Redemption

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

Sin is a disturbance of the shalom. It is anything that separates us from God; since the sin of Adam and Eve, we live in a fallen world. From the very beginning, we have done things over and over constantly distancing ourselves from God. We choose sin by our nature and nurture.

I don't think it was God's original plan for mankind to sin, but God reconciles free will. God is in charge. Was it God's plan for the Holocaust? Was it God's plan for the Crusades? Definitely not. But through the redeeming power of his love, he is capable of bringing meaning out of pain. What the devil intends for harm, God makes good. So, I think God wanted man to not eat of the forbidden fruit, but in his omniscience, he knew that Adam and Eve would eat it. But the mighty plan of God was that he would somehow reconcile this huge sin.

And then there's Jesus.

When we really sit down and realize the power in this verse, we see how great Jesus is. He, a pure and spotless lamb, became sin. He became my sin, your sin, everyone's sin, to redeem us. He took on the whole weight of sin so that we could live righteous lives...


And righteousness, dikaiosune, is the same Greek word for justice, which means that when we live righteous lives, we are living just lives. We are living the lives that God intended us to live. It wasn't God's plan for man to sin, but it happened. And it was always God's plan to bring us back to him and to live righteous lives.