_James._ Till lately I cannot say that I have thought closely upon it. I have understood that several of our best writers consider the word αμαρτια (_sin_) as frequently meaning a _sin-offering_. Dr. Owen so interprets it in his answer to Biddle,[46] though it seems he afterwards changed his mind. Considering the opposition between the sin which Christ was made, and the righteousness which we are made, together with the same word being used for that which he was _made_, and that which he _knew not_, I am inclined to be of the doctor’s last opinion; namely, that the sin which Christ was made, means _sin itself_; and the righteousness which we are made, means _righteousness itself_. I doubt not but that the allusion is to the sin-offering under the law; but not to its being _made a sacrifice_. Let me be a little more particular. There were two things belonging to the sin-offering. _First_: The imputation of the sins of the people, signified by the priest’s laying his hands upon the head of the animal, and confessing over it their transgressions; and which is called “putting them upon it.”[47] That is, it was _counted_ in the divine administration _as if the animal had been_ the sinner, and the only sinner of the nation. _Secondly_: Offering it in sacrifice, or “killing it before the Lord for an atonement.”[48] Now the phrase, _made sin_, in 2 Cor. v. 21. appears to refer to the _first_ step in this process in order to the last. It is expressive of what was preparatory to Christ’s suffering death rather than of the thing itself, just as our being _made righteousness_ expresses what was preparatory to God’s bestowing upon us eternal life. But the term _made_ is not to be taken literally; for that would convey the idea of Christ’s being really the subject of moral evil. It is expressive of a divine _constitution_, by which our Redeemer with his own consent, stood in the sinner’s place, as though he had been himself the transgressor; just as the sin-offering under the law was, in mercy to Israel, reckoned or accounted to have the sins of the people “put upon its head,” with this difference; that was only a shadow, but this went really to take away sin. _Peter._ Do you consider Christ as having been _punished, really and properly_ PUNISHED? _James._ I should think I do not. But what do you mean by punishment? _Peter._ An innocent person may _suffer_, but, properly speaking, he cannot be _punished_. Punishment necessarily supposes _criminality_. _James._ Just so; and therefore as I do not believe that Jesus was in any sense criminal, I cannot say he was really and properly punished. _Peter._ Punishment is the infliction of natural evil for the commission of moral evil. It is not necessary, however, that the latter should have been committed by the party—Criminality is supposed: but it may be either personal or imputed.