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The sermon presents salvation as a divinely ordained exchange: Christ, who knew no sin, bears the guilt and punishment of His people, while believers receive the righteousness of God in Him. Christ’s impeccability is essential because only a sinless substitute could fulfill God’s law and suffer for others. Spurgeon emphasizes that this finished work grounds assurance independently of human merit, though faith discovers and rests in it. He therefore urges the church to reject weakened accounts of sin and atonement, contend for the biblical gospel, and remain within covenant fellowship.
Theological center: God imputes His people’s sin to the sinless Christ, who bears their judgment, and imputes Christ’s perfect righteousness to them.
Applications: Stand firm in substitution · Contend for the faith · Consider Christ’s sinlessness · Understand imputation
Primary texts: 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Revelation 3:21
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 SOMETIME ago an excellent lady sought an interview with me with the object as she said, of enlisting my sympathy upon the question of “Anti-Capital Punishment.” I heard the excellent reasons she urged against hanging men who had committed murder, and though they did not convince me, I did not seek to answer them. She proposed that when a man committed murder, he should be confined for life. My remark was, that a great many men who had been confined half their lives were not a bit the better for it, and as for her belief that they would necessarily be brought to repentance, I was afraid it was but a dream. “Ah,” she said, good soul as she was, “that is because we have been all wrong about punishments. We punish people because we think they deserve to be punished. Now, we ought to show them,” said she, “that we love them, that we only punish them to make them better.” “Indeed, Madam,” I said, “I have heard that theory a great many times, and I have seen much fine writing upon the matter, but I am no believer in it. The design of punishment should be amendment, but the ground of punishment lies in the positive guilt of the offender. I believe that when a man does wrong, he ought to be punished for it, and that there is a guilt in sin which justly merits punishment.” “Oh no, she could not see that. “Sin was a very wrong thing, but punishment was not a proper idea. She thought that people were treated too cruelly in prison, and that they ought to be taught that we love them. If they were treated kindly in prison, and tenderly dealt with, they would grow so much better, she was sure.” With a view of interpreting her own theory, I said, “I suppose then, you would give criminals all sorts of indulgences in prison. Some great vagabond who has committed burglary dozens of times—I suppose you would let him sit in an easy chair in the evening before a nice fire, and mix him a glass of spirits and water, and give him his pipe, and make him happy, to show him how much we love him.” “Well, no, she would not give him the spirits, but still, all the rest would do him good.” I thought that was a delightful picture certainly. It seemed to me to be the most prolific method of cultivating rogues which ingenuity could invent. I imagine that you could grow any number of thieves in that way, for it would be a special means of propagating all manner of roguery and wickedness. These very delightful theories to such a simple mind as mine, were the so…