Alright, let's look at that passage
that Brother Joe just read. I've been preaching several messages
on the subject of substitution. The substitutionary death of
Christ is the heart of the gospel. It's the foundation of true Christianity. It's the theme of the Bible.
In other words, there's no way that we can overstate the importance
of this issue of the substitutionary work of Christ, his death on
the cross. And of course, what we're speaking
of is the doctrine, the truth, the revelation of his person,
who Christ is, and then the revelation of what he accomplished at the
cross. Now you know what a substitute
is. That's obvious. A substitute is one who stands
in the place of another. Well, the Bible teaches, the
gospel teaches that Christ is the sinner's substitute who stands
in the place of his people. They're called God's elect. They're
called his sheep. He said, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. They're called his church. Paul
wrote that Christ redeemed his church with his own precious
blood. His people, his children, his brethren. In Hebrews chapter
2, he laid down his life for his brethren. But they're the
people that God gave him before the foundation of the world.
All the responsibility of the salvation, the full salvation,
the complete salvation of his people was placed upon him. And this truth was revealed by
God from the very beginning. You know, when man fell and God
began to pronounce those curses in Genesis chapter 3, he first
pronounced the curse upon Satan. who was instrumental in bringing
about the fall of man, the ruination of man in Adam. We fell in Adam.
And in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, there was a prophecy
made, a statement that is astounding. And that is that Satan would
have his head bruised, that's the death blow, by one identified
there in verse 15 as the seed of woman. That is the offspring
of woman. Not the offspring of man. And
there the Lord identified the person who is our substitute. That he is both God and man in
one person. And that he is in himself without
sin. Sinless. He wasn't born like
you and me of the seed of Adam. Born in sin. Dead in trespasses
and sin. that he's the seed of woman.
And as the revelation unfolded, we learn more about this person,
that he would be conceived in the womb of the virgin by the
Holy Spirit, that he would be both God and man. That's the
kind of substitute we must have. I'll show you that in a minute.
And then later on in Genesis chapter 3, After he pronounced
the curse on the serpent, on Satan, he pronounced the curse
on the woman, and then he pronounced the curse on the man. God removed
the fig leaf aprons from Adam and Eve, symbols of their own
handiwork, symbols of their own efforts trying to hide their
shame and their nakedness, their guilt. And it says in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 21, that unto Adam also and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skin, and he clothed them." Now
that's just a symbolic way of teaching this grand truth of
substitution. He told Adam in the day that
ye eat thereof, dying ye shall die. You shall surely die because
sin demands death. And either the sinner has to
die, Or there must be a qualified, willing, appointed substitute
stand in his place and die for it. And that justly. And he pictured
here in this killing of an animal, the shedding of blood, the payment
or the penalty of sin, and out of that would come righteousness,
justification before God. Pictured in the coats of skin
that he gave to Adam and Eve. So that we who are in Christ
stand in our substitute washed clean from all our sins in his
blood and clothed in his righteousness imputed. He is our substitute. And that's a picture of Christ.
The Lamb of God dying for his people to accomplish righteousness
so that God could be just to justify them. Now I've entitled
this message Righteous Substitution. Let me give you five things quickly
that I don't have time to develop in this message, but I'm going
to develop in another message. But listen to this. Christ has
been the believer's substitute from all eternity. Did you know
that? He was set up before the foundation
of the world as the substitute and surety of his people. We
read about that in Hebrews chapter 13. His blood is called the blood
of the everlasting covenant. He's the one of whom it is said
that salvation is given us in Him before the world began. He's
always been the substitute of His people and the surety. Secondly, Christ was our substitute
when He lived on this earth. And that's an amazing thing if
you think about it. I mean, even when he was in the
womb of the Virgin Mary, before he came forth from the womb,
he was our substitute. When he was growing up in wisdom
and in stature, and that's an amazing thing in and of itself,
God in human flesh, learning, that's to be attributed to his
humanity, not to his deity, but it was an act of his entire person.
