I Need More Gospel (9): Building the Structure of the Gospel February 1, 2009

I Need More Gospel! (Sermon 9)

Building the Structure of the Gospel
The Four Corners: Substitution

1 Corinthians 15:3

Church in the Boro

Sunday Morning
February 1, 2009
Rob Wilkerson

“Christ died for our sins…”

We’ve been in a series for some time now called “I Need More Gospel,” which is our exposition through 1
Corinthians 15:1-11. You’ll remember me saying several times over the last several weeks that verses 3-4
contain what may well have been the first creed or confession of the church.

“Christ died for our sins,

according to the Scriptures,
and that he was buried,
and that he rose again on the third day
according to the Scriptures.”

And as much as I’d like to keep that creed, and of course intend to, it needs unpacking since there are so many
definitions of Christ, and died, and sins, and Scriptures, and buried, and rose again, etc. Language is difficult in
that it morphs and transitions every generation. Words no longer mean what they used to mean. And so
there’s this constant effort on the part of theologians and pastors to retool the way we talk about the gospel so
that what we mean really gets communicated in a way that fully and completely honors the meaning of the
Scriptures. If you want to talk about reaching the culture with the gospel, this is what it really looks like.
Contextualization is often given a bad rap, and it should be when it’s defined as trying to soften the corners or
edges of the gospel so it won’t be so cutting or offensive to lost people when they hear it. Toning it down so it
won’t be offensive, or trying to make it palatable to sinners who already don’t like it, are all methods of
contextualization that just won’t do at all. The Bible already clearly teaches that lost people don’t understand
the things of the Spirit of God because that stuff is foolishness to them. It also teaches that the preaching of the
cross is foolishness to those who are on their way to hell.

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That said, there is a sense in which contextualization is, in fact, necessary. And it becomes the case when a new
generation arises who has no idea what concepts like propitiation, expiation, substitution, reconciliation,
justification, etc. all mean. These are the concepts that represent the very truth on which we live our lives and
which is a declaration about the new state of our soul. These words represent the gospel, the good news.

My point then is this. Because language changes each generation, and because words tend to morph, we’ve got
to do one of two things. And honestly I really don’t care which one we do as long as we do one of them. First,
we’ve got to fight to keep these words in the vocabulary of Christians and churches and pastors. Just because
words change and morph doesn’t mean we have to let them! Christians ought to fight to maintain those words,
and not drift from them just because they’re big, seemingly incomprehensible, or too doctrinal sounding. That’s
silly. They are important and therefore should be both maintained and taught with vigor.

But there is something else that can and should be done also. And this is merely a difference in viewpoint. I’d
stand arm in arm with someone who advocated this premise in their preaching and theology. If someone wants
to contextualize the gospel so that its words and concepts and truths are merely translated, as it were, to a
different generation or culture, I’m completely okay with that. You don’t have to compromise when you
contextualize. The gospel is the most relevant thing on earth to every single sinner on earth, regardless of what
generation they’re from or what culture they’re in. Doing contextualization right doesn’t have to mean trying to
make the gospel more relevant. That’s stupid. What’s already relevant can’t be made more relevant. But it
can’t be translated better, even within those speaking the same language. That means having more word
pictures, illustrations, synonymous concepts, etc. to explain the ones you’re trying to preach. It doesn’t mean
trying to figure out more clever ways to draw the elect. It doesn’t mean having nifty, witty methods to get
people to come to church.

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 Paul says in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To
the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under
the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the
Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but
under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became
weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means
save some.”

What Paul is talking about here is a gospel-driven sort of contextualization. When Paul preaches to the Jews, he
puts the gospel in the context of that culture. When he speaks to Gentiles, he puts the gospel in their respective
culture. When preaching to Jews, he can use the Law of Moses to preach the gospel. When preaching to
Gentiles who’ve never heard of Moses, he uses a different method. But my point here is that if you are going to
contextualize - and to a certain extent you’re really going to have to in some situations – you must do so in a
way that doesn’t compromise the truth of the gospel. In other words, your method cannot obscure or abscond
the message. It can’t steal the attention of a hearer so that they miss what you’re really trying to say, lost in the
way you’re trying to get it across.

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Now, that isn’t the point of this sermon today, but it needs to be said, because we’ve been in a subseries called
“Building the Structure of the Gospel” and in particular, we’ve been dealing with the Four Corners of the Gospel:
Propitiation, Substitution, Limitation, and Expiation. Huge words, these are! Ask the average Christian what
they mean and they have no clue! Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not a Christian. But it does mean that
we’ve got to do one of the two things I mentioned above: teach the vocabulary, or contextualize the concept.

