03/17/25 THE SIN OFFERING, NOT SIN
I posted this photo four days ago and asked, "Where am I?"
A friend (who was the only one willing to try to guess at my cryptic question), knowing my love for my Promise Land heritage in Morehead, made a reasonable guess.
However, the answer to the question was, "I am in the hallway of my house in Williston" (where this wall decor is hanging). If I had asked, "Where is the location of these co-ordinates," it would have been Morehead.
This actually has an important application for Christian understanding.
Sometimes a person (preacher, teacher, writer, or "prophet") deliberately misleads a person with a trick question. Also, it is possible to misunderstand something because we don't take time to understand what, or who, or when, or why a particular statement was said or written.
It is essential to know and understand the immediate context, the meaning of the actual statement, the wider context, the background of the writer (or speaker), the time period mentioned, the language and colloquialisms used, the culture.
For instance, my local friends would understand a colloquialism, which most other folks would not understand.
"I've run aground." This is a phrase used locally, especially in the past, which indicates that the person has had a sufficiency; as in the case of a person who just finished a big meal, saying, "I've run aground."
Let me give you a Biblical passage, to which this principle applies.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
When reading this verse, it seems to be saying that Jesus actually became actual sin. For several reasons, that cannot be true, Jesus was never actual sin, Jesus never was a sinner, and certainly God (the Father) would not make anyone a sinner, especially His only begotten Son, His holy Son. But rather than listing or explaining all of those reasons, let me simply state what the passage actually means.
In the Old Testament (especially in the Pentateuch) the word "sin" is used in reference to, "the sin sacrifice." In fact, in the translation of the Old Testament into Greek (The Septuagint), the King James (among other translations) translates the word SIN with the same meaning and use, with which it had been used in those Old Testament passages. The Hebrew word for SIN is used in reference to both human sin (transgression as well as man's inherent corruption; AND it is used in reference to the SIN SACRIFICE, which is not the same as sin as an act of transgression or an inherent corrupt condition.
The KJV followed this linguistic usage over one hundred times and should have applied it to this passage in 2 Corinthians as well, since the background, the history, the culture, the Biblical usage of the word is in reference to THE SIN SACRIFICE. In fact, some of those who contend that this passage says Jesus actually became SIN (rather than a SIN SACRIFICE) because they ignore that the word SIN sometimes means SIN SACRIFICE (the two different uses in the Old Testament passages).
In the Old Testament passages, SIN as a transgression and as a corruption was removed, atoned for, by a SIN SACRIFICE. The same Hebrew word was used for both the corruption and the atoning sacrifice. Likewise, in the 2 Corinthian passage, the same word should be used in two different ways.
English translation errors say,
"He made him to be SIN for us, who knew no SIN..."
Proper understanding and translation should say,
"He (God) has made Him (Christ) to be the SIN SACRIFICE, who knew no SIN..."
This translation is consistent with the Biblical view of the passages, and maintains the impeccability of Christ, and it makes perfectly good sense.
Look at this passage this way...
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For he (God) hath made him to be the SIN SACRIFICE for us, who knew no SIN; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
While there are some who disagree with this view, this was the understanding of various highly regarded Bible scholars in the past, including those with a Reformed or Calvinistic background.
Matthew Henry...
"(2Co_5:21), namely, (1.) The purity of the Mediator: He knew no sin. (2.) The sacrifice he offered: He was made sin; not a sinner, but sin, that is, a sin-offering, a sacrifice for sin."
Albert Barnes...
"2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us - The Greek here is, ‘for him who knew no sin, he hath made sin, or a sin-offering for us.’ "
The Summarized Bible...
"Striking Facts: 2Co_5:21. Christ was “made sin”—not a sinner, but sin—a sin-offering or sacrifice."
Joseph Benson...
"2 Corinthians 5:21
For he made him, who knew no sin — A commendation peculiar to Christ; to be sin — Or a sin-offering rather, (as the expression often signifies both in the Old Testament and the New;)"
The following note is longer, but it is a thorough list of verses (you should read the explanation and at least look at this list), which verifies the use of the phrase "SIN SACRIFICE." This Biblical use of the phrase is consistent with the history, rituals and theological point that Jesus was made a SIN SACRIFICE, which stands in contradistinction to the various attempts to justify the popular, but poor translations and errant theological position, which promotes the blasphemy that Jesus actually became SIN.
This keeps the argument focused on the Biblical fact that Jesus was the Divine SIN SACRIFICE, rather than the errant human theological perspectives.
Adam Clarke...
"2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us - Τον μη γνοντα ἁμαρτιαν, ὑπερ ἡμων ἁμαρτιαν εποιησεν· He made him who knew no sin, (who was innocent), a sin-offering for us. The word ἁμαρτια occurs here twice: in the first place it means sin, i.e. transgression and guilt; and of Christ it is said, He knew no sin, i.e. was innocent; for not to know sin is the same as to be conscious of innocence; so, nil conscire sibi, to be conscious of nothing against one’s self, is the same as nulla pallescere culpa, to be unimpeachable.
