Jesus achieved something in his death that God the Father recognized, namely, humanity’s sin crisis was rectified once and for all. Indeed, the NT presents Jesus as God’s chosen substitute for all humanity. As the old hymn by Phillip Bliss puts it:

Bearing shame and mocking rude,
In my place condemned he stood.

On one occasion, Jesus said to his disciples, “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Additionally, the Apostle Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

The cross, then, is good news for a fallen race. A great transaction took place there that God the Father accepted. He planned it, authorized it, carried it out, and honored it. That transaction is this: God treated Jesus as we deserved so that he could treat us as Jesus deserved. Whatever else the cross may entail, it surely entails the concept of substitution.

NOTE: A transcript of this message can be found HERE.

The full URL is:

https://timandsonya.com/2021/04/02/for-us-and-for-our-salvation-jesus-our-substitute/

Since this sermon was part of the 2021 Good Friday Tenebrae Service at Christ Community Church, no audio is available, as it was delivered in seven separate segments.