Leviticus 4 · a question people ask
What does Paul mean that God made Christ "to be sin"?
Paul writes, "For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He doesn't name Leviticus 4. Christians read "made to be sin" in two main ways. Both agree that Christ "knew no sin" and that it was "on our behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Made a sin offering
In Leviticus one Hebrew word, chatta't, is both "sin" and "sin offering", even in the same verse (4:3); Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "sin, sin-offering". Those who hold this view read Paul's words to mean that God made him a sin offering. They note that Hebrews sets Jesus beside the animals whose blood is brought in "as an offering for sin" (Hebrews 13:11-12), and that Paul says God sent "his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin" (Romans 8:3).
Leviticus 4:3 · Hebrews 13:11-12 · Romans 8:3
Counted as sin, bearing it
Those who hold this view read "made to be sin" with the verses that say he carried sin and its curse: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), and "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). On this reading our sin was counted to him, as "in him" we "become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
1 Peter 2:24 · Galatians 3:13 · 2 Corinthians 5:21
The verses
“For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”