Featured Christ being made sin Volume 2

I would have thought it was a matter of common courtesy, if one is going to criticize someone's view, to provide a reference. If I am going to read the book I shall have to buy a print version. My eyes won't tolerate reading that much on line.
Never mind.

 

This is the commutation I mentioned: he was made sin for us, we are made the righteousness of God in him. God is not imputing sin unto us, verse 19, but imputing righteousness unto us, does it on this ground alone that "he was made sin for us." And if by his being made sin, only his being made a sacrifice for sin is intended, it is to the same purpose, for the formal reason of any thing being made an expiatory sacrifice, was the imputation of sin unto it by divine institution.
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, General Considerations, previous unto the Explanation of the Doctrine of Justification. (On a Kindle reader this is location 43862)
I think that in the above, Owen is just saying that if someone wants to look at the idea of Christ being made sin as no more than being made a "sin-offering" it still has the same meaning because the sin-offering had the sin imputed to it before it could be a sin offering.
I have the work in a Kindle version and can find the location of things by keywords but I still don't see what the controversy is here.

 

'Us', punished, not eternally, ever. We'll reap what we sow in this temporal realm, but our eternal destiny has been secured by Christ's atonement.

That's good news!

 

7 Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ: 1 Cor 5

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. Ex 12

 

Owen, in that section we are looking in said that God ascribed every aspect of our sin to Christ, except he did not mean that Christ had actually became a sinner himself. He pointed out that he was bearing our sins and actually bearing them in a way we would never be able to. He seemed to me at least, to be sort of uncomfortable with the idea of calling this a sin-offering because whenever he allowed that usage he always preceded it by insisting that Christ was made sin and also that in the sacrificial system the sacrifice had to be made sin before it could become a sin-offering. He seemed very concerned to protect the concept of Christ being "made sin" and seemed anxious that the idea of Christ as a sin-offering not infringe on the meaning of the first phrase. At least that's what I noticed. I read where you guys had a dispute over Greek and Hebrew words which was way beyond me so I'm just saying that I noticed that.

But when you say "actual guilt" you are right if you mean that Christ never actually became an evil sinner himself but it was all imputed to Christ - everything involved in the dealing with our sin by God was put on Christ, with the understanding that Christ didn't really do anything wrong. This does include an element of wrath and propitiation as well as a removal of sin or of a satisfaction to God.

The points you bring up do clarify the importance of imputation, of our sin to Christ and of Christs righteousness to us. It also brings out the importance of having a union with Christ. This is all very hard to understand and I am thankful that if you notice we aren't doing anything but are passive in the actually dealing with our sin and guilt.

 

There's a 'mini-type' to be found in the story of the Passover night in Egypt. The 'firstborn' being totally passive, it was the father who applied the blood for them. Whether or not the firstborn believed that the blood on the lintel and doorpost was going to work, their 'faith' had zilch to do with it's efficacy. However, their 'faith' had everything to do with how they rested on that dreadful night.

 

The death they died was physical.

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

There goes "original sin" out of the conversation. Adam had a law. Do not eat of the tree. Adam's offspring died physically even though they had transgressed no law. They did not die because they sinned like Adam, they died because they were like Adam. They were "in" Adam, meaning they were in the family of Adam and all those in Adam die, even to this very day, whether they have sinned or not. They did not have eternal life dwelling in them.

Adam is a figure (type) of Jesus Christ, albeit a contrasting type. All men get into the family of Adam through a birth and are sure to die. When someone of Adams family gets into the family of God it is through a new birth, a second birth, and they have eternal life dwelling in them and they will never die. The person of life dwells in them, God. He said he would never leave us or forsake us.

But alas, Jesus Christ did not come until the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 5th millennium and men were dying for all the first 4 Millennia. What about them? Well, God had a solution. If they would believe the light he gave them, no matter how bright or dim, he would count their believing for righteousness and justify them as though they never sinned and when Jesus Christ, the savior arrived, his blood would wash away their sins and they could be accepted into the presence of God.

The righteous judge of all the earth can do that and a justified man can never be charged with sin. After the cross Jesus Christ is made unto us "justification." When we receive him we receive justification.

That was a great question BTW, and I am glad you asked it.

 

If Christ bore our sins, to where did He bear them?
'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'

Leviticus 16:21-22. 'Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.'

 

The blood??? That above is very good especially when applied to the following in the correct translation: Darby- for the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it (the blood of Christ) to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.

Soul = living being = smell, touch, taste, see, hear, memory - of the flesh (of Christ) - in the blood (of Christ) unto death the very opposite of the preceding because of our sin which IMHO went away because of washing of regeneration (of Christ) 1 Cor 15:16,17 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins
To date Christ is the only one to have been raised to die no more, no more to return to corruption Rom 6:9 Acts 13:34

But he is the first-born out of the dead therefore -
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to him who did love us, and did bathe (wash) us from our sins in his blood,


IMHO the blood of Christ means the very being of, The Christ. The Anointed One, anointed by whom?

 

Unlike you, I'm just quoting Scripture. Deuteronomy 19:15. 'By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.'

1. 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'
2. 'And you know that He was manifested to take away our sin.'
3. 'Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.'

 

Well I want to know what it means that Christ bore our sins. If, as you say, He didn't bear them away (contra John 1:29, 1 John 3:3, and indeed Colossians 2:14), what happened to them? Where are they now? If God laid all our iniquities upon Him, and He didn't bear them away, are they still on Him? Or back on us?
If they have simply disappeared into thin air, on what basis did that happen? Is whatever it is you believe but don't want to tell us consistent with the justice of God ('by no means clearing the guilty')?

And asking, where does He take our sin' is not a nonsense question, and nor is it adding to Scripture. It is asking you to explain your philosophy.