I can't explain that to you, but I know this, he was our substitute.
And when he arrived at the river Jordan, to be baptized by John
the Baptist and begin his public ministry in the last three and
a half years of his life, he told John, suffer it to be so
for us to fulfill all righteousness, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, fulfilling all righteousness and that was
pictured in his own baptism, his death, burial, and resurrection
as our substitute, the substitute of his people. And then Thirdly, He certainly
was our substitute in His death on the cross. That's what this
passage is speaking of in 1 Peter chapter 2. When He died, He died
not for Himself. He died for His people. Somebody
said, well, Christ had to first die for Himself and then for
His people. said that he had to redeem himself
first and then redeem his people. I was telling Debbie that, and
she pointed out to me, she said, that's just like Moses striking
the rock twice in the wilderness. That's exactly right. When Moses
did that, he denied the substitutionary work of Christ. Now, he did it
inadvertently. He did it in anger. He wasn't making a conscious
denial of apostasy. But he was angry at the people.
You know, he was to strike that rock once and the water flowed
out. That rock was Christ. That was
a picture of Christ. Paul said that rock was Christ.
I don't know how to explain that to you. But think about this. Do you know how many times Moses
struck that rock? Or how many times he was to strike
that rock one time and that was it? You know he was to never
strike it again? If they wanted water later, he
already struck it. He was not to strike it again.
One time. That's the picture of the substitutionary
death of Christ. He died one time for the sins
of his people. And to say that he had to redeem
himself, that's the same thing Moses did. Strike it twice. Might
as well strike it a thousand times. It won't do any good. Fourthly, Christ is our substitute
in His work as our advocate. He's the mediator. He's the intercessor. He ever liveth to make intercession
for His people. He's our substitute right now.
And He's the only substitute we have. No man on earth, not
the Pope, not the priest, Christ is our substitute. He stands
for us, pleading the merits of His blood and righteousness on
our behalf. When we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, so that when we sin,
when we sin, He's our propitiation, He's our satisfaction to law
and justice. He is our righteousness. He is
our propitiation, our mercy seat. And then Christ will be our substitute
at judgment. When we stand before God, And
it will be declared before this whole universe that those who
are in Christ, that there is therefore now no condemnation
for them, no charge laid against them, that they are His people,
justified in Him. Now that's the main message and
the theme of the whole Bible. Now I want you to look back at
1 Peter chapter 2. Now this doctrine of substitution,
this truth of substitution, this revelation of substitution, the
teaching of this truth in the Bible concerning Christ, I want
to tell you something. It always has been and always
will be as long as this earth stands before our Lord comes
again, it is under attack. It's under attack today. Men
today. Men who amaze me are trying to
trivialize it. They're trying to make it subjective
in you. They're trying to deny it. They're
trying to confuse it. They're trying to mystify it.
It's under attack. And that's why I decided to preach
these messages. But listen to this. Here in 1
Peter chapter 2, and look at verse 21. Now he says, he's talking to
the brethren here, believers. And he says, for even here unto
you were you called. Called to what? He's talking
about suffering for the cause of Christ. As you heard Brother
Joe read there, he's talking about our relationship in this
world with the authorities and the powers that be. Dealing with
unbelieving men and women. We're pilgrims in this world.
He says for us to abstain from fleshly lust. You mean believers
still have fleshly lust? Oh yes. That's why we have a
struggle within. The warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. Those fleshly desires that we're still plagued with,
he says abstain from them. Don't give in to them. Does that
make you sinless when you abstain? Absolutely not. The sin is in the desire. The
sin is in the heart. But you don't carry out and practice
and display what's in your heart in that sense. That's what he's
saying. We're to struggle to serve God.
