Nov 12
3
Absolute Substitution
“For He hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.
I doubt there is a more clear statement of the gospel of the substitution and satisfaction of the Lord Jesus to be found in all of Scripture. Perhaps that is why it is under continual attack by the enemies of Christ. Often this is done under the guise of defending the sinless nature of Christ. But, the Holy Spirit has done that very well already. Christ had no sin, did no sin, and knew no sin, yet, he was made sin! We can no more explain this to the satisfaction of the natural man, than we can the incarnation of Christ or the dual nature of the child of God as the consequence of his substitution and result of regeneration and the new birth! But, believe it, preach it and defend it we do. For, if Christ was not made sin for us, then we are not made the righteousness of God in him! God was not playing make believe on the cross. Christ Jesus was made what he was not (sin), In order that we might be made what we were not (righteous). Thank God!- Charles Pennington.
God Loves through the Righteousness of the Substitute (Num 21: 8.)
The Lord told Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3: 14.) In order for God to save in accordance with his holiness, the Son of God had to be made what his elect are: made of a woman (Hebrews 3: 14-15.), made under the law (Gal 4: 4, 5), made a curse (Gal 3: 13, 14), made sin (2 Cor 5: 21). And Christ Jesus makes those he redeemed the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5: 21.) He is just because he punishes each one he saves in another; God is the Justifier because he satisfied his own justice for each one he saves in Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. The love of God is holy, righteous, redeeming love. –Clay Curtis.
Consider Jesus– in Soul-trouble
“Now My soul is deeply troubled.” –John 12:27
In this lay our Lord’s greatest suffering–His soul-sorrow. Compared with this, the lingering, excruciating tortures of the cross–the extended limbs, the quivering nerves, the bleeding wounds, the burning thirst–were, as nothing. This was physical, the other spiritual; the one, the suffering of the body, the other, the anguish of the soul. Let a vessel traversing the ocean keep afloat, and she may still plough the deep and brave the tempest; but let the proud waves burst in upon her and she sinks. So long as our blessed Lord endured outwardly the gibes and insults and calumnies of men, not a complaint escaped His lips; but, when the wrath of God, endured as the Surety-Head of His people, entered within His holy soul, then the wail of agony rose strong and piercing–“Save Me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to My neck. Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold to stand on. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm Me. I am exhausted from crying for help; My throat is parched and dry. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help Me.” Psalm 69:1-3
How true is God’s word–“The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit, who can bear?” Such was Christ’s. And why was His soul troubled? One rational answer alone can be given–He was now bearing sin and, consequently, the punishment of sin–the wrath of God overwhelming His soul. This was the ‘cup’ which He prayed might, ‘if possible, pass from Him.’ Divine justice, finding the sins of God’s elect meeting on His holy soul, exacted full satisfaction and inflicted the utmost penalty. And thus a glorious gospel truth shines out of this terrible cloud of Jesus’ soul-sorrow– that is, the substitutionary character and the atoning nature of His sufferings and death. Upon no reasonable ground other than this can we satisfactorily account for His language–“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” But turn we now from Jesus to His saints.
Believer in Jesus, yours is, perhaps, soul-sorrow. A sense of sin troubles you, the consciousness of guilt distresses you, and you begin to think you know nothing of God’s pardoning love. Oh, what would you not give to be quite sure that your sins were all forgiven for Jesus’ sake!
Or, your soul is in sorrow, perhaps, from the painful loss of the evidences of your saintship and adoption. Like Bunyan’s pilgrim, you have dropped the ‘white stone with the new name,’ and, retracing your steps, mournful and sad, to recover it, you exclaim, “Oh that it were with me as in days that are past, when the candle of the Lord shone round about me.”
Or, you are, perhaps, in soul-distress in consequence of the corroding doubts and distressing fears which assail you; and instead of going on your heavenly way rejoicing, forgetting the things that are behind, and pressing on towards those things that are before, your time is spent, as just intimated, in searching for Christian evidences, and in battling with unbelieving doubts and fears.
Or, perhaps, your soul may be in sorrow because you discern so little love to God, so faint a resemblance to the Savior, and so little real, vital, operative religion in your life–in a word, the spiritual life beating with a pulse so sickly and faint, that your soul is cast down within you.
One word of encouragement. Be thankful to God for this soul-sorrow–it is a sure evidence of spiritual life. A soul dead in sin is insensible to any real distress because of sin; a heart destitute of love to God, feels no distress because it does not love Him. A graceless sinner never longs for grace: an unrenewed person never thirsts for holiness, and a dead soul never breathes after life. Take heart, then, O believer, for your soul-sorrow is the prelude to your soul’s eternal joy.
