The Great Exchange | Holy Week 2026 | 2 Corinthians 5:21 | Pastor John M. Lee

Tonight we have heard the story of the cross unfold.

We’ve listened as Jesus was betrayed, denied, mocked, questioned, condemned, and crucified. We’ve watched the sinless Son of God be handed over to die.

And there’s something about this that should stop us… not just because it’s painful, not just because it’s brutal and unjust … but because we know that this isn’t just another story … we know that this isn’t just another death. The innocent One has been condemned. The righteous One suffered. And something in us knows that this matters deeply. Something is happening here that we cannot ignore.

But beneath everything we’ve heard tonight… there is a deeper question we have to answer:

What was God doing at the cross?

Because Good Friday is not only about what men did to Jesus… it’s about what God has done for sinners through Jesus. And how we understand the cross depends entirely on how we understand our need for it. Because … if we misunderstand the depth of our problem, we will always misunderstand and under-appreciate … not only the cross… but God Himself.

And this is one of the reasons why so many Christians are short on joy, struggle in prayer, and remain entangled in sin… because they believe they have a minor problem requiring only a little salvation. We think, “My problem is… I’ve done a few bad things… so maybe if I do some good things, that will cancel out the bad. Or … God can just forgive me … after all… it’s not that much to forgive.”

The truth is … we tend to think and to live as though our problem is small. We think… “I’m not perfect, of course not… but I’m also not that bad. Sure… I have made a few mistakes… I have a few regrets… I have some things that may need a little correction, and a little improvement.”

It’s a little like going to a doctor. If you think you just have a minor cold, you’re not expecting a serious diagnosis. You’re not expecting a costly treatment. But … if the doctor looks at you and says, “This is far more serious than you thought… this is going to take something drastic to deal with it,” everything in that moment changes. The treatment suddenly tells you something about the severity of your condition.

In the same way…. the cross is God’s diagnosis. The cross reveals the truth that our problem is not small. In fact, our problem is so deep… so serious… that it required a solution so costly and so breathtaking that it has the power to liberate the enslaved, strengthen the weak, and bring both comfort and lasting joy.

Dear friends… if your problem is small, then Jesus will be small to you too. The cross will becomes something that is helpful… meaningful… even inspiring… but not necessary. But Good Friday confronts that falsity completely. Because the cross is not God responding to a small problem… the cross is what it took to deal with sin. Which means that our problem is far greater than we often admit. Our problem … it’s not just brokenness… not just weakness… but we are guilty before a holy God.

And that leads us to the question we cannot avoid tonight:

How can guilty sinners be made right with a holy God?

Not … how can we improve ourselves? Not … how can we try harder? Not … how can we balance the scales? But … how can people like us … who have sinned, who carry guilt, who cannot fix what we have broken … How can we be made right with God?

And that’s exactly what Paul points us to in 2 Corinthians 5. In fact…Paul says that God is reconciling sinners to Himself, that He is not counting our trespasses against us, and then he gives us this appeal … “Be reconciled to God.”

But the question is… How? How is that possible? How can a holy God not count sin against sinners? How can broken sinners be reconciled to a holy and righteouss God?

Well… 2 Corinthians 5:21 gives the answer.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21a He made the one who did not know sin…

The first thing that Paul wants us to see is this … Jesus is completely innocent. He says, “He did not know sin.”

Now… it’s important for us to understand what Paul is not saying. He’s not saying that Jesus didn’t understand what sin was. Rather… Paul is saying that Jesus never participated in sin. Not once did Jesus sin. Not in what He said. Not in what He thought. Not in what He did. Jesus never sinned. In thought, word, and deed… Jesus lived in perfect obedience to His Father.

And we saw that truth tonight as we read through crucifixion story. Jesus was questioned but no charge stuck. He was examined but there was no guilt found. Even His enemies couldn’t prove anything against him.

Think about a courtroom where a case is being presented … witnesses are called… accusations are made… but every charge falls apart. The evidence doesn’t hold. The testimony collapses. And in the end, the judge looks out and says, “There is no case here….because there is no guilt. This man is completely innocent.” That’s Jesus. There is no guilt. There is no record. No failure. No sin.

And if we’re honest, that’s not true of us. Every one of us has something in our lives that we hope no one sees. Dear friend, If your life were to be put on trial … every thought, every word, every action brought into the light … there is not one of us who would be able to stand. But Jesus did. And not because anything was hidden… but because there was nothing there.

Pilate stood before the crowd and said, “I find no guilt in Him.” Judas, the one who betrayed Him, confessed, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” Even the thief on the cross looks over and says, “This man has done nothing wrong.” And think about this … Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive us our sins,” but Jesus never once prayed that for Himself. He never confessed sin. He never asked for forgiveness. He never offered a sacrifice on His own behalf, because He had no sin. He is the only man who has ever lived who never needed to repent.

