Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, For our sakes He (God) made Him to be sin who Himself knew nothing of sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. In a word, Paul is saying that God the Father treated Jesus Christ, the Son, as a sinner or unrighteous person, so that we sinners might be treated as righteous persons.
A missionary was once preaching from this text to a group of natives in a foreign land. When he had finished his message, he was desirous to know whether they had understood it or not. So, he asked them to tell him in their own words just what it all meant to them. The chief of the tribe spoke up and said, "It means that the Lord Jesus swapped with me." And I might say that this puts the way of salvation just about as plain as human language can put it. He Who was without sin took the place of sinners under God's Holy Law, so that sinners might have the place of sons before God the Father. Christ, the righteous Son of God, took the place of the guilty and bore their sins in His own body on the tree of the cross. He Who was rich became poor for our sakes, that through His poverty, we might become rich. Christ died as the just One for the unjust ones, that He might bring us into God's favor.
A man was once asked if he would like to be saved. He replied, "Yes, if God can save me without doing wrong." This man was a thinker. He saw a problem in a just God saving unjust people. He realized that a just God must punish sin. He confessed that he was a sinner, and that if God was just in dealing with him, He would have to punish him for his sins. This was Job's problem in the long ago when he cried out, "How then can man be justified with God?" Their reasoning is after this fashion: "If God is holy and righteous, and all men are sinners and deserve punishment, how can they justly go unpunished?" The answer is in the blessed and glorious gospel truth that the Son of God swapped places with sinful men and redeemed them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them.
Yes, blessed be His name, He took our place as sinners that we might have the place of sons in the Father's house. He took our guilt that we might have right standing with God. Yes, He swapped places with us!
*