This marvelous truth of Christ changing places with poor sinners is God's Message of Mercy. You are standing in a black circle called Sin. You were born in this circle of Sin. You cannot escape it in your own strength. You were born wrong, you need to be born again by the Spirit of God. Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, is standing in a white circle called Righteousness. Jesus wants to swap places with you, so that you'll not have to suffer for your sins against God. You must repent, and ask Jesus to take your place. You must simply step out of your Sin and into Christ’s Righteousness, and then Jesus will step into your black circle of Sin, take your place, and suffer for your sins. You get to go free, and He suffers (John 8:36). Please do not die standing in the black circle of Sin. If you do, you will be condemned, face Divine Justice, and suffer the Divine Wrath of God forever. Your soul is in extreme danger, and there's only one way to escape the damnation you justly deserve. A great exchange must take place; you must swap places with Christ now. You must no longer stand in your sinful self, but in Another's place. The Law of God is against you, you have sinned, and you are already condemned to die an eternal death (John 3:18).
You can change places with Another, who kept the Law of God perfectly for you, and in whom you can stand lawfully and innocently in the sight of God. Christ is willing and able to stand in your place, and He will let you stand in His place - Righteousness. When you enter Christ's white circle, then God's law will not condemn you. Christ's Righteousness will eternally clear you before God; and more than that, it will defend you forever against all your soul's adversaries. Behold the miracle of Mercy! Christ Jesus, the innocent Son of God, died for guilty sinners like you, that you may be covered with His Righteousness, and be accepted in His name. This is the root and essence of the Gospel: “You stand in Christ’s place, because He stood in yours." The Law of God cannot be against Christ, for He fulfilled it, and made it honorable. So, if you put your trust on Christ alone, the Law of God can no longer be against you, because you are in Christ.
Here's an illustration: A prisoner is tried, and condemned to death. He is a guilty man; he cannot be justified, because he is guilty. But now, suppose for a moment this happens — that some Innocent second party was introduced, who could take all that man’s guilt upon himself, who could change places with that guilty man, and by some mysterious process become that man, or take that man’s character upon himself. The Innocent man takes the place of the rebel. And then the Innocent man lets the rebel go free, and he makes the rebel a righteous man.
Here is the only way God Almighty justifies a guilty sinner. Imagine this, you are the guilty sinner standing before God, you are condemned to die an eternal death for your sins. God says, “Sinner, I must condemn you, I must — My Divine Justice requires Me to punish you for your sins against Me.” But then, you sense your guilt and you cry out to the Just Judge, "Have mercy on my dying soul, I put all my trust on Christ Jesus the sinless Bleeding Substitute, save my soul for Jesus’ sake!" Right then, Christ the Substitute comes in, puts you aside, and stands Himself in your stead. When the plea is demanded from the Judge, Christ cries, “Guilty!” Christ takes your guilt to be His own guilt. When the punishment is to be executed, Christ steps forth, and says, “Punish me, I have put My Righteousness and Honor on this guilty rebel, and I have taken this condemned man’s sins and guilt upon Me. Punish Me in his place, and consider this sinner to have been Me. Let him go free and live eternally in Heaven; let Me suffer his misery and death. Let Me endure this sinner's curse, and let him receive My blessing. Let me suffer as a sinner in his place, and let him appear spotless before your throne in the robes of My Righteousness."
Christ and every sinner must change places before death. There must be a transference and exchange! Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not good people. Christ took upon Himself the responsibility for your sin; He stood and was condemned, He died in the ungodly sinner’s place; Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, was punished as if He had committed your sin, though in Him was no sin. The wrath of Almighty God that was due to your transgressions was poured out upon Him when He died on Calvary's Cross. God's divine justice that ought to have punished you forever fell upon the Savior's head. This is the divine plan of God to redeem sinners. The Just dies for the unjust; the offended Judge Himself becomes a man and suffers for the offense against His own law. This is God's matchless plan of free Salvation. The sinner is lost and hopeless, but God puts Another in his place who is able to bear his sin, and puts the sinner into the place of that other, Christ Jesus Himself. The grace of God puts the sinner into the Savior’s place, and God looks upon the Savior as if He had been the sinner, and then upon the sinner as if he had been the Perfect One. Christ and the sinner must change places. This is the priceless Gospel Message.
The way that God saves a sinner is not, as some say, by passing over the penalty. No; the penalty has been all paid on Calvary's Cross. It is the putting of Another person in the rebel’s place. The rebel must die. God says he must perish. But Christ says, “I will be the Substitute for the rebel. The rebel shall take My place; and I will take his.” In God’s infinite mercy, He devised and consented to this plan. God said, “My Dear Son, You must stand in the sinner’s place; You must suffer what the sinner ought to have suffered, You must be accounted guilty, just as the sinner was accounted guilty, and then I will look upon the sinner in another light. I will look at the sinner as if he were the Righteousness of Christ My Son; I will accept the sinner as if he were My only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth. I will give the offender a crown in heaven, a robe of Righteousness, and I will take him to My heart forever and ever.” This is the only way that sinners are saved by the grace of God. The Bible says in Romans 3, “Being justified FREELY by God's grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
Come to Christ and change places with Him now, confess and acknowledge that your own righteousness (self-goodness) is but filthy rags, admit that there is nothing in you that can merit anything of God; and, next, realize that the Lord God has put His dear Son into your place, God has laid on Him your sin, and smitten Jesus with the strokes of wrath that ought to have fallen upon your soul; Jesus willingly became your Substitute. You must believe this if you are to be saved from your sins. That being done, you must accept what Christ has endured as being done for you, and trust in His Finished Work (Blood Atonement) with your whole heart. You must, in fact, change places with Christ — let Him stand in your place (the Black Circle of Sin) and be reckoned as the sinner, that you might stand in Him (the White Circle of Righteousness), and be looked upon by God as you are like his Son, perfectly Righteous, spotless, and without sin. Jesus clothes Himself in your filthy rags, and He puts on you His royal robes. Bible faith from the Holy Ghost leads you to trust what Christ did to save you, and nothing else. God’s plan of Salvation is a grand one, and there is none other under heaven that can save a sinner. This is the one way of life— that you acknowledge yourself to be nothing, and you take Christ to be your everything — that you, come to the Cross of Christ with only your sin and misery, and by a simple act of faith, take Christ to be all your Righteousness and your Salvation; and this being done, you are accepted in the Beloved.
One of two things must happen, either you must be saved without deserving to be saved — saved by the works of Another — or else you must keep the whole law, and inherit heaven of your own right and goodness, but that is humanly impossible, because you’re a guilty sinner. So then, if you are willing to come to Christ, just as you are without any preparation, but just simply as a sinner, then Christ has made Atonement for you; and your guilt will be put away: God accepts you: you are a freely pardoned man. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved from divine justice. Place all your trust on Christ's Precious Blood alone, and you are saved immediately and forever.
“Confounded, Lord, I wrap my face,
And hang my guilty head;
Ashamed of all my wicked ways,
The hateful life I’ve led.
“I yield — by mighty Love subdued;
Who can resist His bleeding love and wooing charms?
And throw myself, by wrath pursued,
Into my Savior’s arms.”
“The moment a real sinner believes,
And puts His trust on the crucified God;
God's eternal pardon at once he receives
Salvation in full through God's Blood.
