Well, let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 this evening, particularly our sermon text is verse 21, but I would like to read verses 16 through 21 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. So turn there with me, and then after I read the Word of God, I'll also read a summary of the Word of God from question and answer 56 in our catechism. But first, and preeminently, the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 16 through 21. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. May the Lord bless his word this evening. Now, also, I'll read a summary of the forgiveness of sins that we find in our catechism from question and answer 56. And I want to remind you, this is not the Word of God, but simply a helpful summary of it. And that question on page 28 is, what do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins? And that answer is, I believe that God, because of Christ's atonement, will never hold against me any of my sins, nor my sinful nature, which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, in his grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we consider this evening, question and answer 56 is topic of the forgiveness of sins. A window with a spectacular vista is opened up for us. And as we look through this vista, this window out upon this vista, as we gaze through it, we can see the breathtaking work of God to save us. To save us from what? To save us from His wrath. And also to make us right with Himself through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. So this evening we want to think about this great work of God by focusing on what took place on the cross at Calvary, where the Son of God atoned for all our sins, and where really a stunning exchange took place, where all our sins were taken from us, and all of Christ's righteousness was given to us. And this is really what 2 Corinthians 5, 21, our scripture text, teaches us about. and what our catechism in question and answer 56 summarizes for us. And really, this is the greatest news that you and I could ever hear in this world and in our lives. So you who have trusted in Jesus Christ tonight, the good news for you is that you are washed clean from all your sins in the sight of God. Because Christ's blood was shed for you. and so God no longer holds your sins against you. And you're now also, all through faith alone, clothed with His righteousness, with the righteousness of God's own Son in His sight. And so you can see here that God has done something marvelous for you. And so, loved ones, praise the Lord for that. I mean, really, we could go home now. I mean, that's the news. That's the message. But tonight, let's consider from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, these three things tonight. First, the cross and our sin. Second, the cross and Christ's righteousness. And third, the cross and the Christian life. So the cross and our sin, the cross and Christ's righteousness, and the cross and our Christian life. And so, first of all, we want to consider the cross and our sin. I mean, we really have to start there. Verse 21 in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians says, For he, God, made him, that is Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And this verse very clearly proclaims to us this evening that Jesus Christ, And part of the good news is that Jesus Christ was sinless. He knew no sin. I mean, it's just, there it is, black and white. Jesus Christ knew no sin. He was sinless. And the scriptures really plainly declare this all over the place. And I'll read just a few places in the New Testament. But 1 Peter 2, verse 22, which is really quoting Isaiah 53, He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. And Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, it tells us that Christ, our high priest, was tempted in all points, and just like us, and yet he was without sin. And in 1 John chapter 3, verse 5, there the apostle wrote, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. So it's very clear from the word of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he was born sinless as the God-man, God in human flesh. And not once during the course of his entire life did he ever sin. He was and he is perfect. And just stop for a moment and consider that. Consider the magnitude of that statement. I mean, really, we might have a hard time with that, really thinking about that and truly appreciating that because we simply can't comprehend. Maybe we can apprehend to a certain extent, but surely we can't comprehend what it is like to be entirely without sin, and that's because we are so messed up in it, aren't we? This side of heaven. We're conceived and born in sin. That's right from the get-go, as David says in Psalm 51. We're born with the guilt of Adam's original sin and fall in the garden. And not only that, the pollution of sin, it clings to us and it has permeated and affected every part of who we are as human beings. And so from the very beginning, we're corrupted, but not so for our Lord Jesus Christ. When he was conceived, when he was born, he was completely without sin, and he was entirely holy within. And in this way, he was separate from sinners. Yes, he was like us, he came in our flesh, but