With those two strategies in mind, which one would you use and how would you use it, to defend the doctrine
of the atonement of Christ against the likes of Richard Dawkins? Listen to his view on the atonement here.

Dawkins is one of the most famous atheists in print today. His line of reasoning is often awkwardly ignorant of
facts and history. Nevertheless, he’s a powerful voice in the culture today whose thoughts on the atonement
are biblically atrocious and blasphemous. And as powerful as your emotions are right now against the things he
said about the death of Jesus, could you defend it? Could you adequately define the terms associated with the
atonement? Could you biblically contextualize where necessary in order to properly and uncompromisingly
communicate it to someone in a different culture than yours? Dawkins is just one example, and a shining one at
that, of those whom many of you walk among each day on the campus here at Georgia Southern University.
Define it. Contextualize it. Do either one. But just defend it!

The last two sermons in this series dealt our defense of it as we are building the four corners of the gospel,
starting with propitiation. Three weeks ago I preached for you what it was. And two weeks ago I preached for

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you how to know whether or not it was true for you. You’ll recall the two questions we asked and then
answered.

1. On what basis does the Judge of the Universe allow a sinner to walk free out of His courtroom of
righteousness?

2. On what basis can the sinner know for sure that he has, in fact, walked free out of the courtroom of
God’s righteousness.

The first question was answered in the word propitiation. I answered it this way: when the demands of divine
justice have been satisfied in a divine way for you. We used Romans 3:22-25 as our primary explication of that
answer. The second question was answered in the phrase, love one another, and we used 1 John 4:7-12 to
explore the inseparable connection between the propitiation for your sins, and the proof that your sins have
been propitiated.

This concept of propitiation came from our current text, 1 Corinthians 15:3 where we read, “Christ died for our
sins.” I’ve been attempting to unpack for you each word in that phrase, and our two sermons on propitiation
were a definition, if you will, of the word “died” in that phrase. Christ’s death accomplished something specific,
and in particular it accomplished the divine satisfaction of the divine demands of divine justice for sinners.
When He died at that moment in time, two thousand or so years ago on that cross at 3 o’clock in the afternoon,
or whenever it was, the satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin was finished and accomplished once and for all.

But that event points us to the next word in the phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:3, and that’s the word “for.” Christ
died for our sins. That propitiation which Christ accomplished was for our sins. Not a lot of attention is paid
often to words like this. Little words that escape our notice in English are quite often the very building blocks of
theology in the Greek language. The word “for” is one of those words, acting as a preposition. In Greek we say
that “prepositions are the propositions.” Prepositions propose truth in depth to us.

When our text says that Christ died “for” our sins, the Greek word uper is behind our English word, “for.” The
word actually means “on our behalf,” “instead of,” or “in the place of.” This speaks of replacement or
substitution. And what Paul is undoubtedly attempting to tell us in this early church creed here is that Jesus
Christ was our substitution. When Paul says, “Christ died for our sins,” he’s teaching us that Jesus Christ died for
our sins, when WE should have died for our own sins. WE were the ones who should have died. WE were the
ones had sinned. Not Him! Yet HE died instead of us. HE died in the place of us. HE died on our behalf. He was
our substitute.

This important, propositional preposition appears throughout the NT to refer to the substitution of Jesus Christ.

 John 11:49-50 – “Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time, said, ‘You don't know what you're talking
about! You don't realize that it's better for you that one man should die for the people than for the
whole nation to be destroyed’” (NLT).

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 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 – “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (ESV).
 2 Corinthians 5:14 – “Either way, Christ's love controls us.* Since we believe that Christ died for all, we
also believe that we have all died to our old life” (NLT).
 Galatians 3:13 – “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is
written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (ESV).
 Hebrews 2:9 – “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might
taste death for everyone” (ESV).
 1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…” (ESV).

This preposition points to something significant about substitution I don’t want you to miss. In any substitution
there is a constant and a variable. The constant is the place, and the variable is the person. Take baseball for
example. There is a “pinch” hitter. This is a player of one team substituting for another player of the same time.
The variable is the different person. But the constant is the location. The substitute is in the same position in
which the other player would have initially been: at home plate standing at bat, ready to hit the ball. The same
works in basketball. I recall many times kneeling by the clock table waiting to buzzed in as a substitute. I took
the place of another player (the variable), but played the same position (the constant).

