Our Substitute

Let us start out by saying that we apologize for the lack of posts this week. One fellow is preparing to take some Jr High and College students to Utah for a missions trip and both fellows have started the 3rd quarter of school. This is the final quarter of Greek Exegesis for us and we are quite stoked. Now on to the topic.

All of you understand what a substitute is. A substitute is someone or something that takes the place for another. For instance, a substitute teacher is acting or replacing the teacher. A substitute in sports is someone who takes the position of the other player. If you substitute mashed potatoes for broccoli, than those potatoes are taking the place of the broccoli.

This is all to say that the death of our Savior, Jesus is important and amazing because He did that for us. He was our substitute. We according to several passages, most notably Romans 1-3 and Ephesians 2:1-4 are absolutely lost and dead in our sin. We are bent to sin and our desires are to sin by our very nature. There is no possible way that we can get to heaven because our sin has separated us from a holy and righteous God who cannot tolerate sin. As a result of this, the only way that sin could be paid for was by a sacrifice. Someone or something had to shed its blood to make payment for sin. In the OT, there were animal sacrifices for sin and these were done on a constant basis. These sacrifices were all leading up to the ultimate sacrifice for sin. That sacrifice was of course made by Christ.

Probably my most favorite passage in all of Scripture is Isaiah 53. This is a prophecy that was made by Isaiah over 600 years before Christ would come. It talks about the sinfulness of man and the sacrifice of Christ. Verses 4-6 clearly show what Christ did on behalf of us. He became our substitute.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Notice all the times is says He and our. Christ bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Grief and sorrow are caused by sin and they are the result of the fall of man. The remarkable thing is that the Jews and we ourselves thought that Christ was being punished by God for His sins. Instead though, Christ died a horrible death physically while experiencing separation from God the Father because He bore human sin. He took our place. He bore our judgment. His being punished for our sins brought us peace with God through faith in Christ. Because of Christ's sacrifice we have been healed.

This is the reason why we focus on Christ's sacrifice so much because without it, we would still be lost in our sin and headed for hell. We are not because of Christ's death on the cross whereby He took our sin upon Himself and paid for it with His life. We are not becaue Christ rose from the dead defeating sin and showing that He was God and that the sacrifice for our sin had been paid. This is why we praise Him and this is why we adore Him. This is why we should constantly be reminding ourselves of what He did for His glory and for our good. This is not something that should just be done on Good Friday or around Easter time.