The Holy Saviour

There is an expression used by the apostle Paul respecting the Lord Jesus, which is very beautiful and significant — “who knew no sin.” It does not merely say did none, but knew none. Sin was no acquaintance of His; He was acquainted with grief, but no acquaintance of sin. He had to walk in the midst of its most frequented haunts, but did not know it. Not that He was ignorant of its nature, or unaware of its penalty, but He did not know it; He was a stranger to it; He never by word, by nod, or by smile, gave it the faintest recognition. Of course He knew what sin was, for He was very God, but with sin He had no communion, no fellowship, no brotherhood. He was a perfect stranger in the presence of sin; He was a foreigner; He was not an inhabitant of that land where sin is acknowledged. He passed through the wilderness of suffering, but into the wilderness of sin He could never go. “He knew no sin:” mark that expression and treasure it up; and when you are thinking of your Substitute, and behold Him bleeding upon the cross, think that you see written in those lines of blood, “He knew no sin.” Mingled with the redness of His blood — that Rose of Sharon — behold the purity of His nature — the Lily of the Valley — “He knew no sin.”