What would you think if I told
you that there's just no good reason for you to bear your sin?
There may be causes, like pride that says you don't have a significant
amount of sin to bear, or ignorance of the way to relieve yourself
of this horrible burden, or outright unbelief, which denies the word
and promise of God or makes you think that you're too sinful
for the Son of God to bear the weight of your guilt. but a reason
and a cause are not the same thing. To be a reason, it must
be reasonable, a product of the reasoning process. Once you hear
what God says about bearing your sin, you will know that it just
doesn't make sense for you to bear your sin. That it's not
reasonable for you to continue bearing the burden of guilt and
the fear that your sin occasions. So I say there is no reason for
you to go one minute more bearing your sin. God has made a way
for you to roll it off yourself. There is no reason for you not
to avail yourself of God's gracious provision. So let me explain
how this can be done and may God be gracious to give you grace
to use His means for the relief of your guilt. The mechanism
of God's salvation is substitution. Substitution binds together all
the various aspects of God's grace. It has been given the
most prominent place in Scripture. It is the focal point of God-inspired
preaching and God-given faith. What is gospel substitution? Gospel substitution is quite
simply a righteous person bearing the sins of an unrighteous person. Peter described it like this,
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous one for
the unrighteous one to bring us to God. This way of deliverance
from the burden of sin cannot find a place in sophisticated
religion. The principle of substitution
sets forth a just, righteous, and bloody God. Sophisticated
and intellectual man wants nothing to do with such a God. Retribution
for sin? That's too old-fashioned for
today's civilized religion. To most, the bloody sacrifice
of a substitute is a throwback to more primitive times, the
practice of a form of religion that we, as civilized man, have
outgrown. Furthermore, Gospel substitution
gains no traction in man's proud heart, for it sets forth a version
of man that is insulting to man's high opinion of himself. Give
men laws to keep, and he will boast of how good he is, even
when he fails. He will boast that he has nearly
succeeded, or that he did better than the last time. He says to
himself, even though I'm not perfect, I'm better than my neighbor.
But what can a man boast about when he stands on Mount Calvary
and gazes upon the brutally sacrificed person of the Lord Jesus? Surely
that sight convinces a man of his utter sinfulness. The seriousness
of the disease can be known by the power of the medicine it
takes to cure it. How great the sin of man that
nothing less than the slaughter of God's sinless Son is required
to save him. Now this idea of substitution
is found in every part of Israel's worship. All religions involve
sacrifice, but the sacrifices of pagans are merely offerings
to satisfy the bloodlust of their gods. Israel God was not and
is not a vicious God who delights in judgment and the shedding
of blood. So the Jews did not offer bribes by their sacrifices. Instead, they offered payments
to the justice of God. God is a God of justice. He does
not throw temper tantrum, but He does demand a full payment
for every infraction of His law. Justice is the pattern of all
His works. And this is as true in salvation
as it is in condemnation. Substitution is the method by
which God's justice is satisfied and His truthfulness honored
even as He declares sinful men to be righteous. Several things
are required for an effective substitutionary sacrifice. First,
there must be a suitable sacrifice, one that is available to men
and acceptable to God. Secondly, there must be a place
to offer a sacrifice, a temple with an altar. And third, there
must be a priest to offer it, one who has the character and
authority to approach God. In the gospel, Christ is all
of these things. He is our suitable sacrifice.
He is the one ordained by God, being called the Lamb of God.
God will certainly accept him, for it's God who gave him. The
scriptures say, for God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son. When Abraham and Isaac climbed
the mountain where Abraham was supposed to sacrifice Isaac,
Isaac asked him, Father, the fire and wood are here. Where
is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself
will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And indeed,
God did provide the offering. Isaac was not sacrificed that
day. Instead, an animal who God provided was sacrificed in Isaac's
place. But the events of that day pointed
to the events of an even greater day, when Jesus Christ, God's
own Son, became God's provided lamb, the lamb from God that
takes away the sin of the world. God gave him, God provided him,
so that we can be certain that God will accept him. He is acceptable
to God for he always did those things that pleased God. Moreover,
Christ is willing to do the work. When he was on this earth, he
said, it is my food to do the will of him who sent me. The
book of Hebrews tells us that when Christ came into the world,
he said, I have come to do your will, oh God. And among the things
involved in that will was the offering up of himself to God
as a sin offering. So Christ is that substitutionary
sacrifice. Yet in all of this, one question
remains. My sin is on me by birth, nature,
and practice. If Christ is to be my substitute,
my sin must be laid on Him. If He is to bear the punishment
of my sin, He must bear my sin. So how is my sin transferred
from me to Christ? The Bible tells us that God has
done this. He has laid all the sins of His
wandering sheep onto the Lord. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord has laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. In one sense, none but God can
do this. For none but God has the authority
to deal with sin in any manner. Moreover, this was done even
before the world began. The sin of God's people was laid
on Christ even before those sins were committed. Christ is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That is, even as
this creation was brought into existence, Christ was already
the Lamb of God slain for sinners. It was a heavenly reality before
