Abel and Substitution
Please answer the following questions before looking at this section.
1.How did people in the Ancient Near East seek to placate their god or gods?
2. Do you think this placating of the gods was an attempt to control or manipulate them; if so, how?
3. What does 'to impute' mean?
4. What is the goal of substitution and imputation?
5. Do you think that some Christians try to live their lives through others- as if they are trusting in the 'spirituality' of others rather than their own relationship with God?
God's perfection:
God is perfect in every way and therefore the penalty for transgressing His law has to be satisfied in such a way that God's judicial holiness and righteousness are honoured.
If we are really honest with ourselves when we consider the high demands of God's law of love (Deut 6:5) we quickly realise we just cannot do what is required of us in our own strength.
The honest person realises that he is a sinner (Rom 3:23) who needs someone else to stand in his place before God if he is to have any hope of finding forgiveness. This is what substitution is about - someone standing in our place.
God's law tells us something about the lawgiver because laws often reveal something about the person or group who make them. For example if the government suddenly decided that a sweet shop should be opened on every street corner we'd know that someone in the government probably had a lot to do with shares in sweet shops.
God's law is summed up in the Law of Love (Matthew 22:37-40). The one who gives the law is not a hypocrite. He is a God who loves us but is against what we have become.
Because God is a God of grace, His Son became man and met the requirements of the law in our place, and for our sake. He is the 'Second Adam'. He is the perfectly loving One.
The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.1 Corinthians 15:45
In the first of the following quotes concerning the above verse we remind ourselves that God gives life to us, whilst in the second we are encouraged to look to what God is doing for us.
The first Adam became a life-receiver, a 'living soul' (psuchen Zosan) - a creature that had received (passive) life. By contrast the second Adam became a life-giver, a 'living-giving spirit' (Pneuma zoeopoiun) a life that can be communicated to others. Jesus Christ, then, is the source of resurrection life for us. Spiros Zodhiates in his Exegetical Commentary on 1 Corinthians.
The above verse underlines the need to look ahead: believers will be transformed fully into that mode or existence which characterises Christ as Spirit (i.e. both beyond earthly horizons of imagination and beyond the destructive effects of weakness and sin).
Prof A. Thiselton in NIGTC Corinthians p 1284
Life for all who turn to Christ
Dr Stanley Jones in his book, 'The Divine Yes' (p111) writes of a Japanese prisoner who was executed for his crimes. During his imprisonment the man had come to Christ. His final words before his execution were as follows. 'I am not afraid for I will be with my Saviour and Lord.'
Dr Jones comments, 'There was a Divine Yes in the midst of a human No. They said he couldn't live. The Divine Yes said he does live. The Divine yes sounded amidst the human No.'
The reason this Japanese prisoner could live through death is found in the biblical doctrine of substitution.
Francois Mauriac quoted in Entrepreneurs of Life p 195 Ed Oz Guinness.
Substitution
The doctrine of substitution is the principle of surety-ship. But what is a surety?
A surety can be a person who undertakes some specific responsibility on behalf of another and who makes himself liable for the default of another. Think of a guarantor of a mortgage and we get a pale example of surety.
Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant. He is both covenant maker and supreme covenant keeper. Note the words of Hebrews 7.
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Hebrews 7:18-22.
Guarantee: Enguos (surety)
One who personally answers for someone, whether with his life or his property.
If I owed a large sum of money I could not become a guarantor for someone needing a guarantee for a mortgage. Neither could I have a dog or a cat as my guarantor - it needs to be someone of the same nature. Hence the following words:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
The One who stands surety for us has freely and willingly assumed the obligations of another.
Look at the following verses and think about them. They are all about what God willingly does for us. Our sin has not quenched His love for us, but without repentance and faith our sin prevents us from receiving that love.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. John 10:17-18
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'. Galations 3:13
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.Galations 4:4-6
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.' Galations 3:13
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Galations 4:4-6
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. Galations 3:13
The Bible clearly shows that man needs a Redeemer, as do the words (albeit in a much weaker way) of many who have walked the dusty paths of this world. For example, take the words of this Bob Dylan song
Every Grain of Sand
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the master's hand
In every leaf that trembles and, every grain of sand.
All, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptations angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintery light,
In the bitter dance of lowliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of a perfect finished plan
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand
The blood offering that Abel brought before the Lord looked across the years to the One true sacrifice to be found in Christ.
Abel would not have known that the blood looked across history to Christ, and back to a decision made before the foundation of the world; but Abel did know that God was his provider in all things.
Examples of substitution in history
In the history of the world there are many examples of substitution, albeit in a perverted way. For example in his famous work 'The New Golden Bough, Dr Frazer writes of one ancient practice
The need for such a substitutionary death apparently stemmed from the ancient custom of putting the aging king to death. Behind this seems to be the idea that the king personified the nation, so an aging monarch would be replaced by a young successor to preserve the strength, power, and vitality of the nation.
This stern rule was modified to allow for the substitutionary death of a prisoner, and the king willingly abdicated for a few days whilst his substitute reigned and ruled in his stead.
Dr J. Frazer in, The New Golden Bough p 555