Questions & Answers
by Editor(s)

Page Prewitt answered this recent email from a reader.

Q: I am so grateful for the truths of The Intercessor since there is no local group here. Volume 16, no. 3 leads me to a serious question. On page 2 you quote Norman, "Jesus, the Son of God, dying in our place, was ‘made sin’ in his body, since our bodies express the sin nature. By that body death as us, out forever went that Satan-sin-spirit, and in his resurrection as us, in came his Holy Spirit forever, and thus His nature in us, which is the delighted fulfiller of the Law. My question is: what does "made sin" mean? I know the spiritual law: when a body dies, the spirit leaves. Did Satan enter Christ’s body when He hung on the Cross? It seems to me that this had to happen in order for Satan to be removed from us when we make the spirit decision to choose self-for-others as our desire and His death for us is applied.

A: Thank you very much for your email letter. We enjoyed your clear understanding and concise explanation of the work of Christ on the cross.

I feel inadequate to say that "Jesus was made sin" means that Satan entered the body of Christ on Calvary. The Bible does not exactly say this.

Let me quote Norman P. Grubb from his book Who Am I? as he sheds some light on the subject. I hope this helps.

"But that alone, tremendous as it is, would not solve our problem or give humanity release. The cause is our problem, the sin, not the sins. And we have seen sin used as the term for the nature of the spirit who lived his sin-quality of life in His vessels and by the law of an indwelling spirit, he expresses himself through the human spirit which he indwells. Sins are the products, but the producer is the problem. And what salvation would it be for a human race indwelt by the spirit of sin and thus compulsively expressing his self-loving nature to be released from the consequences of a sinful life but not from the compulsive cause?

This problem was taken care of on the Cross.

We are there with Him, crucified with Him, buried with Him, risen with Him. And what’s the import of that?

Because the body is the container of the spirit, and we humans have become containers of that false spirit of error, whose nature is sin, therefore Paul says that Jesus did more on Calvary than bear our sins in His own body on the tree. He said ‘God made Him to be sin for us.’ And that meant that in God’s sight we were He, crucified with Him, and His body representing us had that spirit of sin in it. And then the glorious fact that when a body dies, it is separated from the spirit in it, and so when he died, Paul said ‘He died to sin’ (quite different from dying for our sins). His body, representing us who were buried with Him, lay in the tomb with no spirit in it -a human race delivered from that old false indwelling spirit of error. And when He rose, it was by the entry of another spirit, His Holy Spirit. So when we are joined by faith to Him in His death and resurrection, we are no longer vessels containing the spirit of error, but vessels containing the spirit of God. That is full salvation-from effects and cause, from products and producer. That is why only the incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ can be the world’s Savior."