<p>5:21 <i>He who knew no sin, he became a sin offering on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him- </i>2 Cor. 5:14-21 urges us to preach the salvation in Christ to all men, because He died for us, as our representative. He died <i>for</i> the sake of all (5:14,15), He was made sin <i>for</i> our sake (5:21); and therefore we are ambassadors <i>for </i>s.w. His sake (5:20). Because He was our representative, so we must be His representatives in witnessing Him to the world. This is why the preaching of Acts was consistently motivated by the Lord&rsquo;s death and resurrection for the preachers. See on Heb. 2:9.</p><p>There was a child-likeness about the Lord. Not in that He was naive- He was the least naive of all men. But rather did He have an innocence about sin, as if He were a sweet child caught up within the web of sinful men around Him. Indeed the point has been made that when Paul spoke of the Lord as being one &ldquo;who knew no sin&rdquo; (2 Cor. 5:21), he was using the very phrase used in rabbinic and other contemporary writings to describe children, who were too young to &lsquo;know sin&rsquo;. This child-likeness was beautifully related to His utter naturalness, which was so much a part of His moral perfection.</p><p>Paul's teaching here about imputed righteousness was fundamental to how he himself viewed the Corinthians. This was how God viewed them; and it was how Paul viewed them. This explains his positive language about them, despite being aware of their deep weaknesses of practice and understanding.</p>