JESUS: The Substitutionary Sacrifice

GEN. 22:1-14; ROM. 4:24-25

SUBJECT: THE CROSS OF CHRIST

THEME: We can be delivered from the eternal suffering for sin by accepting God’s provision of a substitute and sacrifice, Jesus Christ.  For indeed Christ was delivered for our offenses.

RELEVANCE:  Christ died in our place, bore our sins, paid the penalty due our sins; and all this not by force, but willingly (Jn. 10:17, 18). The blessed truth is that something happened to Christ, and because it happened to Christ, it need not happen to us. Christ died for our sins; we need not die for them if we accept His sacrifice.

INTRODUCTION:

Genesis 22:13, And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

I want you to notice that last phrase, “Abraham…offered him up for a burnt offering in THE STEAD OF HIS SON.” This is a substitution of one in another’s place. Now the word substitute or substitutionary....is not found in the Bible. Although throughout the whole of the Bible it is implied. You cannot read the Bible correctly without seeing it as a book about a substitute. What did Abraham find, when he found the ram, and took Isaac off that altar and laid the ram there instead? He found one to be sacrificed in Isaac’s place. That actually is the definition of a substitute; one to take the place of another. Or as William Evans states: “one life given in the stead of another.” All through the Bible we can find this reoccurring. 

LESSON:

I.  Like Isaac, We All Were Sentenced To Death…by God.

Read Gen. 22:1-3, 9-10, thoughtfully. It was God who required this offering…the Lord issued this sentence of death for Isaac.

A.  ULTIMATELY, EVERY PERSON MUST FACE THE REALITY OF DEATH AND HELL.

I want to make a statement, and I don't want you to reject the rest of the message when I make this statement. I want you to read on till you get the entire account.

I'd like to say, and I'm scripturally correct in saying it, that everybody will go to hell! Everybody everywhere will end up in hell without Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice! 

There is entirely zero hope of escaping hell outside of the Substitute—a Substitute that God provides himself. Now Thank God that He has provided the Substitute! Christ died in our place, bore our sins, paid the penalty due our sins; and all this not by force, but willingly (Jn. 10:17, 18).  The blessed truth is “that something happened to Christ, and because it happened to Christ, it need not happen to us. Christ died for our sins; we need not die for them if we accept His sacrifice.”

Genesis 22:13, And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

  

 B.  THE ISSUE OF HELL AND DEATH HAS TO DO WITH JUSTICE, ORDER, AND FAIRNESS.

1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

That will move me right into the need of a substitute. Why did we have to have such a substitute? Why are we in such a mess today? And why is the world in the shape it's in, that we need a substitute of this magnitude.

   1.  Justice Because Man in Adam Acted Independently of God.

Genesis 2:16-17, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: [17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.   (Rom. 5:12)

         A. When Man Sinned, Justice Had to Be Administrated.

Otherwise the world would have ended there in chaos, and confusion and destruction.

Some of you work in different positions, or labor jobs in your town or city. No doubt some of you work in places of businesses, and you can appreciate this principle. Let's just say, for instance, that you're building a skyscraper in the downtown area, and you have a disagreement with the boss. You know he is the boss. No question in your mind; he signs your paycheck, but you fall out with him.

Then you begin to gossip behind his back, and you begin to rail on him and assassinate his character, and you begin to be lazy and careless on the job. In other words, you don't care what your boss says to do, and you simply are not going to do it. What will happen to the job? Well, you will infect everybody around you, every one you share your frustrations with. And in addition, you will bring that job to a standstill. The point is, judgment and correction must be executed by the person in the position of authority or chaos will ensue in that situation.

This is true among men; it is how the world turns. How much more is it true in relation to God and His government of the world and universe! God gave a holy mandate that man must recognize His absolute authority, and operate under that authority. It is our part to depend upon God, and trust Him for wisdom and knowledge in all good things. The idea that God is “too loving to punish sinners forever in hell,” simply is not true. He demands justice! As a good and perfect Judge, He cannot require anything else

In affect God says to the man—“If you act independently, if you eat of that tree, in the day that you eat thereof ye shall surely die." You and I know the story. Adam ate; Adam died spiritually, and chaos came into this world, and it was not long before they had a murder in the first family. The first recorded crime after the fall is a homicide.

