Christ Our Substitute

John Flavel, The Fountain of Life Opened Up, or A Display of Christ in his essential and mediatorial glory 

https://www.ccel.org/ccel/f/flavel/fountain/cache/fountain.pdf

Sermon 7. “Of the Solemn Consecration of the Mediator”

God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh, but to raise up sinful man unto the likeness of God. All the miracles he wrought were for you, to confirm your faith. When he raised up Lazarus, John 11: 42. “Because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they might believe that thou hadst sent me.” While he lived on earth, he lived as one wholly set apart for us: and when he died, he died for us, (Galatians 3:13) “he was made a curse for us.” When he hanged on that cursed tree, he hanged there in our room, and did but fill our place. When he was buried, he was buried for us: for the end of it was, to perfume our graves, against we come to lie down in them. And when he rose again, it was, as the apostle saith, “for our justification,” (Romans 4:25). When he ascended into glory, he protested it was about our business, that he went to prepare places for us: and if it had not been so, he would have told us, (John 14:2). And now he is there, it is for us that he there lives; for he “ever lives to make intercession for us,” (Hebrews 7:25). And when he shall return again to judge the world, he will come for us too. “He comes (whenever it be) to be glorified in his saints, and admired in them that believe,” (2 Thessalonians 1:10). He comes to gather his saints home to himself, that where he is, there they all may be in soul and body with him forever. Thus you see how, as his consecration for us does speak him set apart for our use; so he did wholly bestow himself, time, life, death, and all upon us; living and dying for no other end, but to accomplish this great work of salvation for us.

The curse of the law...requires an infinite satisfaction that no mere creature can give. Christ frees the believer from this curse. He dissolves the obligation to punishment and cancels all the bonds and chains of guilt. This is done by the full price being paid in place of the sinner, making a complete and full satisfaction. The ransom was paid in full and is sufficient. Christ was made a curse for us. It was an act of the God-man; no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God. 

Christ Jesus set himself wholly apart for believers. We may say, “Lord, condemnation was yours, that justification might be mine; agony was yours, and victory mine; pain was yours, and ease is mine; stripes were yours, and healing mine; vinegar and gall were yours, that honey and sweet might be mine; the curse was yours, and the blessing mine; a crown of thorns was yours, that the crown of glory might be mine; death was yours, and eternal life mine!”

Sermon 11 “The Nature and necessity of the Priesthood of Christ”

This priesthood of Christ is that function, wherein he comes before God, in our name and place, to fulfil the law, and offer up himself to (God) a sacrifice of reconciliation for our sins; and by his intercession to continue and apply the purchase of his blood to them for whom he shed it. Hebrews 10:7-14, Colossians 1:20,22, Romans 5:10.

Sermon 14 “A Vindication of the Satisfaction of Christ,”

The blood of Jesus stood as Surety (guarantee) (Hebrews 7:22); who came under the same obligations of the law with us (Galatians 4:4); and though he had no sin of his own, yet standing before God as our Surety, the iniquities of us all were laid upon him, (Isaiah 53:6,  Galatians 3:13); and from him did the Lord, with great severity, exact satisfaction for our sins (Romans 8:32) punish them upon his soul (Matthew 27:46) and upon his body (Acts 2: 23); and with this obedience of his Son, is fully pleased and satisfied (Ephesians 5: 2); and has in token thereof raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand (1 Timothy 3:16); and for his righteousness-sake acquitted and discharged believers, who shall never more come into condemnation (Rom. 8:1, 34).

Ezekiel Hopkins  "On Glorifying God in His Attributes"

Oh astonishment! When, not a servant, but a Son, yea the Son of his Eternal Love and Delights, is, by the Father himself, appointed to such unspeakable miseries and dolours; and thrust under the sword of justice, when it was just falling upon us, only that he might ward off the blow, and save us from so great and inevitable a ruin, though it was to the death and ruin of his Only Son! Now judge, yourselves, whether it be not infinitely more expressive of the divine love, to save us by devoting his Own Son to be an execration and a sacrifice for us. And wherefore was this? Not only that justice might be satisfied, but that mercy might also be satisfied; and free love and grace might be glorified in such a stupendous expression of it.

