The book of Hebrews reveals that Christ suffered the shame of death (2:9; 12:2; 13:12b). When Christ tasted death on behalf of everything, He suffered and endured shame. To be shamed and insulted is to suffer in such a way as to be tired out. The suffering of insulting shame always wears people out. On the cross Christ suffered the greatest shame-the shame of death. This also was part of His work.
In His death Christ not only bore our sins but even became sin for us. “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21). This indicates that God made Christ sin for us. Christ did not know sin in an experiential way by contact or personal experience (cf. John 8:46; 1 Pet. 2:22; Heb. 4:15; 7:26). In experience, in direct contact, the Lord Jesus had nothing to do with sin, and He did not know sin. Nevertheless, He became sin and took away the sin of the world so that the problem of sin might be solved.
Sin came from Satan as the rebel against God (Isa. 14:12-15), entered into man (Rom. 5:12), and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment. Hence, when Christ became a man in the flesh (John 1:14), He was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) that we might become God’s righteousness in Him. During the last three hours He was on the cross, Christ was made sin in the sight of God. It was during that time that God condemned sin in the flesh. As the One who was made sin for us, Christ as our Substitute was judged by God once for all.
In His death Christ as a man in the flesh caused sin to be condemned in the flesh by God. Romans 8:3 says, “God sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” The flesh is of sin, and the Son of God did indeed become flesh (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). However, He was only in the likeness of the flesh and had no participation in the sin of the flesh. According to Romans 8:3, God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin so that God might condemn sin in the flesh.
Concerning sin, God sent His Son in the likeness, in the form, of the flesh of sin. This indicates that sin dwells in a certain element, and this element is man’s flesh. Our flesh is thus the habitation of sin. Sin dwells in our flesh. Furthermore, sin has actually become one with our flesh, making our flesh virtually the incarnation of sin. Incarnation refers to one thing which was formerly outside another thing entering into that thing and becoming one with it. One day the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, was incarnated. In this way man became Christ’s incarnation. In the same principle, sin has become one with our flesh, making it the incarnation of sin.
When God the Father sent God the Son concerning sin and to deal with sin, even to abolish it. He sent Him not in the reality of the flesh of sin but in the likeness, in the appearance, of the flesh of sin. This means that God sent Christ in the likeness of the flesh that had become sin’s incarnation. In the likeness of the flesh of sin, God sent His Son concerning sin and to deal with it.
Romans 8:3 clearly reveals that God has condemned sin in the flesh. In whose flesh did God condemn sin? The answer is that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the One who was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin. In this flesh God condemned sin. According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word, which is God, became flesh. In this flesh, the incarnation of the eternal Word, God condemned sin through crucifixion. When the Lord Jesus was crucified in the flesh, God condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, in the flesh of Jesus Christ and through His work in His death, God condemned sin in the flesh.
Christ was a man in the flesh, and He died on the cross as a man in the flesh. As such a man in the flesh, He had only the likeness of the flesh of sin, not the sinful nature of the flesh of sin. There was no sin in His flesh. Christ’s humanity does not have sin, but nevertheless His humanity was in some way related to sin. Therefore, His dying on the cross as a man in the flesh caused sin to be condemned in the flesh by God. In other words, God condemned indwelling sin through Christ’s work on the cross. Christ accomplished a work in His death through which God condemned sin in the flesh.
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