          B.  Christ Willingly Received Our Punishment That We Might Be Free.

1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

This is truly wonderful news for us all! You do not have to go to hell in person, or by yourself; you can go in the person of a Substitute—Jesus Christ. When I began thinking about this, my, how it caused my heart to warm in praise to God! I never will have to go to hell! I will never, never, never have to go there, because Jesus has taken that suffering and punishment for me. Yes, we are guilty of sin and deserve hell, but Jesus voluntarily took our penalty upon Himself at Calvary.

   2.  Justice Because There Is No Forgiveness Without Blood Sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:22, And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

       A.  Essential.  It is universally true that sin never has been, and never will be forgiven, except in connection with, and in virtue of the shedding of blood. There is not the slightest evidence that any man has ever been pardoned except through blood shed for the remission of sins.

This theme appears in the Bible from cover to cover. When Cain and Abel made sacrificial offerings to God, the offering that was accepted by God was the blood sacrifice of a lamb (See Gen. 4:2–5).

The sacrifices that atoned for sin under the Law of Moses were blood sacrifices. In like manner, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary is the sacrificial, substitutionary, all-sufficient atonement that takes away our sins. These concepts are important to our understanding of the forgiveness made available to us through the death of Jesus Christ.

In the divine arrangement there is no principle better established than this, that all sin which is forgiven is remitted through the blood of the atonement; a principle which has never been departed from hitherto, and which never will be. It follows, therefore:

          1.  That no sinner can hope for forgiveness except through the blood of Christ.

          2.  That if people are ever saved they must be willing to rely on the merits of that blood sacrifice.

          3.  That all people are on a level in regard to salvation, since all are to be saved in the same way. 

          4.  That there will be only one song in heaven-the song of redeeming love.

       B.  Sacrificial. Jesus gave His life on the cross as a sacrifice. He WAS NOT put to death by the Romans or the Jewish leaders. While Jesus did have human murderers that day, He actually fulfilled the ancient plan of God that day on Calvary.

           1.  Jesus Voluntarily Gave His Own Life as a Sacrifice. 

On the contrary, Jesus appeared in history to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).  He was not forced, but He willing sacrificed Himself. Therefore, God is not unfair or unjust for condemning His Son to bear the sins of mankind.

           2.  Jesus Literally Submitted to God’s Plan.

Jesus gave His life, as an act of His own will conforming to the Father's will, as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Before there was a need for salvation, God already had a plan to deal with sin!

       C.  Substitutionary. Jesus took our place on the cross. He died in your place and in my place and in the place of everyone you know (1 Pet. 3:18). The penalty for sin is death. And we are all sinners. Unless One who was pure and righteous took our place and suffered the penalty for our sin, we would have to bear that penalty ourselves. The apostle Paul explained this in Romans 3:10–19. Jesus willingly suffered and died in the stead of absolutely undeserving guilty humanity everywhere. He suffered our hell for us all that day.

C.  EVERY PERSON IS HELPLESS TO ESCAPE THIS DEATH IN THEIR STRENGTH.

Romans 5:6, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Man could cover his own sins personally only if he suffer eternally the penalty of death in the Lake of Fire.  Man could never do this and be saved too. Since man could not save himself, God stepped into a hopeless situation and provided a substitute in Jesus Christ who provided the eternal satisfaction for sins demands. We literally were “without strength!” There is nothing we can do to escape hell and deserve heaven! We have no such strength.

  1. This Basic Concept Was Illustrated Back Some 4,000 Years Ago, in the Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham.    Gen. 22:9

  2. Most of Us Put Ourselves in the Position of Power and Immediately Enter Into Abraham’s Struggle to Obey God’s Command.  But, have you ever pictured yourself in the position of Isaac in this situation?