We're to struggle to repent of these things. And then he says,
having your conversation, your walk, your character, your conduct,
your attitude in this world, he says, having it honest among
the Gentiles. They may speak evil of you. They may say you're an evildoer,
but don't give them fuel for the fire. Like David of old,
do you remember when Nathan came to him after David committed
that great scandalous sin? of committing adultery and having
Bathsheba's husband murdered. Remember what Nathan said to
him. He said, you've given the enemies of God an occasion to
blaspheme. Now they're going to blaspheme,
but I don't want to be the cause of it. You don't want to be the
cause of it. That's what he's talking about.
He says that they may by your good works which they shall see
glorify God in the day of visitation. when God comes to visit in whatever
way. Sometimes he comes to visit in
grace. Sometimes he comes to visit in
wrath. He says, submit yourself to the ordinance of man. Now,
he's not talking about denying God. When man makes an ordinance
that goes against the word of God, we're not to submit to that.
But he's talking about the laws of the land. We're to be good
citizens. And he says, suffering. And that's what you're called
to. And look at verse 21. He says, because Christ also
suffered for us. Now Christ suffered as a substitute. When we suffer, we don't suffer
as substitutes. We don't substitute for each
other. We can't do that. We're not qualified to do that.
But Christ left us an example, he says, leaving us an example
that you should follow in his steps. He's talking about Christ
left us an example He is our example whom we should follow.
He's our pattern. He's our teacher. He's our guide
in this matter of enduring suffering. That's what he's talking about.
Christ endured suffering. He endured it patiently. He endured it righteously. And he suffered unjustly from
the hands of men. The just for the unjust, the
scripture says. And so what he's talking about
here is this, in our conduct through this world, it's to be
measured by Christ. We're not to compare ourselves
to each other. We're not to judge ourselves
as we compare to each other. It's to be measured by Christ.
We want to be like Christ. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness. Our goal is not conformity to
the preacher or to the denomination or to grandma and grandpa. Our
goal is conformity to Christ. And you know what that shows
us? It shows us that God has given us a desire to do that,
not in order to be saved, but because we already are. Not in
order to make ourselves righteous, but because we're already righteous
in Him. You see what I'm saying? God
has given us that desire by the power of the Holy Spirit, a desire
to be like Him, but it also makes us understand something that
we know every day. That we, at our best, always
fall short. We're sinners. But that, by the power of the
Spirit, makes us realize something even more beautiful, and that
is our need of Christ as our substitute. I need an advocate
right now. As I'm standing before you preaching
this message, I need Christ as my substitute, as my advocate. As I'm standing before you preaching
this message, I have no other righteousness to plead before
God but Christ and Him crucified. And that's what this tells us.
But now listen, Christ is more, much more, infinitely more than
just our example, our teacher, our God. You know, all other
religions point the way to salvation, they think. Mohammed, he pointed the way
to salvation. That was his goal. Buddha pointed
the way. Here's the way you go. Eightfold
path. The Jews pointed the way. Keep
the Ten Commandments. What's different about true Christianity? Here's the difference. Christ
didn't just point to the way. Christ is the way. He himself
is the way to salvation. And he's the only way. He said,
I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. You know what he's teaching there?
Substitution. If you're going to come to God
and be accepted, be blessed, be saved, be justified, you've
got to come through Christ. The substitute. The only substitute. The surety. the Redeemer. And so He is the way. And if
He were only our example of righteousness, where would we be? We'd be lost
forever. Why? Because we don't measure
up. You think you measure up? You
don't. You're just fooling yourself. We always fall short. So we don't
need just an example. I thank God He's our example.
I thank God He's our guide, our teacher. He's our life. My friend,
I thank God that He's my substitute. Now here's the reason for substitution. Now listen to this. Look at verse
22. He speaks of Christ here. Verse
22. Here's number one. The reason
for substitution. Christ who did no sin Neither
was guile found in his mouth." You know what guile is. The thing
about it is, I should say, you know what sin is. You know, I'm
not really sure that... I know there's a lot of people
who do not know what sin is anymore. I hear people talk about sin
as something outside themselves or, you know. What is sin? Sin is anything short or less
than perfect righteousness. Sin is breaking the law, transgressing
the law, trespasses, inequity, not measuring up. That's what
sin is, falling short. For all sin comes short of the
glory of God. Sin is not a glass of water that
I drink. It's not a pill that I swallow.