And don’t miss the fact that … Jesus is not less human because He never sinned. In fact… Jesus is more truly human than we ever could be. Because when God created humanity, He created us whole… pure… without sin, without shame, without distortion. But sin has fractured all of that. Sin has bent our desires, clouded our thinking, and weakened our wills. So much of what we experience now… we call “normal”… but it’s not normal. Our anger, our pride, our selfishness, our fear, our anxiety … those things don’t make us more human… rather… they reveal how far we’ve fallen.

But not Jesus.

In Him, we see humanity as it was meant to be. A life fully aligned with the Father. A heart that loves perfectly. A will that never wavers. A mind untouched by deceit. He is not a lesser version of us… He is the true and better version of humanity. Which means … when we look at Jesus, we’re not just seeing what God is like… we’re also seeing what humanity was always meant to be.

And friends… that makes the cross even more striking. Because the One who is whole was treated as if He was broken. The One who is pure was condemned as if He was guilty. The One who is righteous was punished as if He was sinful. Do you see? Jesus was not nailed to that cross because He failed. Jesus did not suffer because He sinned. He was not crucified because He deserved it. No! He did not belong there at all!

Which means … when we look at the cross… we are left with the question, Why was Jesus there at all?

And Paul… he doesn’t leave us hanging … look back at our verse…

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us …

This is the very heart of Good Friday. This is the center of the cross. This is why Jesus was there. Understand… Jesus wasn’t on the cross by accident. Jesus wasn’t a victim of circumstance. No! He was there for you. “He made Him to be sin for us.”

Now…understand… that doesn’t mean Jesus became sinful…. it means that on the cross He was treated as sin, counted as sin, judged as sin. The One who never sinned… stood in the place of sinners. He stood in your place and took upon Himself the judgment of your sin.

And don’t miss the fact that … God did not set aside His justice but rather He is satisfied it. Dear friends… God is not divided… He is not sometimes just and sometimes loving. Many have said that the just God of the Old Testament is different than loving God of the New Testament… but friends that’s just not true… God is the same today as He has always been. And understand… His justness and His love are not just attributes… No! God is perfectly, fully, and eternally both.

But … what does that mean?

Well… it means that… in His justice, sin must be judged. And In His love, He provides the substitute.

You see… God does not lower the standard… rather … He meets it Himself. And that’s what took place on the cross. Everything our sin deserves …. every ounce of guilt, every hidden shame, every act of rebellion, every moment we have and will ever turn away from God and His will for our lives… it was all placed on Christ. Fully. Completely. Once and for all.

Now… if we’re honest… we know something of that weight, don’t we? The weight of guilt that lingers. The shame that creeps in when no one else is around. The quiet awareness that something is not right between us and God. And at the cross… that weight was lifted. Not denied. Not minimized. Lifted off of us… and laid fully on Jesus. Not partially. Not temporarily. But fully. Because if sin is not dealt with, it still stands against us. It still condemns us. It still gives the Accuser a voice in our lives. But at the cross… that voice was silenced. Because Christ took our place.

And we’ve already seen a picture of this tonight in our Scripture reading … in the person of Barabbas. A guilty man who woke up knowing exactly what he deserved. He was not confused. He had no defense. He had no way out. Death was his sentence. And then suddenly… everything changed for him. The chains came off as he heard the centurions say, “You’re free to go.”

Can you imagine the moment? The confusion… the disbelief… the stunned silence as he walked out of his prison cell while hearing another man’s name being shouted by the crowd to take his place… to pay his penalty. And somewhere along the way it had to hit him, “I’m walking out… because Jesus is taking my place.”

Dear friends … that’s not just Barabbas’s story… that’s our story too. That’s you. That’s me. We are the guilty ones. We are the ones who deserve judgment. We are the ones who should stand condemned. And yet… Jesus stepped forward. He took our place. He bore our sin. He absorbed the judgment of God. And because He did so… all who surrender to Jesus as Lord and receive Him as Savior… the condemnation that you deserve is gone. The accusation is silenced. The debt is paid.

Colossians 2:13–14 CSB

13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Dear friends… there was a record of debt that stood against you. Every sin. Every failure. Every moment of disobedience. Every thought. Every action. Every word. And at the cross of Christ … your record of debt was not ignored. Rather… it was nailed to the cross. Your debt has been canceled. It’s been paid for. Jesus said, “It’s finished.”

That’s why we can rest in the words of Romans 8:1 which says,

Romans 8:1 CSB

1 There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

And there is no condemnation… not because sin doesn’t matter… but because it has been fully dealt with. That’s why Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Because in that moment… the sinless Son bore the full weight of sin and its judgment. He experienced what you deserve. He stood where you should stand.

