The Righteousness of God!

1. Introduction
    A. You often hear things like, "Believe in Jesus and you will be saved." or "Come to Jesus and you will be forgiven." These statements are certainly true; they state the reality of salvation and the source of salvation. But they don’t explain salvation; they don’t tell us how Jesus saves sinners. In v.21 Paul gives a brief explanation of how Christ reconciles sinners to God. 
    B. 2Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
    C. Three points: 1) Jesus knew no sin.  2) He was made sin for our sake. 3) He was made sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
   II. Jesus knew no sin.
    A. He knew pain, He knew rejection, He knew tiredness, He knew temptation. But Jesus knew no sin. 
    B. There is a God over us all &He has a moral standard by which people are to live. We call it His law.
    C. Jesus perfectly obeyed this law of God in its every detail. In fact, God’s law is actually a description of Jesus. Every command of God is a command to be like His Son Jesus. 
    D. Jesus was the perfect person – the only one who ever lived. This is part of what uniquely qualified Him to be our substitute; the spotless Lamb of God sacrificed for our sin.  
    E. If He hadn’t been sinless, His death would have been God’s punishment for HIS sin. It is only because He was sinless that His death can count for us. In other words, His death was not enough – His sinless life was also necessary for our salvation.
   III. He was made sin for our sake.
    A. The One who knew no sin was made sin for our sakes. 
    B. He was counted as our sin and then punished for it. 
    C. He never actually sinned, not even once. But He owned our sin. He was punished as though He had committed all the sins of His people. 
    D. When God directed His vengeance against His only begotten Son on the cross, it was because He viewed Him as our sin. 
    E. How could the good and loving and just God forsake His own sinless Son? Because at that moment of supreme justice and mercy, God looked at Jesus and saw the sum total of all our sin. 
    F. The One who never sinned was counted as sin, that He might bear the burden of guilt and absorb God’s rightful justice in the place of His sinful people. 
    G. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that brought us peace...All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Is.53:5-6 
    H. “It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief.” – Is.53:10 
    I. By absorbing our just death sentence He accomplished our salvation: He saved sinners like you and me, and made them the children of God. And that is His great joy.
    J. Is.53:11 “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.”
   IV. This happened so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
    A. Just as the One who was counted as sin never actually committed sin, so the one counted righteous was actually sinful and not righteous. 
    B. Just as sin was foreign to Jesus, just as the sin which condemned Jesus was sin which was not from Jesus but from outside of Jesus, so the righteousness which justifies sinners is a foreign righteousness, a righteousness which is not from within us but from outside of us. 
    C. Who is the man who is declared righteous by God? He is a sinner who puts His trust in Christ, and is thereby counted as righteous. He is not himself righteous: “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Rom.4:5) 
    D. Because of what Christ did, we become the righteousness of God. 
    E. We do not earn eternal life by our own obedience. Christ has earned it for us by His obedience. 
    F. We have no righteousness of our own; we wear the white robes of Christ’s perfect righteousness.
    G. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
    H. Notice the symmetry of this exchange: 
     1. He becomes our sin, we become His righteousness. 
     2. He is counted as sinful, we are counted as righteous. 
     3. He is punished for our sin, we are rewarded for His righteousness. 
    I. You see, Christ has done two great things for His people: 
     1. He took for us the law’s penalty, and He obeyed for us the law’s commands. 
     2. He absorbed the punishment we deserved, and He earned the reward which we then receive. .
     3. He saved us from hell, and He earned for us entrance into heaven.
    J. But we can’t separate these two things Christ did for us.* 
     1. It’s not like during His life Christ was earning the reward, and then in His death on the cross He was bearing our punishment. 
     2. Let me ask you: What is the pinnacle/epitome of Christ’s righteous obedience? Was it not taking upon Himself our sin? Indeed, the most meritorious thing He did, the most worthy act of righteous obedience, was in His willingness to die on behalf of sinners, was it not? 
     3. This is why the sinless Jesus being made to be sin, is what causes us to become the righteousness of God, as our verses says.
     4. You see, the law is all about love, so to obey is to love. 
     5. Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13).
     6. So becoming sin was the chief manifestation of His obedience and righteousness. 
    K. This leads us to a remarkable conclusion: Jesus became sin for us, bearing the just weight of our condemnation. And then the righteous reward Jesus earned for becoming sin for us He bestows on us! 
