The Glorious Gospel

God’s infinite wisdom devised the matchless way of Substitution, by which, through the death of the Son of God, men might be saved. Gaze by faith upon the crucified Savior at the foot of the cross. The gospel message is wrapped up in one word – Substitution. You deserve to be lost and ruined, but Christ died in your stead. You cannot enter heaven unless you have a perfect Righteousness. You need a better righteousness than your own. You can never have one of your own because you sin against God's Law every day without fail. But Christ has a perfect Righteousness and He says to you, “Here, take My spotless garment, put it on, you shall stand before God as if you were Me, and I will stand before God as if I had been the condemned sinner. I will suffer for your sins, and shall be rewarded for My sinless works, which you did not do, but which I did for you."

Christ Jesus has died, why then should we die? It was once needful that every sinner should die for his sins; but now it is no longer needful. If the sinner now dies and goes to hell, it is because he is chose to do so; because he will have nothing to do with the Substitute. That Substitute is the Lamb of God, who suffered for sin—the Just for the unjust. He is not afar off, but at hand. He is a sufficient, a willing, a loving Substitute. It is not our money nor our merits that Jesus asks; it is simply our consent and trust. He was willing to become the Sin-Bearer; are we willing that He should become 'our' Sin-bearer? The Father consents; the Son consents; the Holy Spirit consents; do 'we' consent? Then the great transaction is done; the great exchange is made. Christ gets our sins, we get His righteousness. Jesus gets our death, we get His life. For what is faith but our consenting to have Him for our Surety and Substitute? Here we rest. We hand over to Jesus Christ all our sins and burdens. He takes them from us, and buries them out of sight in His own grave. No other person save the Divine Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, can relieve us of our sin-guilt. No other can remove our fears or give rest to our troubled conscience. Christ Jesus can and will do it all. For this He died and rose again. For this He ascended on high, and now He ever liveth to make intercession. There is only one hope, before the day of judgment arrives, before the passing of that awful sentence by that perfect Judge – settle out of court.

Settle out of court! Meet the Judge before your court date comes – for then, it will be too late. Fall upon the mercy of the Judge and claim the payment of His Son’s death for your sin as your only escape. Cry out to God for mercy through the blood of Christ now. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ - invoke Him to save you. Just as a loving mother will come to the aid of her baby's desperate cry, Jesus will come and save you immediately.

Before the throne of God 2,000 years ago, fiery Justice drew his sword, and went out after sinners, to find them, and to cast them into the pit. Justice’s sword thirsted for the blood of all that had sinned; Justice said, “They are sinners; I will have them, I will thrust this sword in their hearts, for they are sinners, and they must perish.” Then Christ Jesus came forward, and asked him, “Whom seekest thou?” “Sinners!” answered Justice. Then said Jesus, “if you seek the sinner, here am I.” “What!”said Justice, “are you the sinner?” “No, not the sinner, but I am the sinner’s Substitute; all the sinner’s guilt is imputed to me; all his unrighteousness is mine, and all my righteousness is his; I, the Savior, am the sinner’s Substitute; take me and let them go free.” And Justice accepted the substitution; took the Savior, crucified him, nailed him to the Cross of Calvary. In the Garden, Jesus cried, “If ye seek me, let these go their way.” Who are they that are to go their way? Why, the very one whose former way was one of iniquity, and whose end would have been destruction, if the curse had not been made to fall upon the head of Jesus!

Hopefully, you understand the doctrine of the Atonement, but let me tell you it again, just in case you don’t. Sin is a devilish thing, which God must punish; the eternal laws of the universe demand that there shall never be an offense committed against the rules of God which shall escape without a penalty. Man, by his sin, had made this world so obnoxious to Jehovah that God could not deal with its inhabitants apart from Christ’s sacrifice. God is infinitely merciful, but he is also infinitely just; and the world had become a putrid thing.

The whole world must would have gone down into hell if Christ Jesus had not come into the world to save sinners. The penalty of sin is eternal death, but the Lord God has been pleased to open a way of mercy by sending his only begotten Son into this world as our Substitute. God became a man, Jehovah became a human being, and He suffered in human flesh what you ought to have suffered. Jesus Christ endured at the hand of God what all sinner ought to endure. Now today, God never pardons a sin without first punishing it- He punished it on Christ for you. God will never punishes the sinner who trusts Christ, but Christ rejecters must bear their iniquity and its judgment. If you trust Jesus Christ, God cannot put two to death for the same offense, nor can he ask for payment twice of one debt, therefore you are free forever, for Christ’s payment for sin is eternal. Christ paid the debts of all sinners that trust in Him entirely and obtained their full and free pardon when he rose again from the dead, and now every soul that believeth in him is clear at the bar of divine justice, because it is written, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.” “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

There is only one hope for a poor sinner from the justice of Jehovah; and that is in the “Man of sorrows, the One that was acquainted with grief,” who “gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” The eternal refuge for your soul was made by Jesus of Nazareth; the refuge is lined with the blood of His own heart; and the door is so wide that the biggest sinner can get in, but the man who has any righteousness of his own will find that the door is not large enough to let him carry his righteousness with him. Poor soul! Do you have a refuge today? Do you not know that the law which God gave on Mount Sinai has been broken by us all, and that God, the “jealous God,” who will “by no means clear the guilty?” And do you not know, sinner friend, that you must offer something to God, to make up a recompense and compensate for what you have done against God and His holy law? Do you not know, that God is so angry with the sinner who sins, that God will damn that man, unless there is Someone who will be damned for him, and suffer the punishment in his stead?

And do you not know, that Christianity is the only religion of Substitution-that Jesus Christ the Son of God became a Jewish man; that He might take the punishment our sins deserved; and that He bore the Father’s wrath we ought to have borne, that Jesus took the guilt we committed, just as the scapegoat in the old testament did, and carried it away into the wilderness of forgetfulness; so that now a sinner who puts his trust in that Substitution can escape everlasting punishment. God’s justice was satisfied completely with the blood of Christ and God cannot demand payment twice for the same sin- “First at my bleeding Substitute’s hands, And then again at mine.” His dear wounds bled for your sins. Repent (turn away and reject) your self-righteousness, carnal pride, and love of sin, and Simply Trust your sinful soul with Christ Jesus Himself alone.