ILLUSTRATION:            "Hanoi Hilton" movie.

         Major Fischer (composite of actual prisoners?) had been imprisoned since his helicopter malfunctioned just over DMZ.  During the Vietnam War.

         At Christmas dinner, winter of 1969, he was asked to give a sermonette to the other men.

         He told them:

         "When I was young, at religious school, I remember a great deal was made of Abraham and Isaac...

         How God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, his beloved child.

         Abraham stood with a knife in his hand and wrestled within himself to decide whether to believe, trust God, or to deny him.

         And I suppose that most of us identified with Abraham, wondering how we would use our ability of free choice if THAT was us.

         Well, since I've been in here I've had time to think about Isaac.

         Helpless, tied up on an altar, an audience to what might become his own death.

APPLICATION: Every person must view themselves as without strength to deliver themselves from the death penalty. Beloved, there is entirely nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from the ultimate penalty for sin—death. We must accept God’s provision and substitute—Jesus Christ our ram in the bush. (Gen. 22:13-14)

II. The Doctrine Of Salvation Through A Substitute Is Taught Throughout The Bible.  Genesis 22:13-14, And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. [14] And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

A.  THE COMMENCEMENT.  The Beginning of the Bible.

You see, this great teaching of a substitute or substitutionary suffering begins in the very first book of the Bible. The Old Testament is full of illustrations of substitution.

The Illustration of Salvation by Substitution in Gen. 3:21

Gen 3:21, Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

We have the Gospel, the Plan of Redemption through Substitutionary Sacrifice in Embryo Form:

   1.  The Plan Involves The Grace of God

   2.  The Plan Involves The Shedding of Blood

   3.  The Plan Involves a Covering with Righteousness

   4.  The Plan Involves a Substitutionary Sacrifice (innocent blood)

   5.  The Plan Involves Acceptance of God’s Salvation by Faith

B.  THE CONTINUATION.  The Central Focus of the Bible.

    1.  The Passover Lamb.  Ex. 12 & 13

Thank God that substitution is preached all through the Bible, from the Garden of Eden to Golgotha's brow. You will follow a trail of blood for every little lamb that gave it's life as the LORD passed over at midnight in the land of Egypt, and God saw the blood over the door and on the sides of the doorposts, as God had told them, “When I see the blood, I'll pass over you.” And there inside each one of those little houses, the Egyptians were dying at midnight, but the Hebrews were safe under the blood, eating that lamb.

       A.  The Passover Lamb Died Instead of Israel’s Firstborns.

The slaying of the animals (instead of the Israelites’ firstborn sons, v. 12:13) and the sprinkling of blood prefigured the substitutionary death of Christ. He is “Christ our Passover is sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7), “a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19; cf. John 1:29). His own sacrifice is the means whereby individual believers escape the horrors of spiritual death in hell. They had their shoes on their feet, their staff in their hand, their bags packed on their back, and they were ready to leave Egypt, because a substitute had given his life that they might get out of there free.

        B.  The Lord Jesus Died in the Stead of Sinful Humanity.

The sprinkled blood on the Israelites’ houses provided protection from death when God destroyed the Egyptian firstborn. From the verb, pass over comes the noun that designates the feast, the Passover. As the blood of an animal was the means of deliverance and of escaping death, so Christ’s blood is the means of redemption for believers (Rom. 5:9; Eph. 1:7).

Romans 5:9, Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Ephes. 1:7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

    2.  The Lamb of God.  John 1:29

You'll find that the Four Gospels are the reality of substitution, as John said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.” And then follow that dear Lamb of God—God's own Passover—until you come to Calvary, and you'll follow him there where he dies as humanity’s substitute. And then in the Epistles you'll find the explanation of substitution—the who, the how, the what, the where and the why.

C.  THE CONSUMMATION.  The Climax and Closing of the Bible.

Then you come to the book of The Revelation, the closing section of the Bible, the consummation of all things, and you will find the coronation of the substitute. I love the book of The Revelation.

