‘The concept of substitution may be said … to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation.’1Stott, Cross of Christ, 160.
John Stott’s celebrated formulation of ‘the self-substitution of God’ captures exactly what’s at stake:
‘The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.’
The symmetry is exact, and the stakes are ultimate.
Substitution is not an outlier, peripheral to Jesus’ saving work, but the load-bearing structure on which the entire edifice of salvation rests.
Vicar Means Substitute
The death of Christ was vicarious — a word whose meaning is reflected in the English word vicar, which means substitute, one who acts on behalf of another.2The following paragraphs are guided by Derek W. H. Thomas’ class on ‘Substitution,’ available here https:www.monergism.com/school-theology-mp3-series
Yet substitution, rightly understood, is not a bare transaction. It encompasses a cluster of related concepts that together disclose its full meaning.
When Paul writes that Christ ‘loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal 2:20), he reaches for language holding together several distinguishable but inseparable dimensions of Christ’s self-offering.
Solidarity and Representation
These two are deeply intertwined in the New Testament description of Jesus’ life and death.
We are all caught up in the sin of our founding ancestor, Adam — ‘in Adam all die’ (1 Cor 15:22). That original sin has reached into and shaped who we are: born rebels, blind to God’s good rule (Rom 1:18-32; 3:9-20; John 9:39-41).
Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, is the second founder of the human race, the ultimate Adam — who in solidarity with us, as our representative, reverses our sin and shame, blindness and rebellion.
Paul makes this by an extended comparison of ‘the one man’ Adam and ‘the one man Jesus Christ’ in Romans 5:12-21. ‘For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous’ (v 19).
Hebrews teaches the same. The Adam-Jesus contrast appears in chapter 2, where the author quotes Psalm 8 and asks: who has fulfilled its description of mankind as ‘crowned … with glory and honor [with] everything in subjection under his feet’ (v 8)?
Jesus — who is also our elder brother (vv 8-18). He has taken on our human nature and battled and defeated sin and Satan for us (vv 14-18). He has done what Adam should have done when tempted in Eden, but did not (Gen 1:26-3:7; cf. Luke 3:38; 4:1-13).
That description is further elaborated in terms of his being our great high priest, our brother, our mediator, who prays for us at the Father’s right hand (Heb 7:25; 9:24; Rom 8:34; Luke 22:31-32).
And this representation and solidarity means that all Jesus has done for us affects us, changes us, at the very depths of our being.
But That Isn’t All of It
Solidarity and representation, for all their breadth and depth, are not yet the whole.
To these must be added substitution in its proper and most precise sense — Christ taking upon himself the consequences, the penalty, that our sin deserves.
He gave himself for us not merely in our company, or on our behalf, but instead of us — bearing what we could not bear and should have borne.3‘The testimony of Scripture, while not ignoring Jesus’ representative nature, does not stop there. It is therefore not enough for us to say that he dies a representative death: a death for me, rather than instead of me. The testimony of Old Testament and New is that our sins were laid on Christ (Gal 3:13; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 2:24). There has been a real and substantial transfer of sins (2 Cor 5:21) along the pattern of the Old Testament sacrificial system and in line with the prophetic expectation (Isaiah 53). … The classic statement here is that of Mark 10:45 (// Matthew 20:28). Jesus uses the word lytron (‘ransom’) which is used 140 times in the LXX and denotes deliverance from bondage by payment or offering. The image is not developed here or elsewhere in the New Testament. There is no indication of to whom such a ransom is paid, for instance. It is an image which is used to carry the more fundamental notion of substitution which effects release. The use of ‘many’ connects it with the basic ideas of Isaiah 53. … The ransom image carries with it most of the elements of our idea of substitution. This is underlined by the use of the Greek preposition anti (‘instead of’, ‘in the place of’) in both Mark 10:45 and its parallel Matt 20:28. There is another Greek preposition, hyper + genitive case, which is of importance here. Its primary lexographical meaning is: ‘for,’ ‘on behalf of’, ‘for the sake of’, which carries with it notions of representation. However, it is often used, both in the New Testament and in the wider Greek literature, with much the same sense as anti, i.e. substitution. For example, in soteriologically insignificant passages – Rom 9:3; Phlm 13; and soteriologically rich passages – John 11:50; 2 Cor 5:14,21; Gal 3:13. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics (1994, 4th ed.), 183-189, has an excellent article on the use of huper in a substitutionary sense, and the overlap in the New Testament in uses of anti and huper. So, given the context of John’s thematic interest in the judgment and death (John 5:24, 8:51), and its polar opposite, eternal life, we may be justified in seeing the idea of substitution lying behind the words of Jesus in John 15:12–14’ (Mark D. Thompson and Robert C. Doyle, ‘The Death of Christ 1: Biblical and Theological Reflections.’ Unpublished Lecture. Edited by Robert C. Doyle). See also Jeanine Michele Graham, ‘Substitution and Representation,’ in T & T Clark Companion to Atonement, 763-68.