So hear this … really hear this … Jesus was treated as though He had lived your life… so that you could be treated as though you lived His. And that means your salvation is not fragile. Your salvation is not hanging by a thread. It’s not dependent on how well you perform this week. No! Your salvation is anchored in a finished work. A complete sacrifice. A substitute who stood in your place and did not fail.

So … when you fail again … and you will… when the weight creeps back in, when the voice in your head whispers, “You’re not enough… God must be done with you…” don’t run from God… and don’t try to fix it by performing better. Go back to the cross. Look again. Because your standing with God was never built on your record… it was built on His.

___

Now, What was the purpose of it all? Look back at our verse.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21c… so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is why the cross happened. Not just forgiveness. Not just a second chance. Not just a clean slate so you can try again. Something far greater has happened. You see… God didn’t just remove your sin … He gave you a righteousness that you could never earn. God laid your sin upon Christ… so that He might lay Christ’s righteousness upon you. This the great exchange. Not just your guilt taken away… but the obedience of Jesus given to you. His perfection credited to your account.

Dear friends … left to ourselves… we don’t just fall short … even our best attempts at righteousness are not enough. They don’t measure up. They never could. And deep down, we know that. We’ve tried to be better. We’ve tried to clean things up. We’ve tried to prove ourselves. But the standard is not “better”… the standard is perfection. And that’s why we need more than forgiveness … we need righteousness.

And Paul says … in Christ Jesus… that’s exactly what we receive. “In Him… we become the righteousness of God.” Not that we become God … but that we are given a right standing before Him. We are declared righteous. Fully accepted. Completely welcomed. And this is not just a courtroom declaration… it’s a family welcome. You’re not just declared righteous … you’re brought near to God. Given a place. Given a name. Given a seat at the table.

And don’t miss this … this righteousness is not something Christ started and now you finish. It’s not something He makes possible and now you must maintain. No, It’s a gift. It’s something that you receive … counted to you by faith. The life that Jesus lived … every moment of perfect obedience, every step of faithfulness, every fulfillment of the law … that life is now credited to you. And the death He died … the penalty He bore … has fully satisfied the justice of God. Which means … when you stand before God… you don’t stand there on the basis of your record… but on Christ’s.

It’s like standing before God in filthy, stained clothes … everything is exposed … there is nowhere to hide … and instead of sending you away … He removes your filthy garments and clothes you in the spotless righteousness of Christ. Not patched up. Not improved. But completely replaced. So when God looks at you in Christ… He doesn’t see you as you were…He doesn’t see your mess… NO! He sees you clothed in the perfect righteousness of His Son.

Now … look back and notice where this is all found…. It’s found “in Him.” In Christ Jesus … not in yourself. Not in your effort. Not in your morality. Not in your religion. Not in your sincerity. In Him. Which means … your standing before God does not rise and fall with your performance. Your standing before God is not based upon whether you had a good day or a bad day. No! Your standing before God is anchored in a Person. It’s anchored in Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters … some of us have been living our entire lives on a treadmill … trying to be good enough, trying to be smart enough, trying to be moral enough, trying to do enough, trying to prove ourselves. And no matter how fast you run… you’re never going to arrive. And the gospel steps in and says … you don’t have to run anymore!

You are not accepted because you are righteous… you are accepted because Christ is. Jesus is saying to you… “Friend, take what is mine, and give me what is Yours.”

Dear friends… you don’t need to fix yourself before coming to God. You don’t need to clean yourself up. You don’t need to earn your way back. You don’t need to prove that you’re serious this time. Christ has already done what you could never do. He has lived the life you couldn’t live… and died the death you deserved to die… so that you could be brought near.

So hear the invitation of the gospel:

“Be reconciled to God.” Not “go make yourself better”… not “try harder and come back later”… but come now. Come as you are. Come empty-handed. Because the work has already been done.

It is finished.

Let’s Pray

Tonight we have stood at the foot of the cross. We have seen our sin. We have seen our Savior. And now we come to the table.

And as we do so, we remember not a repeated sacrifice, but a finished one. Christ has died. Christ has paid in full. We do not come to add to His work. We come to remember it. To proclaim it. And to rest in it.

The Lord’s Supper is for those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, who have turned from their sin, and who are walking in repentance and faith.

If that is you, we invite you to come and receive these elements with gratitude.

If you are not yet trusting in Christ, we are so glad you are here tonight. We would ask that you not take the bread and the cup, but instead consider what you have heard … that Christ has died for sinners, and that you are invited to be reconciled to God through Him.

Words of Institution

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

In Christ, our sins are forgiven.

In Christ, we are reconciled to God.

In Christ, we are made new.

Now, as we close out our time of worship this evening, rest in the good news of the Gospel from Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1 CSB

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

Because of the cross, your sin is forgiven, your debt is paid, and your standing before God is secure in Christ.

Mission Church,

you are loved,

you are reconciled,

and you are sent.

Go in peace.