Jesus Saves By His Substitutionary Death!

Last Friday we took an overview of the three atoning aspects of Christ’s work of redemption. We were reminded of the classic orthodox understanding of His redemptive ministry: that Jesus is able to save us by virtue of His perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law, His substitutionary death under God’s wrath, and His victorious resurrection over all the powers of hell and death.
As we noted last Friday, the most obvious aspect of Jesus’ atoning work is His crucifixion. The New Testament clearly presents Christ’s death as the key to our salvation.
To understand how Christ’s death works for us, we first need an accurate view of sin. From the account of our first parents’ sin in the Garden of Eden, until the New Testament, Scripture teaches that sin is intentional rebellion against God’s will as well as against His right to rule our lives.
The depravity of this rebellion is measured not merely by the act itself, but also by the nature of Him against Whom it is committed: because God is eternal and infinite, the rebellion is eternal and infinite as well. Let me illustrate.
If you were to punch a friend, your punishment might be as simple as losing that friendship. If you were to punch a police officer, you would spend some time in jail. If you punched the United States President, you would spend the rest of your life in a mental institution. In each case, the same act is committed: a punch. But the punishment varies with the authority of and respect due to the person you punch: the greater their position, the greater your punishment.
When we sin, we are actively rebelling against the highest Authority in the universe, One Whose nature rightly demands infinite and eternal respect. Our sin, therefore, dishonors God infinitely and eternally, and rightly places us under His righteous wrath.
It is this eternal and infinite rebellion that Jesus came to remedy, this wrath He came to suffer. In His death, Christ willingly submitted Himself to the just penalty which we deserved. He received it on our behalf and in our place so that we will not have to bear it ourselves. The penalty for our sins was removed from us and placed upon Christ, our substitute.
The benefit of this substitution is that we are no longer under God’s wrath. Irish poet Charitie Lees Bancroft wrote of this miracle of grace in 1863:
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
God’s righteous wrath was poured out on the Son, Who, because He is also infinite and eternal, could receive the infinite and eternal measure of that wrath. Our pardon is made possible by His punishment.
Or, as Peter put it, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Aren’t you glad He died in your place, to take God’s punishment for your sin?
Next Week: By His Righteous Life