     1. Do you understand this? We get the benefit of His sacrifice and then we get the reward for His sacrifice! 
   V. Conclusion
    A. There are two very significant prepositional phrases in this verse I’d like to point out:
     1. He first one is at the beginning. “For our sake.” For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
      a. Who is this for? It is for our sake that he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
      b. He did all this for our sake.
     2. The second is near the end: “in Him.” ...so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
      a. We become the righteousness of God in Him, in the One who knew no sin, in Jesus.
      b. There is no righteousness in ourselves. There is no salvation in ourselves. There is no hope in ourselves. 
      c. Our righteousness is not our own but Christ’s. We are counted worthy before God only as a result of Christ’s righteousness counted for us.
      d. There is only one way to come to God. There is only one way to know God. There is only one way to be accepted and forgiven by God.
      e. It is in Him. It is in Jesus. 
    B. This is the gospel.
     1. This is the point on which the church stands or falls, and each one of us stands or falls. 
     2. To believe anything else is to believe that salvation is at least partially from man, and leaves room for men to boast: "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ’Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’" (1Cor.1:30-31)
     3. God treated the One who was sinless (Jesus) as if He were sinful in order that He could treat the unrighteous as if they were righteous. God counted the sinless One as sinful in order that He might count the unrighteous as righteous. 
     4. What an amazing exchange Christ has worked for us! He has taken our sin and given us in return His righteousness. He has taken our filthy rags in exchange for His pure white robe. He has taken our poverty and given us His riches. He has taken our misery and given us His joy. By His wounds we are healed. (Is.53:5)
     5. It seems too good to be true. I wouldn’t believe it except that His word says it. 
    C. So, what are you going to do with this gospel? 
     1. If you have any sense, you will flee to Christ. You will gladly yield your life to Him.
      a. "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my soul, my all." (Isaac Watts)
     2. There is no better offer, but some will look for one nonetheless. 
      a. Maybe we would prefer a gospel of human goodness, where we get recognized and honored for our accomplishments, instead of merely saved by God’s grace. 
      b. Maybe we would prefer a gospel which fits in better with modern ways of thinking. But modern ways of thinking will eventually be ancient ways of thinking and there will be new modern ways of thinking. The gospel of Christ is timeless. 
      c. There are many out there preaching a gospel which is really a false gospel, leading people astray.
      d. But the true gospel is about three things: Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus. It’s from Jesus, it’s by Jesus, and it’s through Jesus. Salvation is purely and totally of the Lord! 
       (1) “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.”
       (2) “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” 
       (3) “Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within...No other work, save Thine, no other blood will do; no strength save that which is divine, can bear me safely through.”
      e. We must not let any human teacher or church or angel from heaven teach us otherwise. 
       (1) “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Gal.1:8-9 
     3. And though the true gospel has many wonderful things to say about those who put their hope in Christ: “Glorious things of thee are spoken,” the true gospel also forces us to come to grips with our guilt and unworthiness and corruption and rebellion and pride.
      a. “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
      b. You can’t come to Christ unless you come through the eye of a needle. (Matt.19:24) 
      c. “Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load: ‘tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed, Son of man and Son of God.” (Thomas Kelly)

*J Gresham Machen: “How shall we distinguish Christ’s active obedience from His passive obedience? Shall we say that He accomplished His active obedience by His life and accomplished His passive obedience by His death? No, that will not do at all. During every moment of His life upon earth Christ was engaged in His passive obedience. It was all for Him humiliation, was it not? It was all suffering. It was all part of His payment of the penalty of sin. On the other hand, we cannot say that His death was passive obedience and not active obedience. On the contrary, His death was the crown of His active obedience. It was the crown of that obedience to the law of God by which He merited eternal life for those whom He came to save. Do you not see, then, what the true state of the case is? Christ’s active obedience and His passive obedience are not two divisions of His work, some of the events of His earthly life being His active obedience and other events of His life being His passive obedience; but every event of His life was both active obedience and passive obedience. Every event of His life was a part of His payment of the penalty of sin, and every event of His life was a part of that glorious keeping of the law of God by which He earned for His people the reward of eternal life. The two aspects of His work, in other words, are inextricably intertwined. Neither was performed apart from the other. Together they constitute the wonderful, full salvation which was wrought for us by Christ our Redeemer.”