there's a sense in which he was separate from us also, because he didn't have any sin. And not only are we conceived in sin and born in sin, guilty of Adam's original sin, and having the pollution of sin clinging to our souls and tainting us, this is just how we enter the world. We also actually sin, too, don't we? Because we're natural-born sinners. We produce actual sins ourselves. And the actual sins that we produce are sins of co-mission, sins where we have done something that God has forbidden us to do. And we produce actual sins of omission, which are the sins of failing to do something that God requires of us. And so we are truly messed up, coming and going, and we haven't really even mentioned yet that actual sins in God's sight aren't just restricted to the things that we do outwardly. We also sin inwardly, even in the thoughts and intentions of our thoughts. The law of God doesn't just regulate our outward behavior, but the law of God reaches inside and exposes all our sin inwardly in our thoughts. Jesus said in Matthew 7, verse 17, that a bad tree bears bad fruit, And he goes on further to say in verse 18 that a bad tree can't bear good fruit either. So we are fallen wretches, fallen wretches, full of sin by birth. We are born the bad tree, therefore we produce bad fruit. And we must recognize that about ourselves, because if we don't recognize that about ourselves, we can know nothing of Jesus Christ and good news in him. And, in fact, we are born so wretched that we cannot, on our own, outside of Christ, produce any good food that is lasting and meriting of salvation in God's sight. And this is why we say that we're lost in sin. This is why we say that. We're completely tangled up in sin, so much so that we can't undo the knot. And furthermore, we only gnarle ourselves up in the knot of sin more and more every day as we pile on the actual sins that we commit. So we're truly, as they say, up a creek without a paddle. We cannot do it on our own. We're dead in our transgressions and our trespasses and sins. Children of wrath, as the Word of God says, apart from Christ, we are doomed. You are doomed, I am doomed, apart from Christ, and without hope, apart from Christ. But thankfully, loved ones, thankfully our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't born guilty of Adam's original sin, nor did the pollution of any sin cling to his soul, nor did he commit any actual sins of commission or omission, inwardly or outwardly. He was and is sinless through and through, up and down, all around, inside and out. That is our Lord Jesus Christ, absolutely sinless in every possible way. And that is great news for you and I who have trusted in Him. And if that isn't amazing enough, let's also consider that God sent His sinless and perfect Son to us specifically with the mission of making atonement for all our sins on the cross. God sent him in order to make him become sin for us in his sight, judging his own son in our place. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Christ came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And God made Christ our sin offering on the cross at Calvary. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He offered Himself up willingly as a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And so when Scripture says here that God made Christ to be sin for us, We're meant to understand that Christ was treated as a sinner on the cross even though he was sinless. He suffered even though he was righteous. 1 Peter 3.18 says, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And our sinless Lord was sacrificed by God in our place and he was treated by God as a sinner in our place. And so we, because of our wretchedness and our awfulness, are the ones who deserve to be destroyed by God. But our sins were imputed to Christ. If we've trusted in Jesus, our sins have been imputed to Christ in the sight of God while he was on the cross. Our unrighteousness, Our disgusting sinfulness, it was credited, it was imputed, it was transferred onto the one who knew no sin. Our guilt in Adam was taken away from us and placed on Jesus. All of our actual sins, commission and omission, inwardly and outwardly, past, present, and future, were taken away from us. As verse 19 says, they're not counted against us. That's why Jesus came for us, so that our sins wouldn't be counted against us. All our sins were put on Jesus, on the cross. And in this way, Jesus really did become, in God's sight, the greatest sinner that ever lived. This is how our sins were forgiven by God. This is how he did it, on the cross. And our sins, they were removed from us as far as the east is from the west. And that's an infinite distance. The east never touches the west. So far, they're removed from us. And so through faith alone, not by anything that you can do or have done or think that you can do or think that you have done, not by any of our works, it's all through faith alone, we've been legally declared pardoned and set free from the penalty of the law of God because of Christ and because he, as our substitute, received upon himself the penalty for our law-breaking, the penalty for our disobedience to God. Loved ones, he was treated as we should have been treated. God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. And