A.A. Hodges, son of the famous Charles Hodge, missionary to India, pastor of three
churches, chairman of systematic theology at Western Theological Seminary, and later
chairman of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote a book
entitled, The Atonement in 1867. In it he wrote the following about this same concept.

“In every substitution there must be a constant as well as a variable quantity. A

substitute is not a different man in a different place, but a different man in the
same place” (p. 168).

In his book he also offered a summary of the Greek words in the NT which explain and define this doctrine of
substitution. In addition to the Greek preposition huper he also examined another Greek preposition.

“The preposition  expresses more precisely than any other word in the Greek language the
exact idea of substitution in the strictest sense of the word. This is the radical and definite
usage of the preposition” (p. 166).

Citing instances of this particular word, we find passages like these.

 Matthew 20:28 – “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (ESV). See also Mark 10:45 and 1 Timothy 2:6.

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Hodges writes in conclusion about both words, huper and anti…

“If the Holy Ghost did intend us to understand that Christ was strictly substituted in the law-
place of his people, he could have used no language more exactly adapted to express his
meaning. If this were not his meaning, we may well despair of arriving at the understanding of
his meaning on any subject through the study of his words in any department of Scripture” (p.
167).

Do you see now why little words like prepositions are so important? On this word “for” regardless of which
Greek word is behind it, hangs the truth by which we are saved. This then is what Christianity means when it
talk about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our substitute.

Now, this is not the only way in which Jesus Christ was our substitute, of course. Jesus was and is our substitute
in every single sense of the word. He takes our place under the Law of God and lived perfectly obedient to every
command of God. And He did it for us, instead of us, on our behalf. He takes our place as High Priest, when
other human beings, called Levites, could only sacrifice animals for sins in the Old Testament. And He became
the High Priest for us, on our behalf, to mediate our relationship with God. He is our substitute in worship,
offering the only kind of perfect worship that is acceptable to the Father. He is our substitute in prayer, offering
the only kind of perfect prayers that are acceptable to the Father. He is our substitute in all ways.

But the specific, most important, and more particularly the way in which He was our substitute in Paul’s text is
through His death. Every other way in which He is our substitute flows out of and points back toward this most
significant act of substitution which is His death for us. And this brings me to answer the first of two very
important questions. Why did Jesus Christ have to become our substitute?

WHY Jesus Christ Had to Become our Substitute

A. Because Animals Couldn’t Really Perform the Role and Responsibilities.

In the OT the priestly sacrificial system involved firstborn lambs, without any cuts or scrapes or evidence of
injury. These lambs were raised for the specific purpose of becoming the “sacrificial lamb” used by the High
Priest on the Day of Atonement, also called Yom Kippur. It was the most important day in the life of a Jew. It
was the day when the High Priest would sacrifice a lamb which served as the substitute for the people. The
lamb got what the Jewish people deserved. And its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Ark of the
Covenant to symbolize God’s justified anger being satisfied by substitutionary atonement, that is, by the blood
of another.

But the writer of Hebrews tells us clearly that this was only temporary.

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“The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to
come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again
and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who
came to worship.

If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the
worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have
disappeared.

But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not
possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into
the world, he said to God,

"You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.

But you have given me a body to offer.
You were not pleased with burnt offerings
or other offerings for sin.
Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
as is written about me in the Scriptures.'"*

First, Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other
offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of
Moses). Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order
to put the second into effect. For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the
body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering
the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered
himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of
honor at God's right hand” (NLT).

The blood of bulls and goats and lambs were a substitute for the people of God, but never a permanent one.
They couldn’t be. They were animals. And when it really comes down to it, an animal can’t really pay for the
sins of a human being. A human being must pay for his own sins.

God’s anger against the sin of humanity is a just anger. His perfection, holiness, glory have all been offended by
sin. A perfect God abiding by the demands of His own law, He cannot tolerate sin or let it go unpunished.
Consequently, the sinner who commits sin must be punished. And because that sinner is a finite, human being,
that punishment must be eternal.

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B. Because A Finite Human Being Couldn’t Perform the Role and Responsibilities

However, God also knew the “deep magic” as Aslan referred to it in the famous The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe. The law demanded that a blood sacrifice be made for the treacherous betrayal of a son of Adam.
Aslan explained to the White Witch how that blood sacrifice would be made. He took Edmond’s place, who in
Lewis’ book was analogous for the human race. Aslan was substituted for Edmund.

