Our Substitute

Our Substitute

I was talking to one of my sisters about a friend of hers who is a substitute teacher. Just a short time after that, I found myself having a conversation with someone who tried to convince me that the Gospel doesn’t require Jesus to be a substitute for us.

The word substitute kept coming up that day. It reminded me of a story Robert Coleman used to tell about a young boy who had a rare blood disorder. He was able to survive his ailment but, two years later, it was discovered that his little sister had contracted the same disease. The only thing that could save her would be a blood transfusion from someone who had the same blood type and who had already overcome the disease.

The family’s doctor sat the boy down, explained the problem and asked, “Would you be willing to give your blood to save her?”

The boy swallowed hard, thought about it, smiled and agreed. A few days later, they began the procedure. The boy watched as they inserted the needle and then looked on as the blood began to flow from his arm. He looked over at his sister and smiled, laid his head back and closed his eyes. After a couple of minutes, he looked up at the doctor and asked, “When do I die?”

The poor boy thought that he was giving up everything for his sister. He was willing to be her substitute, even at the cost of his own life. The Bible tells us about Jesus being a Substitute for us:

John 15:13

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

People, we cannot treat our Lord so dishonorably as to forget how He willingly went to the cross, knowing that He would die for you and me. We talk about His substitutionary death, but do we really understand what that involved? Do we truly appreciate how that worked?

He gave His blood, all of it, to save us from the death we deserved. He became Our Substitute.

2 Corinthians 5:21

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”