Todd White–a confused and simple-minded man masquerading as a prophet of God but without the ability to properly teach–recently mangled the doctrine of imputation to the point of near blasphemy, if not outright blasphemy.

White, preaching on 2 Corinthians 5:21–that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us–goes into a tirade of how Jesus actually became the substance of the sins listed in Romans 1 while on the tree. Of course, if what White was saying was true, it could only mean that Jesus ceased to be God on the cross. We know that isn’t true.

Jesus does not become the substance of this sin on the cross, as White suggests. Even though White acknowledged that Jesus didn’t actually commit these sins, he does say that Jesus is these sins. A proper understanding of this text, however, is that Jesus becomes the object of God’s wrath on the tree.

Simple-minded people might think there was some sort of metaphysical component here and there wasn’t. Jesus was not transformed into sin or porn or gossip, etc. Scripture uses a literary device to convey the idea that the wrath of God intended for us because of our lawlessness was poured out on Christ as if He was the one guilty of our lawlessness. This is the divine exchange and the doctrine of imputation and penal substitution.