It's not something I pick up from this place and lay over
here. You can't pick up sin from you and lay it on to me or lay
it on to anybody. Sin's not like that. You see,
that's why Christ taught that it's not what goes in your mouth
that defiles you, it's what comes out of the heart. Well, what
comes out of the heart? Evil thoughts, evil motives,
evil attitudes, selfishness, self-righteous. We could go on
and on. That's what sin is. And so he says here, Christ did
no sin. He didn't do any of that. He
had no sinful thoughts, sinful motives, sinful attitudes. He
had no self-righteousness in the sense that men have. He was
self-righteous because he's righteous in himself. And then no guile was found in
his mouth. You know what guile is? That's hypocrisy. That's
dishonesty. When men speak of themselves
as more than what they really are, that's guile. When Christ
spoke of himself as God, there was no guile in his mouth. You
know why? Because he is God. He's just telling the truth.
When he spoke of himself as the subject of all the Old Testament
prophecies, that wasn't guile. He was just telling the truth.
Listen, he did no sin. He knew no sin. I'll get to that
later on in another message. Neither was guile found in his
mouth. Now listen to this, verse 23.
He says, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he
suffered, he threatened not. You know what that's talking
about? That's talking about his death on the cross. When he was reviled, there was
no sin, he did no sin, and there was no guile in his mouth. You
know, people talk about the transference of sin. Whatever that transference
is, I know it didn't get in his head or in his mouth or in his
heart. Whatever they're talking about. He did no sin. On that cross, he did no sin.
He had no guile in his mouth. He threatened none. It says, but he committed himself. Now, some translations say his
cause. But either way, it could be true.
He committed his whole self on the cross of Calvary as our substitute
to him that judgeth righteously. Now do you see that? That's the
reason for substitution. Why? God judges righteously. God doesn't pretend. God doesn't
fake us out. God doesn't see things as they
are not. He sees things as they are. And
Christ committed himself as the substitute of his people to God
who judges righteously. Now let me say this. There's
several things here that you have to understand. What we see
here is actually the qualifications of Christ to be our substitute.
There was no sin in Christ. He knew no sin. Christ, let me
tell you something, Christ, when He died as the substitute of
His people, He was made sin, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 21, but He was not, no, never in any way made a sinner. In any way on that cross. He
was never made a sinner. A sinner is one who sins. That's what a sinner is. That's
right. To say that the Lord Jesus Christ
had to be made a sinner, or that he had to, listen to this, or
to say that he had to be made in some mysterious way guilty
in himself before our real and actual substitute to die for
our sins, or before our sins could justly be charged, accounted,
or imputed to him, to say that is to deny him as our qualified
substitute, and to deny the reality of his substitutionary work on
the cross, to die in our place, to put away our sins, to establish
righteousness that enables God to be just and justify, to say
that Christ had to be made a sinner to die as our substitute. I've
heard men say this. They say, well, he had to become
everything that I am and I become everything that he is. Now, my
friend, that is not true. That's a lie. He had to become everything that
I am? Well, by nature, what am I? By nature, I'm an unbeliever. Did he have to become an unbeliever?
Was Christ an unbeliever on the cross? No, sir. He died for the
sin of unbelief on that cross. By nature, men are God-haters.
