our sins” means that Christ’s death was a sacrifice made necessary by our sins and offered with a view to their removal. In the Greek version of the Old Testament a similar expression was used for sin-offerings. The closest parallel to this statement in Paul is 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins.” Second, the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice was to “deliver us out of this present evil world” (verse 4b, ASV). The verb “deliver,” says Lightfoot, “strikes the keynote of the epistle” (p. 73).