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"For our sake He made Him (Christ) to be sin (or a sin-offering) for us, Who knew no
sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
The doctrine of the sinlessness of Christ from the cradle to the tomb is utterly essential
to God's redemption. If the Lord Jesus had only sinned once, He would have needed a
Saviour. He could not have been the Saviour of others. But in a way we can never fully
appreciate, the Lord `laid on Him the iniquity of us all' (Isa. 53: 6) and this is true, not
only of Israel, but of all the Lord's people. There is a wonderful exchange here. Christ
takes the believer's sins and receives the judgment of them in Himself, whereas the
believer is given a righteous status before God, for it is nothing less than God's
righteousness which is reckoned his as a free gift (Phil. 3: 9; Rom. 3: 22). Paul
concludes this section relating to the ministry of reconciliation by saying:
"And working together with Him we intreat 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 succour thee; behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day
of salvation)" (6: 1, 2 R.V.).
In using the plural `we' here, the Apostle doubtless included other fellow-workers
besides himself. In this glorious service men co-operate with God in making known the
`good news' and Paul underlines its urgency by quoting from Isa. 49: 8. Men must
avail themselves of the grace of God while the opportunity lasts, for the accepted time
will not always be with us and we do well to bring this to the fore when we proclaim the
gospel. The Apostle could do this with a good conscience, bearing in mind his opposers
at Corinth who evidently had done their best to disparage his ministry and misunderstand
his motives. There are always those who are glad of an excuse not to listen to the gospel
and try to find one in the conduct of its ministers. But they could not truthfully do this
with regard to the Apostle Paul. He could commend his service to them without
boasting:
". . . . . but in everything commending ourselves, as ministers of God, in much
patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in
tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; in pureness, in knowledge, in
longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the Word of truth, in
the power of God; by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by
glory and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as
unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not
killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things" (6: 4-10 R.V.).
What a defence! and what an eloquent list of the characteristics of a faithful servant
of God! There are nine kinds of trials which divide into groups of three. In the first
group there is general suffering, pressure physical and mental, hardships which could not
be relieved, and frustrations on every hand. The second group deals with sufferings he
endured at the hands of men (stripes, imprisonment, tumults). The third section gives us
the qualities he sought to display in his Christian witness day by day, resulting in a series
of antitheses which illustrate the way he was being maligned by his enemies. Sometimes
he was praised, sometimes he was misrepresented. Sometimes he was flattered,
sometimes he was harshly criticized, but whatever men's estimate of him was, he