“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, n God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3, NIV).
I think if we were to design a god of our own choosing we might make one who just plain forgives his people. We probably wouldn’t make up one who demands something in order to forgive. That doesn’t seem very forgiving to us.
We might triumphantly say, “My god is one who just forgives without expecting anything in return!”
Thankfully this god of our design is not the one found in the Scriptures. The God of the Bible is one who forgives—that is a certainty—but his forgiveness is tied closely with his condemnation of sin. Without the condemnation of sin, forgiveness is nothing more than a nice thing to do that ends up having no lasting change.
The forgiveness we find in the Bible, however, is one that not only pardons the one who did wrong, but changes who they are from the inside out. The forgiveness offered to us by the God Paul worshipped is a forgiveness in which God himself has done something to enable him to forgive.
He hasn’t just brushed the offenses aside—whatever they may be for his people—he (the Father) has sent his Son (Jesus) as sin offering to clear the guilt. This God has done something about the sin. In fact, he has done to the sin what he has not done to us—condemned it.
The Father, Son, and Spirit has taken the condemnation rightly due us and placed it upon sin. Specifically, he has placed it upon Jesus. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21, NIV)
The triune God, in full agreement, has sentenced Jesus to be a sin offering in order to condemn sin instead of us.