there was a universe. But what is done in heaven must
also be accomplished on earth. Our Lord taught us to pray, Your
kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The word translated done signifies brought into reality. All that
we preach in the gospel has been a reality since before time and
space were created by the Word of God. But these eternal realities
must also be made earthly realities. This is as true concerning the
transference of our sin to Christ as it is concerning any other
point of the truth. God in eternity laid our sins
on Christ and we must, within the span of our earthly lives,
lay our sins upon Christ. If we do not lay them on Him
to bear them, we continue to bear them. In Israel's sacrificial
system, there was a part of the process that pictured us transferring
our sin to Christ. Let us read from Leviticus, the
first chapter, beginning with verse 3. Now, what does this laying on
of hands illustrate for us? First, it signifies the confession
of sin. In laying our hands upon the
sacrifice Christ Jesus, we confess that we are such sinners that
nothing less than the suffering of God's dear Son can put away
our sin. There is no room for excusing
sin here. no place for boasting how well
we lay our hands upon the sacrifice. It is a confession of worthlessness,
an acknowledgement that what Christ endured for sin is what
I deserve for my sin. Second, it signifies a belief
that Jesus Christ is up to the task of bearing our sin. When
we lay our sin upon Christ, we are confessing that He is able
to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. We have
confessed our inabilities, now we confess His abilities. Paul
confessed, I am persuaded that he is able. And with our hands
upon the head of Christ, we confess the same. Third, it is to lean
upon Christ, as the Hebrew word translated lay suggests. It is
not a light touch. It is not a harmless touch. but
a touch that transfers the weight of damnable sin upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here is the pain of saving faith.
A faith that does not hurt, that does not make you ashamed of
yourself for what you must do in order to be saved, is a faith
that does not understand what is happening or how salvation
is gained. Imagine that you are sick with
a deadly disease. There is one who can heal you.
But the only way He can heal you is to take your disease upon
Himself. For your broken leg to be healed,
His must be broken. For you to be cleansed of your
wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores, He must be wounded, bruised,
and left untended. There is no getting out of this.
There's no other way. You must be willing to let another
person take your place before the firing squad. Then watch
as he takes within his heart the bullet you deserve. Could
you do that to your own child? Could you willingly transfer
your guilt to your beloved son and let him go to hell in your
place? Could you do that? Yet you must
consent to God's beloved son going to hell for you. No wonder
the prophet said they will weep for him as one weeps for an only
son. How painful to lose a son. How
much more so to know that he was lost because of your own
wickedness. Now I recognize that by our way
of thinking Christ's sufferings are already past so what we do
now can neither add to nor take away from what he suffered. But
what happened on a singular occasion long ago must be replayed within
our hearts. God will bring us to a knowledge
of our sins, and He will set forth His Son to us as the only
suitable substitute for us, and call upon us to lay our wretched
hands upon His precious head, knowing that our touch will kill
Him. We had no room to boast in our righteousness before we
came to Christ, and we have no place to boast for virtue for
having trusted Him. By our sin we have earned ourselves
God's wrath. By our faith, we call on Christ
to suffer that wrath for us. Oh, what useless sinners we are.
But if we do not consent to this reality, we will die in our sins. And as humbling as that is, and
as reluctant as we may be to do it, we must do it, and do
it with eagerness. We must do it first because we
have no alternative. There is no other course for
the relief of sin, no other cure for the deadly disease which
is killing us. Christ is the only way to the
Father, and to walk the Christ way is to walk the way of substitution,
of Christ being made a sin offering for us. Secondly, we must lay
our wicked hands upon His spotless head, because He and He alone
can bear it. Great as our sin may be, He has
strength to bear it before the Lord. Great as the penalty of
our sin is, Christ has power enough to endure it. And third,
and this is the most remarkable, we must lay our hands upon His
head because He calls on us to do it. No greater love was ever
on display as when the Son of God took our sin upon Himself.
Knowing the awful consequences that shall fall upon Christ,
if you lay your hand upon Him, you may think He would resist
your touch. But do not think that for a moment.
He knows better than you the cost of your touch. But if you
reach out your spiritually leprous hand to touch Him, He will not
flinch. He will not draw back. It is
for this he came. His love and mercy are greater
than our willingness to receive his love and mercy. Go, and know
that he's more anxious for you to come to him than you are to
go to him. He that comes to me, he said,
I will in no wise cast out. I will not send him away, though
he is of the filthiest, for it is for such that I came. I will
not send him away, though it cost me my soul to receive him. I will not send him away, for
it is for him I came. It is my Father who has sent
him to me for this reason, even if he does not yet know it. And
it is my joy to do this will of my Heavenly Father. O sinner,
do not let your sin or the horrible cost of it make you draw back
from touching the Substitute, Jesus Christ. Though tears fill
your eyes at the thought of Christ suffering for you, and shame
brings your head down low, lean yourself upon God's Son this
day, and unburden yourself of that horrible burden which has
borne you down these many years. Go, He will receive you. Touch
Him, He won't draw back. Do so with this promise of God
in your heart, and it shall be accepted to make atonement for
Him. God grants you grace to do it.