Did He become a God-hater? He committed Himself unto His
Father. He didn't hate His Father. By
nature, we do. You see what I'm saying? And
here's the thing about it. To say that He had to become
a sinner For us, to be our substitute would be like trying to replace
a burnout lightbulb with another burnout lightbulb. Neither one
of them has the power to get the job done or to give light
unto anyone. What are the requirements of
Christ as our righteous substitute? Number one, listen to this. He
had to be like us in every way in the nature of humanity without
sin. The Lamb without blemish and
without spot. Wherefore, Hebrews 2 verse 17,
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, he was made like unto his brethren in all things, that
is according to humanity, human nature, that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation,
satisfaction for the sins of the people. Listen, in order
to be our proper, qualified, righteous substitute, Christ
had to be fully God and fully man. That's right. Secondly, He had to be distinct
from us in the most important way. What way? Hebrews chapter
4 and verse 15, For we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that is, our weaknesses
in human flesh, but was in all points tempted, meaning tested,
like as we are, yet without sin." He had to be distinct from us
in that... He had to be separate from sinners in that way. Holy,
harmless, undefiled. His blood is incorruptible. Christ had to be and had to remain
perfectly sinless in himself to be our righteous substitute.
You see, the problem which called for his incarnation and his substitutionary
death on the cross was our sin. That was the problem. If the
substitute has the same problem that we have, he's disqualified. Somebody used this example. He
said, you all know about substitute teachers. Why does the substitute
teacher come in normally? Because the real teacher is sick. Well, if you bring in a sick
substitute, what's that going to do? Christ had to be our sinless
substitute in Himself. And then thirdly, He had to put
Himself actually, honestly, realistically in our place under the judgment
of God for our sins, laid upon Him. charged to him, imputed
to him. He had to be made sin. Christ who knew no sin, he had
to be made sin for us as our substitute that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Christ had to suffer unto death
for the sins of his people else there'd be no real substitution,
there'd be no righteous substitution, there'd be no actual substitution,
and no absolute substitution for any of us. That's what he
had to do. Look at verse 23 again. Listen to it. It says, "...he
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." God always
judges according to truth and justice. There was nothing fake
or phony or pretense about the death of Christ in the place
of his people. Nothing at all. God judges according
to truth, but the Bible says he justifies the ungodly. Now
how does he do that? He takes the sins of his people,
who are by nature ungodly, and he lays them to the charge, to
the account of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason. Our sins are imputed, charged,
accounted to him, and his righteousness is imputed, charged, accounted
to us. Look at verse 24. Now here's
the work of substitution. Listen to this. The reason of
substitution, God judges righteously. Look at the work of substitution.
Look at verse 24. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. Now stop right there. It says
who his own self. What's that talking about? That's
the whole person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man was
upon that cross. And we can go back further than
that. The God-man was in the Garden of Gethsemane struggling
in the weakness of created human flesh without sin, experiencing
things that he had never experienced before. Sweating great clots
of blood, the scripture says. That's an amazing thing. Struggling
in his soul, in his inner being, facing all that he would have
to go through in his suffering under death as our substitute
to save us from our sins. And somebody said that it's not
just physical death that he was fearing there. I agree with that.
I'll tell you what I believe, the greatest weight, if you will,
that was upon him, even in the garden of Gethsemane, and it
was to be actually going through the experience of separation
from his father. Culminated in that grand statement
that he made on the cross in Matthew 27 when he said, My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now all of that was based
upon his suffering unto death as our substitute for our sins
imputed to him. You think that wasn't real and
actual? It sure was. He knew it. He's
the brightness of the Father's glory. He who is the express
image of the Father's person. upholding all things by the word
of his power." Think about that. You know, that song says he could
have called 10,000 angels. Literally, he could not have.
Hell, he had the power to do it, but he couldn't do it because
he was set for the task as our substitute. It says, "...when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high look what it says here in verse 24 it says he bore he
bear our sins in his own body to bear sin think about that
now how did he bear sin what does that word bear or bore mean
well it means he carried a massive weight or burden that's what
it literally means Christ on the cross carried a massive weight
A massive burden. You know what that weight was?
It was the full weight of our sins. How? Now, how did he bear
that? Well, turn back to Isaiah 53.
