Albert N. Martin

Speaking of himself and his companions in gospel endeavors, the Apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain (for he saith, ‘At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation’).”

You had better take sin as seriously as God does in this life, or you’ll have a whole eternity to regret that you didn’t. You got me? So when this signpost gets our attention with the double trumpet blast—“behold, behold”—it is to call our attention to the great issue of salvation. The first thing we know about that salvation is that it deals with the ugly reality of human sin that has made us the enemies of God, unfit for fellowship with Him and acceptance by Him.

Secondly, it is a salvation from sin, secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God. Notice verse 18 of chapter 5, “All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself.” Sin was the barrier. He’s removed it. How? Through Christ. “And gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”

This salvation from sin is secured by a person called in this passage Christ. His full name is: our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the God-man. Christ Jesus, who was uniquely constituted true man as though He were not God, who was and ever had been and ever shall be God, as much God as though He had never taken humanity to Himself. That One was set apart and marked out by God and anointed. He is the Messiah, to be the great and final Prophet, Priest, and King appointed by God for the salvation of men. You say, “Pastor Martin, you use language, ‘Salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God.’ I don’t see that clearly taught in verses 18 and 19. I see that the barrier has been removed through Christ and in Christ.”

But read on. Verse 20, “We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin [that is, Jesus Christ] he made to be sin on our behalf.” Him who knew no sin! That is, Jesus Christ in the totality of His person had no personal acquaintance with the horrible reality of human sin. His mind never for a millisecond ever thought a jealous thought, a mean thought, a covetous thought, a lustful thought, an untruthful thought. Reared in a crowded home, in a large family, in humble, peasant circumstances, that mind never for a moment was found in a little boy lying on a cot saying, “I’ll get even with that brother who did me in and lied of me to mom and dad.” Never once was such a thought ever for a millisecond in His holy mind!

Never once, from the time He was conceived in Mary’s womb until He gave up His Spirit upon the cross, never once was there an emotion that was ever tainted in the slightest hue with the stain of sin. His deepest joys never stepped over the boundary into carnal frivolity. His most crushing grief never stepped into the boundary of the dejection of unbelief, and all of the emotions in between that that holy soul of the Son of God felt, and how deeply He felt them. He shudders when He comes to the graveside of Lazarus with a mingled spirit of hatred and grief in the presence of death that has taken away His friend Lazarus. The spirit of anger that flashed through His eyes in Mark 3:5, when He looked around—it says, “Being angry for their hardness of heart.” But in that anger at death, in that anger in the face of unbelief, not a hue of the stain of a sinful passion of anger was there.

When His eyes flashed and His whole body surged with the strength of the man who labored with His hands and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and took the scourge and drove out the beasts—there was not one breath connected with that action, not one twitch of one muscle in one stroke of the scourge, that had the slightest tint of sin in it.

Never in His thoughts did He know sin. Never in His emotions did He know sin. Never in His words—when most scathing, calling people, “A brood of snakes,” “Twofold more the children of hell,” “Whitewashed sepulchres,” what some would say vitriolic language—He knew no sin. In His most compassionate, tender language to sinners: “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more”; “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee”; never the stain of carnal, unprincipled sentimentality. He only had righteous compassion, just forgiveness.

Our text says, “He knew no sin.” Sit and meditate for 15 minutes on what that meant living as a human being in this world for thirty-three and a half years. He knew no sin! Yet, look at our text. It says, “He was made sin on our behalf.” Kids, that’s what the word ‘vicarious’ means. A vicar is one who stands in the place of another. When we say that this salvation to which God calls our attention is not only a salvation that is rooted in the reality of human sin, which has separated us from God, made us unfit for communion and fellowship with Him, but is a salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God, we’re trying to make our words capture what the text says. “Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf.”

Bible References: 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Mark 3:5

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