by way of practical application, I mean, I don't know how much more practical we can get, but let me try here. But now when the world and the flesh and the devil and our own conscience, when they shout at us saying, look at all your sin. You're a disgusting hypocrite to think that you're forgiven. Who do you think you are? Look at how awful your heart still is by nature. Look at how your sin, it just spills out everywhere. You see, when we hear these accusations, and I hear them, and I know you hear them too in your own life from the world, the flesh, and from the devil. When we hear these accusations, we can say in reply, Yes, I'm an unworthy sinner, but God has cast all my sins behind his back through Christ crucified. God treated Christ as a sinner in my place and has drowned out all my sins by his blood. And you can't bring any charge against me that hasn't already been taken away from me. I believe that God, as our catechism says, because of Christ's atonement will never hold against me any of my sins nor my sinful nature with which I need to struggle against all my life. This is our reply to those accusations. And so through faith alone in Christ's atonement alone, God forgives all your sins. And you stand this very moment, right now, right now, you stand before our holy God as if you had never sinned at all. Praise the Lord. That's wonderful news for us. But amazing enough as that already is, it's only the first part of the glorious work of God and His Son on our behalf. I know it may sound strange to say that, but it gets better. The good news of Jesus Christ, it doesn't stop there. It does keep getting better, and that's our second point tonight. The cross and Christ's righteousness. You see, after God forgives and takes away all of our sin through faith alone, in Christ alone, he also gives us something. He grants to us freely the righteousness of Christ. And what do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins? I mean, it's right there in the answer of our catechism. I believe that God, because of Christ's atonement, will never hold against me any of my sins, nor my sinful nature with which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, in his grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And now really at this point we're getting at the doctrine of justification, aren't we? And so we must think of the gospel, we must think of the forgiveness of our sins and the giving of Christ's righteousness all the way through. We've got to think it all the way through here. Theologians, they rightly point out that if all God did was merely forgive our sins through Christ and did nothing more, God would have in a sense put us back in the garden into that same situation as Adam before the fall. And like Adam, we would have been sinless but still not confirmed in everlasting righteousness and life. We would be back in that covenant of works before God. again, needing to continue in perfect obedience to God's commands in order to pass on to the heavenly goal for which we were created. In other words, we would still need to produce the righteousness and the obedience on our own in order to merit eternal life in heaven. And so what I'm getting at is this. We need more than just our sins taken away. We need more than just to be forgiven. The forgiveness of sins, it only goes halfway. I mean, if that's all that the good news is, if all the good news is your sins are forgiven, then really it turns out not to be that great a news at the end of the day. If that's all that it is. And that's not good news. Because the righteousness that we need in order to be legally accepted before a holy God and to not be utterly burned up and destroyed has to come from somewhere, doesn't it? And if it doesn't come from Christ, that would mean that it has to come from us. And if it has to come from us, we're doomed. I mean, we're doomed. We can't keep ourselves sinless. We can't make ourselves righteous. And so the full good news is that not only are our sins forgiven and imputed to Christ so that we stand before God just as if I had never sinned. Maybe you've heard that phrase before. It's also that Christ's righteousness is credited to us who believe. And that's truly the remarkable exchange that's taken place on the cross. Our sins imputed to Christ. Christ's righteousness and perfection and obedience imputed to us. I mean, this is what our catechism gets at in question and answer 60 so beautifully. How are you right with God? Now, there's a question. There's a question. Every one of us need to reckon with that one. How are you right with God? And the answer, that wonderful answer is only by true faith in Jesus Christ, even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments and of never having kept any of them. And even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, As if I had never sinned, nor been a sinner, and it keeps going, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All we need to do is believe the message. All we need to do is accept this gift of God with a believing heart. And by the way, that too comes from God. I mean, so did you catch that here? God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. Loved ones, there's some serious good