But see to it that Christ has alone to do with your present sorrow. Take it only to Him. It will prove the greatest, the holiest joy of your life, if it makes you better acquainted with Jesus. O sweet and welcome sorrow, which He who changed the water into wine changes into a joy unspeakable and full of glory. Any sorrow, Lord, if it but enthrone YOU more supremely upon my heart, to reign–“the Lord of every motion there.”-Octavius Winslow.
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The wrath of God due to them fell upon Him!
(J. C. Philpot, “Jesus, the Great High Priest”)
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.” 2 Cor. 5:21
“Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
If we would we see, feel, and realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin, it is not by viewing the lightnings and hearing the thunders of Sinai’s fiery top—but in
seeing the agony and bloody sweat, and hearing the groans and cries of the suffering Son of God, as made sin for us—in the garden and upon the cross.
To look upon Him whom we have pierced will fill heart and eyes with godly sorrow for sin, and a holy mourning for and over a martyred, injured Lord. (Zech. 13:10.)
To see, by the eye of faith, as revealed to the soul by the power of God—the darling Son of God bound, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, mocked—and then, as the climax of cruel scorn and infernal cruelty, crucified between two thieves—this believing sight of the sufferings of Christ, will melt the hardest heart into contrition and repentance.
But when we see, by the eye of faith, that this was the smallest part of His sufferings—that there were depths of soul trouble and of intolerable distress and agony from the hand of God as a consuming fire, as the inflexible justice
and righteous indignation against sin, and that our blessed Lord had to endure the wrath of God until He was poured out like water, and His soft, tender heart in the flames of indignation became like wax, and melted within Him—then we can in some measure conceive what He undertook in becoming a sin offering. For as all the sins of His people were put upon Him—the wrath of God due to them fell upon Him!
No less real, and far more severe, were the agonies of His soul—for the wrath of God in the Redeemer’s heart was as real as the nails that pierced His hands and feet!
When the sins of the elect were found on Christ, justice viewed Him and treated Him as the guilty criminal. Separation from God, under a sense of His terrible displeasure on account of sin—that abominable thing which His holy soul hates—is not
this hell? This, then, was the hell experienced by the suffering Redeemer when the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all.
What heart can conceive or tongue express what must have been the feelings of the Redeemer’s soul when He, the beloved Son of God, who had lain in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, was by imputation, made a sinner—the deep wounds
of suffering love felt by the Son of God when His Father, His own Father, hid His face from Him? By His wounds we are healed
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(J. C. Philpot, “Steps of Thankful Praise” 1865)
Sin has thoroughly diseased us, and poisoned our very blood.
Sin has diseased our understanding, so as to disable it from receiving the truth.
Sin has diseased our conscience, so as to make it dull and heavy, and undiscerning of right and wrong.
Sin has diseased our imagination, polluting it with every idle, foolish, and licentious fancy.
Sin has diseased our memory, making it swift to retain what is evil, slow to retain what is good.
Sin has diseased our affections, perverting them from all that is heavenly and holy, and fixing them on all that is earthly and vile.
“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
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As white as the lily—and as red as the rose
(Charles Spurgeon)
“With His stripes we are healed.” — Isaiah 53:5
Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. This Roman scourging was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down—these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the victim. The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the pillar, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this scourging of the Roman lictors—was probably the most severe of His flagellations.
My soul, stand here and weep over His poor stricken body. Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon Him without tears—as He stands before you—the picture of agonizing love? He is at once as white as the lily for innocence, and as red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing which His stripes have wrought in us—does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus—surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms!
We would sincerely go to our chambers and weep! We pray our Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self—upon the tablets of our hearts—and sorrow that our sin should have cost Him so dear!
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Unfathomable! Unsearchable! Unmeasurable!
(Octavius Winslow, “Morning Thoughts”)
“This is real love! It is not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son as a
sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10
“This is real love!” That God should punish the
innocent for the guilty; that He should exact the
blood of His Son to cancel the guilt of His rebels;
that He should lay an infinite weight of wrath on
Jesus’ soul, in order to lay an infinite weight of love
on ours; that He should sacrifice His life of priceless
value, for our worthless, forfeited, and doomed life;
that He should not only give His Son, but should
bruise Him, put Him to grief, afflict Him, and
make His soul an offering for sin; that the ‘Lord
of Glory’ should become a ‘man of sorrows’; that
the Lord of Life should die.
Oh depth of love unfathomable!
Oh height of love unsearchable!
Oh length and breadth of love unmeasurable!
Oh love of God, which passes knowledge!