Isaiah 53, What do ya’ know: Christ Died for Us (1)

Doctrinal Statement: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice.

In what sense did Christ die for us?  Did He die “for” us to show us how we can atone for sin by a life of sacrifice?  No.  He was an example in many ways.  But we are not qualified to atone for our own sins.  The rule in all of God’s creation is that “the soul that sins shall surely die.”  The only thing we are qualified to do is to die for our sins.  It is the price for sin.

Our doctrinal statement gives two answers.  They are not “take one or the other” answers; they are both true.  Let’s explain each concept.

1)    A representative sacrifice.  From our study of “sin” we saw that Adam stood for humanity in a representative fashion.  Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Rom. 5:12).  The rest of that passage (esp. v15-19) contrasts what Adam did as our representative and what Christ did as our representative.  Take just v18 for example: Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.  The Apostle John said this: He Himself (Jesus Christ the righteous one) is the propitiation (the One who took God’s wrath for sin) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2).  This does not mean that all are therefore saved and have the gift of eternal life.  It is often said like this: the death of Christ was sufficient for the entirety of the human race but efficient only for the elect, by which we mean those who have received Christ by faith.

2)    A substitutionary (vicarious) sacrifice.  The strongest statement of this is a prophetic passage in the OT, Isaiah 534-6:  Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes 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.  We are the ones with the problem, the burden of sin.  He, the suffering Servant, the Messiah, is the one carrying all our load.  We went astray to do our own selfish thing.  Thus we had “iniquity” or “guilt.”  And the LORD laid this guilt on Him. 

This is the work of the Triune God.  It was the Father’s plan.  He is owed a payment from us.  But the payment is our death.  If that is what we must do we are in a hopeless situation.  But the Father, because of His great love for those He created in His image, sent the Son (John 3:16).  The Son lived a proven, righteous life and did not have to die for His own sins.  Thus, He became our representative; He died in our place!