Now, if you want to know how he bore it, go back to the Old
Testament. We could go back to a lot of
places in the Old Testament, couldn't we? On this subject. Well, listen to what the Bible
says. Now, when we say carry a massive weight, if you told
me to pick up this pulpit right now and set it down on the floor,
I couldn't do it. It's too massive of a weight. That'd be bearing
a burden, wouldn't it? But now, if you told me, if you
came to me and say, would you, you say maybe, well, I've got
a problem that's just burdening me down in my soul, in my mind
and in my heart. Would you bear that burden with
me? Now, how am I going to bear that burden? Am I going to pick
you up and take you somewhere? No. That'd be silly. You see,
either way, we're carrying a massive weight, but we're carrying them
in different ways, aren't we? We're bearing them in different
ways because they're different things. Now, he bore sin. How
did he do it? Did he pick it up? Did God pick
it up off of us and put it on him? You can't do that. That's
not what sin is. Sin is not a substance. It's
not a solid, a liquid, or a gas. What is it? It's breaking the
law. It's falling short of the righteousness of God. It's iniquity. It's trespass. It's all of those
things according to the standard. Well, look here. It says in verse
4 of Isaiah 53, it says, "...surely he hath borne our griefs." What
is the grief of sin? That's the burden of grief that
comes from knowing that sin deserves death. If God were to give me
what I deserve, or what I've earned, what would it be? Death,
death, death in every way. Christ bore that grief for my
sins. He carried our, listen to this,
He carried our what? are sorrows. My friend, you know,
man by nature is not sorrowful over sin per se, but you think,
I thought about this, you think about those false preachers in
Matthew chapter 7, who pleaded their works as their righteousness
before God only to hear the Lord say, depart from me ye that work
iniquity. Can you imagine the sorrow that
fell over them when they heard those words? Could you imagine coming before
God in judgment, thinking you're saved, because you've done something
for the Lord, or you made a decision, or you got baptized, and only
to hear Him say, Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity. Could
you imagine the horror and the sorrow that would fall on you
at that time? carried that to the cross. And it says he was acquainted
with grief. Grief was an acquaintance with
him. You think about that. The grief
of our sin and the punishment that he bore. You see, it wasn't
something that was infused into him or shot into him. It didn't
corrupt his nature, either nature, the nature of deity or the nature
of humanity. He was not corrupted in that
way. But boy, he grieved, didn't he? My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken? He sorrowed. Like I said, in
the Garden of Gethsemane, he sweat great drops of blood. That's
sorrow. All the sins of his people made
to meet on him. And he carried those sorrows. He was a man of sorrows, the
Bible says. That's how he bore our sins.
And it says, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He had
to suffer the derision of sinful men who deserved nothing but
death. He did that. You think that wasn't
actual substitution or real substitution or absolute substitution? It
was. That's what he did. It says here that we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of men, and afflicted. That's what it
means for him to bear our sorrows. Verse 5, he was wounded for our
transgressions. He was actually wounded. Did
you know that? They beat him. They whipped him. They spat on him. And when I
say they, I'm including me too. That's man by nature now. I'm
not just blaming. That's us by nature. A crown
of thorns upon his brow. He was wounded in his head. He
was wounded in his side, in his hands, in his feet. He cried
out, I thirst. He bore that sorrow, that grief,
that human weakness. He bore it. He was bruised for
our iniquities, it says. That word bruised, I'm telling you, it means that
he was actually cursed in that sense. It says in verse 5, the
chastisement of our peace was upon him. The punishment, this
is how he bore our sins. The punishment that would bring
peace between God and sinners, you know where it was. If you're
a child of God, not upon you, not upon me, it's on Him. That's how He bore our sins.
And with His stripes, with His bruises, we're healed. The shedding of His blood. Think
about that. And we could go on and on. That's
how He bore our sins. Go back to 1 Peter 2 now. All this shows that when Christ
bore our sins, what it means is that He bore the full penalty,
consequence, pain, sorrow, grief, and even the death of our sins. Jesus Christ, our substitute,
bore the full weight of punishment of all the sins of all His people. The full weight of God's wrath
against sin was put upon him instead of us. Christ bore all
that we deserve. Even the separation from God.
