2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

The power of love (5:11-6:13)Because Paul knows that he is accountable to Christ, he knows what it means to fear the Lord, and this makes him more diligent in his service. God knows that his motives are pure and he trusts that the Corinthians know also (11).In making these statements, Paul is not trying to write a recommendation for himself. He is trying to give his supporters reason to be bold in defending him against those who criticize him (12). They may have seen him display his feelings in... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 2 Corinthians 5:21

For . Omit. He, &c. Read, Him Who knew not sin, for us He made sin. sin . App-128 . Only here and 2 Corinthians 11:7 , in this Epistle. The first occurance in this verse is by Figure of speech Metonymy ( App-6 ) put for sin-offering. Compare Ephesians 5:2 . The same Figure of speech appears in the same connexion in Genesis 4:7 . Exodus 29:14 ; Exodus 30:10 . Leviticus 4:3 ; Leviticus 6:25 .Numbers 8:8 . Psalms 40:6 (7); &c. no = not. App-106 . be made = become. the . Omit. ... read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:21

Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.The great substitutionary passages of Isaiah 53 are behind such a declaration as this. Christ bore the sins of all people; his stripes were the healing of all people; his chastisement was the peace of all people; his suffering was the salvation of all people. "God laid upon him the iniquity of us all."The righteousness of God ... All of the righteousness of God ever achieved upon earth was... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21. Made to be sin, &c.— "A sin-offering for us, that, by the sacrifice of himself, he might expiate the guilt of our transgressions, and that so we might be made accepted in him, and furnished with a plea as prevalent for our justification and admission into the divine favour, as if we had retained our innocence untainted, and in every respect conformed ourselves to the righteousness which the law of God required and demanded." There is an evident and beautiful contrast... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:21

21. For—omitted in the oldest manuscripts. The grand reason why they should be reconciled to God, namely, the great atonement in Christ provided by God, is stated without the "for" as being part of the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19). he—God. sin—not a sin offering, which would destroy the antithesis to "righteousness," and would make "sin" be used in different senses in the same sentence: not a sinful person, which would be untrue, and would require in the antithesis "righteous... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

The ministry of reconciliation 5:18-21This section and the first two verses of chapter 6 constitute the crux of Paul’s exposition of the apostolic office (2 Corinthians 2:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:4) and of the entire letter. [Note: Barnett, p. 300.] read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 condenses the ground of Paul’s appeal and expresses it in another paradox. This verse explains the "how" of full reconciliation and takes us to the very heart of the atonement."In these few direct words the Apostle sets forth the gospel of reconciliation in all its mystery and all its wonder. There is no sentence more profound in the whole of Scripture; for this verse embraces the whole ground of the sinner’s reconciliation to God and declares the incontestable reason why he... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

The subject of 2 Corinthians 4 is continued. St. Paul has been pointing out that amid bodily weakness and decay he is encouraged by the thought that the temporal is transient, while the spiritual is eternal. He now goes on to speak more particularly of the great prospect that sustains him—the replacement of the earthly material body by an eternal heavenly one. He hopes to survive till Christ’s coming, and receive the heavenly body without passing through the experience of death: but, if it... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - 2 Corinthians 5:21

(21) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.—The “for” is omitted in many of the best MSS., but there is clearly a sequence of thought such as it expresses. The Greek order of the words is more emphatic: Him that knew no sin He made sin for us. The words are, in the first instance, an assertion of the absolute sinlessness of Christ. All other men had an experience of its power, gained by yielding to it. He alone gained this experience by resisting it, and yet suffering its... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

2 Corinthians 5:10 Carts go along the streets; full of stript human corpses, thrown pell-mell; limbs sticking up: seest thou that cold Hand sticking up, through the heaped embrace of brother corpses, in its yellow paleness, in its cold rigour; the palm opened towards Heaven, as if in dumb prayer, in expostulation de profundis , take pity on the Sons of men! Mercier saw it, as he walked down 'the Rue Saint-Jacques from Mont-rouge, on the morrow of the Massacres': but not a Hand; it was a Foot,... read more