Creator, Father, King #237

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

IMAGINE IF YOU FLUNKED a year in school, then someone willingly offered you their valedictorian status while they dealt with the fallout of your failing grades.

Imagine if you went broke and creditors came to take all you owned. Then a millionaire kindly offered to pay all your debts.

Imagine if you were caught robbing a bank and convicted by a jury. Then at your sentencing hearing, someone suddenly walked into the courtroom and asked the judge to take your place in prison.

It’s hard to imagine anyone doing anything like that in this life. But if that happened to you, you’d be both shocked and forever grateful, wouldn’t you?

Spiritually speaking, Jesus has done all this for you through his death and resurrection—only at an infinitely greater level. It’s called the doctrine of imputation.

What’s It Mean?

Imputation is a big theological word, but it’s so important for every Christian to understand this doctrine as we continue to study what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.

Imputation reveals a marvelous spiritual transfer that takes place in every believer’s life thanks to Jesus’ finished work at Calvary. When Christ died on the cross, God “made him to be sin” even though he “knew no sin,” as today’s verse says.

This does not mean Jesus became a sinner or God thought of him as sinful. Jesus lived a holy life and never disobeyed the Father (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5). Rather, today’s verse points to Christ’s role as our substitutionary atonement and the glorious reality of imputation.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, God imputed all our sins and guilt on Christ (or thought of it as belonging to him) and imputed Jesus’ righteousness to us (or thought of it as belonging to us). In other words, Jesus willingly took God’s just punishment for our sins, and we get credit for Jesus’ righteousness. We contributed nothing to this great interchange except our sin. Christ gloriously did all the work, and God graciously credits it to our account— all for our salvation. It’s the greatest exchange in history!

Why did God initiate this amazing, mysterious process? He did this out of his great love for you, to reconcile you to himself. Praise the Lord!

Now What?

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 to see the context of the apostle Paul’s discussion of imputation.

Did You Know?

Imputation is what allows us to be justified before God, or “made right in God’s sight by faith . . . because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:1).