As powerful and descriptive as the words Savior and Redeemer are to describe our Lord, there is no word which more clearly relates what Jesus did for us than the word “Substitute.”
The dictionary definition of the word substitute is “one that takes the place of another” (The Free Dictionary). Jesus not only saved us with His mighty power and redeemed us with His priceless blood, but He also took our place. Nothing demonstrates His desire to do whatever was necessary and His willingness to pay any price to redeem us back to Himself, like His act of substitution.
He was willing to take our place, suffer our fate, and endure our punishment by fully identifying with sinful humanity.
When a savior saves, he is considered a hero. When a redeemer redeems, he still has something left. But when Jesus became our Substitute, He lost everything—His identity, His privileges, His standing, and His life. He gave it all to take our place. It is one thing to save and another to redeem, but to be a substitute requires total commitment.
Using the role of a governor as an example, he could save a criminal from a death sentence by an official pardon, but to be a substitute, he would actually go to the death chamber and be put to death instead of the offender. To be a substitute for a criminal, one has to suffer the fate of the criminal —Who would do that?
We were under a death sentence, condemned to die for our sins, without hope and without God, but Jesus came and died for us. He took our place as our Substitute: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).
More than just a human sacrifice was needed to pay the penalty for the sin. A sinner could not pay his own debt to sin, much less the debt of another sinner. It required the death of the holy, righteous Son of God to pay the price for sin.
Jesus, the Son of God, through a miraculous birth, became a man and identified completely with us.
He took our place and became sin so that we might be made righteous: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Isaiah foretells the work of our Substitute in the Old Testament by saying, “…Because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
He became cursed with our curse, that we might be free. “The law put a curse on us. But Christ took away that curse. He changed places with us. Christ put himself under the curse” (Galatians 3:13, Deaf Translation). ***I can’t find this translation to check it.
He took our place in poverty and became poor that we might be rich. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Peter speaks of the price He paid for forgiveness and healing: “…Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
This is the love that passes knowledge! No one was in a position to do for you what Jesus has done, and if that person could have, he or she probably wouldn’t have.
“For when the time was right, the Anointed One came and died to demonstrate his love for sinners who were entirely helpless, weak, and powerless to save themselves. Now, who of us would dare to die for the sake of a wicked person? We can all understand if someone was willing to die for a truly noble person. But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!” (Romans 5:6-8, The Passion Translation)
Greater love has no man than this! He became one with us under the curse of sin, guilt, and poverty, that we might be one with Him in resurrection, in life, in righteousness, and in victory. And it worked! The price for sin was paid, the debt has been canceled, and now we are alive forever in Him.
Jesus agreed to do what no one else has ever done or could ever do. He is the greatest Hero who ever lived, He accomplished the greatest feat in human history, and His is the greatest story ever told! And now, He wants nothing more than for us to take courage in the fact that He has redeemed His church from sin and all of its consequences.
The price has been paid, the sentence has been executed, and we are free to live with God forever because Jesus chose to be our Savior, Redeemer, and Substitute. What He did for us has changed the world forever!
To learn more about what He did to change the world, get my audio series titled, “Jesus Our Substitute,” at gregfritz.org or call 918-749-7744. This 6-message audio series is available on CD, USB, or download it now on MP3 format.
Jesus Our Substitute: New Series
In this series we give tribute to the world’s greatest Hero. He is the greatest man who ever lived. He accomplished the greatest feat in human history. His is the greatest story ever told. His name is Jesus. No one could have done for you what Jesus did, and if they could have, they probably wouldn’t have. Learn to appropriate all that you have in Him by taking an in depth look at the substitutionary work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.