The Word of God sets forth
many precious truths which we love to study and proclaim. Yet all the blessed
doctrines of Holy Scripture may be summed up in one doctrine - Substitution.
The message of God to perishing men, the one message declared upon every page
of Holy Writ, is the message of Substitution. The very first doctrine of the
Bible, creation, can only be properly understood if we realize that all things
were created by our Substitute. The doctrine of God's providence is a wonderful
and precious doctrine. And what is providence, but the upholding of all things
by the word of the power of our Substitute? We believe the grand old doctrines
of eternal election and sovereign predestination; and we are not bashful to
proclaim them. But election is in the Person of our Substitute. We are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of the only-begotten Son of God, our
Substitute. How we glory in the doctrine of the atonement: But if there were no
Substitute, no Mediator between God and man, if there was no one who could
satisfy both the needs of fallen man and the justice of a holy God, there would
be no atonement. The doctrine of glorification causes our hearts to rejoice in
the glorious expectation of the sons of God; but we could have no hope of
future glory if there were no Substitute into whose likeness we must be made.
The one theme of the Bible is Substitution.
Everything in the Bible either promises it, typifies it, or proclaims it. Every
ritual of the Old Testament, every garment of the priesthood, every sacrifice,
every article of furniture in the tabernacle, the tabernacle itself, all the
laws of Israel, the temple, the temple service, and the prophets of God all
have but one message; and they all proclaim it clearly - "God commendeth his
love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
This was the message which God the Holy Spirit caused to flow from the pens and
from the mouths of every inspired prophet and apostle. And this is the message
which every preacher, who is inspired of God, proclaims today. This is the
message God blessed during the apostolic age, the reformation, and the great
awakening. And if God is pleased to bless his church in our day, it will be
through the proclamation of this message - "He hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him." Let this glorious message of Substitution be proclaimed from the
pulpits of our land, and we may again see the mighty hand of God at work in our
midst.