That’s the distinction the whole doctrine turns on. A representative acts for you. A substitute takes what was coming to you.
Sins Actually Transferred
The testimony of Old Testament and New is that our sins were laid on Christ (Gal 3:13; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 2:24).
There has been a real and substantial transfer of sins (2 Cor 5:21), along the pattern of the Old Testament sacrificial system and in line with prophetic expectation (Isa 53).
Further, there’s clear biblical evidence of a penal understanding of the atonement.
The New Testament consistently links Christ’s death to the picture of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 — and that picture is clearly one of penal substitution. Though the critical verse (53:5) is merely alluded to in 1 Peter 2:24, the quotations and allusions invoke the image as an entirety.
The human plight from which Jesus came to save us clearly involved a penalty (Rom 1:18-3:20; 6:23). The great benefit of his death can be spoken of as ‘justification’ (Rom 3:24-25) and ‘no condemnation’ (Rom 8:1).
And the clearest expression of the penal element is Galatians 3:13: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us — for it is written “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.”’
Two Passages in Romans
In their context, two passages highlight the rich meaning of substitution. Romans 3:25 and 8:3 ‘teach that Jesus bore God’s judgement against our sins in our place to secure our forgiveness and right standing before God.’4Rosner, Strengthened by the Gospel, 108.
Both texts are complex and tight-packed, and the key terms much discussed. For brevity we simply cite them, noting that each teaches this: ‘We are set free from sin’s condemnation by God’s sending his son as a sin offering, bearing our guilt and the wrath of God in our place.’5Rosner, Strengthened by the Gospel, 109.
Romans 3:25 — ‘God put forward [Christ Jesus] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.’
Romans 8:3-4 — ‘For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.’
Standing Surety
The Westminster Confession of Faith expresses substitution by describing Christ as both mediator and surety (WCF 8.3).
That second term is drawn from the world of legal obligation, in which one party stands as guarantor for another’s debt.
The Son, called by the Father to this office, substituted himself for his people — bearing in his own person the results that sin deserves. Thus he is our surety, our guarantor before the Father for our debt of sin.
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- 1Stott, Cross of Christ, 160. ↩︎
- 2The following paragraphs are guided by Derek W. H. Thomas’ class on ‘Substitution,’ available here https:www.monergism.com/school-theology-mp3-series ↩︎
- 3‘The testimony of Scripture, while not ignoring Jesus’ representative nature, does not stop there. It is therefore not enough for us to say that he dies a representative death: a death for me, rather than instead of me. The testimony of Old Testament and New is that our sins were laid on Christ (Gal 3:13; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 2:24). There has been a real and substantial transfer of sins (2 Cor 5:21) along the pattern of the Old Testament sacrificial system and in line with the prophetic expectation (Isaiah 53). … The classic statement here is that of Mark 10:45 (// Matthew 20:28). Jesus uses the word lytron (‘ransom’) which is used 140 times in the LXX and denotes deliverance from bondage by payment or offering. The image is not developed here or elsewhere in the New Testament. There is no indication of to whom such a ransom is paid, for instance. It is an image which is used to carry the more fundamental notion of substitution which effects release. The use of ‘many’ connects it with the basic ideas of Isaiah 53. … The ransom image carries with it most of the elements of our idea of substitution. This is underlined by the use of the Greek preposition anti (‘instead of’, ‘in the place of’) in both Mark 10:45 and its parallel Matt 20:28. There is another Greek preposition, hyper + genitive case, which is of importance here. Its primary lexographical meaning is: ‘for,’ ‘on behalf of’, ‘for the sake of’, which carries with it notions of representation. However, it is often used, both in the New Testament and in the wider Greek literature, with much the same sense as anti, i.e. substitution. For example, in soteriologically insignificant passages – Rom 9:3; Phlm 13; and soteriologically rich passages – John 11:50; 2 Cor 5:14,21; Gal 3:13. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics (1994, 4th ed.), 183-189, has an excellent article on the use of huper in a substitutionary sense, and the overlap in the New Testament in uses of anti and huper. So, given the context of John’s thematic interest in the judgment and death (John 5:24, 8:51), and its polar opposite, eternal life, we may be justified in seeing the idea of substitution lying behind the words of Jesus in John 15:12–14’ (Mark D. Thompson and Robert C. Doyle, ‘The Death of Christ 1: Biblical and Theological Reflections.’ Unpublished Lecture. Edited by Robert C. Doyle). See also Jeanine Michele Graham, ‘Substitution and Representation,’ in T & T Clark Companion to Atonement, 763-68. ↩︎
- 4Rosner, Strengthened by the Gospel, 108. ↩︎
- 5Rosner, Strengthened by the Gospel, 109. ↩︎