This marvelous truth of Christ changing places with poor sinners is God's message of mercy. 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 happened — 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, which is impossible with men, become that man; or take that man’s character upon himself. The innocent man puts the rebel in his place, and 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, “I will condemn you sinner, I must — My justice must punish you for your sins against Me.” But then, you cry out to the Just Judge, "Have mercy on my dying soul, I put all my trust on Christ Jesus the Bleeding Substitute, save my soul for Jesus’ sake!" Then Christ the Substitute comes in, puts you aside, and stands Himself in your stead. When the plea is demanded, Christ cries, “Guilty!” He 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 man, and I have taken this condemned man’s sins and guilt upon Me. Punish Me, 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 be spotless before your throne in the robes of My Righteousness.”
You are standing in a black circle called Sin. Christ is standing in a white circle called Righteousness. Jesus wants to swap places with you, so that you will not have to suffer for your sins against God. You must simply step out of your Sin and into Christ’s Righteousness, and then He will step in your black circle and suffer for your sins. You go free, and He suffers. Do not die standing in the black circle of Sin. If you do, you will be condemned and suffer the wrath of God forever. An exchange must take place, your soul is in danger, swap places with Christ now. You must no longer stand in your sinful self, but in Another.
The law of God is against you, for you have sinned, and are now condemned to die an eternal death; but what if you could change places with Another, who kept the law of God perfectly, and in Whom you could stand lawfully and innocently in the sight of God? What if Christ stood in your place, and you stood in Christ’s place? Then God's law would not condemn you, but it would acquit you; and more than that, it would defend you against all your soul's adversaries. Behold the miracle of mercy! Christ Jesus, the innocent Son of God, died for guilty sinners, that they may be covered with His Righteousness, and accepted in His name. This is the root and marrow 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. If you put your trust on Christ alone, the law of God can no longer be against you.
The law of God is against you, for you have sinned, and are now condemned to die an eternal death; but what if you could change places with Another, who kept the law of God perfectly, and in Whom you could stand lawfully and innocently in the sight of God? What if Christ stood in your place, and you stood in Christ’s place? Then God's law would not condemn you, but it would acquit you; and more than that, it would defend you against all your soul's adversaries. Behold the miracle of mercy! Christ Jesus, the innocent Son of God, died for guilty sinners, that they may be covered with His Righteousness, and accepted in His name. This is the root and marrow 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. If you put your trust on Christ alone, the law of God can no longer be against you.
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. Christ took upon Himself the responsibility for your sin; He stood and was condemned, He died in the sinner’s place; He was punished as if He had committed your sins, 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. The sword of God's justice that ought to be on the sinner was plunged into the Savior’s heart.
This is the divine plan of God to redeem sinners. The Just dies for the unjust; the offended Judge Himself suffers for the offense against His own law. This is God's matchless plan of 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 divine plan of God to redeem sinners. The Just dies for the unjust; the offended Judge Himself suffers for the offense against His own law. This is God's matchless plan of 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.
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. Christ says, “I will be Substitute for the rebel. The rebel shall take my place; I will take his.” In God’s infinite mercy, He consented to this arrangement. God said, “Son of My love, 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 am the worst of sinners, but Jesus died for me. I will look at him as if he were the Righteousness of Christ my Son (II Cor 5:21); 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, and I will take him to My heart for ever and ever.” This is the 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 is but filthy rags, 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 sins, and smitten Jesus with the strokes of divine wrath that ought to have fallen upon your soul; Jesus willingly became your Substitute. You must believe this if you are to be saved. That being done, you must accept what Christ has endured as being done for you, and trust in His perfect Finished Work (Sinless Blood Atonement) with your whole heart.
You must, in fact, change places with Christ; — let Him stand in your place and be reckoned as the sinner, that you might stand in Him, and be looked upon by God as you are like his Son, perfectly righteous and without sin. Jesus clothes himself in your filthy rags, and He puts His royal robes on you. Faith takes the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ by trusting what Christ did and nothing else. God’s plan of salvation is a grand one, and there is no other that can save a lost 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 with only your sins, guilt, and misery, and by a simple act of faith, take Christ to be your Righteousness and your Strength; and this being done, you are accepted in the Beloved forever and ever.
You must, in fact, change places with Christ; — let Him stand in your place and be reckoned as the sinner, that you might stand in Him, and be looked upon by God as you are like his Son, perfectly righteous and without sin. Jesus clothes himself in your filthy rags, and He puts His royal robes on you. Faith takes the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ by trusting what Christ did and nothing else. God’s plan of salvation is a grand one, and there is no other that can save a lost 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 with only your sins, guilt, and misery, and by a simple act of faith, take Christ to be your Righteousness and your Strength; and this being done, you are accepted in the Beloved forever and ever.
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 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; your guilt will be put away: God accepts you: you are immediately a pardoned man.
