For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ESVUK

Our sin lies at the heart of our alienation from God.

”…but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” ESV

Sin separates. Essentially it separates us from God (but also from one another).

Sin separates, but Jesus saves. This verse expresses the heart of what God did in Jesus upon the cross, in just a few words. It’s been described as ‘the great exchange.’ Jesus got our sin, and we receive His righteousness when we trust in Him. God now sees us as being as righteous as His own perfect Son. He no longer sees us in our sin; He sees us in His Son.

Martin Luther expressed the wonder of this in somewhat stark and graphic terms: ‘Therefore, He is both the greatest and only sinner on earth, for He bears the sins of the whole world, and also the only righteous and holy One, since no one is made righteous and holy before God except through Him.’

In saying that at the cross Jesus became ‘the greatest and only sinner on earth’ Luther was perhaps using exaggerated language to bring out the enormity of what Christ did. Certainly, He was treated as if He were the world’s greatest sinner. All of our sins were piled on Him, and He bore the just penalty for them. so that we would not have to, if only we will turn to Him and trust in Him.

In saying that God ”made him to be sin” Paul does not mean that Jesus was unwillingly forced into something He did not want to do. The Father and the Son are perfectly at one in the work of salvation. If God the Father willed the death of His Son, the Son was also totally willing to die in our place. The comprehensive Biblical picture brings this out.

Let’s not hurry away from this verse, but stay awhile and remove our shoes. We are standing on holy ground.