he made him who knew no sin
He “made Him who knew no sin” is a line from 2 Corinthians 5:21 describing how God treated the sinless Christ as a sin‑offering for humanity so that believers could be counted as righteous before God. It is one of the most theologically dense summaries of the Christian message of substitution and righteousness in Christ.
What the phrase means
- The full verse (in many translations) reads: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
- “Knew no sin” emphasizes that Jesus was completely sinless in His life and character, described as holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners in other New Testament passages.
“Made Him to be sin”
This wording does not mean Jesus became personally sinful, but that:
- He was treated as a “sin offering” or bearer of sin, echoing Old Testament sacrificial language where the offering “became” sin on behalf of the people.
- Commentators stress that He remained morally pure; He “knew no sin” experientially, yet took on the consequences and penalty of sin in place of others.
The exchange: our sin, His righteousness
Christian interpreters often describe this verse as teaching a “great exchange”:
- Humanity’s sin is imputed (legally counted) to Christ, while God’s righteousness is imputed to those who are “in Him.”
- The goal is “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” meaning believers stand before God clothed in Christ’s righteousness rather than their own performance.
Why this matters for Christians today
In contemporary preaching, teaching, and forum discussions, this verse is frequently used to:
- Ground assurance: believers are accepted not because they are good enough, but because Christ was perfectly righteous and bore their sin.
- Shape identity: many modern devotionals and sermons remind Christians that their core identity is “righteous in Christ,” which influences how they view guilt, shame, and ongoing spiritual growth.
Mini narrative: imagining the “exchange”
Picture a courtroom scene: a person stands guilty with a long record of failures, while another stands with a flawless record. The judge takes the guilty record and writes it over the spotless one, then takes the flawless record and places it over the guilty person’s name. That storylike image captures how many Christians visualize “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us … that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
TL;DR: “He made Him who knew no sin” is Paul’s way of saying that the perfectly sinless Jesus was treated as the bearer of human sin so that those who trust in Him can share in God’s own righteousness and stand accepted before God.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.