The legal and moral concept of substitution is the only method the Holy and Rightous God has chosen to justify and redeem sinners.
Our faith is the means by which we lay hold of God's Substitute, the blessed Savior, and nominate Him as the one with whom God will deal regarding our sin.
Man's legal systems provide at best lame and weak examples of substitution. We have the concept of the power of attorney, and the 'next friend,' by which a person may stand in the place and act in the stead of another. Occasionally, third parties will step in and pay the debts or fines owed by the defendant.
But God's substitute, the Lord Jesus at Calvary, has been pre-figured in all the sacrificial offerings for sin made, beginning with Abel, and continuing on with the sacrifices of the people of Israel.
In these sacrifices, there was a method of nominating the substitute, by the laying on of hands by the penitant sinner. In so doing, the sinner was appointing the lamb as his substitute, and calling upon God to punish his sin in that substitute. The substitute was then killed and burned with fire on the altar, while the sinner went free.
Isaiah explained that God's true substitute was His suffering servant, upon whom He would lay all the sins of His people.
How do believers lay hold upon the Substitute whom we have not seen?
By faith we lay hold of Him! We own Him as our only Substitute, and denominate Him to be the One with whom God deals concerning our guiltiness.
Praise God, our Substitute has already paid the price for us! Now He has authority to represent us before God in every matter. He has cheerfully assumed the burden of our eternal destiny!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
