2 Corinthians 5.21:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (NIV)
As reviewed in prior posts, no person is without sin. It is only Christ standing in our place, mediating before God the Father on our behalf that we are deemed to be righteous. A right relationship with God just doesn’t come from us. It’s not a matter that we merely make mistakes or disappoint ourselves from time to time. We choose to engage in sin. We do not have to, because through Christ we have been set free, but we choose to do so.
The verse above explains to us how it is that we have a right standing before God. The expression in verse 21 above “for us” communicates the idea of “on behalf of us.” The word translated as “for” can also be translated as, “instead of” us. In both of these expressions the idea of substitution is being communicated. And this is the reality of what Christ did for us by dying on the cross: His righteousness was substituted for our sin in God’s eyes, so that when God looks at us through the death of Jesus on the cross, He sees us as righteous. This only takes place through Jesus.
This substitution is available to everyone who will put his or her faith and trust in Jesus. The Bible verse of John 1.12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (NIV)