news there. What a beautiful summary of scripture's teaching about that exchange of our sins to Christ and his righteousness to us that all received by faith alone in Jesus. Our Lord was pure and blameless and he was also positively righteous. And all of his life he obeyed God's law without one slip up, without one sin. Every thought that Jesus ever had, it was holy. Every word that he ever spoke, it was good. And every deed he ever did was absolutely righteous in God's sight. So Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law. And that's exactly what he did. And he did it as one who is doing it in our place. And so when we, by true faith, trust in and receive Christ and his work for us sinners, all his perfect obedience is imputed, it's credited, it's counted to us in the sight of God. So every single moment of Jesus' life in which he loved God and in which he served his neighbor perfectly, And every single moment in which he hated sin, all of his active obedience is imputed to our account in the sight of God. And it's considered as if we ourselves had done all of that work. So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I mean, that's a curious way to put it in the word of God. But that's how much the righteousness of Christ is ours. Given freely and entirely to us. So much so that it says we become in him the righteousness of God. Because we have his righteousness in God's sight given to us freely. And so, loved ones, think of all your failures. Think of all of your sins. And hopefully you know them. Hopefully you own them. Because if you don't, then you have nothing to do with Christ right now. And you are lost in your sins. and need to repent and trust in Jesus to be saved. But if you know your failures and you know your sins, think of them. Even the worst of them, think of them. How terrible they were and how awful they are. I just want to encourage you with the good news. All of them are under the blood of Jesus. And more than that tonight, God considers you in his sight as having fully obeyed perfectly in all of those circumstances in which you have failed. I mean, that's how far the grace of God and the good news of Jesus Christ goes for you tonight. Have you thought about that? All the areas, all the times in which you have sinned and broken the law of God and failed him, failed the ones you love, failed yourself in sin, God has given you the perfect obedience of Jesus. In fact, the good news is so good that it's as if you'd never been a sinner in the first place in God's sight. God's grace goes all the way, loved ones. It goes all the way. And since Christ's merit is infinite, we have an infinite holiness, righteousness, and goodness before God. Despite our sin, despite our doubt at times, we stand before our holy judge, thankfully, blameless and righteous. And not only does he say, you are forgiven and you are not guilty, he also says, you are righteous. That's good news, isn't it? That is the good news, the greatest news. And let's think a little bit further about these things and consider the cross in our Christian life tonight, our final point. I mean, really, what do these great truths produce in us in our Christian life? And I think the last part of the answer to question 56 gives us really a springboard into the answer as to what the gospel produces in us in our Christian living. It says there, In Christ, we're no longer condemned in this life. This is what Romans 8.1 says, There is therefore now. It doesn't say there will be no condemnation. It says there is therefore now no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus. Right now in this life, if you're in Christ, you are not under condemnation before God. And not only is there no condemnation in this life, I mean, the good news, it keeps going, there also won't be any condemnation for us in the next life either. I mean, this is really what Romans 8 says later on in the chapter, verse 34, 38, and 39, and it's a bit of a long read, but it's the word of God, let's listen to it. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise God for those words and those promises. God's grace, it really does go all the way. It takes us all the way home to heaven. So tonight, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross for sinners, you are forever freed from God's judgment and condemnation. forever. I mean, this is a huge comfort to us, isn't it? I mean, just think about it. As Christians, we no longer have to fear God's judgment. It's been poured out on Christ already. Not now, not ever do we have to fear it. And this means that you have been set free from fear. You're not God's enemy anymore. How often do we still as Christians live and feel like we are God's enemy because of our sin? But you're not God's enemy anymore. You've trusted in his blood and righteousness to be your own. As verse 18 says from chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. You see, we don't have to fear condemnation from God anymore because we are reconciled to him. