Every year around Easter, this verse comes up: God made Jesus to be sin for us, or that Jesus became sin for us. All translations read almost exactly the same. Many sermons are preached on Jesus becoming the sins of the world. And because Jesus was so laden with our sins and the sins of the world, God walked away from him for hours because sin can not be in the presence of God.

Here are a couple of quotes I found on the internet:

… Because in that moment, Jesus was enduring the ultimate agony. In that moment, there was a tremor in the Trinity, as God the Father turned His back on His only Son and poured out His wrath—His anger for all of the sin of humanity—on Jesus.  Greg Stier

But as He died, all our sins were placed on Him, and He became the final and complete sacrifice for our sins. And in that moment, He was banished from the presence of God, for sin cannot exist in God’s presence. His cry speaks of this truth; He endured the separation from God that you and I deserve. Billy Graham Association

This verse has always been a mystery to me.  What does it really mean?  If I pictured sin as something black, Jesus would have been black with sin through and through.

Apparently, this verse has caught the attention of many people over the years. The reason is because it is a figure of speech, as I will explain.  Figures of speech are designed to arrest our attention, and this verse has arrested the attention of many.

2Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

One of the great researchers of the Bible was EW Bullinger.  In his book Figures of Speech Used in the Bible he notes that 2 Corinthians 5:21 uses the figure of speech Metonymy. Sin is put for the sin offering. This usage of Metonymy is where the object is put for that which it pertains or relates to.

I found a couple of translations from the 1700s that use the words sin offering.

For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be a sin offering for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Haweis New Testament

For he hath made him who knew no sin to be a sin-offering for us, that we might be justified by God thro’ him.  Mace New Testament

It is entirely possible that many translators knew that the word “sin” was put for the reality of “sin offering” and assumed most people would understand that.  But for folks who are slow like me, it needs to be spelled out or explained so that it makes sense.

In other places where God talks about Jesus’s death, God does not use that figure, but He says it straight out.

Eph 5:2  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

 Exodus here explains how they were to pick the offering for the Passover each year.

Exo 12:5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats

Then, we find in the church epistles that Jesus was the Passover lamb, the perfect sacrifice for sin that year.

1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Rather than Adam dying a physical death for his sin, God allowed a substitute to die in his place. God sacrificed some animals and took their skins to clothe Adam and Eve. God accepted the death of those animals in the place of Adam and Eve’s physical death. Although their spirit died. It has been this way down through history.  Many sacrifices were made as substitute offerings for sin.  When Jesus, as God’s only begotten son, was finally here on the earth, God accepted Jesus’s obedient death as the final sacrifice for all sins for all time.  Jesus was the perfect SIN OFFERING that year. So, the verse could read without the figure of speech, “Jesus was made or became a perfect offering or sacrifice for sin.” The sinless for the sinful.  God never abandoned him or turned his back on him.  God was right there setting the great joy before Jesus of what his death would do for all mankind.  Jesus was not black with sin but was the perfect sin offering, the lamb of God of the first year that was promised to Adam in the garden—a redeemer.

Heb 10:12  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Heb 10:13  From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

Heb 10:14  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So, that year, Jesus Christ was not forsaken on the cross; he was doing exactly as his Father asked.  His Father was right there with him, showing him the great things that Jesus’s death would accomplish. He gave his life as the perfect offering/sacrifice for sin, for you and me and all mankind.  On the third day, God raised his son from the dead. Marking Jesus out as The Son of God. He was the perfect, sinless man, the only begotten of his Father, and that year, he was the Passover lamb, the sin offering, once and for all, for all time. So that all who accept him as their lord and savior can have eternal life and the righteousness of God now as we live here waiting for the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin (a sin offering) for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him