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

P.P. Bliss

A third category of suffering is vicarious. Vicarious suffering takes place when one person is punished in the place of another. We get a good picture of this when we remember the Jewish Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. Two goats played a part in the drama of forgiveness. The first goat was sacrificed and given as an offering for the sins of the nation. Symbolically, the animal was punished in the place the people. A second goat was then sent off into the wilderness. The picture here is that, because of His grace, God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. These goats (especially the first) did not suffer because of their own deeds; rather, they were punished in the place of the people.

At first glance, the idea that God would punish one person in the place of another sounds unloving. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It was God Himself who suffered in our place at the cross. In Isaiah 53, the prophet confesses the vicarious atonement:

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 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. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Notice the language in the underlined portions. These verses explain why the Messiah had to suffer and die. It was not for His own sin, but for ours: "But he was wounded for our transgressions." The same idea is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Both of my grandfathers were veterans of WWII. One refused to talk about the war; the other shared some stories. As a young child I can remember hearing the one recount the battle at Normandy. His description was everything and more that would soon be depicted in the opening scene of the movie, Saving Private Ryan. Out of all of the stories that I heard about the soldiers who fought in the war, one in particular struck me as especially heroic. My grandfather tells that he and the men would be walking together or waiting for orders when all of a sudden a hand grenade would land in the middle of or near the group. With little hesitation, one of the soldiers would throw himself on the grenade destroying his own body, but minimizing the damage to the others in the area. Heroic indeed!

Though every illustration falls short at some point, this provides something of a picture of a vicarious sacrifice. One man suffers and dies so that others may live. In a sense, he suffers vicariously for the rest.

This is the Gospel. On the cross Jesus suffered and died the death that we deserve. Glory to His name!

HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOR

P.P. Bliss

Man of Sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

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

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
"Full atonement!" can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;
"It is finished!" was His cry;
Now in Heav'n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!