I do not mean He became a sinner. The Bible is very careful about this matter. If the Bible contained only John 1:14, we might think that He became a sinful person. But the Bible also contains Romans 8:3, which says that God sent His Son “in the likeness of the flesh of sin.” Christ became flesh, but He was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin. There was no sin in His flesh. He had only the likeness, not the sinful nature, of the flesh. Paul composed this phrase of three words: likeness, flesh, and sin. To say only flesh of sin would indicate sinful flesh. Praise the Lord the Scripture adds “in the likeness,” indicating that in Christ’s human nature there was no sin, even though that nature did bear the likeness, the appearance, of the flesh of sin. Moreover, Paul does not say that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh and stop there. He adds “of sin.” Likeness denotes strongly that Christ’s humanity does not have sin, but still that His humanity was in some way related to sin.
In another verse, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul says that Christ “did not know sin.” This means that He had no sin. Yet 2 Corinthians 5:21 also says that this One who had no sin was made sin by God. Our mentality cannot understand this. If the Scriptures were not written this way, it would seem heretical to say that Christ was made sin; but Christ was made sin for us as our full substitute. If this had not happened, we could not have been saved. “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf.” The One whom God made sin knew no sin.
This matter is portrayed in the Old Testament in the type of the brass serpent, described in Numbers 21. When the children of Israel sinned against God, they were bitten by serpents and were dying. Moses looked to God for them, and God told him to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole. Whoever looked upon that brass serpent would live, and many did (vv. 6-9).
Then in John 3 the Lord Jesus talked to Nicodemus about regeneration. Nicodemus was a Bible teacher (v. 10) and taught the Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch. “Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” (v. 4). The Lord implied that if he could go back to his mother’s womb and be born again, he would still be flesh: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (v. 6). To be reborn is not to be born a second time of the flesh, but to be born ofthe Spirit. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (v. 6).
Nicodemus wondered how these things could be. Then the Lord Jesus said to him in a rebuking tone, “You are the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?” (v. 10). He then referred Nicodemus to the record in Numbers 21: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15).
This portrait clearly indicates that the brass serpent bears only the appearance, the likeness, of the serpent, but not its poisonous nature. This corresponds with Paul’s word “in the likeness of the flesh of sin.”
When Christ died on the cross, He was not only a Lamb in the eyes of God but also a serpent. Both these aspects of Christ are in John. John 1:29 refers to the Lamb of God, and John 3:14 refers to the Son of Man, Christ, lifted up like the brass serpent in the wilderness. When Christ, our Redeemer, was on the cross, on the one hand, He was the Lamb of God to take away our sin; on the other hand, He was also a serpent. The holy Word does tell us that when Christ died on the cross, in the eyes of God He was like a brass serpent. I stress this because we need to know what kind of redemption the Lord Jesus accomplished for us.
In order to accomplish a full redemption, He as the Son of God became flesh. The Word became incarnate. John, though, did not say that the Word became a man; he said, “The Word became flesh.” By the time of the incarnation, flesh was a negative term. But we must be careful in saying this. A serpent surely is negative, but this serpent is a brass serpent. It bears only the appearance of a serpent; it does not have its nature. Do you think that when Christ was made sin He had a sinful nature? Absolutely not! This is why Paul qualifies his word by saying, “who did not know sin.” Even though He was made sin by God, He had no sin in Him and He knew no sin. Our Lord is a wonderful Redeemer. The Bible tells us God became a man in the likeness of fallen and sinful flesh.