struggle to do your best to be righteous. You have to receive by faith the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Any lower level of righteousness will never get you into heaven. But God has made provision for you and me to be made righteous with the righteousness of God.