Christ was made sin for us. You may say, "Please do not say this. Do not say that Christ was made sin." But Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that Christ was made sin for us by God. When Christ was hanging on the cross, He was sin in the eyes of God. On the cross, God made Christ sin for us. Christ not only bore our sins on the cross, but He was also made sin for us. He was made sin for us by becoming a man in the flesh. Every man in the flesh is sin. If you were to ask me, "Brother, what are you?" I would have to answer, "I am nothing but sin." What are we? We are nothing but sin. We are not only sinners, but we are sin. You may think that you are a kind and humble gentleman, but in reality, you are nothing but sin. We are not only sinners, but we are sin itself.
That Christ became flesh means that Christ became sin. He became sin for us in order to condemn sin. 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." When Christ was crucified on the cross, sin was condemned. When He was crucified on the cross as sin, sin was crucified. When He was crucified on the cross as a brass serpent, Satan was destroyed. By this we can see that Christ's being a man is not a simple matter.
Christ was the last Adam and He is the second Man. There were only two Adams, the first Adam and the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). The first Adam was Adam our fore-father, and the last Adam was Christ. The last Adam is the conclusion of Adam. The last of anything is the end of that thing. So, the last Adam is the end of Adam. Christ became a man. As a man, He ended the Adamic race. Hallelujah, Adam is terminated in Christ!
Christ is also the second Man (1 Cor. 15:47). In the universe there are only two Adams and two men. The first Adam was Adam our forefather and the last Adam was Christ. The first man was Adam and the second Man was Christ. The last Adam indicates an ending, and the second Man indicates a new beginning. Christ's being the last Adam means that He terminated Adam. Christ's being the second Man indicates that He is a new beginning. We were all in Adam, and we were all terminated in Christ. Now we are in the second Man, and we are in the new beginning. Hallelujah, in Christ as the last Adam we have been terminated, and in Christ as the second Man we are in the new beginning! To be terminated is to be crucified; to be in the new beginning is to be in resurrection. We are in Christ as the last Adam, and we are also in Him as the second Man. In Him, on one hand, we have been terminated, and in Him, on the other hand, we have a new beginning.
Isaiah 53:2-3 tells us that Christ was a Man of sorrows and that Christ was a root out of dry ground. Dry ground is earth in which there is no nourishment and no water. The Lord Jesus was born into a poor family. That carpenter's home in Nazareth was like the dry ground. In His human life there was nothing but suffering, so Isaiah gave Him the title "a Man of sorrows." This means Christ has tasted all the sufferings of the human life. As a man, He was a Man of sorrows.