But what the White Witch didn’t know, was that there was a “deeper magic” which taught that if an infinite
being offered the required blood sacrifice, not only would the demands of the law be met, but that infinite being
could rise again and continue to live. And that is how Aslan broke the power of the White Witch, and analogous
to the Biblical record, that is how Jesus Christ broke the power of Satan, sin, death, and hell. By substituting
Himself - infinite deity - for us – finite, human beings – He could pay the penalty for our sins, satisfy the
demands of divine justice once and for all, and live to tell about it!!! We, however, were WE to attempt to
satisfy those demands of divine justice, would have had to attempt to do so forever, because sinning against an
infinite being requires infinite satisfaction.

C. Because the Sin of God’s Elect Demanded a Payment They Couldn’t Pay

The ultimate meaning behind the Greek word huper, which again is translated “for,” isn’t as readily
communicated. Yes, it means instead of, on behalf of, in the place of. But it points to something deeper,
something which caused the necessity of substitution. And that necessity was our sin. Jesus Christ died for us,
and because of us. God had in eternity past decided to set His love on a group of people, and the sin of those
people necessitated the death of His Son in order that they could be with Him forever in His presence. So MY sin
necessitated the death of Jesus Christ. My sin necessitated Him as a substitute for me. And let me stop right
here and say that this knowledge, this precious knowledge is such a treasure to me that it becomes a weapon
against the very thing He died for. The sin that haunts me and tempts and nails me so very often was itself
nailed to the cross with Jesus. And remembering that God chose this path for His Son for me and because of me
before He ever created the world, proves His love for me and to me in such a way that I hate the very thing that
necessitated it!

So then, do you see it there? Do you see why Jesus Christ had to be our substitute? We had to have someone
infinite die in our place, on our behalf, instead of us, and because of us if we were going to have any hope at all.
And this brings me to answer the second most important question. How did Jesus Christ become my substitute?

HOW Jesus Christ Became our Substitute

For this I turn our attention back once more to Isaiah 53. In this chapter, three weeks ago, I explored for you the
propitiatory, satisfying, appeasing, absorbing work of Jesus Christ on the cross. What I want you to notice this
time is the inseparable connection between propitiation and substitution. Much of this text displays Christ
propitiating God’s wrath through His suffering as OUR substitute!

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Mankind’s Treatment of Christ Jesus Christ’s Treatment of Mankind

vv 4-5 – He carried our weaknesses; it was our

V. 3 – We turned our backs on him and looked sorrows that weighed Him down. He was
the other way when He went by. We despised wounded and crushed for our sins. He was
Him and didn’t care a thing about Him. beaten that we might have peace. He was
whipped, and we were healed.

V. 6a – All of us have strayed away like sheep. V. 6b – yet the Lord laid on Him the guilt and
We have left God’s plan to follow our own. sins of us all.

At anytime, He could have spoken and removed all doubt, convincing everyone of His innocence and of
the truth of His claim to be God. Instead, He chose to remain silent.

“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth” (v. 7).

Why did He remain silent? In order to make sure that He would take our place under the cup of God’s
wrath. Had He spoken up, He would have never taken our place. But though He was innocent, He
purposefully did whatever it took in order to make sure that He stood under that cup so you wouldn’t
have to.

What was the response of the people at that time? The same as the response of people today.

“From prison and trial they led him away to His death.
But who among the people realized that He was dying for their sins –
that He was suffering for their punishment?” (v. 8).

We were the criminals, having committed crimes against God’s holiness, defying His law, rebelling against His
right to rule our lives. But He was the innocent man, having done nothing wrong.

“He had done no wrong, and He never deceived anyone.

But he was buried like a criminal…” (v. 9).

Watch this video with me for a very accurate portrayal of Isaiah 53 in action.

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The Satisfaction for our Substitution

And though this was the response of people then, and though it still is today, God has promised that
Jesus’ substitution will not go without satisfaction. If God’s anger was satisfied in Jesus’ death, Jesus’
death had to have some satisfaction as a return. God would not pour out His wrath on Jesus instead of
on mankind, and leave mankind to continue rejecting and neglecting Him. Isaiah goes on to teach that
just as it was God’s plan to kill Jesus, it was also His plan to make sure there would be heirs of that
death to love it and benefit from it.

“But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet when his life is
made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy
a long life, and the Lord’s plan will prosper in His hands. When he sees all that is
accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied” (vv. 10-11a).

