Christ died on our behalf! He died on the cross, bearing the wrath of God against our sins. Christ had no sin of His own to suffer and die. He perfectly obeyed His Father and fulfilled all His laws. He was sinless. But God imputed our sins to Christ, that by His death, He might satisfy the demands of God’s justice. By bearing our punishment, He delivered us from enduring the eternal punishment in hell!
Because Christ willingly took our place to save us from God’s just wrath against our sins, His death is known as “substitutionary death”. Christ’s death on the cross is also known as “vicarious death”, for the word “vicarious” has the idea of “experienced through a substitute”.
It is the clear teaching of God’s Word that Jesus Christ came to earth to pay for the sins of all who would believe on Him. Please meditate on the Bible verses below, which declare the truth of Christ’s substitutionary death for the salvation of sinners from divine wrath:
- “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
- “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
- “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
- “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).
- “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
- “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
- “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Corinthians 5:14).
- “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
- “For he hath made him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians3:13).
- “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7).
- “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:8).
- “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God” (Romans 6:10).
- “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
- “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10).
- “… Christ also suffered for us …” (1 Peter 2:21).
- “Who (Christ) his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
- “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
- “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
