The words “substitute” and “substitution” aren’t found in our Bible. But as the author shows, the idea is everywhere.
A rifle is raised, its sights set on the most powerful man in the nation. Shots ring out and without hesitation Secret Service men pile on top of the president to take the bullets intended for him. Men die in service to their country and the president’s life is spared.
The Bible makes it clear in the book of Romans that “for a good man someone would even dare to die.” Reading past the divine interruption, “But God,” we find the difference in the demonstration of His love: It was “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7f). How could it be that the Son of God would show such love as to take what we deserve and die for us—sinners?
Peter explains, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust” (1 Pet. 3:18). He, the just, for us, the unjust. It is the substitutionary death of our Saviour. Simply put, Christ died in our place.
The Plan from the Beginning
This theme of substitutionary atonement is unique to God’s great salvation and distinct from manmade religions. A brief survey of the Scriptures reveals that this was God’s plan from the beginning and fulfilled by our Saviour. The Lord Jesus said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28).
Adam and Eve were in the garden with everything they could have ever needed. They had nothing to gain, but everything to lose. This was realized when the first woman ate the first man out of house and home. Adam, with his eyes wide open, chose to rebel and go against God’s command. They hid from God and busily engaged themselves in their fig leaf religion. It didn’t work then. It still doesn’t!
God had warned them saying, “In the day that you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die.” In dealing with Adam’s sin, God showed in a clear way that sin is grievous and its wages real: the wages of sin is death. He took an innocent animal, shed its blood, and clothed Adam and his wife Eve with its skins. Man’s insufficient works were just a cover-up. God’s work would require the death of an innocent animal as a substitute. Of course, we see the supreme Sacrifice foreshadowed in this first sacrifice. Both were substitutionary, but only Christ’s substitutionary death would pay for their sin.
Time moves on and God’s program unfolds. The principle of substitutionary death is seen again. Abraham was told by God to take his son, his only son Isaac whom he loved, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering. On the way Isaac asked his father, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” What answer would he give the lad? Don’t miss it. The answer this friend of God gave his son reveals his understanding of the ways of God. Abraham responded, “God will provide for Himself a lamb.” When? How? We wait to see.
There, at that moment, with the knife raised to slay his son, the Angel of the Lord called from heaven to Abraham to stay his hand. Abraham looked, and behind him a ram was caught in a thicket. He took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son (Gen. 22:13). The ram was a temporary substitute for the permanent one which would come in God’s time. Truly, as the Lord Jesus declared, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” He rejoiced and was glad? He surely was! His son had been spared. The ram was offered in his place. One day, in that place which Abraham called Jehovah-Jireh, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” would be offered up when God provided for Himself the Lamb in our stead.
Generations later, Jacob was bereaved of Joseph and there was a famine in the land. To survive, Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy grain. The whole story is intriguing, but our point comes at the end. When told by Joseph, who seemed as a stranger to his brothers, that the only way they could get further help would be to bring their youngest brother Benjamin to Egypt, they returned home to Canaan.
Jacob would not hear of it! He said, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.” At this point, Reuben made an offer to take the responsibility. “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him [Benjamin] back to you.” How would you like to hear your father make a commitment like that? But that was no substitute. They were at a stalemate.
Then Judah, the line through which Messiah would come, offered himself, “I myself will be surety for him” (Gen. 43:9). Judah’s words were tested and proven to be sincere. When Joseph declared that Benjamin would remain in Egypt as his slave, Judah stepped up and requested, “Please let your servant [Judah himself] remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad [Benjamin] go up with his brothers” (Gen. 44:33).
There are other places in the Old Testament Scriptures where Christ is foreshadowed as our substitute. The sacrifices (like the Passover) and the scapegoat, point to His being offered in our place while we go free. But His substitutionary death is also taught directly. The prophet Isaiah gives the clearest teaching on this, saying, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by 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” (Isa. 53:5-6).
New Testament Elaboration
Romans 15:4 reminds us that “whatever things were written before were written for our learning.” What have we learned of our Lord Jesus who came to take our place? The New Testament reviews our lessons. There is the instance of Caiaphas, the high priest, who stated (though with evil intent), “It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”
Note how John adds commentary to Caiaphas’ words, explaining, “Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad” (Jn. 11:50-52).
This truth of the substitutionary death of our Saviour is most succinctly stated by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” What an offer! What an exchange! Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
This is our Saviour “who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:6) and “redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). When God gave His Son as our Substitute, it was the just for the unjust. Not just any substitute. Not a trade down as the world may try to pull off. A stone for bread, a serpent for a fish, or a Leah for a Rachel. But rather One who was just for those who are unjust.
The world’s advertisers often use the slogan: Accept no substitute. The Word of God implores man to do the opposite: to accept Christ, our
Substitute!
God made Christ “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” What an offer! What an exchange! Hallelujah, what a Saviour!