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, as Romans 5 says. And we're part of his family now. As Romans 8.15 says, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. You see, God is your father and his son is your elder brother. As we learned the last time that I was here, you're part of his household. You're not his enemy anymore. Why am I stressing this? Pastor, come on. What's the deal here? What are you trying to get at? Well, this is what I'm getting at. We have a struggle in the Christian life, don't we? I do, and I know you all do, because we're all sinners here. You see, we often find ourselves as Christians subtly sinking back into a fear-based works mentality in our Christian living, don't we? I mean, really, if we're honest with ourselves, we fall back into that so often. A fear-based works mentality. You see, we may know that we're set free in Christ from needing to earn God's favor, but yet how often do we still fall into the trap of thinking, If only I would pray more. If only I would read my Bible more. If only I'd stop doing this or that sin. I mean, those are good things to want, of course. But sometimes we add a little bit to that. If only I was more obedient, I would feel more holy and feel that God loves me. Or we might think that there's no way that I can partake of communion at the Lord's table this week. I'm too sinful. Or we might have the tendency to think, surely God is punishing me for my sin because my life has been turned upside down so badly through this awful trial. I mean, how many of us have done that? Or we might at times think, I can't get out from beneath this sin, it seems. I keep doing it over and over again. And that guilt, it causes us to want to stay away from church, to stay away from God's people, to stay away from the ministry of the word on the Lord's day. Or at least we're tempted to not come. So whenever we begin to think in these kinds of ways, we've stepped back on that never-ending treadmill of works before God, running with fear of judgment in our hearts and we're getting nowhere. Just like that hamster on the hamster wheel. We laugh at him. But be careful, we might be laughing at ourselves. In those moments, we've forgotten the good news of the forgiveness of all our sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness, haven't we? We've forgotten that we've been forever freed from God's judgment. So in conclusion, loved ones, are you weary this evening in your Christian life? Is that you? Are you full of anxiety? Are you full of fear of punishment from God in your Christian life? Even though you trust in Jesus, is that you? Well, dear Christian, remember, remember that God has forgiven all of your sins, all of them. Yes, even that one that you're cringing of now. Remember that Jesus has taken every sin of yours upon himself on the cross. And he's given you all his righteousness in the sight of God. That's the good news for you tonight. And so you no longer need to live, loved ones, in the fearful dread and anxiety of God's judgment in this life or in the next. You see, the works that you do, the obedience that you render to God, you've got to know this, they won't and they can't ever be good enough to earn God's favor. It's not why we do them. So loved ones, stop trying to live as if you can earn God's favor. See, our obedience now, as Christians, is a response, isn't it? It's a response of gratitude, of thankfulness to God for his grace to us in Christ. And so receive the good news. Your sins are forgiven. You have a right standing before God because you have the very righteousness and obedience of Christ. And now go out and love. Go out and love God in that freedom. Go out and serve your neighbor in that freedom. You are freed from judgment forever. Do not fear any longer. Love God. Serve your neighbor with a thankful heart. Live in that freedom. You see, that's what is produced in the Christian life. That's what follows the forgiveness of our sins and the righteousness of Christ being given to us. We don't do the good works to earn God's favor. We can't. They're a response. They're to be a response of thankfulness to God. So, sheep of Christ, hear now the words of Christ. Hear the voice of your good shepherd as we bring this to a conclusion tonight. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Are you heavy laden? Hear Jesus now, and I will give you rest. You see, there is rest for us in Jesus Christ. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Loved ones, find rest in Jesus tonight. He says, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Amen. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you for the good news that you have given to us in your Son. We thank you for sending him to become sin in your sight, our sin placed on him. Thank you for the forgiveness of our sins by his blood that's turned away your wrath. And thank you that he was righteous in this life when he was here on the earth. Thank you for that obedience, that perfect obedience that he performed in our place. Thank you that you have given it to us through faith. Thank you for this wonderful good news and gift of the blood and righteousness of Christ. And so, Lord, help us to ever live in the remembrance of these things, refresh our hearts in the midst of our Christian pilgrimage through this world. Lord, may you well up a great joy in our hearts to love you and serve our neighbor in that wonderful freedom that you've given to us in your Son. For it's in his name that we pray these things. Amen.