What good what it be to stand under God’s wrath for mankind and not have any men or women to benefit
from it and to show for it? From the beginning the plan was for Jesus to die. He died as a righteousness man
for unrighteous men. Part of that plan was to apply His righteousness to unrighteous men in order to have
something to show for it to the Father. This is what Isaiah means in verse 11b,

“After the ordeal he has endured, he will see the light and be content. By his knowledge,
the upright one, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself” (NJB).

Because Jesus took our place, we can have our sins forgiven forever, and His righteousness applied to us; He can
declare us not guilty, and at the same time declare us perfect and holy and righteous. He can do this amazing
thing because

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“he was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for
sinners” (v. 12b, NLT).

WHAT Are We to DO With the Doctrine of Substitution?

As I close this morning there is something significant I want you to know. Unless there is some connection made
between you and this truth about substitution right now, then what happened to Jesus is simply a historical fact,
and nothing more as far as you are concerned. What makes this doctrine a reality is KNOWING that he was
YOUR substitute!

So much of doctrine and theology remains ethereal, abstract, vague, and disconnected because it sounds like
stuff too deep to understand in those theology books that seem to sit on the shelf of a bookstore because no
one wants to buy them. Who wants all that stuff when you can have warm and fuzzy Christianity? The problem
is, when warm and fuzzy has gone cold and bald through trial and tribulation and suffering, you’re left with
nothing substantive on which to base your life. That is the precise point at which people leave the faith, reject
Jesus, disbelieve God, and apostasize from the faith.
My point here is simple: unless Jesus Christ is YOUR personal substitute, you have no hope of eternal life. And
unless you KNOW that Jesus Christ is your personal substitute, you have no joy in this life. Here is how then, this
doctrine of substitution must be applied to you today, this very minute, and every other minute of your life
thereafter.

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I
live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”
(NLT).

Or, translated this way…

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the
life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me” (ESV).

Friends! The only way to become a Christian is by believing that Jesus Christ is a substitute for YOU! And the
only way to continue living like a Christian is by believing that Jesus Christ is a substitute for YOU! There is only
one way to enter, and only one way to continue.

Christ has been substituted for you, dying the death you should have died. And if you are a Christian, what Paul
is saying here is that the old you – the one that loved sin and was an object of God’s wrath – died with Jesus on
that cross. The mystery of it all, however, is that when Jesus was buried, the old you stayed in the tomb while
He rose again and came out of the tomb, and a new you was born again. What that means is that life you are
living now, as a Christian, is not your life! But it is the life of your Substitute and Savior, Jesus Christ! He is
actually living inside of you!

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The challenge now, however, is that while Jesus Christ is actually living inside the body you have right now, you
have to disbelieve what your body tells you to do - what others around you tell you to do, what the world tells
you to do in all its advertising and commercialism and appealing temptations - and you have to walk and talk
believing what Jesus says about you. This is what it means to “live by faith in the Son of God.” You are living in
a way that shows that you believe that the life you are now living is actually being lived by the Substitute inside
of you.

He has loved you and given Himself for you. There’s that same preposition again. For. Instead of. On behalf of.
He gave Himself on behalf of you. He gave Himself instead of you. And therefore, He lives instead of you. He
lives on behalf of you. He lives for you. He lives in you. He lives with you. Do you actually believe that? Does
that resonate in your heart and soul? Does that fill you with a sense that you literally have not a new “lease” on
life, but a permanent new life?
To become a Christian you must believe that God has made Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be the punishment
for sin on your behalf, instead of you. And to continue living like a Christian, you must continue believing that
God continues to see Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, as the punishment for sin on your behalf, instead of you.
God has propitiated His anger. Jesus has absorbed and satisfied the demands of divine justice. God doesn’t
change His mind about you. Sin is no less treacherous and perverted in your life. But God’s love for you and His
giving His Son for you is no less true about you either.

This is the great mystery and wonder of your salvation. That Jesus Christ continues to be your substitute even
when you sin against Him! Even with the knowledge that He was wounded for your transgressions and crucified
for your sins, you and I still sin. Yet Jesus Christ with fresh wounds upon Him as it were, still stands as our
substitute! Does this not make you hate sin? Does it not make you hate your sin all the more when you think of
this Substitute standing there, bleeding for you, taking the punishment you deserve? Does this not make you
want to run as far away from your sin as fast as you can? Does it not crush your soul that you love what killed
this innocent man, this guiltless Son of God?

Then won’t you come to Him today! And won’t you continue to walk with Him by faith?!

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