Ambrosiaster, Questions on the Old and New Testaments:
QUESTION 74. HOW TO RECONCILE THESE WORDS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH SPEAKING OF CHRIST: "HE DID NOT COMMIT SIN," (ISAIAH 53:9) WITH THESE OTHERS OF THE APOSTLE: "HE WAS MADE SIN FOR US WHO KNEW NO SIN?” (2 COR. 5:21) — As to meaning, there are two different questions here; but the expressions which appear similar are partly similar, partly different; he did, and he did not do so are two contradictory terms; he did not know and he did not do so are two similar phrases. The Prophet, speaking of the person of Christ, therefore says that he has not committed sin, and that lies have not been found on his lips. The Apostle, on the other hand, speaks of the person of the Father who made sin for us Christ who did not know sin. What to hear in two ways. First he made sin when he resolved his incarnation and decreed that he who was not subject to this condition would take a body of sinful flesh, and thus it was sinned. He made it sin again by offering it for our sins, for the victim offered under the law for sins took the name of sin. Jesus Christ, therefore, did not know sin, as the Prophet declares, but his Father has made him sin, as we have shown. To offer Christ for us, is it not to give all power to those who want to put him to death? Now, why was this power granted to them, it is in our interest, so that Christ could descend to hell and strip it of the souls it held captive. It is an enormous sin, unheard of, to have put to death the one who not only was guilty of no sin, but who had restored life to so many; it is from this sin that the devil has been guilty, and he has thereby lost his power of proud opposition. We read something similar in the Galatian epistle: "It was made for us curse," says St. Paul. (Gal. 3:13) Now who made him a curse, if not the Father? For it is by an effect of God's judgment that the cross of Jesus Christ is the curse of the Jews, and the death of the Savior highly proclaims their sin. He therefore wanted to be crucified, so that his passion might be useful to us, and that those who would come out of this life with the sign of the Savior would be free from the tyranny of the second death; for death dreads even the servants of him who triumphed over it. In this question not only the words, but the people are different. He did and he did not do it are two contradictory terms; but as the action claimed to have been made has not been done by the person who has been denied, it cannot be said that there is a contradiction. The words of the prophet apply to the person of Christ, those of the Apostle to the person of the Father. In fact, God the Father has reconciled the world through Jesus Christ, and this is how he has made Christ to be sin. He therefore made him sin, by bringing down into the bosom of a virgin to be born man, he who by his nature was not subject to a human birth, and thus he was made sin of the side of the flesh which is a flesh of sin. He was born to be offered as a victim for fishermen. Thus the Apostle says that he was made sin, because according to the law the victim who was offered for sins took the name of sin. We read something similar in the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. He says in speaking of the Savior, "He was made a curse for us," (Gal. 3:13) which words here are the meaning: God the Father did it for us, sin or curse, allowing the Jews to put Him to death, so that their unbelief, because of their disapproval, gives us place to take their place according to what the Savior said: "The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and it will be given to a people who will bear the fruits.” (Matt. 21:43) In the language of Scripture God is supposed to do what he allows, because something is done only because he allows it. So our Lord said to Pilate, "You shall have no power over me, unless it be given you from above.” (Jn. 19:11) It is not by sending it from heaven, but by allowing the use of power that God gives it, and the perverse soul that receives the power to do what it wants becomes guilty, like the Jews who by putting to death the Savior made him their curse, by a just judgment of God. Indeed, the Savior's cross was the curse of the Jews. The sacrilege that was offered on the cross did not purify the one who offered it as the victim sacrificed for sins; on the contrary, the Savior in this sacrifice has become the sin that defiles the soul of those who offered it, and the justification of those who lived far from him, so that the blessing promised to Abraham may be repaired among the nations. Indeed the sacrifice of the Jews benefited the Gentiles, who did not hesitate to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ. (pp 282-86)
