When Jesus showed up to be baptized, his cousin John thought he might have been confused. “Um, Jesus, I appreciate your support and all. But this is a baptism of repentance. You’re sinless, so … you don’t really have anything to repent of.”
But Jesus insisted: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15a ESV). What was Jesus up to?
Jesus, at his baptism, was beginning his ministry of substitution.
Jesus didn’t need to repent. John was right about that. But we did. So Jesus does it perfectly in our place so that he can continue to live the life that we were supposed to live and then die the death that we were condemned to die.
When Jesus stepped into the water to repent of sin, he was repenting not for his sin but for ours.
Think of it like this: Imagine if everyone in the crowd at the baptism that day had on a nametag with their name and the label “sinner.” Then imagine Jesus had on a nametag with his name and the label “righteous.” He’d be the only one there with that nametag. But as he makes his way toward the water, you watch him wander through the crowd taking off people’s nametags and putting them on himself.
He carried that nametag to the cross, where “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21a NIV).
He would be struck until he no longer looked like a man, his back laid bare by a whip, beaten so badly that they say his intestines would have been protruding from his abdomen. He had nine-inch nails put in his hands and feet, a crown of thorns thrust upon his head so that his face was horribly disfigured.
Maybe you read that and think, “That’s disgusting.” Well, it is. That’s because our sin is disgusting, and Jesus became our sin. He died for every act of violence, every sexual abuse, every spousal betrayal, every lie, every act of selfishness or manipulation we’ve ever committed. He became sin, and sin is gross.
Here’s the beautiful part of that substitution. Not only does Jesus take my nametag of sin; he gives me his nametag of righteousness. So when the Father declares to Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” that now belongs to you and me, even though we don’t deserve those words.
The key word in all the gospel is “substitution.” That’s why, at the Summit, we say that the gospel in four words is, “Jesus in my place.” Jesus did not merely die for you but instead of you. He took your nametag of sin so you could wear his nametag of righteousness.
This principle separates Jesus’ gospel from other religions. Every other religion teaches that you must do something to please God. Go here. Say this. Rub this. Touch that. Do this. Don’t do that. Pray this. Chant that. If you do these things often enough and well enough, God will accept you.
The gospel, on the other hand, is about what Jesus has done for you. In every other religion, the prophet is a teacher that gives you a plan to earn God’s favor. In Christianity, you get the story of a Savior who has earned God’s favor for you and gives it to you as a gift.
Substitution is hard for people to accept because the whole principle goes against the core of our pride. It declares that we are absolutely helpless.
I don’t like to think of myself as helpless. I’m more like God’s HGTV project — a fixer upper. I like to think I’m basically able to carry my weight, with maybe a little bit of help.
But the only way to receive the gospel is to admit total helplessness.
Christ did not give you a way to save yourself by adding some religious rituals or activities to your life. He did the work to save you — all of it. He gave it as a gift you could never earn on your own.
When people say, “You Christians are so weak. Jesus is a crutch!” I respond, “You don’t know the half of it. Jesus is not a crutch; he’s a stretcher!” You see, I can’t even limp into Heaven without Jesus. He didn’t come to just help me along. He came to carry me there by crediting his righteousness to me and letting me live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is the sweetest and most difficult gospel truth. But once you get it, your life is going to change forever.
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
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