Our verse today is such wonderful and powerful promise from God’s Word. We read GOD “MADE” HIM. Who is the Him? None other than Jesus Christ. The very Holy God, who made the earth and all that goes beyond into the realm of galaxies and beyond, also made His Son, Jesus Christ to be “sin” for us. Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect, holy and obedient life to the Father, became sin and the sin bearer, for you and me. Whoever you are reading the message, Jesus became sin for YOU. He who never sinned, became sin. How did that happen? If you will read from the Book of Galatians (chapter 3:13), you will learn that “cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree”. That is, who was crucified as Jesus was at Calvary. When Jesus voluntarily allowed Himself to be nailed to that “old rugged cross”, at that moment, He became sin for us. While Jesus hung there on the cross, between Heaven and earth, in the sight of the Father, He became sin.

He also became the “sin bearer”. That is He carried your sins and my sins to the cross. In doing that He took the punishment that you and I deserve,separation from God. That is what death really means, separation. As our verse says, “He was made sin, who never sinned, for us”. Now, for those who will put their trust in Him, the end result of all this is, that we now can be clothed fully in His perfect righteousness.

That is what the later part of this verse promises. "so that IN HIM we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD”. Dear reader, that is such a wonderful promise from God’s Holy Word. In Him, i.e. in Christ, you and I, as believers, receive or become the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. What does that mean? One day when we stand before God, we will NOT stand before Him on our puny human righteousness, our good deeds, which would never pass the test for God, but instead we will stand before God clothed in the PERFECT RIGHTEOUS LIFE of Jesus Christ. His life becomes our life, because our life, our sin, became His. You talk about “swap shops”, that’s really something to write home about.