2 Corinthians 5:21 - Michael Hardin

2 Corinthians 5:21

I am frequently asked how to interpret 2 Cor. 5:21. So today I will exegete this text so that if others want to know all I have to do is reference this FB post! (I don’t apologize for its length, this kind of work is necessary when one is overturning an 1,800 year old reading of a text).

2 Cor 5:21 is part of the larger context about reconciliation. Verses 14-17 state “The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. 15 He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised. 16 So then, from this point on we won't recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn't how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” (CEB)

Notice it is the love of Christ which controls, not the fear of God’s wrath, hell or punishment. Why does this love control Paul’s message? He concludes that with the death of Jesus something happened that included all humanity. As the True Human (‘ho huios tou anthropou’ in the Gospel tradition) or the Second Adam (in the Pauline tradition), Jesus is representative of all humanity. His death is the death of all. Even as he was raised so also, his resurrection brings life to all. Inasmuch as he did this for all, all may now live in him, through him and for him. Paul avers that he once judged Jesus ‘kata sarka’ (after the flesh or according to human standards) by which he means as one who was justifiably executed as a lawbreaker. Finally verse 17 is a first class condition; it is not a conditional ‘If’ but rather ‘since.’ In Christ, the eschatological horizon has been breached and the person whose identity is in Jesus smile emoticon all) is part of the new promised creation of God.

Verses 18-20 then form why the theme of reconciliation is announced: “All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people's sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. 20 So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ's representatives, "Be reconciled to God!" (CEB) Verse 18 states that it is God who has taken the initiative for our salvation by reconciling us to God’s self. Nowhere is there any language of penal substitution or satisfaction, no mention of the wrath of God or the threat of hell. As those who have recognized this reconciliation, God has entrusted this message: “You are reconciled. From God’s perspective there is no distance, no abyss that must be crossed or bridged. The apostolic message is thus one of recognition. “God has reconciled you to God’s very self. It is a done fact, a fait accompli. It is Reality, capital R. You haven’t heard? Come then, turn and walk into the open loving arms of God.”

How did God do this? “By not counting their sins against them.” Again there is no talk about our sins being laid on Jesus; nowhere does the New Testament ever say this. How does God deal with sin? God forgives sin, it is as though, from God’s perspective, sin never happened. This is the same thing as Jesus’ prayer in Luke 23:32 ‘Abba, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” Or again as Paul says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs” (I Cor. 13). God is not a record keeper, there are no books in heaven where some angel is recording all the good and evil things of your life (the Revelation of John 20:12 is dead wrong on this score).

Now 2 Cor. 5:21. Here are several translations:

CEB 2 Corinthians 5:21 God caused the one who didn't know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.

CJB 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God's righteousness."

KJV 2 Corinthians 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.

NAS 2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

NIV 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.

RSV 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In every case the translators have made God the subject of the verb ‘poieo’ (to make). Is that the case? In Greek the noun ‘theos” does not appear and in Greek the subject is implied in the verb. Some might say that since God is the subject of so many sentences prior to this, that God is logically the subject of this sentence as well. Dunn (commentary on 2 Cor., p 140). notes that “this is a difficult sentence to explain precisely, because we do not know the background of the expression.” Both Dunn and Furnish (commentary on 2 Cor.,p. 340) observe (as have others) that 5:21 is a creedal formula. What does this mean? It means that Paul has taken over a common saying found either in the Jerusalem church or as part of the early Christian preaching. Either way it indicates that we are dealing with a piece of tradition.

Now, in the tradition can we find anywhere that suggests that it was God who determined Jesus to be sin? On the contrary, what we find, particularly in the Passion narratives is that it is the ruling authorities who have determined Jesus to be a sinner (a lawbreaker). In other words, the tradition of Jesus’ death as handed on in the Passion stories (which were early, perhaps as early as 41 C.E. according to Gert Theissen, The Gospels in Context) are our control for determining who it is that “makes Jesus sin.” It is humans who determined Jesus to be sin. That was a wrong judgment as the gospels make clear and as the resurrection of Jesus from the dead ratifies. We humans who once “knew Messiah ‘kata sarka’” and made a wrong and false judgment about him were the ones who ‘made him out to be a sinner.’ Not God. (Those scholars who want to see an inter-textual echo of Isaiah 53 usually fall into reading this text sacrificially when it is actually a subversive re-reading of the Isa. 53 text).

So if it is humans who ‘made Jesus sin’ and not God, how then shall we understand this verse? I would translate it this way: “The one who was innocent was deemed guilty by humanity (who judge ‘kata sarka’), therefore, inasmuch as we made a wrong judgment about the innocent Jesus, God is right to make a ‘wrong’ judgment about us and declare us, who are guilty, to be in right relationship to God.”

This fits admirably with the Pauline emphasis on what theologians have referred to as ‘the marvelous exchange’ whereby what happens in and to Jesus happens on behalf of all. We are included in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension. Our identity is to be found in Him, and in him alone. Atonement therefore, has nothing to do with Jesus placating the wrath of God. Instead the cross is the event where our unrighteous judgments are unmasked, where our capacity to make righteous judgments is exposed as futile, where we see that we cannot determine right from wrong, not only in relation to Jesus but also in relation to one another. And so we are called to live in the only new reality that is truly Real with a Captial R: the eschatological horizon of the Risen Jesus where everyone is ultimately restored and where we all are forgiven and have forgiven. This is true at-one-ment. This is truly ‘euangellion’ (good news)!

Comments

[eric h janzen]

Thank you. Your own translation of the verse once you've set out the context so clearly, is poignant...and well...quite beautiful. God's love is truly remarkable, and the hope that we discover in all of the actions of Jesus, through his life, death, resurrection, and ongoing life, continues to silence me and humble me. Again, thank you for sharing this.

cheers,
eric h janzen

[Adolphe Mboumte]

Beautiful. Thank you prof

[Jeremy Myers]

Love this. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is difficult to translate and understand. This post summarizes the difficulties well, and provides a good direction for understanding it.

[Pauldouglaswalker.blogspot.com]

Michael Hardin I find the patristics particularly useful in understanding the "made sin" of this passage, and others like it. (eg. Gal 3:13).

Gregory of Nazianzus:
"And so the passage "the Word became flesh" seems to me to be equivalent to that in which it is said that he was made sin or a curse for us; not that the Lord was transformed into either of these- how could that be? But by taking them upon himself he took away our sins and bore our iniquities. " - Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy 101

Cyril of Alexandria:
"We do not say that Christ became a sinner, far from it, but being righteous (or rather, righteousness, because he did not know sin at all) , the Father gave him a victim for the sins of the world" -Letter 41.10

Ambrose:
"So was the Lord turned into sin? Not so, but since he assumed our sins, he is called sin. For the Lord is also called an accursed thing, not because the Lord was turned into an accursed thing but because he himself took on our curse. He says, "For cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree"... It is written that he is made sin; , that is, not by the nature and operation of sin...; but that he might crucify our sin in his flesh, he assumed for us the burden of the infirmities of a body already guilty of carnal sin.