Jesus Christ Our “Substitute!”

JESUS CHRIST OUR “SUBSTITUTE!”

You see it on EVERY continent level, you see it on EVERY country level, you see is in EVERY province, EVERY state or county level, you see it in EVERY city, town or village level, EVERY school, EVERY work place, without exception, you see it in EVERY community level, you see it in EVERY family level, you SEE it in your own life…wherever you are you see sin and its effects. Everything and everyone is touched, every generation is contaminated with it. It is a universal epidemic, without human cure!

wherever you are you see sin and its effects.

It is universal, it is not just part of one geographical site or area, it is universal because sin is in us all. It is internal. Our tendency is to sin.

Sin is defiant, rebellious, and disobedience to the revealed will of God.

It is to live our life as though we are our own “god,” and we are not accountable to our Creator. We are rebels in heart and therefore rebels in the way we think, speak and act.

We think we are in control, but death has a way of puncturing such deception. We are not in control! We all must stand before God.

Our tendency to sin, is because sin controls us and often the wars without us in our quarreling, bitterness, pride are a manifestation of what is going on within us. Sin rules, sin distorts our view of God, sin destroys relationships, sin ultimately ends in death and eternal destruction, because sin is an offense to God’s Holy character.

He cannot tolerate it, but He did do something about it in the sending of His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ to be our “Substitute.” He lived a righteous life, never having sinned, and on the cross as our “Substitute” He bore the wrath of God, God punishing it and as our “Substitute” He stepped in and took our place as our representation on that cross and bore all our sin, the guilt, shame, and He who knew no sin became sin that we might become right with God, having our sins fully and completely forgiven. Sent away. Where God no longer holds the offense of sin against us.

In the Old Testament the people would take two goats and offer one as a sacrifice and the other they would lead way way way into the desert to such an extent it would never be seen again. And when the waiting crowd were told the goat had gone never to reappear the people celebrated and this symbolized what Jesus would do one day where on that cross He bore our sin and as far as the east is from the west removed it to all who repent– which speaks of turning from sin, self rule to God in genuine sorrow for sinning against Him and trust wholehearedly in His Son to satisfy Him with His work on the cross as our “Substitute” so that God who punished sin one the cross on His Son who was your personal “Substitute” so that He now could look upon you with favor and treat you because you are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ …placed to your account. Jesus died for all of your sin so that God would treat Him as though He was you and raised Him from the dead three days later to prove He accepted HIS SINLESS Sacrifice, your “SUBSTITUTE” on your behalf and now treat you as one of His children, standing before God right in His eyes forever. It does not mean the follower of Christ does not sin, but the desires change so that we don’t want to out of love for Him who first loved us,and He gives us the power to say no to sin and yes to Him!

Faith is personal trust in a Person, The LORD Jesus Christ, turning to Him and trusting Him alone as your “Substitute” on that cross that you may not die in and with your sins but that He died in your place to bear the judgment of God against your sins- all of them and give you new desires, and power to live for Him,not out of dread or fear but from a new heart of love, gratitute for Him as you come to increasingly KNOW and love Him through His Word- the Bible.

And as a new baby craves milk, so God will work in you a new desire- something you never had before- a desire for His Word to feed you, delight your heart,comfort you, impart peace of mind and heart, coming to know God better, spiritually being to you what milk is to a baby! God does this for all who turn to Him and trust the work of His Son, The LORD Jesus alone as your sin bearing, sacrificial SUBSTITUTE!

Today consider Jesus your “Substitute!”

If you will not have Him as your “Substitute,” you, Upon death will have Him as your Judge, not because He has not made the provision on the cross for you but because you haver rejected Him and chose to continue living your life for your sake on your terms.

You rejected God’s “Substitute” and God will reject you. because you chose to say you alone would be your own “Substitute” weighing up perhaps what you see as your “good works” outweighing your bad or even considering yourself “better” “not as bad as others.” Even there we see the sinful tendency we have to “play god,” we have our own “standard” but we are not the one who has the final say. God does, and in His Word He says the standard is “perfection,” and none of us not even the most arrogant among us can say we have “never sinned” though I did meet a college student once who told me she had no sin, but blushed when I asked if she had ever lied. Her conscience convicted her, No, she was as the rest of us a – sinner- in need of a Savior – outside of our own helpless and futile ways We need a Savior who God will accept as our “SUBSTITUTE” someone to stand in for us and reperesnt us before God! We need Jesus CHRIST WHO IS GOD’S DESIGNATED “SUBSTITUTE” FOR ALL SINNERS WHO TURN TO HIM AND TRUST IN HIM ALONE.

It only takes one sin to offend GOD as it is violently opposed to His nature, and is destructive as lives around us in whatever continent, country, city, town, village, community, home, heart including our own lives show.

Sin is not something I do or don’t do, sin is who I am- a sinner.

I sin because I am a sinner and I need a Savior someone who can make me right before God and enter the LORD Jesus Christ…. our sinless offering our “SUBSTITUTE!” That’s what the Gospel is- “good news” we can be forgiven, we can be in right standing with God not by our own effort or merit but through the perfect work and merit of the sinless sacrifice of Jesus Chrit our “Substitute!”

CH Spurgeon wrote these words,

“I know I cannot enter Heaven unless I have a PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS. I am absolutely certain I shall have None of my own, for I find I sin everyday; but then CHRIST had a PEREFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS.”-

• Jesus Christ provides the Righteousness you need as your “Substitute!”  He did what you and I could never do, lived a perfect sinless life,He did what you and I could never do, lived a perfect sinless life, did right in both His thinking and doing, never having sinned, He offered Himself as a sinless sacrifice as our “Substitute” for our sins and His sacrifice was accepted and we in turn can have His righteousness accredited to our account- and are “accepted in The Beloved” LORD Jesus-{Ephesians 1:6}

Consider these verses;

“The one who sins is the one who will die.”-{Ezekiel 18:20}

“All of us like sheep have gone astray, We have turned, each one, to his own way; But the Lord has caused the wickedness of us all [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing] To fall on Him [instead of us].”-{Isaiah 53:6}

“If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].”-{1 John 1:9}

“The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”-{John 1:29}

“He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].”-{2 Corinthians 5:21 }

Thank God we need not die in our sins for we have an acceptable “Substitute” with God- Jesus Christ who bore all our sin, and God who treated Jesus on the cross as though He were us, He now can treat us as though we were Jesus in regards having no unpaid sin because Jesus bore the penalty against our sin on the cross that we need not die in our sins for we by His doing now have a “SUBSTITUTE” whom God accepts as our SUBSTITUTE!

• “The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.”-{Leviticus 16:22}

And like the goat in the Old Testament that was led away in the wilderness, to symbolize God taking away sin , never to be held against them and as the people waited to hear the goat had been led so far into the desert never to return, and upon getting the news the goat was gone never to return as a symbol indeed of what Christ would do with His offering Himself up on the cross… Jesus did for us on that cross, we can delight, take hope, our sins against God are dealt with because we have a sufficient “SUBSTITUTE”- Jesus Christ the Righteous

 

Consider the words of this old Hymn.

”MAN of Sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

2 Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood,
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

3 Guilty, vile, and helpless, we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He:
Full atonement — can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

4 Lifted up was He to die,
“It is finished” was His cry;
Now in heaven, exalted high:
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

5 When He comes, as Lord and King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we’ll sing —
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!”-{Philip Paul Bliss}

God Bless,

Aidan.