Substitution: Jesus Died in My Place

Isaiah 53:4-6 foretold of Christ being our substitute 700 years in advance: "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (ESV) The essence of the Gospel is this: My sin-disease for His cure! My death-curse for His eternal life! My unworthy standing for His right-standing! Jesus truly did die in our place! Charles Spurgeon summed it up this way: “In one word the great fact on which the Christian’s hope rests is substitution. The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the sinner, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, Christ offering up a true and proper substitutionary sacrifice in the place of as many as the Father gave Him, who are recognized by their trusting in Him. This is the cardinal fact of the gospel.” And all His people said: AMEN!