THE CHILDREN'S SUBSTITUTE

A homely incident will help to illustrate the sinner's need of the Lord Jesus as Substitute in respect of the judgment of sins. A frightened boy was trying to ward off an angry bee which seemed intent on stinging him. His mother, seeing this, put her long apron over him to cover and protect him. In the act, however, she was herself stung so deeply that the sting could only with difficulty be drawn out. Although in much pain she said to her little son, 'Come out now; the bee has stung Mother and not you. It cannot hurt you now as it had only one sting'. She was able to show that this was a picture of Jesus taking the place of believers and bearing the punishment for sins in their stead.

The more we learn of the gospel the more wonderful it becomes to us. The boy in the story had learned by heart most of chapter 53 of Isaiah and had often repeated the words "with his stripes we are healed". But he now knew better than ever what it really meant that Jesus was his own Substitute and that love had led Him to suffer and even die for sins on the cross. Older children will have learned about the Day of Atonement in the history of God's earthly people Israel. On that day the sins of a year were confessed over the head of a goat which was sent into the far, unknown distance. This is a type of Jesus bearing away sins which God would nevermore remember.

An anxious believer might wonder how God could justly forgive sins when He had said that the soul that sins should die. On the Day of Atonement there had been another goat, actually the first of the two, which had been sacrificed and its blood taken into the place of God's presence, making atonement. This is a type of the Lord Jesus putting away sins by the sacrifice of His own blood-shedding. The benefit of His work is available to all, but is He your Substitute?

J.C.Evershed