Yes, you will find Jesus, the great Substitute there: Rev. 5:6-14

Rev. 5:6, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Rev. 5:8,  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints. 9,  And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

11,  And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou sands of thousands, Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And then he said, All that were in the sea, every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honour and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 

14, And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever.  (Revelation 5)

I am saying the consummation will crescendo to climax in an august coronation. It will be the coronation of divine substitute that Abraham laid hold of on Mount Moriah and placed on that altar picturing Calvary. Beloved, God will crown Jesus one of that grand occasion, and I will be there to bow down before those blessed nail-pierced feet of my Substitute. And because he's already taken my punishment, I stand here today free, declared innocent before a Holy God-Judge, and justice has still had her way.

And likewise we could go all through the Bible to preach on a divine substitute appointed that humanity might not have to face what we all must face otherwise.

The truth of Jesus as our Substitute is stated repeatedly in our Bible. The following are a few New Testament Scriptures you may be familiar with, about our substitute. You'll find substitution in --

Romans 4:25, Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.

Romans 5:6, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:8, But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

II Corinthians 5:21, For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

I Peter 2:24, Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.

Galatians 3:13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

I Peter 3:18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit."

You cannot escape the great teaching in the Bible that God provided a substitute. I like what Abraham told Isaac. Isaac looked around, and probably would have said, “Papa, we've got everything we need for a burnt offering; we've got the fire; we've got the wood; we've got the knife, BUT WHERE IS THE LAMB?” We need a SUBSTITUTE Papa….” And I love the answer that Abraham gave him. He said, “God will provide himself a lamb.” That could not have been truer, because beloved, God did indeed provide Himself. Jesus, God the Son, is the very Substitute who laid aside his glorious privileges in heaven, and came down to earth as a man among us, to give his life in payment for you and for me. That Substitute is none other, but God himself.

CONCLUSION:

The work that Jesus did was definitive. We no longer need to offer blood sacrifices in acknowledgment of our sin. We need only have faith in Jesus Christ and accept what He has done on our behalf. The writer of Hebrews says that God took away the first means of blood sacrifice that He might establish the second means, the sacrifice of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus was the only one necessary. The phrase that is used is a powerful one: “once for all” (Heb. 10:10).

What Jesus did on the cross, He never needs to do again, and neither does anyone else ever have to suffer and die as He did. He is the sacrificial, substitutionary, all-sufficient atonement for all sin.

   

1.  Come Trust the Lamb of God Today as Your Personal Substitutionary Sacrifice. The key idea of the entire passage is summarized in the name Abraham gave to the place: Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord will provide (or, “seen”; v. 14). The explanation is, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided (or, “seen,”), v. 14; cf. v. 8).  The mount upon which we see God’s greatest provision of a substitute is Calvary and this time the Son is Jesus Christ! By faith receive Him as your personal Substitute and Provision.

2.  Celebrate Eternal Life in Christ Now.  You and I who are saved can begin today to rejoice, celebrate, and praise God for our substitutionary sacrifice, through our worship, praises, prayers, and lifestyle.   

3.  Like Abraham We Should Have an Obedient Fear of God. Through this test of Abraham’s faith God brought to light how Abraham would hold nothing back and that he did in fact fear God. To fear God means to reverence Him as sovereign, trust Him implicitly, and obey Him without question. A true worshiper of God holds nothing back from God but obediently gives Him what He asks, trusting that He will provide.  This is the basis of a truth often repeated in the Old Testament: the Lord was to be worshiped in His holy mountain by the nation. Three times a year all the men [of Israel] were to appear, ‘be seen’ before the Sovereign Lord to worship Him, bringing their offerings and sacrifices (Ex. 23:17; Deut. 16:16). The Lord would see the needs of those who came before Him, and would meet their needs. Thus in providing for them He would be “seen.” Beloved, at Calvary we see how God provided our Substitute in Jesus Christ.