What did our Substitute do?
Long
before the law was given by Moses, our whole race fell when Adam fell
in the garden of Eden. Adam, a representative man, sinned against God
and in him “all sinned” [ROMANS
5:12].
This is why “death reigned from Adam to Moses” [ROMANS
5:14]. But the
penalty for sin against God is far more than physical death. Sin
cannot be reversed, it must be punished. The penalty God requires for
sin is death, a death that will satisfy divine justice. “Behold,
all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of
the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” [EZEKIEL
18:4]. “For
the wages of sin is death...” [ROMANS
6:23].
That
penalty must be paid. It cannot be paid by a sinner but requires the
death of a sinless sacrifice. Every picture in the Old Testament
sacrifices shows this. Christ, if He be that “one sacrifice for
sins forever,” must be such. If He be our Substitute, He must
do the one thing God could not do from heaven, He must die. If you
think of all that God did, can do and does from heaven, the one thing
necessary to our salvation He could not do which is to die in our
place. To do this He must become a man, take upon Himself a body and
in that perfect body die as the Substitute for His sheep. “I lay
down My life for the sheep” [JOHN
10:15b].
Our
death can only be because of our sin. His death as One who knew no
sin, is for sin. We are not called upon to try and enter into the
depths of His sufferings. How could we who have known nothing but sin
enter into the sufferings of Him who never knew sin? No, we are
simply called upon to look to His death. To rest in what He
accomplished for us as our Substitute. If He died for me the death
required for my sin, I don’t have to die. All He suffered, I do not
know but I know He suffered all that was due me. My Substitute died
in my place and I am a participant in His sufferings not because of
what I feel about them but because God in grace views me “in
Christ.” When He died for my sin, I died to sin. His death is
the source of my life. This is the gospel emphasis: “Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is
risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh
intercession for us” [ROMANS
8:34].
Christ
“died for the ungodly”
[ROMANS
5:6]. God
commeneth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us. We were “justified by His
blood.” We were “reconciled
to God by the death of His Son.” I don’t expect to
ever know the fulness of my Substitute’s sufferings or be able to
feel the depth of His agonies. But this I know because God has
declared it, Christ my Substitute died in my place! “I
need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus
died, And that He died for me.”
-Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard
Sovereign
Grace Baptist church of Jacksonville, North Carolina USA
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