William Gurnall

Justifying faith rests on Christ crucified for pardon and life upon the warrant of God's promise. It is not Christ in his personal excellencies, but as bleeding unto death, under the hand of divine justice to make an atonement by God's own appointment for the sins of the world. There is no redemption but by his blood. Christ did not redeem and save poor souls by sitting in majesty on his heavenly throne, but by hanging on the shameful cross, under the tormenting hand of man's fury and God's just wrath. The poor soul that would have pardon of sin, is directed to place its faith not only on Christ, but on a bleeding Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Romans 3:25).

Octavius Winslow  Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul

It must be the great delight of the Spirit ever and at all times to lift up Jesus and glorify him. And how does the Spirit most glorify Christ, but by exalting his atoning work,—giving to it the pre-eminence, the importance, and the glory it demands,—leading the sinner, whom he has first convinced of sin, to accept of Jesus as a willing, an all-sufficient Saviour,—to cast away all trust in self, all reliance upon a covenant of works, which is but a covenant of death, and thus going entirely out of himself, to take up his rest in the blood and righteousness of Immanuel, the God-man Mediator.

Sinclair B. Ferguson Grow In Grace

The cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ has died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that He loves us…

A.W. Tozer 

        The Warfare of the Spirit

God turned the cross into an altar, and while wicked men watched Jesus die in the belief that they were getting rid of Him for good, He through the Eternal Spirit was offering Himself without spot to God as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

        Jesus, Our Man in Glory

We who are Christian believers should thank God continually for our New Testament guarantees of spiritual life and freedom in Christ! Our sacrifice is not an animal offered by a priest as imperfect as we are. Our sacrifice is the very Lamb of God, who was able and willing to offer Himself to take away the sins of the world. Our altar is not the altar in old Jerusalem. Our altar is Calvary, where Jesus offered Himself without spot to God through the eternal Spirit. Our Holy of Holies is not that section of a temple made with hands, secluded behind a protective veil. Our Holy of Holies is in heaven, where the exalted Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

In Christ's atoning death the holiness and justice of God have been satisfied. God no longer holds anything against us, for we have come to Him in faith. We have pleaded as our merit only the vicarious, efficacious death of our Savior and Lord.

        The Knowledge of the Holy  "The Justice of God"

A solution for the problem of how God can be just and still justify the unjust is found in the Christian doctrine of redemption. It is that, through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner. Redemptive theology teaches that mercy does not become effective toward a man until justice has done its work. The just penalty for sin was exacted when Christ our Substitute died for us on the cross.

Fernando Ortega "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr7-fgX1CB0  

Augustus M. Toplady “Awake, Sweet Gratitude, and Sing”

All that come to God by (Christ),

            Salvation he demands;

Points to their names upon his breast,

            And spreads his wounded hands.

His sweet atoning sacrifice

            Gives sanction to his claim:

“Father, I will that all my saints

            Be with me where I am.”

 Founded on right, thy prayer avails;

            The Father smiles on thee;

 And now thou in thy kingdom art,

            Dear Lord, remember me.

“From Whence This Fear and Unbelief?”

From whence this fear and unbelief?

Hast Thou, O Father, put to grief

Thy spotless Son for me?

And will the righteous Judge of men

Condemn me for that debt of sin

Which, Lord, was laid on Thee?

If Thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my place endured

The whole of wrath Divine;

Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.

Complete atonement Thou hast made,

And to the utmost farthing paid,

Whate’er Thy people owed;

How then can wrath on me take place,

If sheltered in Thy righteousness,

And sprinkled with Thy blood?

Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest,

The merits of thy great High Priest

Speak peace and liberty:

Trust in His efficacious blood,

Nor fear thy banishment from God,

Since Jesus died for thee.

Charles Wesley, "’Tis Finished! The Messiah Dies!"

        ’Tis finished! the Messiah dies!

        Cut off for sins, but not his own;

        Accomplished is the sacrifice;

        The great redeeming work is done.

        Finished our vile transgression is,

        And purged the guilt of all our sin;

        And everlasting righteousness

        Is brought, for all his people, in.

        ’Tis finished, all my guilt and pain.

        I want no sacrifice beside.

        For me, for me the Lamb was slain,

        And I’m for ever justified.

        Sin, death, and hell are now subdued;

        All grace is now to sinners given;

        And lo! I plead the atoning blood,

        For pardon, holiness, and heaven. 

Horatius Bonar - "Not What My Hands Have Done" 

http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/w/nwhatmyh.htm

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;

Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;

Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;

Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.

No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;

No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;

Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.

Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,

Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;

And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.

His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb

Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;

He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.

’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;

I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.