In the second place, it signifies a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin, and answers to the חטאה chattaah and חטאת chattath of the Hebrew text; which signifies both sin and sin-offering in a great variety of places in the Pentateuch. The Septuagint translate the Hebrew word by ἁμαρτια in ninety-four places in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where a sin-offering is meant; and where our version translates the word not sin, but an offering for sin. Had our translators attended to their own method of translating the word in other places where it means the same as here, they would not have given this false view of a passage which has been made the foundation of a most blasphemous doctrine; viz. that our sins were imputed to Christ, and that he was a proper object of the indignation of Divine justice, because he was blackened with imputed sin; and some have proceeded so far in this blasphemous career as to say, that Christ may be considered as the greatest of sinners, because all the sins of mankind, or of the elect, as they say, were imputed to him, and reckoned as his own. One of these writers translates the passage thus: Deus Christum pro maximo peccatore habuit, ut nos essemus maxime justi, God accounted Christ the greatest of sinners, that we might be supremely righteous. Thus they have confounded sin with the punishment due to sin. Christ suffered in our stead; died for us; bore our sins, (the punishment due to them), in his own body upon the tree, for the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all; that is, the punishment due to them; explained by making his soul - his life, an offering for sin; and healing us by his stripes.
But that it may be plainly seen that sin-offering, not sin, is the meaning of the word in this verse, I shall set down the places from the Septuagint where the word occurs; and where it answers to the Hebrew words already quoted; and where our translators have rendered correctly what they render here incorrectly. In Exodus, Exo_29:14, Exo_29:36: Leviticus, Lev_4:3, Lev_4:8, Lev_4:20, Lev_4:21, Lev_4:24, Lev_4:25, Lev_4:29, Lev_4:32-34; Lev_5:6, Lev_5:7, Lev_5:8, Lev_5:9, Lev_5:11, Lev_5:12; Lev_6:17, Lev_6:25, Lev_6:30; Lev_7:7, Lev_7:37; Lev_8:2, Lev_8:14; Lev_9:2, Lev_9:3, Lev_9:7, Lev_9:8, Lev_9:10, Lev_9:15, Lev_9:22; Lev_10:16, Lev_10:17, Lev_10:19; Lev_12:6, Lev_12:8; Lev_14:13, Lev_14:19, Lev_14:22, Lev_14:31; Lev_15:15, Lev_15:30; Lev_16:3, Lev_16:5, Lev_16:6, Lev_16:9, Lev_16:11, Lev_16:15, Lev_16:25, Lev_16:27; Lev_23:19: Numbers, Num_6:11, Num_6:14, Num_6:16; Num_7:16, Num_7:22, Num_7:28, Num_7:34, Num_7:40, Num_7:46, Num_7:52, Num_7:58, Num_7:70, Num_7:76, Num_7:82, Num_7:87; Num_8:8, Num_8:12; Num_15:24, Num_15:25, Num_15:27; Num_18:9; Num_28:15, Num_28:22; Num_29:5, Num_29:11, Num_29:16, Num_29:22, Num_29:25, Num_29:28, Num_29:31, Num_29:34, Num_29:38.
Besides the above places, it occurs in the same signification, and is properly translated in our version, in the following places: -
2 Chronicles, 2Ch_29:21, 2Ch_29:23, 2Ch_29:24: Ezra, Ezr_6:17; Ezr_8:35: Nehemiah, Neh_10:33: Job, Job_1:5: Ezekiel, Ezk_43:19, Ezk_43:22, Ezk_43:25; Ezk_44:27, Ezk_44:29; Ezk_45:17, Ezk_45:19, Ezk_45:22, Ezk_45:23, Ezk_45:25. In all, one hundred and eight places, which, in the course of my own reading in the Septuagint, I have marked."
Notice also, it is God who made Christ to be "sin" for us. There is no way that God (the Father) made His Son to become (SIN). It is not conceivable for God to make anyone to sin, or to become sin, much less make His own holy Son become sin. HOWEVER, it is consistent with the Old Testament record and agreeable to the nature of God the Father and God the Son, that the Father would give a SACRIFICE FOR SIN (a SIN SACRIFICE).
This is just one of many Biblical issues that must be studied carefully rather than quickly swallowing the "easy answers" people offer concerning Biblical truth.
Another subject, which often gets misrepresented is the false notion that Jesus either FEARED THE CROSS, or TRIED TO ESCAPE THE CROSS, while He was in the Garden. The evidence against such blasphemy is much stronger than the evidence I have offered in this post regarding Christ being made a SIN SACRIFICE.
But in both cases, the dignity, purpose, commitment of Jesus are assailed. The idea that God made Christ to be SIN, and the idea that Christ either feared the cross, or that He tried to escape the cross are contrary to the basic and repeated principles of salvation and Divine nature.
Always stay with Biblical revelation and principles. Never follow anything which diminishes the dignity, Deity, revealed plan of salvation and determination of Jesus.