And look back here at 1 Peter 2.24. It says he bore them in
his own body. Now does that mean that he became
a sinner within himself? No. What does it mean in his
own body? It means in the body of flesh
that God prepared for him as God-man. He suffered. He said when he instituted the
Lord's Supper, what did he say? He said, this is my body broken
for you. Isn't that right? In that human
body, as God-man, as God in human flesh, He bore the full brunt
of our sin. It doesn't mean that sin... I
even heard a preacher say this and I couldn't believe it. I
thought, how stupid. I shouldn't say it that way.
I really shouldn't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say it
that way. That is not right. I'm sorry. I heard preachers say that it
was not on his body but inside his body. No, that's not what
that means. That's not what that means. It
means he bore our sins in a human body, as God meant. In his own body, he felt the
full weight of the punishment of God as he hung on that cross. And he used his servant body
to carry our sins to the cross to die for them. And like that
scapegoat, do you remember that scapegoat back in number 16?
He took them into the wilderness. The land that is cut off, that's
what that means. A scapegoat. He took those sins
into the wilderness. And that means the land that's
alienated from God. And our sins were gone. Cut off,
alienated from God. Because of our substitute. Now
to do all that, sin had to be imputed to him. It had to be
charged to him. That's what Paul meant when he
wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.21 that Christ was made sin. And this
is what made his death a just death. This is why this is righteous
substitution. Under the penalty of sin, sin
imputed to him. And as God-man, Christ experienced
a real and actual encounter with sin. Even more than we do. I tell you, more than we do.
Because all the sins of God's elect were made to meet on Him.
You think of Him in this. Let me quickly give you this
last thing. Look at 2.24. Here's the fruit of righteous
substitution right here. Listen to this. He says in 1
Peter 2 and verse 24, Who His own self bare our sins in His
own body on the tree. Now here's the fruit of righteous
substitution. that we, being dead in sins,
dead to sins rather, now what does that mean? We're dead to
the guilt of sin. We're dead to sin's condemnation.
We're dead to the penalty of sin. We're not dead to the experience
of sin. Do you sin? Do you struggle with
sin? I do. I struggled right up here
tonight, today, with sin, my bad thoughts. Isn't that awful? We're not dead to the contamination
of sin. It still contaminates everything
I say, do and think. But I'm dead to condemnation.
I'm dead to its penalty. I'm dead to its consequence.
Why? Because of my righteous substitute. I died with him.
I'm justified in him. Now, what's the fruit of that?
That you should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.
From Christ's substitutionary death, we have what? Life. He died, he was buried, he arose
again the third day, and out of him we have life, spiritual
life. The Holy Spirit comes and gives
life because of righteousness, righteous substitution. Christ
paid the penalty, and life comes from his death. Verse 25, for
you were as sheep going astray, we were lost in our sins. We
didn't know the way, did we? That's how we were by nature.
But are now returned. That's what they call the passive
voice. Not the active voice. If you
have the active voice, that means the subject does the work. It
would be like, you return now. That would be active. But that's
not what this is. This is passive. You are now returned. That means
you're being acted upon. Who returned us? The shepherd
of the sheep. He went out and He found His
sheep, and He returned us to Himself, the shepherd and bishop,
overseer of our souls. We were lost in our sins, but
we're now returned. God found us out in the wilderness,
picked us up, put us on His shoulders, and brought us back to the fold.
And now we're born again by the Spirit because of our righteous
substitute. Is Christ my substitute? Is He
yours? Well, is He your only hope? Is
He your only way of salvation, righteousness, forgiveness? Or are you looking somewhere
else? You see what that last verse tells us is that the blood
is enough. It's enough to save us, it's
enough to justify us, it's enough to give us life from Christ by
the power of the Spirit because of righteous substitution.