Substitution Saves Sinners

I am saved!  There is no ifs, ands or buts about that wonderful fact.  There is nothing left for me to do to complete my salvation.  Jesus Christ did it all on Calvary.  The covenant of salvation by grace through faith has been written in His holy, unblemished blood.

The covenant in His blood guarantees all spiritual blessings are mine forever.  Everything that was needed to guarantee my salvation was completed when Jesus shouted, “It is finished!”

Since I have been born again by the Spirit of God, there is nothing for me to do either to be saved or to do anything to keep it.  The transaction was completed the moment I believed on Christ as my Savior.

It is the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ that saves.  It is the same justice of God that condemned Jesus and sent Him to the cross that saves the believer in Jesus Christ.  The believing sinner cannot be punished because Jesus Christ took his punishment.

If God is unjust, I will be damned and sent to an eternal hell.  However, since God is just He will not punish me twice. Jesus Christ has already paid my punishment in full.  The just payment for my sins has already been extracted by the death of Jesus on my behalf.  Jesus paid the debt in full and received the receipt.

The teaching of the Bible is very clear.  Unless God can be so unjust to demand twice payment for one debt, no person who has put his or her trust in Christ can ever be punished again.

God is just.  That is the foundation of my confidence. Since God is just, the unbelieving sinner who will not trust in Christ must be punished.  However, Jesus Christ stands in the place of the believer and is punished in his place.  Since God is just, the sinner who calls upon the name of Jesus believing He died in his place can never be sent to hell.

Salvation by the grace of God through faith in Christ depends upon the unchanging character of God.  God must change His eternal attributes before anyone for whom Christ died as a substitute can ever go to hell. But the fact is He is immutable; He changes not.

Jesus Christ took the place of the believer and bore the punishment of death for that believer.  Christ suffered for the believer’s punishment.

The apostle Paul asked, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”  God?  No, God will not because He justifies the believing sinner.  Christ?  No, because He died for me and rose again.  The Holy Spirit?  No, because He came into my life and brought about spiritual regeneration.

I am a sinner for whom Jesus Christ died.  He did not die for the holy or self-righteous.  He died for my sins.  My trust is in what Christ did for me, and stands complete, never to be repeated, or annulled in heaven.  I rest my soul, not in what I am or am not, or shall become, or feel, or know, or experience emotionally, but in what Jesus Christ did for me as my divine substitute.  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).