THE SUBSTITUTE

“What’s that?”

Oh it means a replacement. Your substitute stands in for you to do what you could not do. He takes your place and brings you the results; what your substitute does is regarded as what you did (2Co5:14). This is the difference between the gospel of Jesus and other faiths. Some teach that the law of retribution always comes on you or your family, some that you keep reincarnating and suffering for the sins of a past life; but Jesus is our substitute.

 “Don’t we all bear the consequences of our actions? Does God allow that?”

God allows it. In fact He instituted the law. Long ago in Egypt when the angel of death was to come into the whole land God asked Israel to kill a lamb for each household. Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, "Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. When the LORD goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you Ex 12:21, 23(GNB).

 “This is not talking about Jesus but Israel, how are they connected?”

This actually was a picture of what Jesus does. The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Jn 1:29(MKJV).

 “Why is it Jesus, why not any other person?”

A substitute for our sin must be sinless. Christ did not sin or ever tell a lie 1Pt 2:22(CEV).

“How does he do it?”

Christ carried our sins in His body on the cross so that freed from our sins, we could live a life that has God's approval 1Pt 2:24(GW).   Some people are inaccurate as to why Jesus Christ died. You may think He died because the Jews and Romans were so sinful; He actually died for our sins.

 “I don’t get the difference”.

If I take a knife and stab a man to death he dies because of my wickedness, Jesus on the other hand died the death we should have died for our sins. All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the LORD made the punishment fall on Him, the punishment all of us deserved Is 53:6(GNB). “Is that so?” Yes: The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord Rm 6:23(GW).

 “How am I sure his death applies to me?” God says so: He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might experience death for everyone Heb 2:9(ISV).

APPEARED IN THE CHURCH BULLETIN WEEK 19, 2009