(As ever, this Lenten devotional applies to me.)
Forgiveness
At the Ash Wednesday service I attended this week, a key verse was
2Cor 5:21, but in what I consider to be a bad translation, one that
miscommunicates the nature of forgiveness.
Many translations render the Greek as,
“The one [Jesus] who did not know sin (hamartia), he [God] made sin (hamartia) on behalf of us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
Good modern translations will at least provide a footnote stating that the second time hamartia occurs, it could be rendered “sin offering.” That makes a world of difference! The lexical situation is that hamartia is the NT Greek equivalent for the Hebrew ḥatat, both of which not only can mean “sin” in the general sense, but also are the technical sacrificial terms for the “sin-cleansing offering” in the Temple system of atonement.
So, which did Paul mean? If Paul knew the Temple symbolism, which I assume he did, he would never say that Jesus “became sin.” Nothing and no one became sin in the Israelite atonement system.[1] However, it makes perfect sense for Paul to see Jesus as fulfilling the function of the sin-cleansing offering. (Some translations do get this translation correct in another debated text, Rom 8:3, “… God his own son sent in the likeness of sinful flesh and for a sin offering (hamartia)….”[2])
What does that mean about forgiveness? The sin-cleansing offering is the main symbol of God’s forgiveness in the Temple sacrificial system. First, the forgiveness of God throughout the OT is never about someone first paying a judgment price of punishment.[3] It is about God’s gracious mercy. Second, in the Temple sacrificial system, this mercy is ritualized by the blood of the sacrifice symbolically cleansing away the polluting effect of sin in God’s dwelling in order to restore unimpeded communion with God. In Paul’s thinking, Jesus’ sacrificial life/blood fulfilled that role.
First Application
In the same way as Jesus, then, Christians are to express the
righteousness of God, by thinking of themselves as a life’s-blood-giving, cleansing
offering. The season of Lent reminds us
that forgiveness is not easy but is self-costing. It involves self-lowering, self-giving, enduring
unjustly, etc. for the sake of others. At least for me, such merciful forgiveness never
comes easily. I tend to want the other person
to suffer. I tend to give validity to
the adage, “Hurt people hurt people.” However,
merciful people, not only do not hurt people, rather, they give of themselves to
“cleanse” the effect of sin.
Become the Righteousness of God
2 Corinthians 5:21 also tells us that we “become the righteousness
of God in him.” What does that
mean? Verse 21 needs to be understood in
the context of 5:14-6:2. A couple of
themes come together. First, Christians
are intimately and mysteriously “in Christ” (5:17,19,21). Second, as ones in Christ, Christians are now
ambassadors of God’s salvific ministry of reconciliation (5:18-20;6:1). God’s righteousness is revealed in how God
does not count people’s sins against them but works to reconcile them to God
(19). As Paul states elsewhere, “This
righteousness of God is made known … through
the faith of Jesus Christ in all who are believing [entrusting]” (Rom 3:21-22).
Second Application
Christians are to be the righteousness of God! When we do not count people’s sins against
them but offer ourselves in expressions of forgiveness, we, too, reveal the
righteousness of God of the salvific work of Christ. That is – my words can only understate it – a
monumental calling.
Lord, I hardly see myself as your expression of righteousness. Still, I do know that I am in Christ. I am to live in Christ. I am to be merciful. I am to forgive. I am to live the ministry of reconciliation. So, help me, Jesus, to be your expression of righteousness. May it be so. Amen and amen.
[1] Sins are not literally transferred from people to animals even in the Day of Atonement scapegoat ritual which was transformed from the ancient Near Eastern realm of magic to function symbolically in Israel. Although it is popular to allegorize the OT scapegoat as a figure of Jesus, Jesus is never called that in the NT. Also, a well-known text that might cause some confusion is 1Pet 2:24, in which it is said that Jesus bears sin. Behind this text is an OT idiom. “Forgiveness” in the OT is often expressed by the action of God lifting/bearing the sins of people. It does not mean sins were objectively transferred to God/Jesus; it is a figurative expression of God removing the “weight” of sin, an expression of mercy.
[2] The Greek phrase peri hamartia, which could be translated as “concerning sin” (see NET), is used throughout Leviticus and Numbers in the Greek translation, the Septuagint, to refer to the sin-cleansing offering (ḥatat), an idiom one would presume that Paul knew.
[3] That way of thinking comes into Christian thought via Anselm, Luther, and particularly Calvin, who thought in judicial terms as the lawyer he was.
