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Substitution: “Jesus Took My Place?”
Introduction: There are a number of things that are very commonly believed among Christians concerning the death of Jesus and his sacrifice for our sins that we need to look at more closely in order to have a better understanding of what God did through Jesus to save us. Most of the things we will look at are beliefs that originated in the teachings of Calvin and others like him. What confuses us is that on the surface these teachings sound good. But that is the reason we need to take a more careful look at them.
Here are some of the things we will look at:
- Did Jesus suffer the punishment we deserved? As the song says, “I stood condemned to die, but Jesus took my place. He bore it all that I with him might live.” Is that really what happened?
- Did Jesus “become sin” for us in the sense that he took the guilt of sin on himself so that he was punished instead of us?
- Did God actually separate himself from Jesus while he was on the cross? Is that what is indicated by Jesus’ words on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Did Jesus Take Our Place on the Cross? (Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5)
Isa. 53:4, “Surely he has borne (nasa) our griefs and carried (sabal) our sorrows.”
Compare Matt. 8:16-17, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
The Greek word for “bore” in Matt. 8:17, means “to take up, to transport, to carry, to take away or to remove.” In Matt. 3:11, John the Baptist uses this word when he says, “His sandals I am not worthy to bear.” Mark 1:7 uses the same word, which is translated “unloose.” John 12:6 refers to Judas who would “take” what was put in the moneybag.
Therefore, Isaiah was not saying Jesus took our griefs and sorrows away from us and put it on himself any more than he took the diseases and illnesses away from the people and suffered those illnesses himself. Instead, the text is teaching that Jesus simply took away the sins and the illnesses that were an evidence of the sin of mankind. See also verse 11, “and he shall bear their iniquities.”
Isaiah 53:6, “The Lord has laid (paga) on him the iniquity of us all.” This is translated in the LXX, “The Lord gave him up for our sins.” The same word is also used in verse 12 and translated “intercession.”
The word is also used in Romans 8:32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up (paradidomi) for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?”
It is also used in Ephesians 5:2: “…and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up (paradidomi) for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.”
Therefore, our sins were laid on him in the sense that he took those sins and interceded for them or was delivered up for them. But the guilt of the sins was not transferred to him.
Keep in mind that to bear sins is to remove them, not impute them to himself. See also John 1:29, Hebrews 9:26, 28, I Peter 2:24
Isaiah 53:8, “He was stricken for the transgression of my people.” The meaning hinges on the preposition “for.” Is it “in the place of our transgressions he was stricken?” The preposition “for” is again the Hebrew minee, as in verse 5, and means on account of. The Septuagint uses the Greek preposition apo, meaning “out of.” The transgressions were the reason for what He did. No substitution is involved.
2 Cor. 5:14. You will notice in the text that Jesus “for their sake died and was raised.” Jesus died and was raised “on our behalf.” If he died “instead” of us, then he raised “instead” of us.
2 Cor. 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Greek for “made him to be sin” can be translated “sin” or “sin offering.” Some marginal readings, such as the CSB17 & the NIV11 have “sin offering.” The NLT translates, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to the offering for our sin, so that we can be made right with God through Christ.”
Just to illustrate, in Leviticus the LXX, translates this same word as “sin offering” over 50 times.
In Hebrews 10:6, 8, this same word is translated “sin offerings” (ESV) twice.
The Jewish NT, translated by David Stern, renders this verse, “God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”
The animal for a sin offering had to be absolutely pure, without blemish, which Jesus was. For Jesus to become literally sin in the sense of tainted with the guilt of our sin and disobedient to God, he would have become an unholy blemished sacrifice. See Heb. 7:26-27.
Consequences in Teaching the Substitution Position
Substitution does not present a picture of God forgiving us of our sins. Instead, God has required a punishment equivalent to our sins. Once that punishment has been paid, then forgiveness is not necessary. In the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18), the master forgave the debt of the man who owed him 10,000 talents. No one paid the debt for him; the debt was forgiven. When that same man did not forgive the debt of his fellow servant, the master enforced the debt again, requiring full payment. In other words, if a debt is forgiven, payment equivalent to the crime is not necessary. But if payment equivalent to the crime is required, forgiveness is not necessary.
Further, just as God forgave us, we are to forgive those who are indebted to us for their sin against us. But if substitution is true, God requires equivalent punishment before the debt is freed. Therefore, we need not forgive our brother until he has suffered an equivalent punishment for his sin against us.
Substitution allows people to disregard the law of God. If Christ paid the punishment for all our sins past and future, then we no longer have to be concerned about obedience to God. Punishment for all past and future sins has already been paid for. Thus Spurgeon said, “If Christ has died for you, you can never be lost. God will not punish twice for one thing. If God punished Christ for your sins he will not punish you … How can God be just if he punished Christ, the substitute, and then man himself afterwards?”
If substitution is true, then either universal salvation is true or unconditional election. Introduction to Christian Theology: “If Christ bore the sinner’s punishment as a substitute, then the sinner is unconditionally free from it, for both the sinner and the substitute cannot be justly punished for the same offense. The theory, therefore, leads necessarily to either universalism on the one hand, or unconditional election on the other.” Or, as Gene Frost writes, If He did suffer the penalty due for the sins of all men, then no man can be subject to that penalty in his own person, and universal release from punishment is the consequence.
Substitution makes six hours on the cross equivalent to eternal hell. Jesus did not suffer eternally for us. Even as bad as the cross was, there is no way it would be equal or could be made equal to eternal punishment. If Jesus really took our place, why doesn’t he have to suffer eternally in hell?
Finally, if Jesus suffered the punishment we deserved, then God is unjust to send sinners to eternal hell. If six hours on the cross is equivalent punishment for sin, then those who are sinners should be able to insist on the same punishment and then released to live in heaven forever.
In fact, if Jesus’ crucifixion was equivalent punishment for sin, then what he saved us from was suffering a six-hour, crucifixion-like punishment. Substitution diminishes the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Conclusion: So what did Jesus do in his death? He paid a “ransom” price. He atoned for our sins through the highest price God could pay in order to be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. Rom. 3:23-24 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption/ransom that is in Christ Jesus.” But he was not punished instead of us. It wasn’t punishment; it was a sacrificial atonement. He suffered because of our sins but was not punished as if he became a sinner instead of us. He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”